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"My soul, wait in silence for God only..." - Psalm 62:5.
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February 2010 Entries
Worship Preparation | Hebrews 1:10-12 (& Charnock on God's Immutability)
If the Lord wills, Christ's immutability will be our theme this coming Sunday at Grace.
That's because God the Father gives us a window into His own delight into the Immutability of God the Son in Hebrews 1:10-12. Marinate your soul...
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Christ | The Fullness of Joy
Christ: The Fullness of Joy
“Let us mark…how Christ indicates that when His joy abides in us our joy is full (John 15:11).
Joy depends much less on what we have, than on what we are. You may give me this and that, and everything that can be thought of, yet in my soul there be no wave of joy.
But change me inwardly; make me like Jesus; let me, like Him, hate wickedness and love righteousness with the whole force of my nature; let me abide, like Him, in the Father’s love; let my heart, like His, flow over with loving feelings on every side; let me, like Him, delight in doing God’s will, and in finishing, day by day, the work given me to do; let me, like Him, live in expectation of the glory that is to be revealed when He appears with His holy angels, when His redeemed are all gathered from east and from the west, from the north and from the south; then shall not my joy be pure, deep, and real? Shall my joy not even now be unspeakable and full of glory?”
William Garden Blaikie’s, The Inner Life of our Lord, 97-98.
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Pray for God to Give a Gift to Jesus | You
When the vantage point of our prayer is lined up with Christ's worth, we will quickly find more expectation in our praying and true transformation in our lives.
Prayer can be empty, and often is, but it doesn't have to be. We should expect our Father's...
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Lighter Joys Need Not be Banished, Neither so Drunk as to Spoil our Relish for the Deeper River
“The lighter forms of joy, when they involve no sin, need not be banished from our life—bodily recreation, social mirth, lively books and lively conversation. But their place will be secondary; the great fountain will be Christ’s fountain. Nay, we will be jealous over ourselves with godly jealousy, lest we so drink of lighter joys of life as to spoil our relish for the deeper river that makes glad the city of our God.” - William Garden Blaikie, Glimpses of the Inner Life of our Lord, 98.
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SBC Long-Term Haiti Response Plan
Long-term Haiti relief plan in place
Feb. 15, 2010
ALPHARETTA, Ga. --
Southern Baptists’ long-term relief response to the Haiti earthquake
will be led in Haiti by a six-member coordination group...
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Friendly Reminder...Worship Preparation | Hebrews 1:7-9 - "Jesus: God"
As you ready your soul to join God's
people in worship, I encourage you to marinate in our sermon text,
Hebrews 1:7-9. As you're in those verses, ask the Holy Spirit to work
powerfully among us for true conversions and Christian growth.
Reckon with four God things said about Jesus in these verses...
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How Can a Christian Insulate Himself From Christ?
The answer is "All too easily."
We are professional sinners. All of us. We will use anything and everything as a means of avoiding God.
Would the words "fresh encounter" accurately describe your current fellowship with Jesus? Notice, the question isn't...
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The Christian | Dead, Alive, or Simultaneously Both?
So, which is it? Is the Christian dead or alive? It depends. The Bible says we are both.
The Christian is Dead
- Colossians 2:20 - "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations"
The Christian is Alive
- Ephesians 2:5 - "even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved"
- Colossians 3:4 - "When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."
The Christian is Simultaneously Dead & Alive
- Romans 6:4 - "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
- Romans 6:8 - "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."
- Romans 7:4 - "Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God."
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Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
- Colossians 3:3 - "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
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Stoking Our Expectations for Inexhaustible Increase In Our Experience of God
I pass along this illustration from Ray Ortlund Jr's guidebook on modern revival, When God Comes to Church,
with the ambition of provoking all who will read it to seek to apprehend
more of Christ. Or, as the Apostle Paul said...
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Not Equal To Our Transcendent God, But Derivative From Him, Christians Also Transcend the Space-Time Continuum
In an inexplicable way, God's incomprehensible truth "makes sense" to the Christian. This is not to suggest that anyone, other than God, fully grasps His revelation.
Think, for one example, of the fact that every Christian "understands" and believes in the Trinity!?!
Before labelling me a heretic for the post's title, reckon with...
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Worship Preparation | Hebrews 1:6 - "Jesus: Worshiped"
God the Father commanded all of the angels to direct their worship toward Jesus during His incarnation. That's the sum of Hebrews 1:6, and it has profound implications for our understanding of Jesus, and it must inform our response to Him. Are you a worshipper of Jesus Christ?
I believe that God created man to join the angels in the ceaseless worship of Jesus. If you belong to Christ, you will one day soon be welcomed into that very experience, the glories of which will never end.
The gospel is inexhaustible. We are saved by Jesus and instantaneously granted the ability to appropriately worship the Triune and only God forever.
That's a snapshot of where we're headed on Sunday.
The best means I can think of to prepare your soul for being under God's Word with the people of Grace this Sunday is to worship Jesus now.
See you Sunday, Lord willing, Phil. 3:3 (look it up)
Jordan
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Memphis Area Marriage Conference | February 12-13
Tracy and I are registered and ready. Hope you can make it, too.
Registration Deadline: This Thursday, February 4!
- What: Marriage & Family Enrichment Conference
- Where: Union Avenue Baptist Church, Midtown
- Guest Speaker: Dr. William Cutrer (former OBGYN, current marriage & family professor at Southern Seminary)
- Childcare: Provided
- Cost: $25/couple, or as much as you can afford.
- Also Included: Friday spaghetti dinner for the whole family, and a free book by Dr. Cutrer (pretty sweet dinner deal for the Thomas family!)
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Jubilee Community Church: A Sister TCT Plant
Jubilee is the next church set to spawn from the TCT vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church. You can click here to listen, read, or watch John Piper and John Erickson (Pastor, Jubilee) tagteam to explain the vision. In his segment, Piper includes a brief history of Bethlehem's 185 years of church planting, including Grace Church.
Pray for Jubilee. Pray for many more churches to emerge in the days ahead!
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