the conversation continues

John Piper and Sam Storms share their thoughts

follow-up

Denny Burk responds to Ben Witherington's post

is God seeking his own glory?

Ben Witherington's post raises a lot of valid questions and it is an interesting problem of figuring out what motiviation God has for what he does. Granted this might be a question that can be answered here on earth but it poses some interesting debates. I myself have held the view that God does everything for his own Glory, but Ben makes a good argument against this idea. Make sure you read some of the comments on the post as they some of the other sides of the argument.

running for president but having fun doing it

we need to be loved

"We are never at peace with God till we resolve to be loved in Jesus Christ."
- John Calvin

the story of William Cowper

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord

I started reading Ezekiel today. I am just awestruck by the description of God's beauty and glory found in the first few chapters of Ezekiel. I am very jealous of Ezekiel's chance to see the vision of God that he saw. I was having a rough afternoon trying to see God and I ended up just falling on my face before God and just giving it up. Then I grabbed my bible and just sat in silence reading it and when I read this my soul leaped within me.

Here is an artists interpretation of what Ezekiel saw:

sleeping is a waste of time

that is right. I hate my need to sleep. Sure it is nice to have a time of resting everyday, but all those hours add up. I looked up the data and here is what I found on a forum: "If you get about 7 hours of sleep per night, you're spending about 2555 hours sleeping! So, that means, every 10 years of your life, you will have spent 2.961 years laying in your bed unconscious!"

How much more could humanity accomplish without the need to sleep.

"Sleep, those little slices of death; Oh how I loathe them."
-Edgar Allan Poe

the need for relationships

"...relationships reflect God’s character and are a part of his design, there are so many implications. It means that valuing relationships is a good thing. It means needing relationships is a reality, not just some emotional response. One of my roommates mentioned the relief in realizing that it’s not “weak” to show your need for others." -Connie Jiminez

the Word, a sacrament?

an excellent post by Ben Witherington

come thou fount

I have fallen in love with this old hymn:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

here is the David Crowder band performing it:

why Mark Driscoll hates religion

17,000 watt stereo

this is INSANE!


17,000 watts stereo

Add to My Profile | More Videos

seeing the gospel

"I guarantee there isn't a homeless person in Portland who couldn't tell you the gospel verbatim. They've had to listen to it three times a day to get a sandwich. They've heard about Christ, but they haven't seen Christ. Who will sit next to them while they panhandle, who will enter their world? I've had friends doing that for 15 years. That is seeing the gospel."

-Rick McKinley, pastor of the Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon.

if you don't think Jesus is God ...

Read Hebrews 1, especially verses 8-12

I am glued to this passage

to put it in modern terms, this basically says that Jesus is DA MAN!

Living Theology

sweet blog post

why christians?

I wish I could go up to every person I know and let them know that there is a God, a God whose image they were created in, a God who loves them, a God who wants to give them abundant life. I wish it were easier to do this without people looking at you as a freak. Obviously if a stranger came up to me and started talking about a god like that (and I had never heard of this god) I might think they were a little crazy. I feel like such an inadequate representation of that God. I continually wonder why God chose flawed human beings to bring his gospel to the world he loves. Wouldn't it be better if he made christians perfect upon their salvation so that they would never make Christ look bad? Paul tells a powerful truth to the Corinthian church, he says that he was sent "to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:17-18 ESV) Verse 18 brings me the greatest joy and the greatest sorrow. The fact that the wrath satisfying work of Christ on that cross is the power of God. It is the reason that souls will even have the chance to come near to the throne of God! I heard a preacher make the point that Paul, unlike people today, was not concerned about how God could allow bad things to happen but he was wondering how on earth God could allow a sinner to be forgiven. He was just amazed that God would give adulterous people the chance to get off scot-free! That is the joy of that verse. But the sorrow is in the first part of the verse when it shows that people that are created by God to love God and enjoy God see the saving work of God's son as foolishness. I just want to weep sometime thinking about how some people who are living right now and will never embrace the abundant life that is offered through Jesus. I want so badly to see people embrace the beautiful savior and it pains me to see them walk away. I also feel anger toward myself because of all the times I have make Christ look unattractive by the way I live and the words I say. I feel like part of the problem, I sometimes feel that it is Christians who are stopping this glorious life-giving gospel from getting to people.

I just want to scream: "why the heck would God want us to be his representation?"

EDIT