Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sanctification Starts With Your Pastor
"Sanctification starts with the pastor. His responsibility is to feed and protect his flock. As a pastor, I'm not called to be a stand-up comedian, a self-help guru, or a sex therapist. My job is to teach the Bible, thoroughly and accurately. I'm responsible to encourage and catalyze the spiritual growth of God's people. Anything else is a distraction.
Too many pastors today neglect the priority of sanctification for their congregations. Instead of helping God's people feast on the riches of His Word, they throw their efforts into attracting nonbelievers. Shrouding their teaching in pop-culture references and comedy routines designed to appeal to unbelievers, they withhold the only true source of spiritual nourishment from the Christians there who are hungry. Often the people in the pews don't even realize what they're missing, content instead to be entertained into spiritual starvation.
It's my prayer that you're in a church that does stress the importance of holiness - where your sanctification is encouraged and stimulated, and where you're fed throughout the week on the riches of God's Word. If you are, let me urge you to thank your pastor and church leaders for being faithful to their calling and in the example they set for your congregation. Let them know you're thankful for their commitment to God's Word, and that you're praying for the Lord to bless and sustain them." - John MacArthur
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Lititz Grace Church - Touchdown Jesus
"Listen, when you see Jesus, you're not going to go up and say "Hey Buddy, I am glad you died for me. When you see Jesus you will be almost paralyzed with fear unless you have a glorified body and a glorified mind...Because there is not enough joy in God's house, we need entertainment. Because entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy...I am embarrassed to be part of the church of Jesus today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a Holy God." - Leonard Ravenhill
Below is a post written by Senior Pastor Scott Distler of Lititz Grace Church (my former church) followed by an excerpt from the Cambridge Declaration. Also, please take 7 minutes to watch the video at the end. God help us.
From Folks Listen:
Notre Dame is one of the most honored traditions in America when in it comes to college football. From Knute Rockne to Rudy, everyone has some appreciation for this storied franchise. One of the traditions deals with “Touchdown Jesus” which is a building that faces one of the ends of the stadium and has a large mosaic looking painting of Jesus with his arms raised high into the air. It used to be (not sue if it still is) that if Notre Dame won the coin toss at the beginning of the game they always deferred so that they could choose which end of the field they would start facing. The idea was to make sure that when the fourth quarter came, the Fighting Irish would be going toward “Touchdown Jesus”!
“Touchdown Jesus” is what we are calling one of our upcoming message series here at Grace Church that will take place all four Sundays this coming September. Everything about the morning will give you a “football feel”.
As you approach the main lobby doors each week you will see a large “tailgate party” happening. In fact, we invite you to feel free to come to church early and have your own tailgate party each Sunday out in the parking lot.
Everyone on stage will be wearing football jerseys or shirts. We encourage all of you to do the same. Whether it is a High School team, College team, or Professional team (anything but the Canadian Football League…and remember, this is American football so none of this soccer stuff either!), dress each Sunday like you were headed to the game.
We have some other plans we are going to try to pull off (no promises…just effort) including the main lobby being turned into a football field and the auditorium including a football locker room as well as goal posts.
The countdown video that begins 5 minutes prior to each service will be a pre-game show featuring our own sports commentators from the Sports Desk previewing the service.
And what would a football themed month be without many wonderful video clips of famous football folklore including the best scene ever from The Brady Bunch involving a football and Marsha’s nose (that was a groovy episode, wasn’t it?).
All month long we will be taking a look at the parable of the four soils that Jesus taught in Matthew 13 and Luke 8. We are going to see how the parable would have looked if Jesus would have told it today using a football scenario for the story. Instead of the farmer, we will have the quarterback. Instead of the seed, we will have the football. Instead of the four soils, we will have the four receivers running four pass plays.
This should be a fun series in which we learn together the important meaning of the parable of the four soils. And who knows, the whole series may just “kick-off” (no pun intended) with our own Hank Williams singing, “Are You Ready For Some Football?”
