Author: Brian

Follower of Jesus, Husband, Dad, Grandpa, and Pastor

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strand for our growth:

Good News! You Can’t Engineer an Experience with God – Trevin Wax
The presence of God can feel elusive to us, even when we ask for it, because prayer isn’t magic. We aren’t conjurers. We cannot manufacture a true religious experience. Prayer is an encounter with the living God. The feeling that sometimes results from an encounter with God is uncontrollable because we’re dealing with a personal God, not a force we can harness through incantations.

Win the Next Generation with Love – Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
Jesus said it best: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Jesus did not say, “They will know you are my disciples by how attuned you are to new trends in youth culture.” Or “They will know you are my disciples by the hip atmosphere you create.” Give up on “relevance” and try love. If they see love in you, love for each other, love for the world, and love for them, they will listen. No matter who “they” are.

When Self-Centeredness Sets In – justinmykoagpangan (By Grace Alone)
We are naturally self-centered. We live as if we are the center of the universe. We live to achieve what we want in life. We live for the aim of our self-centered pursuits in life. Our dreams, wants, and longings revolve around us.

The Case Against the Abortion Pill – Rachel Roth Aldhizer (First Things)
In this story, medical abortions induce an unnatural process, one in which up to 20 percent of women experience a complication—four times the complication rate of surgical abortion. The medical abortion process is designed to hide adverse events and discourage patient follow-up. Women seeking abortion receive lower standards of care than do women suffering miscarriage….

Flashback: A Gentle Life
A gentle person doesn’t attack others with her words. She doesn’t speak evil of people, slandering and maligning them. She doesn’t fight with others, quarreling or brawling. A gentle person is courteous, considerate, and polite towards others.

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 2:10-18

On By BrianIn Hebrews Hymns

God’s own Son i-dent-if-ies with us
Took flesh and blood and became a man
Choosing to suffer and trust like us
Calling us fam’ly, in Him we stand

Chorus
Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

Our Jesus brings many to glory
Made our High Priest – all our sins to pay
From our fear of death, He sets us free
Takes hold to help us fight sin each day

(Repeat Chorus)

© 2022 Brian J. Mikul

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 2:5-9

On By BrianIn Hebrews Hymns

The Son became man to die for us
Gasp in wonder and follow humbly
All is subjected to King Jesus
Trust him and rest in His victory

Chorus
Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

© 2022 Brian J. Mikul

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Three Realities That Spur Us On To Reject Sin

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
– I John 3:4-5 (ESV)

In these verses John gives us three realities that spur us on to reject sin.  As we embrace these realities, they will lead us to live differently, to live for Jesus.

#1 – The Definition of Sin
Sin is lawlessness – not just breaking God’s law, but real opposition to it.  Sin is rebellion against God’s will.  When we sin, we are rebelling against God.  When we fail to love God, love our neighbor, love one another, or even love our enemies – that is rebellion against God.  When we fail to be patient or kind or good or gentle or self-controlled, that is rebellion against God.  When we hate or lust or steal or lie or covet, that is rebellion against God.  It is not a matter of indifference.  It is not just a little sin.  It is not just something that can be excused.  It is a matter of loyalty.  When we grasp what sin is, that it is rebellion against God, it will spur us on to reject sin.

#2 – The Purpose of Christ
Jesus appeared – God became one of us in person of Jesus – for a purpose.  He appeared to take away sins.  In John 1:29, John the Baptist proclaimed: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  Jesus came to take away sins.  In I Peter 2:24 we read: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.  Jesus bore our sins to make payment for them, that we might then stop sinning and live for righteousness.  Instead of practicing rebellion, practice righteousness.  Instead of doing what is wrong, do what is righteous.  Jesus died to take away the penalty and power of sin that we might live for Him.  So when we sin, we oppose His purpose. We oppose the very reason that He died.  When we grasp the purpose of Christ – to take away sin, it will spur us on to reject sin.

#3 – The Victory of Christ
Jesus did what no one else has done.  He overcame sin.  He was victorious over it.  In Him there is no sin – not even a trace, not the slightest infraction, no questionable behavior at all.  He was completely and totally victorious over sin. Just a few verses earlier (v2), John tells us that one day we will be like Him, that we too will be victorious.  When Christ returns, we will never sin again.  And in verse 3 he tells us that everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.  If our hope is one day to be sinless like Jesus is. then we will seek to be as sinless as possible today.  When we grasp the victory of Christ – which we look forward to enjoying with Him one day, it will spur us on to reject sin.

