Secretly Selfish

The Holy Spirit has made it glaringly obvious to me that my prayers are often prayed with a heart of selfishness. I praise God for pointing this sin out to me. I often pray for the Lord to give ME strength. Give ME strength to share your love with others. Give ME strength to live a righteous life. Give Me strength to love others as we are commanded. There tends to be a very selfish slant to my prayer that does not desire to bring God glory but to bring me glory. It sickens my how deeply sin is rooted in this flesh! I need to be praying for the Lord to give me HIS strength. I need to earnestly pray for Gods glory so that I am able, through His glory, to live for His glory. I know that it is not the words that I pray. It's a glory thing. It's a heart thing. It's a priority thing. Father give me your strength to live for your glory.

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

II Corinthians 13:9
For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.

The Gospel

I was reading the Desiring God blog this morning and want to share with you a precious reminder to never forget the Gospel. I Corinthians 15 3-4 says:



"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures"



The Gospel is so precious. Let it get bigger in our lives every day!

Parents and their children

An encouragement to parents taken from the Desiring God blog.
(Author: John Piper)

Jesus tells of two sons:
What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." And he answered, "I will not," but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, "I go, sir," but did not go. (Matthew 21:28-30)

I draw this advice for parents from these words: Do not despair of the rebel, and do not assume the heart of the compliant child is with you. Which means practically, pray like crazy for both of them. And keep showing both of them the gospel of undeserved, blood-bought grace.

I say,
Amen

John Wycliff

Taken from Steve Camps blog http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/

"Prove All Things by the Word of God"

by John Wycliff

"I will run in the way of Your commandments..."

-Psalm 119:3

The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are His marching orders. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which can abide the fire of the Bible, receive hold, believe, and obey. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away. This is the flag which He nailed to the mast. May it never be lowered!

A church which does not honor the Bible is as useless as a body without life, or a steam engine without fire. A minister who does not honor the Bible is as useless as a soldier without arms, a builder without tools, a pilot without compass, or a messenger without tidings. Stand fast on old principles. Do not forsake the old paths. Let nothing tempt you to believe that multiplication of forms and ceremonies, constant reading of liturgical services, or frequent communions, will ever do so much good to souls as the powerful, fiery, fervent preaching of God's Word. If men want to do good to the multitude, if they want to reach their hearts and consciences, they must attack them through their ears; they must blow the trumpet of the everlasting Gospel loud and long; they must preach the Word.

This seems to fit nicely into what the Holy Spirit has been whispering to my soul as of late.

God is Sovereign!

Philosophy

I have been doing some studying recently that involves philosophy. Philosophy is defined as: The rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. At first I was intrigued by the study. I felt intellectual because I was learning about philosophy. This is what smart people talk about! I was thinking to myself about how useful this knowledge could be to win others to Christ! As I continued to turn this information over in my mind during the past couple of weeks I started to notice that philosophy does not seem to rely very heavily (or at all) on scripture. It is after all a "rational investigation of truth". Gods word is foolishness to the world so there is no need to include the Bible in philosophical discussions. John Piper once said that "science without God is heresy". I would say that philosophy without God is the same. Truth. What is truth? Truth, is the word of God. The Bible, Gods word is truth (tough for some to grasp in this wonderful post-modern world of ours!). You can talk philosophy with me all you want, you may even have some very persuasive arguments, but I will not sway (by Gods grace) from the truth found only in Gods eternal word. The word of God does not change (Mal 3:6). What was true about God when it was written is still true today and will still be true 1000 years from now and forever! Furthermore, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is what saves people not philosophy, or even apologetics for that matter! The Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom 1:16). If truth is what you are looking for then look to Bible, not just a section or a verse but the whole thing. It is so easy to look to the world for wisdom. It is often done by Christians and they don't even realize it! God is the founder of truth, wisdom, and knowledge, seek Him.

Matt 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.