Counterfeit Gods

Tim Keller's new book Counterfeit Gods is worth reading by every person in our church.

Here is a short clip of Tim Keller explaining the book. In the coming weeks I will be blogging more about it as I read it. I would pray that some of you would consider reading it along with me.

Psalm 37:4

⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

What does this mean? Is the Bible telling us that if you delight in God then he will give you whatever you want? Hardly.

The truth is that all of us become like what we worship, for good or for bad. Delighting in God is another way of saying worship. As we delight in God we are conformed to become more like him (Rom. 8). As we become more like Jesus, the desires of our hearts change also.

Our appetites and desires change to want God more than anything else. This is the Christian life is one of delighting in God. It is not a boring, unfulfilled, no fun life, but rather one of the deepest joy imaginable.

Your duty today, and everyday is to absolutely delight in the Lord.

Why Our Hearts Are Restless Till They Find Their Hope in God

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 1980), pp. 49–50:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.

Why we should love the Doctrines of Grace

That God would choose to save sinners like you and me is amazing. It is humbling. It should cause us to fall on our faces and worship the King. The reality of God's grace in salvation is something not to be scrutinized, but to be heralded! John Piper says this about God's electing love toward His people:

Unconditional election delivers the harshest and the sweetest judgments to my soul.

That it is unconditional destroys all self-exaltation; and that it is election makes me his treasured possession.

This is one of the beauties of the biblical doctrines of grace: their worst devastations prepare us for their greatest delights.

What prigs we would become at the words, "The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6), if this election were in any way dependent on our will. But to protect us from pride, the Lord teaches us that we are unconditionally chosen (7:7-9). "He made a wretch his treasure," as we so gladly sing.

Only the devastating freeness and unconditionality of electing grace lets us take and taste such gifts for our very own without the exaltation of self.

Should Christians Seek Conversions?

In his latest “Taste & See” article John Piper says, “Yes.”

(Post from Mike Pohlman...)

Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.

Given that definition, my answer to the question is Yes, all Christians should aim to convert people to faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of our aims in all we say and do. We hope and pray that everything we say and do will have this effect. In other words, our aim is not to say things and do things that areineffectual. We desire—we hope, we yearn, we pray—that what we say and do will have this effect: that people will treasure Christ above all. Not to want this is either unbelief or lovelessness.

But Piper wants to offer one all-important clarification:

But to say that Christian conversion is our aim does not yet define what our role is in bringing conversion about. That’s what needs clarifying from the Bible.

And here I only want to bring one clarification: The fact that God is the ultimate and decisive cause in conversion does not mean we are not causal agents in conversion. We are. And as God’s agents in conversion we aim at it—we choose what we do and say in the hope that it will be used by God to bring about conversion.

Read the whole thing as Piper proceeds to outline “five…ways that the Bible talks about our role in the conversion of others.”

Not Playing Church

ReJesus, Frost and Hirsch

To be sure we do not like gatherings of strangers who never met or know each other outside of Sundays, who sit passively while virtual strangers preach and lead singing, who put up with second-rate pseudo-community under the guise of connection with each other, who live different lives from Monday to Saturday than they do on Sunday, whose sole expression of worship is pop-style praise and worship, who rarely laugh together, fight injustice together, serve the poor together, or share Jesus with those who have not yet been set free...

But if it's a family of Jesus followers striving, no matter how inadequately, to be Christlike, holistic, peace-loving, worshipful, devoted, graced, holy, and healthy, then we will love it with every ounce of physical and emotional strength we have.

Food For the Gospel

Hey Church,

Cannot wait to gather with you all once again in worship this Sunday. As we have done the last two weeks we are incorporating bringing groceries to church with us on Sunday.

Already some great stories are coming because of doing this along with some big hopes and dreams.

So don't forget, bring a box of Macaroni with you or a whole flat bed of bread, it does not matter. The crux for us followers of Christ is that we are continually keeping the needs of others before us and wanting to love them in a very practical way by making sure they have food.

Ryan

Jesus Is All

"Jesus is the center of all, the object of all, whoever does not know him, knows nothing aright, either of the world or of himself."
Blaise Pascal

We live in a fallen world in which everything is marred by its disconnection from God. Therefore all that we see, experience, and know is fractured to some extent. Yet when Jesus tells us he is the light of the world he is also teaching us that he is the means by which we see clearly, experience actually, and know rightly once more as God intended.

If you want to live life more deeply and know yourself more fully do not look within, but look and abide in Jesus. It is in Jesus that you will find life.

What does this mean for us?

It means we do not just believe in Jesus but belong to Jesus. That rather than our faith being a phase or part of our life, it is the lenses in which we see all of life.

