Election Thoughts from John Piper

Good thoughts on the American Election here from Piper.



Outline:

1. Womanhood
2. Race
3. Abortion
4. Prophetic perspective
5. Sovereignty of God
6. Gospel

The Black Angel

Michael Christopher's play The Black Angel is about Herman Engel, a Nazi general guilty of despicable war crimes. At the Nuremberg trials he was sentenced to thirty years in prison.

When he got out he made a new beginning, building a cabin for himself and his wife in a remote part of France.

But there was a French journalist named Morrieaux, whose family had been massacred by Engel's troops. Morrieaux clung to 30 years of bitterness and was bent on revenge.

The journalist traced Engel to the French village, went into town, and stirred up hatred. The men agreed they'd go up that night and kill Engel and his wife, burning their cabin to the ground.

But that afternoon Morrieaux confronted Engel, interrogating him throughout the afternoon. As time wore on, Morriaux saw this tired, pathetic man's guilty and tortured soul. Revenge began to taste sour.

Finally Morrieaux said, "They're going to kill you tonight. Come with me now and I'll get you out.

Engel looked at him intently, "I will go with you on one condition."

"What condition?"

"That you forgive me."

"No," said Morrieaux. "I will save your life...but I cannot forgive you."

Engel refused to leave. That night his cabin burned to the ground. He and his wife were murdered.

What was this forgiving grace more important to Engel than life itself? And why could Morrieaux not find it in himself to grant it? Haunting questions.

The good news is that there's a God much bigger than Engel, a Saviour much bigger than Engel's sin. And there's a God much bigger than Morrieaux...much bigger than his inability to forgive.

From Randy Alcorn, The Grace and Truth Paradox

I Love The Church

I was just thinking today about how much I love the church. I love the church in general, and more specifically, I love Lansing. No church is perfect, and Lansing is no exception. But I love it. I get so excited thinking about Sundays and Tuesday Nights. And I get so excited thinking about ways to help Lansing grow in health and reach more people.

The Truth Project

I'm really looking forward to doing The Truth Project again. I went through it last Spring but I forget so much and really look forward to getting to do it again and to sharing it with so many friends. I've been enjoying some of TTP youtube videos today as I've worked on the C&C website.

O Give Thanks

Give thanks for simply things today;
A sturdy roof, our daily bread,
A kettle singing on the fire,
And seasoned wood piled in the shed.

Give thanks for beauty, crimson leave
Against a sky of gentian blue,
For fruitfulness and harvestings
For sudden song and laughter, too.

For health and strength to do our work,
For comradeship along the way,
For life, the greatest gift of all,
We keep in gratitude this day.

Count your blessings
Thanksgiving comes to us each year.
Some pray, some feast, some rest.
I fold my hands and bow my head
And count the ways I'm blest.

-Lucille Crumley (found the bulletin at my parent's church this weekend)

Quote of the Day

I sometimes like to check out the Quote of the Day at DesiringGod.org. Today it was:

Nothing makes God more supreme and more central in worship than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing--not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends--nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God. -John Piper, God's Passion for His Glory, p. 41.

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If it's true that....

“The two factors that will influence you the most in the years ahead are the books you read and the people you’re around.” (Dr. Howard Hendricks)

...then Tuesday Nights (and reading The Purpose Driven Life), Sundays, hanging out on weekends, and reading other good books (and the Bible too!) are even more important than we may realize.

Lecrae

Check out this sweet Lecrae song (made available at TheResurgence)

Good Quotes on Music/Singing

A couple good old quotes that Bob Kauflin shared during his message "Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing?"

"When man's natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace. A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs." – Martin Luther....oh Martin Luther.....lol

"Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead or half asleep. But lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice nor ashamed of its being heard than when you sung the songs of Satan." – John Wesley [I take "songs of Satan" to simply be his old fashioned term for non-Christian music...so sing out loud and unabashedly like you do to Cotten Eyed Joe at a wedding dance....]