Sons and Daughters

C.J. Mahaney on the new Sovereign Grace album, Sons and Daughters:

I highly recommend this album. This album is a means of preaching the gospel to yourself. It is a tool to remind yourself of God’s adopting grace. It will help convince you of God’s passionate and personal love for you. Listening to the truths of these songs will help clear away any suspicions you have of God, and help you to contemplate his love for you, evidenced nowhere more clearly than in the death of his beloved Son.

You can download for free the song “Completely Done.”

Eight Habits of a Christlike Disciple

Some time ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to Faith Church of the Valley in Phoenix. On their web site they had a very strong plan for discipleship of their congregation.  The great thing about this church is that they don't assume that everyone at Faith Church has "arrived" spiritually. The leadership of Faith Church is very proactive in teaching, training and discipling their congregation.

I thought that their "Eight Habits" where really good and challenging. They are listed below:


A Mind Transformed by the Word

We progressively come to view the world as God views it: setting aside the world's values as our minds are continually renewed by God's word.

Romans 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

so that you may prove what the will of God is,

that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Knowing the Scriptures and committing oneself to the Word of God is foundational to our knowledge and growth in Jesus Christ. If we are to conform ourselves more to the Heavenly Man, Jesus, and die to this world, we must be fed by His Word. Peter wrote:

"like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word,

so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,” 1 Peter 2:2

We are to hunger for it as naturally as a baby craves its milk, and we are to be nourished by it, our spiritual food, even as we are nourished by our physical. In the same way we become malnourished if we stop eating our physical food, so we do with our spiritual food.

A voice to speak the good news

We joyfully share Jesus with those who do not know Him: leading them to faith and answering questions. We also provide hope and encouragement for those who already know the truth.

A heart for Christ alone

Jesus, as the one-and-only Son of God, becomes the priority in all of life; as our most precious treasure, we worship Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

Arms to love

We embrace humanity: coming alongside others in need, extending compassion, welcoming the stranger, and living in a community of mutual care with other disciples.

Hands that give and serve

We live as servants of God and each other: doing good through the gifts the Spirit has given us, living generously and simply, and seeking to bring about the fullest expression of God’s rule in our culture.

Knees for prayer

Our posture before God is one of continual dependence: trusting deeply that God is in charge of everything and conversing always about what we are accomplishing together with Him.

Feet that bring the good news to foreign lands

We fulfill the great commission by establishing church planting movements among the most spiritually unreached people groups of the world.

A body that bears the scars of Jesus

We gladly bear the reproach of Christ: sharing in His suffering and being conformed to His death in order to share in the triumph of His resurrection.

As you read these, what comes to mind?

I don't want to "guilt" you in Godly habits, but how are you doing? Are you seeking Christ today, in all that are?

John, in his gospel, stated, "He must increase and I must decrease." What steps are you taking to do what John did?

The Prologue - D.A. Carson

from Between Two Worlds by JT

Here is an unpublished poem by D.A. Carson, which he read during his talk on the incarnation at the Next Conference.

The Prologue

Before there was a universe,

Before a star or planet,

When time had still not yet begun --

I scarcely understand it --

Th' eternal Word was with his God,

God's very Self-Expression;

Th' eternal Word was God himself --

And God had planned redemption.

The Word became our flesh and blood --

The stuff of his creation --

The Word was God, the Word was flesh,

Astounding incarnation!

But when he came to visit us,

We did not recognize him.

Although we owed him everything

We haughtily despised him.

In days gone by God showed himself

In grace and truth to Moses;

But in the Word of God made flesh

Their climax he discloses.

For grace and truth in fullness came

And showed the Father's glory

When Jesus donned our flesh and died:

This is the gospel story.

All who delighted in his name,

All those who did receive him,

All who by grace were born of God,

All who in truth believed him --

To them he gave a stunning right:

Becoming God's dear children!

Here will I stay in grateful trust;

Here will I fix my vision.

Before there was a universe,

Before a star or planet,

When time had still not yet begun --

I scarcely understand it --

Th' eternal Word was with his God,

God's very Self-Expression;

Th' eternal Word was God himself --

And God had planned redemption.

The Relentless Love Affair

Oh my. The relentless pursuit of Christ for His Bride. We can look at ourselves all we want. We can dress ourselves all we want. We can spend on ourselves all we want. We can work ourselves all we want. But nothing. Nothing will make us look any better than what we are.

AND YET.

And yet in the midst of all of our contradictions, Jesus, who knows everything about us, says that we are His.

Last night we talked about how God's fierce love for His Bride is often found in discipline. We often will react to God's discipline in a negative way, but it's really His discipline that is also His grace. This is what Hosea was sharing with Gomer, or Israel rather. God was issuing a call of repentance. For He has loved her with an everlasting love. One that could not be shaken or disturbed. This was a promise He made first with Adam, then Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Isaiah, Hosea and culminated in Christ.

In Hosea 2:19, God says to Israel that He will betroth her to Him. Forever. That in Him is found righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness. And these attributes are found in the robe of Christ. This very robe that He puts around us. In the midst of our sin, we washes us with His robe. So that now we can walk as Peter tell us in 1 Peter 2.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received God's mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Praise God for who He is and what He has done for us!

In this video is a great drama of what we read in Hosea 2.

God Loves You and He Proved It.

So here’s the story.
God tells you to do something that you believe is wrong.
What would you do?

God tells Hosea to go out and marry a prostitute. Something that neither you or I would ever do – or even think of doing.

But this is in fact exactly what Hosea does.
Why?
Because God was showing Israel (His bride) something far more controversial than marrying a whore. God was showing her that He loved her.

God does something so radical here.
He takes someone, whom by His own laws should be stoned, and shows such love as to call her His bride.

How amazing and beautiful is this story. How wonderful that this story is our story.

Here is a great video from Brennan Manning on God's love.



Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
because the Lord has anointed Me
to bring good news to the poor;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

Friend, GOD LOVES YOU.
The love that He showed you was fully displayed at Calvary. On the cross and in the empty tomb. Jesus left all that He had for the sake of wretched whores like us.

While We Were Still Sinners

This morning I came across the name Jason Dunham and spent a few minutes reading about his life and death. In 2004, Dunham was a twenty-two year-old Corporal in the United States Marine Corps, serving in Iraq. He became the first Marine since 1970 to earn the Medal of Honor—the nation’s highest award for battlefield heroism—for actions in combat.

On April 14, 2004, he was manning a checkpoint near Karabilah when an Iraqi man whose car they were searching, suddenly grabbed his throat. As Dunham wrestled the man to the ground, the Iraqi dropped a grenade with the pin removed. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. He saved the lives of several of his fellow soldiers. Dunham died of his wounds just a few days later without ever regaining consciousness.

The official Marine Corps citation says, “By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.”

Such gallantry is amazing, inspiring. It should awe us that a man would so selfishly give all he had for his friends.

And yet what Christ did was greater still. As William Farley says in Outrageous Mercy, “At the cross God threw himself on a grenade to save the enemy soldiers…” We would not wish to downplay the gallantry of Corporal Dunham who made the ultimate sacrifice. But neither can we escape the fact that Jesus Christ died for those who were not his friends, but his enemies. What love this is! Even in the greatest of human sacrifices we see just a pale reflection of the depth, the magnitude, of the sacrifice of the Son of God.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Originally found: Challies.com