Author: Brian

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts on the Word and prayer for your weekend reading:

How to Listen to a Sermon – Phil Ryken (via reformation 21)
So what is the right way to listen to a sermon?  With a soul that is prepared, a mind that is alert, a Bible that is open, a heart that is receptive, and a life that is ready to spring into action.

A Smorgasbord of Bible Memorization Methods – Jean Williams (Matthias Media)
Every Bible memorization method has one or more of the three Rs at its heart: Repeat, Recall, Review. Repeat a passage over and over until you’re familiar with it; practise recalling it until it’s worn a path in your memory; then review it so you don’t lose it. But there are different ways to do these three things, and not all of them will suit you.

Does Your Church Pray Together? – Sinclair Ferguson quoted by Justin Taylor
I greatly wish that our churches would learn to keep the main things central, that we would learn to be true Churches, vibrant fellowships of prayer, Gospel ministry and teaching, genuine mutual love.

31 Petitions to the Lord on the Occasion of my 31st Birthday – Trevin Wax
My knowledge of You as a loving Father is what compels me to come before You, to ask You, plead with You, beg of You: Accomplish these 31 things in the years to come….

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshipping the Lord as you sit under His Word and come before His throne.

Waterfalls

On By BrianIn God & His Glory

Creation points to God; it declares its Creator.  Waterfalls, as part of creation, point to God.

Waterfalls point to God’s beauty.  The cascading water sparkling in the light is a reflection of God’s beauty.

Waterfalls point to God’s power.  The deafening roar of the thundering water speaks of God’s great power.

Waterfalls also point to God’s infiniteness.  Each waterfall is different – different heights, different widths, different angles of descent, different rocks, different cascades.  I’ve never seen two waterfalls the same.  Each one is a new sight to behold.  And so it is with God.  There is always a new beauty to behold, a new manifestation of his power.  We will never exhaust the depths of God.

Quotes To Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

We may not have literally killed God, but that is only from lack of opportunity. 
We all were born with the insatiable desire to eliminate God
so that we can take his place.
– Mike Wittmer

In his natural state, every man born into the world is a rank idolater.
— John Wesley

The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God,
and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God.
– John Flavel

It is a mark of all the true children of God
that they long to magnify the God of their salvation.
– John Piper

Know Me Better

On By BrianIn God & His Glory1 Comment

In Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol, Scrooge wakes up to the coming of the Ghost of Christmas Present.  He peaks out of his bed curtains to see a large jolly man with a never-ending chuckle and an incredible feast of food.  The Ghost calls out to Scrooge, “Come in, and know me better, man!”

I believe this is a wonderful picture of God.  God is big and full of joy, and his blessings surround him.  And he calls to us, “Come, and know me better!”

Declaring the Glory

On By BrianIn Declaring the Glory

Waterfall in the Presque Isle area in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
– Psalm 19:1

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,
in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
– Romans 1:20

Passsion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good articles related to evangelism and missions:

Factfinder: Misquoting Francis of Assisi – Glenn Stanton (via Gospel Coalition)
One very clever and popular quote we often knock around among ourselves is:  “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”  But here’s the fact: Our good Francis never said such a thing.  Duane Liftin, president emeritus of Wheaton College, recently addressed the trouble with this preach/practice dichotomy….   “It’s simply impossible to preach the Gospel without words. The Gospel is inherently verbal, and preaching the Gospel is inherently verbal behavior.”

D.A. Carson on Angry Christians and the Devil’s Tactics – David Rogers (via SBC Voices)But at the end of the day, if you can’t do it with compassion, and gently, and leave the doors open for evangelism, boy, you destroy everything. I think one of the devil’s tactics with respect to the church on the Right today is to make them so hate everybody else that at the end of the day they can’t be believed anywhere, not even the proclamation of the gospel.

What I Want For All Missionaries – Mike Pettengill (via Gospel Coalition)
We want to know people are thinking and praying for us. If my team members were reminded that others care and pray for them, they would have strength to endure the hard days.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshipping the Lord and getting spurred on to lovingly speak the gospel and support missions for the advancement of His kingdom!

Growing in the Truth

On By BrianIn Habit of Scripture

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” – John 17:17

We live in a world of opinions, lies, half-truths, and competing truths.  But Jesus reminds us where to find truth – in the Word of God.  The Bible is truth.  It is our standard.  It is the measure by which we determine what is true and false in our world.  The question for us is always: does this idea or thought that I am hearing or thinking line up with the Bible?  The truth of the Bible gives us direction in the confusion of opinions around us, a star to follow that cuts through the smog of false ideas and pretend truths.  Biblical truth also shows us how to grow up in Jesus, how to be mature Christians.

Jesus says that we are sanctified by the truth.  “Sanctify” conveys the idea of being set apart.  We are to be set apart in the truth of the Bible.  We are to live according to the truth.  Sanctify also means to make holy.  Sanctification is the process of God making us holy, of growing up in Jesus to be mature Christians.  And this happens as our lives line up with the truth.  Which leads to three responses:

  • First, we need to learn the truth.  We can’t line our lives up with the truth if we don’t know it.  As such we must be committed to digging into the Word.  We are to meditate on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1:2).  We are to store up portions of God’s Word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11).  We should gather regularly with God’s people to hear the word taught and preached.  We must immerse ourselves in God’s Word that we might learn the truth.
  • Second, we must believe the truth.  We must join the Psalmist who says, “I trust in your word” (Psalm 119:42).  We must believe what we learn, conforming our thinking to the Book.  We simply can’t say, “This is what the Bible says, but I think….”  What we think is simply wrong if it doesn’t match the Bible.  We must submit ourselves completely to the truth revealed by God in his Word.  We must believe the truth.
  • Third, we must live the truth.  As we learn it and believe it, we must conform not only our thinking but also our lives to the truth.  James 1:22-25 speaks of the foolishness of hearing the Word but not doing it.  We live in a world of information overload, and we hear so much that we never do anything about.  But our approach to the Bible must be different.  As we read it, mediate on it, memorize it, study it, and hear it preached, we must make every effort to do what it says.  We must live the truth.

What will you do with the truth today?

Quotes to Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

If you haven’t been jarred when you’re reading the Bible, you’re not reading it. —John Piper

Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder
through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding
of what surrounds you.  This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.
– J. I. Packer

The Spirit-filled walk demands, for instance, that we live in the Word of God
as a fish lives in the sea….  I mean that we should “meditate day and night”
in the sacred Word, that we should love it and feast upon it and digest it
every hour of the day and night.
– A. W. Tozer

I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day
than I would, as it were, rinse my hands in several chapters. 
Oh to bathe in a text of Scripture till it saturates your heart!
– C. H. Spurgeon