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Wherever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God's and we are doing his work in our way. The loss of God's centrality in the life of today's church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.
God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God's kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success.
THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Our Culture Downplays Knowledge In Favor Of Emotions By John MacArthur
“. . . in your moral excellence, knowledge.” - 2 Peter 1:5
Moral excellence cannot develop in an intellectual vacuum.
It’s a frightening thing to realize the extent to which our culture downplays knowledge in favor of emotions. These days people are more likely to ask, “How will it make me feel?” instead of, “Is it true?” Sadly, the church has bought into the spirit of the age. Many people go to church, not to learn the truths of God’s Word, but to get an emotional high. The focus of theological discussion also reflects the contemporary hostility to knowledge. To a shocking extent, truth is no longer the issue; the questions being asked today are, “Will it divide?” or “Will it offend?” To ask if a theological position is biblically correct is considered unloving, and those who take a stand for historic Christian truth are labeled as divisive.
But knowledge is inseparable from moral excellence and Christian growth. It should be obvious that people can’t put into practice truths they don’t know; we must first understand the principles of God’s Word before we can live them out. Peter knew well the importance of knowledge in developing a stable Christian walk and the assurance of salvation that accompanies it. Therefore, he urged his readers to add knowledge to their moral excellence. Gnosis (“knowledge”) refers to insight, discernment, and proper understanding of truth. Lacking such knowledge, believers become “children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). The resulting turmoil is not conducive to spiritual growth or the development of a settled assurance of salvation.
The Bible commends child-like (i.e., trusting, humble) faith, but not childish faith. Paul exhorted the Corinthians, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking . . . in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20). “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord,” urged Hosea. When we do so, “He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth” (Hos. 6:3). I pray with the apostle Paul, “that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment” (Phil. 1:9).
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Teach Me
"Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path." Psalm 27:11
"Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong." Job 6:24
O Lord, teach me to know the vanity and emptiness of the world; its insufficiency to gratify the desires, or satisfy the longings of the new born soul; yes, its utter inability to make its most devoted votaries happy.
Teach me to value the bliss of heaven above all earthly joys; and to dread the torments of hell above all earthly sorrow.
Alas! How often do the pleasures of sense blunt my sensibilities to those things which are above; while the troubles of time obliterate from my mind, the miseries which await the impenitent and unbelieving.
Teach me, O blessed Savior, cheerfully to refuse the pleasures of sin, which end in everlasting torment; and cheerfully to endure those trials, for Your sake and the gospel's, which terminate in endless glory!
"Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long." Psalm 25:4-5
- Thomas Reade, "Christian Meditations"
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Mercy
Truly, to be kept from danger is as great a privilege as to be kept in danger - but we forget this.
Let us thank God for preserved lives, continued comforts, and unspotted characters - for these essentials are marked "Fragile," and that they are not broken is a marvel of grace.
Our spiritual life still survives, and only He who holds the stars in their courses, could have maintained us in our integrity.
This ought to bring tears of gratitude to our eyes.
A flood of light breaks over the scene if we look back on our mercies!
Now for your arithmetic! Now begin to make your calculations!
Think of major mercies and minor mercies; fleeting mercies and eternal mercies; mercies by day, and mercies by night; mercies averting evil, and mercies securing good; mercies at home, and mercies abroad; mercies of bed and board, mercies of city and field, and mercies of society and seclusion.
Mercy affects every faculty of the mind, and every portion of the body.
There are mercies for conscience, and fear, and hope; mercies for the understanding, and the heart.
At the same time, there are mercies of eye, and ear, and head, and hand.
The whole landscape of life is golden with the light of mercy!
In the love of God we have lived, and moved, and had our being.
We see mercies new every morning, mercies old as the eternal hills - Streams of mercy! Oceans of mercy! Mercy all, and all mercy!
- Spurgeon, "Breaking the Long Silence"
