Thankful

You hear a lot of complaining all the time when talking to people or skimming the facebook homepage and seeing everyone's status. We really should try to express more thankfulness. Averil and I were talking about so many things we have to be thankful for and I told her I've been thinking lately of simple things I'm thankful for, more complex things I'm thankful for, and the ultimate thing I'm thankful for. Here are a few of each:

Simple things:
The NHL Playoffs
The Hockey Pool
Board Games
Sports

More Complex things:
Friends
Family (especially Averil!)
Church
Our Home

Ultimate thing:
The Gospel - that someone like me can actually be a saint!

Lecrae

Awesome Song!!!

Spurgeon Quote

The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, "Give thyself unto reading." The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

- Spurgeon (from a sermon on 2 Timothy 4:13)

ht JT

Other High Places

I'm back in town and just remembered to check in at DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed to see the other high places. Here is the full list of "High Places" identified by Kevin DeYoung

1. The lack of of Psalm singing in our churches.
2. Worldliness in entertainment.
3. The idolatry of youth.
4. Our lack of church discipline.
5. Prayerlessness.

Luther

“Necessary is it to preach the Gospel, and necessary is it that we beat it into their heads continually.” - Martin Luther

High Places from DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed

I sometimes check out Kevin DeYoung's blog and it's quite interesting right now. Based on 1 Kings 22:43 ([Jehoshaphat] walked in all the ways of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. Yet the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.) he is saying:

I have often wondered what are our high places? Of course, it is hard to see our own blind spots. If we could, they wouldn’t be blind spots. But even though we may not be able to notice every error, it’s still worth thinking and praying about what mistakes we are making without realizing it. And I’m not talking about current theological controversies. These are critically important, but we see the issues at stake, at least many of us do. Moreover, in asking what are our high places I’m not asking what are our biggest sins or the most important issues of our day. What I’m asking is this: what are the issues we aren’t even talking about or the unhelpful patterns and pressures most of us don’t even recognize?

In other words, what will future generations be surprised to see that we missed? It’s easy for us to see how previous generations of Christians were blind to the sin of racism or how it was a bad idea to kill each other over theological differences (even if some of the differences had eternal consequences). But if good Christians in the past—even heroic, admirable Christians—could miss something so obvious (to us), it begs the question: what obvious sins are we blindly committing and what obvious areas of obedience are we neglecting?

Check out his whole blog here.

So far he has mentioned 2 High Places:

1. The lack of Psalm singing in our churches.
2. Worldliness in entertainment.

Wish I Could Go!

not Just this weekend

Easter Weekend is coming and it's great because we have this weekend set aside for everyone to celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection in a special way. But we don't just celebrate this weekend - everyday is a celebration of Christ's death on the cross and resurrection! I'm so thankful for C.J. Mahaney and some others for teaching me about the Cross Centered Life (which is made up of cross-centered days).

The Rose

Conversation between Men

It is very difficult for men to have very deep relationships with other men. There are several reasons.... Number 1, the monumental issue of pride that is honed into men from the day they are born. Like, have you ever listened to dudes talk? “What did you do last weekend, Bill?” “Went duck hunting. Got a couple. What did you do?” “I killed a pterodactyl. Yeah, man. I mean, he just flew and my gun jammed. So I jumped up and grabbed him and bit a hole in his throat, choked the life out of him and mounted him on my wall. But hey man, ducks are cool. I mean, I used to hunt ducks when I was 7, but that's great for you, man. Did you take your boy with you or something?” I mean, this is it, this is the trump game. It's like every conversation involving a group of males is like a game of spades, where everybody just has the ace of spades. “I spade that...I spade that...well, I spade that...” and around the circle it goes.

- From a Matt Chandler Sermon Averil and I listened to on the way back from Toronto on Monday.