Pray For Haiti

Here is Pastor Mark Driscoll giving a presentation/sermon on his recent trip to Haiti and the devastation he saw while there.

May we not let the suffering in Haiti so casually pass from our minds but continue to pray for our brothers and sister there.

99 Balloons

From Justin Taylor

Tomorrow, as many of you know, is the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I’ll be posting an interview about how the decision can be overturned.

But let me commend for you a video that’s not about abortion per se, but rather about the dignity and value of human life. I’ve posted it before, but I’m doing so again, as it’s one of the most life-affirming, heart-rending videos I’ve ever seen.

I thank God for these parents who valued life and loved their son, and I think God for the short life of little Eliot Mooney, whom God is using to proclaim his glory.

I encourage you to watch the video and to pass it along.

99 Balloons from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

Francis Chan: What Is Your Life?

Francis Chan is a great pastor and writer who has a deep passion for living a life that is all about God. His book Crazy Love is a MUST read for all and one we have in our church book store. Here is a short clip in which he talks a bit about his book and our life on earth being just a vapor.

Reading Your Bible in 2010

In light of the challenge I threw out to our congregation yesterday to spend time in God's Word everyday in 2010, I wanted to share this great quote from J.C. Ryle...

“Begin reading your Bible this very day. The way to do a thing is to do it, and the way to read the Bible is actually to read it. It is not meaning, or wishing, or resolving, or intending, or thinking about it; that will not advance you one step. You must positively read. There is no royal road in this matter, any more than in the matter of prayer. If you cannot read yourself, you must persuade somebody else to read to you. But one way or another, through eyes or ears, the words of Scripture must actually pass before your mind.”~ J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, “Bible Reading”, 131.

Less Of Us More Of Jesus

Some excellent quotes from this post by Tullian Tchividjian, “The Smaller You Get, the Freer You Will Be.”

Tullian reflecting on this past year, the hardest of his life:

God’s Spirit and God’s truth afflicted me in my comfort and comforted me in my affliction. As a result of this hard year, however, God and his gospel became more real and relevant to me than ever before. I’ve never felt so dependent on him. He’s never been so big; I’ve never been so small. The idea that Jesus plus nothing equals everything ceased being simply a cognitive truth for me—it became my functional lifeline.

From G.K. Chesterton:

How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it.

From D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

Our supreme need, our only need, is to know God, the living God, and the power of his might. We need nothing else. It is just that, the power of the living God, to know that the living God is among us and that nothing else matters. . . . I say, forget everything else. Forget everything else. We need to realize the presence of the living God amongst us. Let everything else be silent. This is no time for minor differences. We all need to know the touch of the power of the living God.

HT: Justin Taylor

Planning an Intentional Devotional Life for 2010. Do you have a plan?

Great stuff from JR Vassar:

The most important thing you can do in 2010 is cultivate a devotional life that facilitates the intimate nearness of God. You won't accidentally get close to God. So, for 2010, I wanted to encourage you to embrace a focused intentionality in your devotional life. Here are some things I have been thinking through with regards to my devotional practices in 2010.

Have a no exemption time and place to meet with God. If you do not schedule in focused time with God, everything else in your life will schedule it out. Have a time and place and treat it as an appointment with the most important person in the universe. And, keep it; no excuses. It might be morning, evening, night, whatever. Just pick a time that you devote to seeking God with uninterrupted focus. If you have to put it on your calendar, do it.

Have a plan. What will you do during that time? The obvious answer is that the time will at least include contemplative bible reading and prayer. But, what will be the content of that contemplative reading? There are several options and no one option is best or right. You need to find what keeps you engaged and maybe even mix it up a little. Here are some options that some friends have shared with me on Twitter:

The M'Cheyne Reading System. Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835-1843. He died at the age of 29 but left an amazing legacy. This is a plan he developed. The esv.org site explains this plan as "featuring four different readings for use in both family and personal devotions. Each day has two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice." You can subscribe the RSS feed and have it delivered into your google reader every day. Or you can download a printable version here.

