Potent Quotables (8/12)

Had a fantastic day yesterday. Work, great time in Psalm 16, studied at Starbucks, cooked a great meal, and wrote a song. Looking forward to having lunch with a coworker tomorrow. Recently shared the gospel with her and I am eager to continue that conversation.

Is Internet Explorer For The Dumb? - This was a headline too good to pass up. Who knows how accurate the information is though. So, what browser do you use?
UPDATE: Looks like the story was a hoax. Oh, internet.

Signs - No, not the M. Night Shamalamadingdong movie. "When we come to know Jesus, we do so by joining Him in His mission. All followers of Christ are therefore missionaries. But what does that mean? It means that we are signs."

Ramadan: Praying for a Precious Sense of Emptiness - "It seems to me, therefore, that the way Jesus calls us to pray during Ramadan is that God would reveal to Muslims the emptiness of their worship. Jesus says they are not connecting with the true God. This is tragic. And it is more tragic when they think they are. Awakening to this emptiness would be a precious awakening."

 

What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power? - Henry Lyte 

Potent Quotables (8/11)

I guess this is the introduction to a new feature of the blog - Potent Quotables. Here you will find a number of links to various things I found worth checking out. I hope you enjoy!

Should The Church Accountant Be The One Called The "Worship Pastor"? Dan Kimball: "What is intriguing is that as we primarily define worship as singing, in terms of sacrifice - singing doesn't cost us too much. We mentally and emotionally bring ascent to our thoughts as we sing and focus on God. But we aren't really sacrificing something. Are we?"

The Road to a Downgrade WSJ: "This is the road to fiscal perdition. The looming debt downgrade only confirms what everyone knows: Congress has made so many promises to so many Americans that there is no conceivable way those promises can be kept. Tax rates might have to rise to 60%, 70%, even 80% to raise the revenues to finance these promises, but that would be economically ruinous."

Are You Worth Dying For?  Josh Thiessen: " Let me clarify, you are not worth dying for. That is what makes the gospel such a beautiful thing."

Should You Support Campus Crusade Staff Now That the Name Is Changing? Piper: "Since Campus Crusade for Christ announced (and explained) that it will change its name to Cru, some donors have withdrawn support from Crusade staff. I am writing to say: That’s not a good reason to withdraw your support."

In light of recent clarifying events in London...

 

Never content with what it has, the unconverted heart always craves more. But the more it acquires, the less fulfillment it has. - S. Lawson

Feeling Far From God?

"When we sense a distance in our relationship to God, it is wise to ask ourselves if we are engaged in some persistent, impenitent sin that brings the Spirit grief." - Tabletalk, August 10, 2011

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
- Psalm 139:23-24

True Conversion

True conversion makes a marvellous change in the heart and life of every one who partakes of it. It brings a man off from all his old, fashionable, and delightful lusts, and from the common ways and vices of the world, to the will of God. It alters the mind, judgment, affections, way, and conversation of every one who has experienced it.

- Matthew Henry commenting on 1 Peter 4:1-2

And oh how delightful it is to be converted! To be permanently changed by God. To have "ceased from sin". To no longer be under the bondage of sin's cruel slavery. To be given divine strength to cast off our sinful desires. To be indwelt by God himself.

God's truth, sunk in our souls by the anchor of faith, is overwhelming. Let's live for our loving Father's will. For as the song goes, "We are changed not by the things we arrange, not by the works our hands have done. It's through your Son that we are changed!"

You can't do it

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

- Augustus Toplady

You can't save yourself from your sins. You simply - and completely - lack the ability to stand before God as one acceptable to him. Thank our God for Jesus. Take some time and think about this. Even the good I do, which is little, can not save me. I am in the dark apart from God.

And then let the gospel build you up. Jesus alone is able to save me from my sins. He loves me and proved this when he died on that cross, where I should have died. "Fully atoned for" is now the banner under which I stand. Jesus came to save his people and this he accomplished. It is finished.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

- Psalm 32:1

A child's prayer

Our Father in heaven, You are above all this world and You are our loving Father. We our your children. Impress our new and permanent identity on our souls - we are your kids. You gave us new life and caused us to be born again. And there's so much more! You gave us a perfect inheritance which is being saved for us in heaven. And that treasure is Yourself, for what else is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading? And there is still more. You made us co-heirs with our elder brother and savior Jesus.

Jesus, you suffered for us so that we wouldn't have to. You suffered to make us sons and daughters, heirs of your Father. You suffered to cancel our sin and break its power over us. We act foolishly and so often run after our sinful passions instead of the Father's will. We are sorry. Teach us that these things will only increase our sorrows.

We're coming back to You, O God! Help us live for your will and sink the gospel deep into our hearts. Give us the eyes of faith, to look to the unseen things, the wonderful things You have in store when we will be with You and You will be with us and we will dwell with God forever.

Our soul thirsts for You. Satisfy us with your love!
Through the Beloved Son, Jesus, amen.

When Satan tempts me to despair

When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: "I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also."

- Martin Luther

God's unchanging holiness

 Here's a mediation from one of the elders of Missio Church:

“These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.” (Ezra 2:62-63)

God’s holiness was understood clearly and taken seriously by the governor of the returning exiles in Ezra.  Even a hint of impurity barred people from standing in God’s presence.  They could not be a part of the priesthood if there was any question regarding their identity.  

God’s holiness has not changed.  He is the same God.  He is still jealous for his glory.  Yet we are called “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” by Peter in spite of our countless offences against this perfect God.  

What’s the difference?  We stand as beneficiaries of the person and work of Jesus.  Our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only because of Christ.  May this profoundly shape the way we live and worship.

Jesus' activity in my life

Recently, on my Tumblr blog, someone asked me this:

What is Jesus doing in the life of Trevor today?

I was glad to give an answer to a good question; I've always been leery of giving anonymous internet users the ability to ask me things. Here's my response:

Jesus is working in my life in thousands of ways, but I am only able to discern one or two. And for that I am thankful. “A thousand things are happening in this one thing.”
I was reading 1 Peter 3 yesterday in my study through one of the more difficult passages I’ve come across in Scripture (3:18-22) and I was taught a few things:

1. God’s patience with sinners is off-the-charts. (“when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah” is but one example)
2. Jesus is very much like the ark of Noah for all who believe in him; it delivers us from the waters of God’s wrath.
3. I am safe in Jesus, through his death and resurrection, from all wrath of God. Anything “bad” I experience is not God’s punitive wrath.

Separate from that, I was outside in a park on my lunch break reading when a young man (probably around my age) saw me reading the Bible and he asked if I read the whole thing and how long it took and then shared his frustrations with trying to understand the Bible when he has read it in the past. I told him that it is helpful to ask the Bible questions, like, “What does this passage say about God? What does it tell me about Jesus? What should my response to this passage be?” I never caught his name, but I prayed for him then and there. I can guarantee if you sit out in a public park in downtown Syracuse, you will find someone to converse with. Also, I regretted not having some evangelistic literature with me when the man was speaking to me. I should spend more time outside. The fields are so ripe.

The aim of worship

God is the one we want to impress, the one we most want to honor. Our first aim must not be to win over the culture or appeal to the unregenerate. Worship is for the Worthy One.

- Kevin DeYoung

Our worship, corporate worship being the focus here, is meant for God. Any ideology that approaches our activities of worship with man as the focus has begun to lose their footing on a slippery slope of sub-biblical methodology. Our worship is for God alone. If our worship has the unregenerate man as it's focus, we have become humanistic and are performing a mere show of religious pomp. Worship the worthy one (Rev. 5:5-14).