Author: Brian

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

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

Offer Yourself To God

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Miscellaneous

In a recent post, I said we needed to preach the gospel to ourselves.  We need to remember the cross so we don’t want to sin.  We need to consider our new life that means we don’t have to sin.  As we remind ourselves of the gospel, we then offer ourselves to God.

We see this in Romans 12:1.  It begins by pointing us back to the first eleven chapters all about the gospel.  And then in response to the gospel, the verse tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.  Because of all that Jesus has suffered and done for us, we offer ourselves to God.

We see this again in Romans 6:11-13.  It begins by calling us to consider our new life in Christ (v11).  And then it goes on to tell us to present ourselves to God rather than sin.  Because we died to sin, we should no longer offer ourselves to sin, but rather to God who saved us.

In both passages, we offer ourselves to God in response to gospel truths.  And yet, to be more precise, both passages tell us to offer not ourselves, but actually our bodies to God.  And Romans 6 goes further telling us to offer the members or parts of our body to God.  Applying this to our lives might look something like this:

Father, because of all that Jesus suffered to pay for my sins, I don’t want to sin.  Because you have given me a new life, I recognize that I don’t have to sin.  And so I offer myself to you.

  • I offer my eyes to you.  Help me to see what you want me to see, and how you want me to see.  Keep my eyes from what is sinful.
  • I offer my ears to you.  Help me to hear what you want me to hear.  Help me to listen to others as you would.  Keep my ears from what you don’t want me to hear.
  • I offer my mouth to you.  Help me to speak kind words, loving words, true words.  May my mouth be used today to encourage those around me.  Help me to speak the words that you want me to say.  Help me to guard my tongue from unkind or untrue words.
  • I offer my hands to you.  Help me to do what you want me to do.  Help me to do my work in a way that please you today. 
  • I offer my feet to you.  I want to go where you want me to go, and stay away from places you don’t want me to go to.

Because of all that you have done for me, I offer myself to you.

Declaring the Glory

On By BrianIn Declaring the Glory

Lake Superior off the Keweenaw 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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Medicine for Motivation – Kevin DeYoung (via Crossway)
Here are just some of the ways in which the Bible motivates us to pursue holiness….

A Mighty Army of Deeply Spiritual Men – John Piper (via Jared Wilson)
Where are the men with a moral vision for their families, a zeal for the house of the Lord, a magnificent commitment to the advancement of the kingdom, an articulate dream for the mission of the church and a tenderhearted tenacity to make it real?

That All The World Might Rejoice – Matthew Wynne
Open your ears O’ Church that you might hear Jesus’ call,
The call to go unto all the nations that all the world might rejoice!

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshipping our great God!

Preach the Gospel to Yourself

On By BrianIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

How can we grow up in Jesus?  Part of the answer is that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves.  We need to constantly remind ourselves of what God has done for us, of the many blessings of salvation that should change the way we live.  In Romans 12:1 we read, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God….”  These words mark a huge transition in the book.  Everything before these words deals with God’s mercy in giving us a great salvation.  Everything after these words deals with how we should live in response.  It is because of the gospel that we should now live differently.  And so we need to preach the gospel to ourselves.  Let me take just two elements of the gospel to illustrate this point.

Remember the cross so you don’t want to sin.  Part of the God’s mercy is that he became a man and took the judgment we deserved for our sins upon himself on the cross.  Consider all that our Savior endured because of our sins.  The whipping.  The beatings.  The mockings.  The crown of thorns pressed into his head.  The nails piercing his hands and feet.  The agony hanging on the cross.  As we consider what he endured to pay for our sin, how could we have any desire to sin?  When the temptation to sin looks so alluring, place the picture of Jesus hanging on the cross next to the temptation, and the temptation will lose much of its tempting power.  As we consider the cross, it motivates us to live for him.  We remember the cross so we don’t want to sin.

Consider your new life that means you don’t have to sin.  In Romans 6, Paul talks about the reality that we have died to sin and been raised to a new life in Christ.  We are no longer slaves to sin.  And so he tells us in verse 11 to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  He has already established that we have a new life.  In verse 11 he wants us to consider this reality.  To think about it.  To remember it.  He wants us to preach the gospel to ourselves.  We have a new life.  God has enabled us to say no to sin.  We don’t have to sin anymore.  Too often we hear people say (and we might say ourselves) after sinning, “Well, I just couldn’t help it.”  But if we are true Christians, we have been given a new life.  We can help it.  In the face of temptation, remind yourself that you are no longer a slave to sin, and you don’t want to act like a slave anymore.  You can say no.  We consider our new life to remind us that we don’t have to sin.

Remember the cross so you don’t want to sin.  Consider your new life that means you don’t have to sin.  Preach the gospel to yourself.

Quotes to Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes1 Comment

The difference between believing that God is gracious
and tasting that God is gracious is as different as
having a rational belief that honey is sweet
and having the actual sense of its sweetness.
– Jonathan Edwards

 God is love (I John 4:8) and God is holy (I Peter 1:16). 
He is neither more loving than he is holy, nor more holy than loving. 
God’s love is holy, and his holiness is love.  He is holy love and loving holiness.
– Michael Wittmer

 Those who do not fear God do not live in the reality of God.
– Gary Thomas

 God’s chief gift to those who seek him is himself.
— E.B. Pusey

Declaring the Glory

On By BrianIn Declaring the Glory1 Comment

Sunset on Lake Superior 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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

How To Watch the Olympic Games – David Mathis (via Desiring God)
Why would the Christian Scriptures mention the games? To help us upgrade our two weeks of Olympic watching by opening our eyes to what they have to say about God, the gospel, and the Christian life. 

You might also be interested in this interview video of Olympian Gabby Douglas at Valley Church in Des Moines. (via Chris Brauns)

And then, how do we deal with conflict?  Here is a helpful trilogy of posts:
3 Ways We Must Handle Conflict, Conflict: When Desires Become Demands,
Conflict: Recognize, Repent, Refocus, Replace – Robert D. Jones (via Crossway)
While my initial desire might be legitimate, it becomes sinful when it grows into a demand. And when it becomes a demand and you don’t meet it—and of course you can never meet every demand of my selfish heart—I then judge you in my heart and condemn you. In the final step, my internal judgment produces some outward expression of punishment toward you. I might yell at you, speak sarcastically about you, gossip about you, or avoid you.

Prayerlessness – Nancy Leigh DeMoss (via Tim Challies)
As God opened my eyes to this matter of prayerlessness, I asked Him to let me see it from His point of view. Here is what I wrote in my journal one day when God first began to deal with my heart.  Convicting stuff!

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!