Our Passion for God
And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and with all your strength.
– Mark 12:30 (ESV)
Tag: Discipleship
Passion Points
It has been a busy week with VBS at our church, so I haven’t had a lot of time for blogging. But it was also a good week, for which we praise God. Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Satan’s Simple Plan – Kevin DeYoung
He really only wants one thing: he wants to keep you from Christ. He wants to make you selfish. He wants you to live for your ambition. He wants you to live for your addiction. He wants you live for your ego. He wants you to live for anyone or anything that’s not Jesus.
When Sin Looks Delicious – Tim Challies
Do you ever have those days where you just want to sin? Sin looks delicious while righteousness looks distasteful. Sin looks satisfying and holiness looks frustrating. You wake up in the morning with a desire to do what you know you should not desire to do. Your heart echoes with what God said to Cain: “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you.” And your desire is for it. What do you do on a day like that?
Sin is Cosmic Treason – R. C. Sproul (Ligonier)
Not until we take God seriously will we ever take sin seriously. But if we acknowledge the righteous character of God, then we, like the saints of old, will cover our mouths with our hands and repent in dust and ashes before Him.
History Could Happen Again – Nathan Finn (DG)
Knowing how God has worked in the past can help us ask some key questions of ourselves in the present. Are we praying for revival in our own spiritual lives? Are we praying for the salvation of the nations? Are our churches setting aside a specific time for focused — even extraordinary — prayer for a global awakening through the advance of the gospel? Do we long for the Lord to move among us as he moved among those who came before us?
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day celebrating our gracious Savior!
Sermon Songs: Isaiah 13-24
Our God reigns and punishes sin
Rejoice – just is the Lord
Repent, receive his salvation
Proclaim his love outpoured
We deserve judgment for our sins
Instead mercy and grace
His justice and compassion wins
For Jesus took our place
– From a sermon on Isaiah 13-24
(To the tune of “O God Our Help In Ages Past”)
Prayer Quote of the Week
Prayer is the open admission that without Christ
we can do nothing.
– John Piper
Sermon Songs: Isaiah 13-24
Our God reigns and calls us to trust
Look to the Holy One
Our Rock who made us from the dust
Who our salvation won
– From a sermon on Isaiah 13-24
(To the tune of “O God Our Help In Ages Past)
Passion Passages
The Lord’s Passion for Us
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.
– Titus 3:4-7 (ESV)
Passion Points
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
5 Things Romanian Believers Taught Me About Prayer – Trevin Wax
For the Christians whose identities were forged through the fire of Communist oppression, prayer is an act of quiet desperation that manifests itself in bold supplication. I’ve never seen humility and confidence so perfectly married as when listening to (and joining) Romanians in prayer.
Unanswered Prayer – Tim Challies
The best way I know how to answer is to point to the cross…
Sharpen Your Affections with Fasting – David Mathis
What makes fasting such a gift is its ability, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to focus our feelings and their expression toward God in prayer.…
4 Changes that Jesus’ Second Coming Produces in Us – J. D. Greear
If you know the world has an end—and that it could be soon—that rearranges your priorities. It makes no sense to go around rearranging deck chairs if you’re on the sinking Titanic. And yet that’s what many of us are doing with our lives.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!
Prayer Quote of the Week
We can never expect to grow in the likeness of our Lord
unless we follow his example and give more time
to communion with the Father.
A revival of real praying would produce
a spiritual revolution.
– E. M. Bounds
Sermon Songs: Isaiah 13-24
Our God reigns o’er the nations’ strife
Look to the Lord today
He rules in all my daily life
Look to him – trust and pray
– From a sermon on Isaiah 13-24
(To the tune of “O God Our Help In Ages Past”)
Passion Passages
Compassion for People
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
– Colossians 3:12-14 (ESV)
Brian J. Mikul 