Tag: sin

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 9:15-28

On By BrianIn Hebrews Hymns

Celebrate our joyful circumstance
Forever we have full forgiveness
Promised eternal inheritance
With God now, forever, through Jesus

Chorus
Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

Dying for our sins He did appear
In heaven now appears – so draw near!
Of death and judgment we need not fear
For with salvation He will appear
(Repeat Chorus)

Come with your sin and guilt, heed the call
Turn and believe before it’s too late
His promises, now enjoy them all
For His return, eagerly now wait
(Repeat Chorus)

© 2023 Brian J. Mikul

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Sermon Songs: Hebrews 9:1-14

On By BrianIn Hebrews Hymns

Our God is holy, holy, holy
We are sinners in need of cleansing
We could not find inner purity
From the Old Covenant offerings

Chorus
Fast, Fast, Hold fast
Hold fast to Jesus the Better One
Near, Near, Draw Near
Draw near to God through His only Son

Offering Himself, Jesus shed His blood
All of our sins and guilt washed away
Now we can draw near and serve our God
Once for all Jesus opened the way
(Repeat Chorus)

© 2023 Brian J. Mikul

(Sing to tune of “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”)

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

The Awakening We Need: Why the Reformed Pray for Revival – Ray Ortlund (DG)
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” May Psalm 85:6 grab our hearts and never let us go!

Is the ‘Silent Treatment’ a Godly Approach to Conflict? – Joe Carter (TGC)
Passive-aggressive tactics are ungodly because they promote division over unity, reflect anger rather than understanding, and withhold forgiveness and love in an effort to gain control.

How (and How Not) to Fight Sin – J. Garrett Kell (Crossway)
Fighting sin is spiritual warfare, and warfare requires a battle plan. If left to our own devices, we would have little success against our unseen enemy. Thankfully, God’s word supplies wisdom to assist us in eluding the evil one’s snares.

Rome Is Not Our Home: Live Counterculturally During Election Season – Pete Nicholas (TGC)
Charity is an underemphasized Christian virtue today, and to be charitable requires eschewing suspicion, cynicism, and laziness. It means good conversation and prayerful reflection to inhabit another’s point of view.

Flashback: The Spirit’s Fruit
And the gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us a gentle people in the image of our Triune God. The gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us gentle in situations where we otherwise couldn’t on our own. The Spirit works to replace our tendency towards harshness, loudness, and quarrelsomeness with a Spirit-led gentleness.

Our Prevailing Purpose

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. 
– I John 2:1a (ESV)

John is the patriarch of the church, the last remaining apostle.  He writes to the church with the affection of a father for his little children, and he has a purpose in his writing – that we may not sin.

Is that your purpose?  To not sin? 

Is that your goal?  Your desire?  Your ambition?  To not sin?  To stop sinning?

Our world, of course, has other goals: to be comfortable, to be healthy, to be happy.  And comfort, health, and happiness are wonderful blessings.  I like those things too, but they are not our purpose, our goal.

Our purpose here is that we would not sin.

Is that your purpose? 

When you are uncomfortable, is your prevailing purpose to pursue comfort, or to not sin in your discomfort?

When you are unhealthy, is your prevailing purpose to get healthy, or to not sin in your unhealthiness?

When you are unhappy, is your prevailing purpose to get happy, or to not sin in your unhappiness?

Our trials and struggles are not an excuse for sin, but rather opportunities to overcome temptation and not sin.

Is that your goal in whatever you face today? 

Is that your prevailing purpose? 

Abundantly

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

This is profound consolation for us as we find ourselves time and again wandering away from the Father, looking for soul calm anywhere but in his embrace and instruction. Returning to God in fresh contrition, however ashamed and disgusted with ourselves, he will not tepidly pardon. He will abundantly pardon. He does not merely accept us. He sweeps us up in his arms again.

– Dane Ortlund in Gentle and Lowly

Q&A14: All Sin

On By BrianIn PASSION Catechism

Q/A#14
Q: How many people perfectly keep God’s commandments?
A: No one perfectly keeps God commandments; none live morally upright, but all fail to love God and people.

As it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.”
– Romans 3:10-12 (ESV)

For Further Reflection
Matthew 22:37-40

Our Response
View ourselves with humility
Repent regularly of our sins

 

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

The Cumulative Effect of Our Little Choices – Randy Alcorn (EPM)
Following Christ isn’t magic. It requires repeated actions on our part, which develop into habits and life disciplines. Our spirituality hinges on the development of these little habits, such as Bible reading and memorization and prayer. In putting one foot in front of the other day after day, we become the kind of person who grows in Christlikeness.

Your Sin Begins with a Felt Need – David Bowden (DG)
The more we put our faith in the truth of who God is for us in Christ, the more he fills in the places within us that are lacking. As he does this, the Holy Spirit creates new desires within our hearts (Romans 8:1–11). These new desires cut temptation’s legs out from under it and lead us away from sin and toward holiness.

Who Was Saint Patrick and Should Christians Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? – Stephen Nichols (Ligonier)
Perhaps we remember him best by reflecting on the “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” which has traditionally been attributed to him. The word breastplate is a translation of the Latin word lorica, a prayer, especially for protection. These prayers would be written out and at times placed on shields of soldiers and knights as they went out to battle. St. Patrick’s Lorica points beyond himself and his adventurous life. It points to Christ, the one he proclaimed to the people who had taken him captive….

Instructive Worship – Andrew Roycroft
The beauty of true worship is that we address ourselves to God, but we also address one another with who God is and what he has said. We worship in our spirits, by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also with deep intellectual investment, with an eye fixed on the glory of the gospel as well as a heart tuned to its sentiments. Such worship is deeply didactic, it retrains the flagging disciple, it prohibits empty sentiment, it draws our attention and our affection towards the God in whose presence and power we are meeting.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!