A message from Jon Macarthur.

An excerpt from one of Jon Macarthur's message's on his site. To read it in it's entirety, go here.

Only God has the capability to fill our life with song. Only He is the one who can save us and redeem us. And as a result of that, we are in tremendous debt to Him. And that is exactly what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:12 and 13.

Let me read those two verses and then we'll look at them, talk about them; see if we can't apply them to our hearts. Romans 8, verse 12:

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do kill the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

Two very, very important verses. And I trust the Spirit of God to be our teacher, tonight.

To begin with, let me say that I want you to know that the things that I teach and the things that I preach in the Word of God are very personal things to me. This is not an exercise in theatrics. This is the commitment of my own heart. I take the Word of God very seriously. And I believe that before I can ever be so bold as to apply it to your 1 if e, I have to apply it to my own 1 if e. And so, I find myself in the text of every sermon of every lesson and no different here.

This is not just a message to you; it is a message to me. And it is a very important reminder that I am in no debt at all to the flesh. For that's a part of the life of deadness that I no longer am engaged in, thanks to Jesus Christ. And so, I owe the flesh nothing. But I am in debt, and that's implied here, I am in debt to God with a tremendous debt. And that's really what I want us to understand tonight.

This week as I was thinking about my own responsibility to be the kind of man God would have me to be, whether or not I was the pastor of a church or not, I was drawn to read a book which has a way of confronting my soul and it's an old book, in fact it was written in 1656. 1 have a current edition, I want you to know. It's been republished many, many times. The title of it is The Reformed Pastor and it was written by a pastor by the name of Richard Baxter. And he says this, on one page, and he speaks to those who are pastors.

"Take heed to yourselves lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others and lest you be guilty of that which you daily condemn. Will you make it your work to magnify God and when you have done dishonor Him as much as others? Will you proclaim Christ's governing power and yet condemn it and rebel yourselves? Will you preach His laws and willfully break them? If sin be evil, why do you live in it? If it be not, why do you dissuade men from it? If it be dangerous, how dare you venture on it. If it be not, why do you tell men so? If God's threatenings be true, why do you not fear them? If they be false why do you need righteously troubled men ... why do you righteously trouble men with them and put them into such fright without a cause? Do you know the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death? And yet, will you do them?

"Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself. Thou that makest thy boast of thy law through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God. What, shall the same tongue speak evil that speaks against evil? Shall those lips censor and slander and backbite your neighbor that cry down these and the like things in others? Take heed to yourselves lest you cry down sin and yet do not overcome it, lest while you seek to bring it down in others you bow to it and become its slave yourselves. 0 brethren, it is easier to chide at sin than to overcome it," end quote.

I find that a very important warning in my own life. And Baxter went on to say, "Many a tailor goes in rags that makes costly clothes for others. And many a cook scarcely licks his fingers when he hath dressed for others the most costly meal."

Honestly

So I know that I haven't blogged in some time. I don't really know that that is a problem considering I'm not sure that anyone actually reads this, but lately my head has just been so flooded with biblical teaching that I'm wrestling to sort through it all and just absorb as much as I can. Hopefully I can sort through some of it soon.

Christmas Poem

This is a poem I wrote around Christmas time for a service
A poem from the perspective of Joseph at the birth of Christ:

God, what are you doing?
I don't understand.
I'm trying to trust in your mighty hand.
She is just a child, I'm a coward at best.
Have you looked around, have you seen all the rest?
Why did you pick her, why did you pick me?
Why have you chosen it us to be?
I'm supposed to provide a place for us to stay.
You weren't supposed to come this way.
But now here you are, I feel such a fright.
A child in a trough, yet the marvelous light.
You've asked us to hold this helpless babe who will one day be mighty to save.
Father give us the strength to follow in faith.
Surround us with prayer from your holy saints.
Now what do we do? Take one day at a time?
I don't feel that brave no matter how hard I try.
What is there left to do on this silent night, but to sing to him sweetly and to hold him tight.

Sweet video

I found this video on someone else's blog , who saw it on someone else's blog. I just couldn't pass it up though. It's pretty amazing.

Worshiping when you don't feel Him.

These are some thoughts that God laid on my heart in a conversation with a friend.

"So I was thinking about why it feels so devastating at times to not feel that closeness with God. If I am interpreting His word correctly it seems that His way of loving us is by letting us experience Him. So when we don't feel that closeness, we don't feel loved, often times leaving us not wanting to be loving. Maybe thats why it causes us to not feel motivated to worship. The thing is that we love because He first loved us. So our response is from that one incomprehensible act which wasn't just loving us once, but is in a constant state of love. So our worship shouldn't be out of reaction to every small feeling we call love, but from that one act that is continual love."

Happy New Years

The morning after a freakishly long night of rock band.

An apple a day

So if you don't know already I am trying to start my own photography business. Several months ago I was able to purchase my very own SLR camera, but unfortunately the computer that I was working on was just not cutting it. So I decided to go for a little upgrade. I don't have any pictures of it that I took myself, but you get the idea.