Author: Brian

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

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts focusing on specific sins which undoubtedly tempt many of us:

Do You Take Irritibility Seriously? – Phil Ryken (via Crossway)
A helpful exploration of a common sin.  One quote:  We should take our irritability much more seriously, because it is the very opposite of love.

The Lost Sin of Envy
How Envy Behaves
What Envy Wants
This is a challenging three part series by Tim Challies.  One quote:  When you are proud you compare yourself with another person and there are only two possible outcomes: If you believe you come out on top, you feel even more pride; if you believe you come out on the bottom, you feel envy. Envy comes when Pride is wounded.

Pride and Humility – Tim Challies
It appears I’m not the only one focusing on pride and humility.  Challies surveys the definitions of pride and humility from Mack, Mahaney, and several others, and then gives a helpful summary.

Finally, let me share a quote from John Piper in A God Entranced Vision of All Things:
The power of sin comes from its promise of pleasure and is meant to be defeated by the superior promise of pleasure in God.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with God’s people enjoying the superior pleasure found in our Lord!

Pride and Worry

On By BrianIn Humility Quotes

I have to remember that whenever I feel buried under care,
the real issue is pride and my self-sufficiency. 
I must deliberately and specifically cast my cares upon Him
and thereby humble myself.  
Don’t be mistaken.  God hasn’t gone anywhere. 
He’s just as sovereign, just as good, just as faithful.… 
The issue isn’t God.  It’s my pride that resists trusting in Him through dependence upon Him.
– C. J. Mahaney in Humility

Pride and Grumbling

On By BrianIn Humility Quotes1 Comment

Those who grumble and complain about the circumstances of their lives are manifesting a spirit of pride.  A person who complains about his circumstances does so because he thinks he deserves better. 
A humble person, on the other hand, willingly accepts whatever God ordains.  He says with Paul, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Phil. 4:11).
– Wayne A. Mack (with Joshua Mack) in Humility

Definitions of Pride

On By BrianIn Humility Quotes

Pride is when sinful human beings
aspire to the status and position of God and
refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon him.
– C. J. Mahaney in Humility

Pride consists in attributing to ourselves
and demanding for ourselves the honor,
privileges, prerogatives, rights, and power
that are due to God alone.
– Wayne A. Mack (with Joshua Mack) in Humility

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Idolatry, PASSION Points

I was gone the past week to attend the RHMA Small Town Pastor/Wife Conference with my wife.  I hope to share some highlights next week.  In the meantime, here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

When I Am God – Tim Challies
How life changes when we try to make ourselves God instead of acknowledging the one true God.

Praying Past Our Preferred Outcomes – Nancy Guthrie (via Gospel Coalition)
Related to the post before, am I willing to pray for God’s will in my concerns?

Christ-Centered Accountability – Jared Wilson
A good consideration of helpful and not-so-helpful accountability.

Keep Looking Unto Jesus – J. C. Ryle Quotes
Keep on looking unto Jesus. Faith shall soon be changed to sight, and hope to certainty.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church celebrating the one true God!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts on overcoming sin and walking in holiness:

Jonathan Dodson has a three part series on overcoming sin:
Know Your Sin
Fight Your Sin
Trust Your Savior, Not Your Efforts

Kevin DeYoung offers an Anatomy of Holiness, looking at what holiness is as it relates to our bodies.

Finally, Trevin Wax offers a prayer for Grace To Love What God Commands.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day growing in your love for God and His commands!

All of God

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

God is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things.  Nothing exists without his creating it.  Nothing stays in being without his sustaining word.  Everything has its reason for existing from him.  Therefore nothing can be understood apart from him, and all understandings of all things that leave him out are superficial understandings, since they leave out the most important reality in the universe.  We can scarcely begin to feel today how God-ignoring we have become, because it is the very air we breathe.
– John Piper
in A God Entranced Vision of All Things

Revival

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

Revival is God touching minds and hearts in an arresting, devastating, exalting way, to draw them to himself through working from the inside out rather than from the outside in.  It is God accelerating, intensifying, and extending the work of grace that goes on in every Christian’s life….  It is the near presence of God giving new power to the gospel of sin and grace.  It is the Holy Spirit sensitizing souls to divine realities and so generating deep-level responses to God in the form of faith and repentance, praise and prayer, love and joy, works of benevolence and service and initiatives of outreach and sharing.
– J. I. Packer
in A God Entranced Vision of All Things

Home Sweet Home

On By BrianIn Books of the Bible1 Comment

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
– Psalm 91:1-2

There is no place like home.  Home is where we dwell.  Home is where we abide. 
For the Christian, home is God.

A man’s home is his castle.  For the Christian this is especially true. 
We find our home in his shelter.  We are at home in the shadow of the Almighty. 
He is our refuge and fortress.

Home is where the heart is.  Our home is in God.  Our heart should be with God.
God should be our great desire, our burning passion.

God is our home.  He is our castle.  He has our heart.
Home sweet home!