Sin is rebellion.  Jesus came to take it away.  One day we will be free of it.  And the more we grasp these realities, the more they will spur us on to reject sin.  Jesus has made us new.  We don’t want to rebel against God.  We don’t want to oppose His purpose.  We don’t want to do that which we long to be free of.  May we keep these realities and related desires front and center in our minds and hearts, so that we might overcome any other desire that may tempt us to sin.

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

The Awakening We Need: Why the Reformed Pray for Revival – Ray Ortlund (DG)
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” May Psalm 85:6 grab our hearts and never let us go!

Is the ‘Silent Treatment’ a Godly Approach to Conflict? – Joe Carter (TGC)
Passive-aggressive tactics are ungodly because they promote division over unity, reflect anger rather than understanding, and withhold forgiveness and love in an effort to gain control.

How (and How Not) to Fight Sin – J. Garrett Kell (Crossway)
Fighting sin is spiritual warfare, and warfare requires a battle plan. If left to our own devices, we would have little success against our unseen enemy. Thankfully, God’s word supplies wisdom to assist us in eluding the evil one’s snares.

Rome Is Not Our Home: Live Counterculturally During Election Season – Pete Nicholas (TGC)
Charity is an underemphasized Christian virtue today, and to be charitable requires eschewing suspicion, cynicism, and laziness. It means good conversation and prayerful reflection to inhabit another’s point of view.

Flashback: The Spirit’s Fruit
And the gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us a gentle people in the image of our Triune God. The gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us gentle in situations where we otherwise couldn’t on our own. The Spirit works to replace our tendency towards harshness, loudness, and quarrelsomeness with a Spirit-led gentleness.

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 2:1-4

On By BrianIn Hebrews Hymns

Pay closer attention to Jesus
There’s a danger of drifting away
The stakes are high for each one of us
Cling to the true message ev’ry day

Chorus
Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

© 2022 Brian J. Mikul

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

Ask God for More of God: Lessons for a Better Prayer Life – Matt Smethurst (DG)
The ability to converse with the King of the universe isn’t just an honor — it’s the glorious union of two disparate truths: awe before an infinite being and intimacy with a personal friend. Because we’re made to know a triune God — a merry, generous, hospitable community of persons — prayer is the furthest thing from a sterile concept or boring duty. It’s an invitation into unimaginable joy.

The Soundtrack of Heaven – Tim Challies
God is the master of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the miraculous. God is the master of accepting little and multiplying it to much. God is the master of taking our little contributions and making them the great means through which he blesses his people and brings glory to his name. And I am convinced we will one day learn that the soundtrack of heaven is made up of the simplest of sounds that God has joined together into the most stirring of symphonies.

We Need Restorative Rest – Jonathan Noyes (STR)
But we weren’t created to be “on” all the time. Part of the health of a Sabbath is the “ceasing from” so that we might attend to other things that get drowned out by our connection addiction. Entire aspects of our humanity are withering because we’re neglecting them in favor of swiping and scrolling through curated social media pages.

Evil Doesn’t Always Show Up Waving a Flag – Trevin Wax
When we look at evil up close, we hope to walk away with a greater sense of moral clarity, and part of that clarity is the realization we’re all capable of justifying, minimizing, or engaging in evil.

Flashback: The Savior’s Example, Part 2
More often than we think, the people around us are bruised, battered, smoldering, weary, tired, and fragile. We need to follow Jesus’ example and treat one another carefully, with great gentleness that builds up and gives life.

Share the Awe

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

For God to stay his hand of judgment, to forgive and redeem rebellious sinners like us, would have been, in and of itself, a remarkable display of divine love, but our Lord went even further and made us his children!  We dare not pass quickly over this point; we must ponder it until we share the awe and wonder of the apostle at this truth.
– Ray Van Neste in the ESV Expository Commentary, Volume 12

Out of This World Love

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
– I John 3:1a

See!  Behold!  Open your eyes!  Take notice!  

God has done something amazing! 

What is it?  He has given us an amazing gift!

The Father has given His love to us.  Bestowed His love on us.  Lavished His love upon us.

It is not a skimpy love.  It is not a Scroogey love.

See what kind of love.  “What kind” has idea of “what country?”  If someone does something strange or unexpected we might ask: “What country are you from?”

What in the world?

John says: “Of what country did this love come from?”  It is foreign to what we would think. 

What in the world kind of love is this?

That God would lavish His love upon us by calling us His children?

That we – rebels/sinners – might bear His name?

That He would claim us as His own?

This love is out of this world! 

And yet, He doesn’t just call us His children; we are His children.  That is what we are.  God has made us His children.  We have been adopted by God Himself into His family.

Open your eyes! God has showered an out of this world love upon us that calls and makes us His children.