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Lord Dissolve My Frozen Heart
Lord, dissolve my frozen heart/ By the beams of Love Divine;/ This alone can warmth impart/ To dissolve a heart like mine. O that love, how vast it is!/ Vast, it seems, though known in part;/ Strange indeed, if love like this/ Should not melt the frozen heart. Chorus: The love of Christ passes knowledge./…
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No Christmas Without Easter
Now is the time to sing, envision, enact, and retell a story of God coming unexpectedly in the worst of times as a baby born poor, born homeless, born to die that all human life might be transformed and dreams made real. It’s God’s Good News — but only because we already know the story…
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Wobegon Laws
For parents with small children, order sometimes comes from laying down the law. The following are household rules patterned in style after Levitical Law, taken from A Prarie Home Companion. Laws of Forbidden Places Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight…
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Ambition
I’ve been listening to the audio of sessions from Acts 29 Network’s 2009 Bootcamp: Ambition. While not everyone will find these talks of interest, I think they are challenging and stimulating for those of us in ministry and church leadership. Ministry for the Long Haul & Ambition (Matt Chandler) Decoding Your City & Ambition (Kevin Cawley)…
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Pretentious Piety
The more things have changed, some things have remained the same. Such is the case for Christians in a typical church. When Samuel Blair assumed the pulpit of Faggs Manor Presbyteran Church in 1740 he found a congregation in a spiritual condition not uncommon even in our day. Blair wrote that when he came…
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In View of God’s Mercy
Source: Red Mountain Music Words: Depth of Mercy Written by: Charles Wesley, 1740
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Graceful Break-in
“The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome…” -Tim Keller
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A Jesus Manifesto
“Christians have made the gospel about so many things… Things other than Christ.” So opens the document, written by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, titled: A Jesus Manifesto. I’ve long been a fan of Leonard Sweet, our theological differences aside. But Sweet’s love for Jesus, his love for God’s people, and his amazing story-telling ability…
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Prayer Mirrors the Gospel
“Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us the gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking…
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Danger of Christian Complacency
It may defy common wisdom, but sound doctrine is important to the renewal of the contemporary church. While many view doctrine as divisive and unecesary trivia, recent studies by Thom Rainer, Ed Stetzer, and others, reveal that sound doctrine is a hallmark of churches that are the most effective in evangelism. Further, both writers, in addition…
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Spiritual Pride
The first and worst cause of error that prevails in our day is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead…
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Re-Gridding Revisited
A few days ago I penned a post suggesting that we consider the Christian Life through a different paradigm than what I believe is ordinary. I suggested the the fundamental gauge ought to be Humble vs. Proud, rather than Good vs. Bad and/or Right vs. Wrong. I have received several positive responses, and I have…
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Do You Know…?
Do you know the Christ of the Gospels? Or have you fallen into the trap to which Christians (especially, perhaps, Reformed Christians) who love doctrine and systematic theology are sometimes susceptible (unlike John Calvin, it should be said): fascination with dogmatic formula at the expense of love for the Savior’s person? – Sinclair Ferguson, from Yesterday,…
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