A great song that goes right along with the theme of this blog.
Author: Brian
Follower of Jesus, Husband, Dad, Grandpa, and Pastor
Passion Points
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Your Most Courageous Resolution for 2014 – Jon Bloom (Desiring God)
Let this be the year that we pursue love. Let this be the year that we stop talking about love, that we do less regretful moaning about how little we love and how much we need to grow in love and actually be determined to love more the way Jesus loved…
True Freedom is Freedom to Be My True Self – John Stott (via Trevin Wax)
True freedom is freedom to be my true self, as God made me and meant me to be. And God made me for loving. But loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself and give myself….
Why Real Christians Are So Odd – A. W. Tozer (via Justin Taylor)
A real Christian is an odd number, anyway.
He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen;
talks familiarly everyday to someone he cannot see;
expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another….
The Centerpiece of Sunday Worship – Marshall Segal (Desiring God)
Even in corporate worship, with sermons every week, we can too easily wander from our wonder at all that we have in Scripture. What if we came to church hungry, even starving, for the word of God (Matthew 4:4)? What if we expected God to inspire, change, and commission us in the sacred moments we spend together over these pages? What if we thought we’d become more like him — undeserving sinners wading into the divine nature — when his words wash over us as the Bible is read and explained (2 Peter 1:3–4)?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day being incredibly odd as you love your brothers and sisters in Christ and hungrily dig into His Word!
Passion Points
It has been a busy couple of weeks, but hopefully I’ll be posting at least a couple of time each week again. Thanks to all who read and show an interest in this blog. Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Six ways to look godly while not growing your faith in 2014 – Carl Laferton (thegoodbook)
So here, for 2014, are six more ways to look great while doing little…
5 Ways to Pray for Your Pastor in 2014 – Nicholas Batzig (Ligonier)
The shepherd needs the prayers of the sheep as much as they need his prayers. He also is one of Christ’s sheep, and is susceptible to the same weaknesses. While there are many things one could pray for pastors, here are five straightforward Scriptural categories….
8 Characteristics of Sanctification – Dustin Crowe (Gospel Centered Discipleship)
Gospel-centered sanctification tethers becoming (growing) to being (identity) by making Christ’s accomplishments and provision for us the catalyst of our lives. Here are eight characteristics of gospel-centered sanctification that frame our theology of the doctrine while also steering our practice….
A Theological Toolbox – Tim Challies
There are two grids I’ve found especially helpful, and ones I return to again and again, not only in my own life, but also as I interact with others….
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping the One who is enthroned in the heavens!
The Motto for This Year
I’m reading Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional this year. Here was this morning’s excellent devotion:
“Continue in prayer.”—Colossians 4:2.
It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;” and just as we are about to close the volume, the “Amen” of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Instances are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob—there a Daniel who prayed three times a day—and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elias; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands, and myriads of promises. What does this teach us, but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer? We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we are in heaven we must not cease to pray. Dost thou want nothing? Then, I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of God? Then, may the Lord’s mercy show thee thy misery! A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian. If thou be a child of God, thou wilt seek thy Father’s face, and live in thy Father’s love. Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting-house of His love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others, and that thou mayst live more to the glory of thy Master. The motto for this year must be, “Continue in prayer.”
Planning for the New Year
It is that time of year again when many, myself included, make New Year resolutions.
How do we want the coming year to look different from the past?
How do we want, by God’s grace, to change?
How might God wand us to grow this year?
In what ways will we seek to train ourselves for godliness (I Timothy 4:7)?
Below are several helpful links.
Questions for the New Year – Donald Whitney provides several helpful questions to help us think about the new year.
New Years Resolutions – Here are the categories I use as I think about the coming year.
Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions – Sometimes it helps to see what others resolved to do.
Resolution Principles – Ten helpful principles for making and keeping resolutions.
How to Make Your Resolutions Stick – Mike Cosper offers four very good principles for actually keeping your resolutions.
Your Most Courageous Resolution for 2014 – Jon Bloom challenges us to make love our goal for 2014.
May we press forward this year in following Christ for the glory of God!
Missions Moment
Here is a great post on missions for the holidays:
15 Ways to Bless Your Missionaries This Christmas without Paying Postage – Justin Taylor
Why not choose one and do it!
Other ideas? Leave a comment.
Rejoice in the Lord
Where can we find a lasting joy? We find it first and foremost in the Lord. Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 3:1). Lest we miss it, he says it again in the next chapter – twice (4:4). Paul is clear: we should find our joy in the Lord.
Keep in mind the context in which he is writing. He isn’t at the beach soaking in the sun in 80 degree weather (some of us northerners would like that about now). No, he is in prison chained to a guard. And he writes, rejoice in the Lord. And he isn’t just saying it but not living it either. He was thrown in jail when he was in Philippi too, and what was he doing? Praying and singing hymns to God – rejoicing in the Lord (Acts 16). In his suffering, he was still rejoicing in the Lord. Where can we find lasting joy even in the midst of suffering? We find lasting joy in the Lord.
So how can we grow in this joy? Three thoughts:
First, treasure the Lord above all. If Christ is our life (1:21), then that is where we will find our joy. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:21 that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. If Jesus is our treasure, then he is where our heart will be, he is where we will find our joy. And no one and nothing can steal that joy from you because no one and nothing can steal Him from you. Treasure the Lord above all.
Second, press on to know the Lord more. This is exactly what we find Paul doing (3:8-14). He wants to know Christ more and more. And as we know him more, as we draw near to him, as we “taste” of him, we find that he is good (Psalm 34:8). Always good. And so we can always rejoice in him. Psalm 100 begins with a call to rejoice in the Lord and ends with the reasons: his goodness, his love, and his faithfulness. The more you draw near and know his goodness, love, and faithfulness in your life, the more you will rejoice in him. So press on to know the Lord more.
Third, remember his blessings to you. We are to pray with thanksgiving (4:7). Consider his many blessings to you. He is the source of every blessing. All the good things you rightly rejoice in come from him, so rejoice in him. As you rejoice in his blessings, rejoice even more in the source.
Rejoice in the Lord. I will say it again: rejoice!
Current
Current: A weekly collection of current news and issues in the church, country, and world.
Answering Four Street-Level Arguments for Sexual Immorality – Matt Chandler (GC)
Is Some Sexual Activity Wrong? – Kevin DeYoung
No More Gender: A Look into Sweden’s Social Experiment – Trevin Wax
Are You a Joyful Person?
Philippians is often referred to as the epistle of joy. Fourteen times in this short book we find the words “joy” and “rejoice.” Paul rejoices and he calls his readers to rejoice. Which raises the question:
Are you a joyful person?
I’ve been wrestling with that question for the past week, and I invite you to wrestle with it now: Are you a joyful person? If someone asked your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, the driver in front of you, and anyone else who has been around you lately, would they say that you are a joyful person?
And then here is a second question:
Where do you find your joy?
There are lots of places that people find joy: in family, in work, in activities, in the presents under the tree. And there is nothing wrong with finding joy in these places. But if those are the only places you find joy, you won’t be a joyful person. Because your family can be a wreck, you can have a bad day at work, that activity might be cancelled, and soon all those gifts will be unwrapped – and then where is your joy? If you find your joy in comfort, what happens when life is no longer comfortable? If you find your joy in your health, what happens when your health is gone? We can find joy in many places, but not lasting joy.
God calls us to be joyful people with a lasting joy that continues even in the midst of the trials and struggles of life. In the next few days we will look at where we can find lasting joy. But in the meantime:
Are you a joyful person?
Where do you find your joy?
Brian J. Mikul 