Engaged

I love Averil.

The Cross Centered Life

I've been going back through The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahney lately. What a powerful little book.

I like this part from the second last page:

Ask me how I'm doing on any given day and you might be surprised by my response. I don't give the typical "I'm great" or "Fine, thanks!"

Instead I say, "Better than I deserve."

It catches people off gaurd. Many times non-Christians have argued with me, convinced that I suffer from low self-esteem.

But no - I just understand who I am and where I deserve to be. I deserve God's wrath. Honestly, I deserve to be in hell. But instead I'm God's child. I'm forgiven and loved by Him. I'm going to heaven.

I'm better than I deserve!

This perspective fills me with joy....

Happy

"I find in the Bible a divine command to be a pleasure-seeker - that is, to forsake the two-bit, low-yield, short-term, never-satisfying, person-destroying, God-belittling pleasures of the world and to sell everything "with joy" (Matthew 13:44) in order to have the kingdom of heaven and thus "enter into the joy of your master" (Matthew 25:21, 23)" - John Piper, Desiring God, 25.

Desiring God

Desiring God (including John Piper) has started a blog!

In recent weeks I've been thinking of their "news" section as a pseudo-blog but am now so happy to see that they have their own actual blog! Check it out right here.

Below is the information about the Blog:

Announcing the Desiring God Blog

February 2, 2007 | By: Abraham
Category: Ministry Updates

We're starting a blog.

I suppose we're a little behind the times since there's already tens of millions of these. Nonetheless, if you're interested in adding one more to your reading list, we will try to make it worth your while.

We hope to offer four things (at least) with this blog:

• Information - This blog replaces our News section. Relevant info on conferences, resources, products, and more will be found here.
• Encouragement & Commentary - This blog will be an outlet for content that we pray will help you press on to know the Lord.
• Convenience - Subscribing to this blog will keep you informed about what's new and important at DG without having to find it all yourself. (Although, we hope you will still come visit our website!)
• Conversation - There are two ways we want to be involved in (the internet version of) conversation with this blog.
  First, there are constantly themes and issues in the blogosphere that we hope to have a helpful voice in.
  Second, each post will offer you a chance to respond. These will not be published, but we are very eager to read them, and they will influence our future posts.

This will be a group project. Contributors will include (at varying levels) John Piper, Jon Bloom, Matt Perman, David Mathis, Lukas Naugle, me, and others.

We look forward to seeing how the Lord may use this new endeavor. Always feel free to pass along any suggestions that you think could make this more useful and interesting.

Heaven: Home of Laughter

"Who said, "If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there"? (Hint: It wasn't Mark Twain.) It was Martin Luther.

In Heaven, I believe our joy will often erupt in laughter. When laughter is prompted by what's appropriate, God always takes pleasure in it. I think Christ will laugh with us, and his wit and fun-loving nature will be our greatest sources of endless laughter." - Randy Alcorn

Read the whole article right here.

One Another

As I continue reading Josh Harris' book "Stop Dating The Church!" I continue to come across some real good stuff. When I was at school one term my Dad preached a sermon series on the "One Another" commands that I wish I could have been there for. This paragraph from the book caught my eye:

"Have you ever noticed the "one another" commands in Scripture? Here's a sampling of what we're called to do in our relationships with other Christians. We're to:



Love one another (John 13:34)

Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:5)

Honor one another (Romans 12:10)

Rejoice with one another (Romans 12:15)

Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)

Carry one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2)

Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)

Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)

Confess our sins to one another (James 5:16)

Pray for one another (James 5:16)"

Maybe we could all look at that list, pick out the command we are the worst at, and seek to improve on it. Don't try to improve by "will power" - try to improve by grace, asking God for the help and grace needed.