Should I confront or not?

How do we know when to confront and when to quietly forgive and forget? Read this!

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The Christian and his taxes

Have you paid your taxes yet?  What is your attitude when you find out how much you pay in taxes every year?  When you have to go through all the headaches of filling out the tax return or paying someone else to do it?

John MacArthur reminds us of how Christians should view paying taxes.  This is where our Christianity becomes really practical.

Read the article–and then, if you haven’t yet, make sure you get your tax return mailed by Tuesday at midnight!

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Helping someone grieving

Molly Piper (one of John’s daughters-in law) has some helpful advice on how to help a grieving friend. She knows well from experiencing as her and her husband have gone through the valley of loss recently.

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What the church needs!

David Wells has done it again!  If the opening and closing of his new book are any indication, he has spoken a word that every church needs to hear!

“The key to the future is not the capitulation that we see in both the marketers and the emergents. It is courage. The courage to be faithful to what Christianity in its biblical forms has always stood for across the ages.”

“I believe that today there is a deep yearning for churches in which God is God. Those are the churches which most easily become the communities we have all lost, where relations are developed, even in this fallen world, in the sight of God. They are where people strive to be truthful in those relations, which really is the key to the integrity and integrity is what ties together our public and private lives. Churches, in fact, need to be communities who love the truth God has revealed and, in so doing, become serious and joyous about the God of that truth and intent upon serving him in his world. The Church is not a business, not an experiment, not a product to be sold. It is an outpost of the Kingdom, a sign of things to come in Christ’s sovereign rule, which is now hidden but will be made open and public. Then all of the world will bow before him in recognition of who he is.

And this, I dare say, is the only answer we have for the Church’s existence and service. It is the anticipation of that great day. It is pointing beyond itself to that great day. It lives in this world but it lives because it has seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. This is the knowledge that changes everything. Business savvy, organizational wizardry, cultural relevance, are simply no substitute for this. Unless the Lord rebuilds the evangelical Church today, as we humble ourselves before him and hear afresh his Word, it will not be rebuilt.”

(HT:  JT)

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Our greatest need: Giving or receiving love?

JT points us to a question that Ed Welch asks in his book Running Scared (which I am currently reading also):

Which do we really need—to give love or to receive it? We resist the question because we want to say both!

Click here to find the answer.

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Missions and your children

The Desiring God blog offers ten suggestions to help your kids love missions.

What ways have you found helpful to instill a passion for missions in your children? What ways are you personally stoking your love for missions?  Share your comments?

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When this passing world is done!

This hymn reminds us that when we are once in heaven and look back on our life we will realize how much more we owe to God’s mercy and grace than we ever realized in this life.

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o’er life’s finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When I hear the wicked call
On the rocks and hills to fall,
When I see them start to shrink
On the fiery deluge brink,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When the praise of heav’n I hear,
Loud as thunders to the ear,
Loud as many waters’ noise,
Sweet as harp’s melodious voice,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Savior’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.

Author: Robert Murray McCheyne, 1837
Found in Grudem, W. A. (1994). Systematic theology : An introduction to biblical doctrine (690). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

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Amazing love!

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9, ESV).

He became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich!  In what ways did Jesus become poor? In what ways have we become rich?  Jerry Bridges answers:

Christ was humbled to atone for our pride.  He became poor to atone for our covetousness.  He experienced hunger and thirst to atone for our overindulgence and our eating of the forbidden fruit.  He became captive that we might be set free.  He became troubled that we might be comforted.  He was tempted that we might have victory over temptation.  He was dishonored that we may be glorified.  He was scourged that by his stripes we might be healed.  He died that we might have life.

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