My prayer is that all of Calvary would die to ourselves so that we would find true life in Jesus who offers it abundantly to those who belong to him.

What is the Gospel?

What is the Gospel?

The Truth About Jesus

There is a 2,000 year old truth about Jesus that may still need to be discovered in your life. The Bible informs us that we tragically exchange the truth of God for all kinds of substitutes (Romans 1:25). And yet, marvelously, the truth can win us over. It's the truth about why Jesus came and why he died.

Jesus' Bold Claim and How He Proved It

Jesus made a bold claim during his days on earth. He said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6).

Did you get that? Jesus says that you can only know God the father through belief in him. That's a pretty radical statement! But he backed it up by going to the cross, dying in our place, and rising again to live on the third day. The Bible says that we should have been punished for breaking God's law, but he took the punishment in our place. Jesus Christ, God's Son, came to earth to reveal a marvelous message that our offenses can be forgiven and we may become reconciled to God, and have eternal life.

How You Can Know the Truth

Are you wandering, not sure about truth, lost in your search for identity? Do you know yourself to be guilty of unfaithfulness to God? Do you know you need to be saved from moral compromise? Well then, there's very good news for you. Jesus appeals to you to come to him, to ask him to forgive you and make you a child of God.

For you see, anyone who receives him has the right to become a child of God (John 1:12). This is the message Jesus taught that Peter and Mary believed. Jesus calls you to know the truth so you can be set free (John 8:32).

How You Can Receive the Truth

If you'd like to know the God of truth, lift up the empty hands of faith and trust him for your salvation. Come to him on your knees and pray this prayer:

O Lord, I am lost without you. My life is empty without your truth and your love. I commit my life to you. Forgive me for all my offenses and give me the power to do good. Reconcile me with yourself. Look at me only through the work of Jesus, and enable me to live for him. Thank you that you care for someone like me. Thank you that you welcome me into heaven, because your love knows no bounds. Help me to grow in grace and guide me in all my ways. In Christ's name, Amen.

How You Can Continue in the Truth

Now that you have committed your life to the Lord, it is important that you identify yourself to a leader from a Bible-believing church in your area. You have begun an amazing journey. The church is there to ensure that you grow and enjoy the Lord in fellowship, and not alone. The church will help you understand more about all of these things, and will guide you into the life of worship and the celebration of the sacraments.

Driscoll on the birth of Jesus Prophesied

Grocery Sunday Is Every Sunday

At Calvary we have decided as a body to demonstrate the love of God every Sunday by bringing groceries with us to our worship service.

I would like to encourage all of you to participate in this as it is a really simple yet powerful way we can love our neighbors and those around us who are in need.

Even if you can just bring one can of soup, then do so. If you can bring a whole trunk than do that. The point is that we want to serve our community and by doing so be more and more transformed into being like Jesus through our words and actions.

Great Post From Desiring God Blog

Desiring God is a great ministry full of amazing resources for all Christians. I would encourage you to all make yourself familiar with their website and take advantage of their thousands of hours of free sermons, and thousands of pages of free books and articles.

Counting the Cost of Sexual Immorality

October 5, 2009 | By: Jon Bloom | Category: Recommendations

It's very important that we count the cost of sexual immorality before temptation hits. That's the time for clear thinking. Temptation clouds our judgment. That's why we pray "keep us from temptation." Avoiding the fog by steering around it is much better than trying to navigate through it.

Years ago, as a way to keep his head clear, Randy Alcorn created a list of the ways he would bring destruction into his life and others' lives were he to give in to sexual immorality. A few months ago he posted it on his blog. It's worth reading and adapting and reviewing regularly.

Most battles are won in the planning and preparation stages. The same is true for the fight for purity.

Boldly Confessing Christ?

Martin Luther:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

Membership and The Body

Membership is in many ways to weak of a word to describe what it looks like to be part of a local Church.

You see a member can be outside of a group and still survive, but a member of a body can not ever exist outside of their body.

Catch the distinction? Our commitment to the local church is greater than just joining a group, but rather we are aiming to do what the Bible has called us to and that is being one body made up of many parts.

Each and everyone of us at Calvary brings something specific and unique to the church that is vital to our mission of reaching our community and helping each other becoming more like Jesus.

As Paul tells us in Romans 12 we are all to be living sacrifices for the glory of God.

CBC is a body of believers who are living sacrifices for the fame of Jesus.

The Importance of Learning Theology

Renowned New Testament scholar D.A. Carson gives a great interview on the importance of studying theology. This is worth your time and something we should all listen to.

At Calvary we hold this same value as theology is the fuel for our love of God and mission to our community.

Ryan K.