ESV Study Bible Reading Plan. In my opinion, the best study bible available today is the ESV Study Bible. The Doctrines section in the back exceptional and the notes are very helpful. There is also a reading plan in the back of the ESV Study Bible. The esv.org site describes it as "readings every day from the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles." You can subscribe to the RSS feed and have it delivered to your google reader everyday.

The Book of Common Prayer. For those of us from the free church tradition, this seems a little foreign, but I have found the BCP daily office to be a great approach. Every day the BCP gives you a morning and evening Psalm, an OT reading, a Gospel reading and an NT reading. The great thing about the BCP is that Christians all over the world are reading the same Scriptures everyday together. You are reading with the Church. The BCP daily office is a two year cycle, each cycle beginning in the season of Advent. We just started Year Two. You won't read through the entire bible in those two years, but you will get a wide and diverse diet of the Scripture. For more information on the BCP visit this site and click on the Daily Office Lectionary. You can also subscribe the RSS feed and have the readings delivered to your google reader everyday.

Customize Your Own Reading Plan. If you want to customize your own reading plan so that your reading is heavier in one area than the other, you can use this website and have your customized plan emailed you to every day.

Choose Individual Books. Some prefer to stick in a book and go deep with it for a season. For instance, you might want to spend a month or two in the Gospel of John focusing on the glory of Christ. It is a good idea to alternate between OT and NT and different genres.

Again, which plan you choose is not the most important thing. Don't stress over it. Just have a plan.

Begin your time with prayer and confession. Confess your sins to the Lord and ask him to cleanse your heart (of things you have done and things you have left undone) and open your eyes to behold wonderful things in his word (Psalm 119:18). You want a heart that is open and responsive to God and confession and prayer postures us in that way.

Read out loud. Maybe it is just me, but if I don't, I get really distracted.

Look for Gospel patterns. As you read, realize that Jesus and the Gospel is The One Story of the Bible. Look for Gospel patterns, grace on display, as you read. Especially in the OT. Every story has Christ as the ultimate hero. For example, don't read the story of David and Goliath and leave your devotional time "ready to face your giants." Realize that you are Israel in the story, not David. You are weak, powerless, cowering before your enemies of sin, Satan, and death, and you need an anointed King to defeat your enemies and cause you to rise up in hope and courage. Jesus is the true and better David, and he is the point of the story of David and Goliath. Look for these patterns in everything you read and rejoice in what God has accomplished for you in Jesus. We don't have devotions and pray in order to avoid the guilt of not having devotions and not praying. We have devotions and pray to know Jesus and his Gospel, and revel in all that he is for us and all that he has won for us.

Journal your thoughts and prayers. Journaling helps us process what we are reading and learning from the Lord. It is good to go back and read your journal to remind yourself of how God has been at work in your life in the past. Get a moleskin or a cheap equivalent and just do it for a season and see if it helps you.

Realize that this is a community project. You need to share what God is saying to you and have others share what God is saying to them. Consider doing one of the above plans with a group of people, a spouse, a roommate, or your church staff.

Don't give up. I have missed meals in the past, but never gave up on eating. I just made sure I did not miss the next meal (and usually made up for it). You are going to miss days, often times multiple days. Repent of your neglect of God and press on in knowing him. Your righteousness is not in how consistent your devotional life is; it is in Jesus Christ who is constant and ever faithful. So, relax and pick up where you left off.

The beauty and joy of 2010 will not depend upon your circumstances, but upon your experience of the One you were made for. As much of him that you want to experience, you will experience. He promises to reward those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Theology Matters: The Why Answers The How

If you can deeply understand why you exist, you will have the ability to withstand any circumstance.

Think about it. If you believe you exist for physical pleasure, than you will collapse when you do not have any.

If you believe you exist to be respected and admired by others, you will wilt when you experience ridicule and judgment.

If you believe you exist to be as comfortable as possible, then you will be ravaged with depression when discomfort and trouble comes your way.

What you believe you exist for will be the deciding factor of how you handle EVERYTHING in life.

If you believe you exist to be made more fully into the image of Jesus Christ for his glory and your joy, than you will be able to withstand anything.

We will be able to say with Paul that it is all joy as we are being shaped into the image of Jesus, both in trials and triumphs.

ryan