Counting The Cost

Random thoughts on walking with Jesus in this turvy-topsy world

What about temptation?

“We never get to the place where we don’t need God’s protection from sin–never.

Protection from sin requires constant dependence on Christ, constant looking to Christ, constantly asking Him to keep us from falling.

We need to pray before we are tempted, pray when we're in the middle of temptation, and pray when we fall prey to the temptation.”

 

-Nancy Leigh DeMoss

from her radio series:

“Pray or Fall Prey”

posted by: Jrobbins at 14:47 | link | comments |
quotes i love

Challenging words about choices

“Do you ever find yourself at the point of a decision? "I'm not sure if this is right or not?!" There's a question mark in your conscience, but you're not exactly sure what the Bible says about it. Jonathan Edwards anticipated moments like these and wrote: "Resolved, never to do anything of which I so much as question the lawfulness." He's saying, "If I have any question in my heart about whether what I'm about to do is acceptable to God and His Word, then I'll stop." So many of us today try and see how close we can get to sin without getting into serious trouble. Wouldn't we be better off staying as close to purity as we can? Paul tells us in Romans, "Whatever is not of faith is sin." If there's doubt in your heart that God is giving you freedom to do something, then why do it?”

 

-Nancy Leigh Demoss

Revive Our Hearts Ministry

posted by: Jrobbins at 13:28 | link | comments |
quotes i love

An interesting book review to check out

Over on Tim Challies’ blog “Challies Dot Com”, he is running a book review of a very interesting-sounding book called “Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)” by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. He explains: “These are two young men who, if we were to look to demographics, would be top candidates for involvement in the emerging movement. Yet they’ve turned away from it, opting instead to commit to ministry and service within more traditional churches. In this book they explain why and in so doing explain what the emerging church is about and warn of the danger it poses.” I haven’t read DeYoung and Kluck’s book yet, but I’m certainly intrigued by Challies’ review. Feel free to comment on this post if you have read it or have more info on this subject.

-Joy

posted by: Jrobbins at 16:27 | link | comments |
book reviews

You know...for kids!

This Easter, I got to spend some time with my little niece and nephew after Sunday services. It is always precious to me to get to be with these little ones - especially since they are, of course, the smartest and cutest children ever created. And you know that's true, since aunts are never biased.   Anyway, something about spending such a holy day with little kiddos really impressed me with how much influence we have on the next generation. Then, yesterday I got my Evantell evangelism newsletter and it was all about - reaching out to kids for the Lord! My favorite part was the section on how to help children know how they can be sure of their salvation. I guess I'd only ever considered that a problem for "grown-ups", not kids. Anyway, Evantell has a lot of great resources for people of all ages on their website. Good stuff!

-Joy

"Each generation of people has a two-fold responsibility. One is to reach its own generation. The second is to prepare the next generation to reach their peers. In so doing, not only does each person leave a legacy behind them, but their lives count for something eternal....Let's equip the next generation. Years after we enter His presence, the impact of our lives will continue on earth. That impact will surround one thing - the clear message of the gospel of grace."

-R. Larry Moyer

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:08 | link | comments |
easter

What if there was no Easter?

“...To have hoped in Christ alone in this life would be to teach, preach, suffer, sacrifice, and work entirely for nothing. If Christ is still dead, then He not only has no ability to save you in the future, but He can’t help you now either. If He were not alive, where would be your source of peace, joy, or satisfaction now? The Christian life would be a mockery, a charade, a tragic and cruel joke. Christians who suffer and even die for the faith would be just as blind and pathetic as those “believers” who followed Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and Marshall Applewhite and the Heaven’s Gate cult.

 

 

Since a Christian has no Savior but Christ, no Redeemer but Christ, and no Lord but Christ, if Christ is not raised, He is not alive, and our Christian life is lifeless. We would have nothing to justify our faith, our Bible study, our preaching or witnessing, our service for Him or our worship of Him, and nothing to justify our hope in this life or the next. We would deserve nothing but the compassion reserved for fools.

 

 

But, God did raise “Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:24-25). Because Christ lives, we too shall live (John 14:19). “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31).

 

 

We are NOT to be pitied, for Paul immediately ends the dreadful “what if” section by saying, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Paul said at the end of his life, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him [i.e. his life] until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).”

 

 

-Pastor John MacArthur

posted by: Jrobbins at 12:57 | link | comments |
easter

Have a blessed Easter!

A Good Friday Meditation:

Christ and the Meaning of the Universe

by

John Piper

 

 

“Why did God create the universe and why is he governing it the way he is? What is God achieving? Is Jesus Christ a means to this achievement or the end of the achievement?

 

 

Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God. He is God in human form. As such he is the end not a means. The manifestation of the glory of God is the meaning of the universe. This is what God is achieving. The heavens and the history of the world are “telling the glory of God.”

 

 

But Jesus Christ was sent to accomplish something that needed doing. He came to remedy the fall. He came to rescue sinners from inevitable destruction because of their sin. These rescued ones will see and savor and display the glory of God with everlasting joy. Others will continue to heap scorn on the glory of God. So Jesus Christ is the means to what God meant to achieve in the manifestation of his glory for the enjoyment of his people.

 

 

But in that accomplishment on the cross, as he died for sinners, Christ revealed the love and righteousness of the Father supremely. This was the apex of the revelation of the glory of God—the glory of his grace. Therefore, in the very moment of his perfect act as the means of God’s purpose, Jesus became the end of that purpose. He became, in his dying in the place of sinners and his resurrection for their life, the central and supreme revelation of the glory of God.

 

 

 

Christ crucified is therefore both the means and the end of God’s purpose in the universe. Without his work, that end to reveal the fullness of the glory of God for the enjoyment of God’s people would not have happened. And in that very means-work he became the end—the one who forever and ever will be the focus of our worship as we spend eternity seeing and savoring more and more of what he revealed of God when he became a curse for us. Jesus is the end for which the universe was made, and the means that makes that end possible to enjoy.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Today Jesus is alive and well, seated on a throne at the right hand of God the Father being worshiped as God by angels and departed saints.

 

Today Jesus alone rules and reigns in exalted glory as Lord over man and beast, male and female, gays and straights, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, simple and wise, powerful and powerless, Republicans and Democrats, married and single, chaste and unchaste, modern and postmodern, Christians and non-Christians, angels and demons, the living and the dead, every religion, every spirituality, every philosophy, every thought, every word, every deed, every dollar, and every inch of creation, which he claims as his possession under his throne that is over all.”

 

 

- Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears,

 Vintage Jesus, 158-159

posted by: Jrobbins at 18:15 | link | comments |
easter

Why do we long for heaven?

“Do what they will, then, we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy. But is there any reason to suppose that reality offers any satisfaction to it? “Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.” But I think it may be urged that this misses the point. A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist.

In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will. A man may love a woman and not win her; but it would be very odd if the phenomenon called “falling in love” occurred in a sexless world.

Here, then is the desire, still wandering and uncertain of its object and still largely unable to see that object in the direction where it really lies.

If Christianity could tell me no more of the far-off land than my own temperament led me to surmise already, then Christianity would be no higher than myself.”

 

-C.S. Lewis

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:40 | link | comments |
heaven

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