A Place to Help Us Grow in Love to God and Man
- Mark: 29-31
God Forgives!
The Good News
Brief Thoughts
Thoughts on God and Man
Stories for Children (and Adults!)
Little Cheese and Little Mouse
The Silver Dragon
Poetry
A Heavenly Problem
Bright Morning Star
Divine Calling
Driven!
I Need A Prophet
Laboring With God
Lightening, Thunder, and Rain
Lord of This Sabbath
Morbid No More
Reality
Rejection
Seed Life
Spiritual Ecstasy
The Book I Avoid
There Is No King Like God
To Be and To Be Becoming
Treasure to Him
Prayers and Meditations
A Return to Workday Bliss
Children: Arrows of Love
Depressed
For Spirual Sustenance
Influence
Last on My List
Prayer of a Little Man
The Book I Avoid
Who God Is
Short Writings
Are They in Heaven?
First, Explain the Gospel
Leaving "Me" Behind
Seeing the Invisible
True Christianity
What Happens in Vegas...
Reformed Q & A
Why Listen To Christians?
I'm Happy. Why Bother Me?
Can You Prove God Exists?
What is Calvinism?
Is God Nature?
A New Creation? Really?
How Loved Are Christians?
I Can't Find My Work Passion!
Quotes from the Great Jonathan Edwards
On Justification
Misc.
Some Wisdom from Family
Links to Other Sites
Bible
Bible Gateway
Blue Letter Bible
Books
Christian Classics
Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service
Apologetics
But is it All True? (Yes!)
Ravi Zacharias
The Context for Thinking and Arguing
Watchman (Anti-cult)
Historical-Redemptive
beginningwithmoses.org
Two-Age / Vos
Theological
Monergism.com
Ligonier Ministries
Desiring God Ministries
Third Millennium Ministries
The Highway
John Frame and Vern Poythress
Westminster Confession of Faith
Jonathan Edwards
Yale's Searchable Edwards!
The JE Center
Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1
Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2
More "Practical"
By Faith online mag
World Magazine
Crown Financial Ministries
West Shore Evangelical Free Church
Redeemer PCA
Key Life Ministries
Ultimate Questions
There is no King like God,
Who rules with might on High,
The Great Almighty Maker,
Whose glory fills the sky.
No storybook of man
Has conceived His distant Face,
No fairy tale of ours,
Can pinpoint Sovereign's place.
But now revealed to us,
The Son shines forth the Father;
And in His Presence we bow low,
With sin we must not bother.
Oh fairer Christ than all before,
Or forever there will be;
On cross despised, disfigured...
Now reigns in majesty.
Abject fear is due Him,
The one Master of our souls,
Yet Scripture points to Calvary-
Grace fills the ancient scrolls!
There is no King like Jesus!
Whose beauty and love excel;
He is the End Himself,
True Christians know this well.
So childlike I feel before Him,
No Narnia can compare,
The innocence and wonder…
I breathe now Heaven’s air!
Behold Him in that far off land,
Telescoped by Spirit’s light,
He is so near He’s in me,
And I with Him delight.
For He says I sit and reign with Him-
His finished work I rest-
The throne of Christ so comfortable,
His company the best.
There is no King like Jesus,
So terrible and mild,
A Judge to all who hate Him,
A Servant to His child.
He is our Royal Husband,
We'll be lavished with His love...
Forever it will take Him,
His goodness undreamed of.
"Rooted in grace for a lifetime of ministry." This is the stated goal Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis has for each of its' students. Having seen this phrase on a business card recently, I was nailed between the eyes: GRACE is the foundational and overarching answer to all my problems. I'm still learning the basics! I need to love others with the grace with which I have received from Christ and even from other people. In a sense, grace in Christ is the only thing I should be focused on.
It's not like grace is the only thing in the Bible (there is law, for example), or that it is the only perspective on the whole of the Bible, but what is important to regrasp is that I have only received the grace, not the law or its' condemnation. I can read the Bible for all that is in there, but in that true story, that history, I play the part of a recipient of grace, and so I should always "let it" feed me its' grace, even in reading about God's glorious judgment.
God has related to me and other Christians in a special way, absorbing on the cross- in Christ His beloved Son- all the law, with its wrath, leaving no other way to relate to me but gracious, overflowing, endless love! The law is now a guidepost for me, showing me what righteousness looks like, nothing more or less. The law cannot "get" me now- I've already been set free and escaped into Heaven! In Christ, I'm already seated above all condemnation, legalism, moralism, snobbery, and judgmentalism. It is finished in Him!
And so, what have I to express to others but grace? Grace, Grace, Grace. This is my aim and my joy. If there is anything lacking in other people, it deserves my wholehearted grace. The Lord knows that many have been very abundant to me in my innumerable sins and deficiencies. In their grace they have literally been little saviors to me, saints sent from God to love this child that He has loved despite his countless demerits.
God has rooted me in grace and I, in turn, want to make my life one of abundant grace, through ministry to others.
A half truth presented as a whole truth is a complete untruth.
"All you need to know about Jesus's death is that He died on a cross." (This leaves out most of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the crucifixion.)
A half truth presented as a half truth is a whole truth.
"Part of what the Bible teaches about Jesus's death is that He died on a cross." (True.)
A whole truth presented as a half truth is a complete untruth.
"Jesus is the Way to Heaven, but there are other ways to Heaven as well." ("Jesus is the Way to Heaven" is the whole truth. But if He is presented as one of many ways to get to Heaven then the whole presentation is a complete untruth- even though it contains a whole truth.)
A whole truth presented as a whole truth is a whole truth.
"Jesus is the only Way to Heaven." (True.)
No productivity is had in the rush,
To move mountains for God while unable to blush.
We rush hasty on and forget our great God,
We help the poor prosper while inside we applaud:
"Not unto God, no not unto God, be the glory;
But unto us... may WE get the big story."
Our God watches on as we scratch tooth and nail,
To mimic our Lord- with no wind in our sail!
No wind of the Spirit to hustle us on,
Just refined selfish motives- and no love of the Son;
Just wickedness subtle, the remains of old death,
Yet enough outward action to lay conscience to rest.
Oh, weary we should be, of the loveless endeavors,
For God they would seem, but for Him almost never.
We need instead to rest first in His love,
And pray in His Word with strength from above.
To wait on Him meekly and cry for assistance,
To worship Him boldly and give no resistance...
To let Him break us and shape us as we seek His good face,
To let Him show us our infinite need for more grace...
These acts own our weakness and make true our search...
For the God who wants humble-souls before mountainous church.
Giving glory to Him we'll boast in our weakness,
And produce God's true fruit in joy-giving sweetness.
"For when I'm weak, when I'm weak- then I'm strong, in Him!"
But to labor without God is boldfaced sin.