Saturday, July 4, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Retreats...
I've been out of town for the past week, so I haven't really had a chance to blog.
Last weekend I spoke at retreat for Grace Community Baptist in Richmond, and this upcoming weekend, I'll be speaking at a ski retreat for several youth groups from the Charlotte area.
Last weekend's retreat was incredible. It was great to serve alongside friends like Ed & Katie Martin and Josh & Tasha Via. I was humbled and honored to be with them.
This upcoming weekend, I'll get to serve alongside some other great friends for Best Ski Trip 2009!
Praying that God will bring about radical transformation in the lives of students there!
Last weekend I spoke at retreat for Grace Community Baptist in Richmond, and this upcoming weekend, I'll be speaking at a ski retreat for several youth groups from the Charlotte area.
Last weekend's retreat was incredible. It was great to serve alongside friends like Ed & Katie Martin and Josh & Tasha Via. I was humbled and honored to be with them.
This upcoming weekend, I'll get to serve alongside some other great friends for Best Ski Trip 2009!
Praying that God will bring about radical transformation in the lives of students there!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Luther on Faith
"Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see."
-Martin Luther
-Martin Luther
Wii Fit
Jennifer and I got the Wii Fit for Christmas this year. It's not even February yet, and I'm slacking off.
Classy Sportsmanship
I saw something like this one time. When I lived in Hendersonville, my friend Matt and I went to go see a basketball team called the Tiny Trotters. They were playing much bigger people, and were destroyed. It was bad enough that they were beaten like a drum, but the fact that the 'bigger people' celebrated in an inordinate way filled with taunts made it incredibly awkward.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Hard to Believe
From the opening of Hard to Believe by John Macarthur:
"The first role of successful merchandising is to give consumers what they want. If they want bigger burgers, make their burgers bigger. Designer bottled water in six fruit flavors? Done. Minivans with ten cup holders? Give them twenty. You've got to keep the customer satisfied. You've got to modify your product and your message to meet their needs if you want to build a market and get ahead of the competition.
Today this same consumer mind-set has invaded Christianity..."
"The first role of successful merchandising is to give consumers what they want. If they want bigger burgers, make their burgers bigger. Designer bottled water in six fruit flavors? Done. Minivans with ten cup holders? Give them twenty. You've got to keep the customer satisfied. You've got to modify your product and your message to meet their needs if you want to build a market and get ahead of the competition.
Today this same consumer mind-set has invaded Christianity..."
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Spurgeon on Fellowship
Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation.
C.H. Spurgeon
C.H. Spurgeon
Peer Pressure
Jennifer and I were reading John 9 this morning about the healing of the man born blind. One of the interesting parts of the story is the reaction of the blind guy's parents. There's a revealing little parenthesis about them right in the middle of the story. They try to stay as far removed from what's happening as possible. Why?...
"His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue" (9:22).
They folded under peer pressure. It's tempting to think that only teenagers are faced with peer pressure, but if we do a little digging around in our hearts, we'll find that we often fold under peer pressure as well.
Peter G. van Breeman writes:
"How much good is left undone because of our fear of the opinion of others! We are immobilized by the thought: what will others say? The irony of all this is that the opinions we fear most are not those of people we really respect, yet these same persons influence our lives more than we want to admit. This enervating fear of our peers can create an appalling mediocrity" (quoted in Brennan Manning's "Posers, Fakers & Wannabes).
It's uncomfortably revealing to consider what we do either for the applause of others, or what we do to avoid the criticism of others...
"His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue" (9:22).
They folded under peer pressure. It's tempting to think that only teenagers are faced with peer pressure, but if we do a little digging around in our hearts, we'll find that we often fold under peer pressure as well.
Peter G. van Breeman writes:
"How much good is left undone because of our fear of the opinion of others! We are immobilized by the thought: what will others say? The irony of all this is that the opinions we fear most are not those of people we really respect, yet these same persons influence our lives more than we want to admit. This enervating fear of our peers can create an appalling mediocrity" (quoted in Brennan Manning's "Posers, Fakers & Wannabes).
It's uncomfortably revealing to consider what we do either for the applause of others, or what we do to avoid the criticism of others...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
I think I'll start this up again...
I took a 6 month break from blogging, but alas, I think I'll start it up again.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Keller on Conviction
“If you know what He has done at infinite cost to himself—He’s put you into a relationship so that you’ll never be rejected by Him—then your motivation when you sin is to go get Him. You want fellowship with Him. When the thing that most assures you is the thing that most convicts you, you’ll be okay because when you’re convicted of sin in a gospel way it drives you toward God.
Without the gospel we hate ourselves instead of our sin. Without the gospel we’re motivated through all sorts of awful fear and pride to change and it doesn’t really change our hearts; it just restrains our hearts.”
- Tim Keller, “How the Gospel Changes Us” (message given at Redeemer Presbyterian Church)
Without the gospel we hate ourselves instead of our sin. Without the gospel we’re motivated through all sorts of awful fear and pride to change and it doesn’t really change our hearts; it just restrains our hearts.”
- Tim Keller, “How the Gospel Changes Us” (message given at Redeemer Presbyterian Church)
Monday, July 7, 2008
Summer Reading
My reading has been sparse this summer since we've been traveling so much.
I'm planning on reading a book called Christianity Explored this week.
I'm planning on reading a book called Christianity Explored this week.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Book of the week
Jennifer and I are going to a middle school mission camp this week, so I'm not sure how much reading I'll get to do, but I'm planning on reading through John MacArthur's "The Gospel According to Jesus." It's somewhat of a modern classic, but I've never really read through the whole thing before...
1 John 4:1
This video is from one of the "revival" meetings in Lakeland, Florida:
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
There was a quote in "And the Shofar Blew" that fits this video well. It was a conversation about how a church was growing so rapidly and one of the people stated something along the lines of "God must be in this...look how many people have joined." The older gentlemen responded to the comment by saying, "Just because something grows doesn't mean it's good. Cancer grows."
Wise counsel.
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
There was a quote in "And the Shofar Blew" that fits this video well. It was a conversation about how a church was growing so rapidly and one of the people stated something along the lines of "God must be in this...look how many people have joined." The older gentlemen responded to the comment by saying, "Just because something grows doesn't mean it's good. Cancer grows."
Wise counsel.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Strange Headline
I saw this headline today: "Retired Justice O'Conner Starts Video Game Project"
Seems a surprising/bizarre direction for her career...
Seems a surprising/bizarre direction for her career...
Friday, June 6, 2008
Jesus commands my destiny
“No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.”
-from "In Christ Alone"
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.”
-from "In Christ Alone"
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
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