Pictures from the 2oth anniversary of the tearing down of the wall between East and West. Some really cool pictures that show what parts of the city were like then and now.

Made me think about the wall of hostility that Jesus Christ tore down at the cross (Ephesians 2:14)

Also these pics can be used as a visual to pray for the people of Germany who enjoy political freedom but most still live in spiritual bondage to sin.

You can click here to go to read the last words of 400 executed prisoners from Texas.  Some of the “last words” include:

Chris Brauns also encourages us to “read the last words of three others who were executed in Luke 23:39-42.

I wonder what my last words will be.

“Teach us to number our days (Psalm 90:12).”

Go here to read more about last words.

What would I do with three  more days this year?  How can you actually gain three days a year?  Or how about a whole extra week?

Here’s one suggestion:  quit Facebook.  (I’m not going to do it, but it can become a big time waster if  we aren’t careful)

(HT: Challies)

Read Al Mohler’s column regularly if you want to know what is happening of significance in our culture and how we as Christians should be thinking about such things.  He deals with a large spectrum of issues. For example this week he deals with the trend of “cross-dressing” in schools and in light of the Ft. Hood massacre last week he discusses religious beliefs and the military.

Don Carson explains in this three minute video.

Such an encouraging post full of grace by Jon Bloom.  Something I needed to read.  Had to share it with you.

“Did you wake up not feeling like reading your Bible and praying? How many times today have you had to battle not feeling like doing things you know would be good for you?

While it’s true that this is our indwelling sin that we must repent of and fight against, there’s more going on.

Think about this strange pattern that occurs over and over in just about every area of life:

• Good food requires discipline to prepare and eat while junk food tends to be the most tasty, addictive, and convenient.
• Keeping the body healthy and strong requires frequent deliberate discomfort while it only takes constant comfort to go to pot.
• You have to make yourself pick up that nourishing theological book while watching a movie can feel so inviting.
• You frequently have to force yourself to get to devotions and prayer while sleeping, reading the sports, and checking Facebook seems effortless.
• To play beautiful music requires thousands of hours of tedious practice.
• To excel in sports requires monotonous drills ad nauseum.
• It takes years and years of schooling just to make certain opportunities possible.
• This goes on and on.

The pattern is this: the greater joys are obtained through struggle and pain, while brief, unsatisfying, and often destructive joys are right at our fingertips. Why is this?

Because, in great mercy, God is showing us everywhere, in things that are just shadows of heavenly things, that there is a great reward for those who struggle through (Hebrews 10:32-35). He is reminding us repeatedly each day to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Each struggle is an invitation by God to follow in the footsteps of his Son, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

Those who are spiritually blind only see futility in these things. But for those who have eyes to see, God has woven hope (faith in future grace) right into the futility of creation (Romans 8:20-21). Each struggle is a pointer saying, “Look! Look to the real Joy set before you!”

So when you don’t feel like doing what you know is best for you, take heart and don’t give in. Your Father is pointing you to the reward he has planned for all who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13).

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (1 Corinthians 4:17-18)”

Tullian shares these breathtaking lines from Paul Tripp’s recent book, A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble.

Based on Psalm 27:5–”He will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock”–he writes:

We all look for it. We all refuse to live without it. We all think we’ve found it, but it can only really be found in one place. What is it that I’m talking about? Well, here it is: all human beings are on a search somehow someway to find that solid rock on which to stand. That one thing that they can bank on. That one thing that will keep them upright when the storms of life are raging. That one thing that will remain firm for the duration. That one thing that will give them security when nothing else does.

No human being enjoys feeling that he is living in the sinking sand of unpredictability, disappointment, and danger with no rock to reach for and stand on…We long for our lives to make sense. We long to have meaning and purpose, and we long to have lasting stability.

The problem is that the longer we live, the more we know that there is little around us in this fallen world that’s truly stable. I have a wonderful marriage to a lady who in many ways is my hero, but our marriage is still marred by our sin, and this reality still introduces pain and unpredictability into a relationship we have been working on for thirty-seven years! You may think your job is a source of stability, but a bit of a turn in the global economy could have you out on the street in a relatively short period of time. It may seem that your material possessions are permanent, but every physical thing that exists is in a state of decay, and even in its greatest longevity it doesn’t have the ability to quiet your heart.

So here is the dilemma of your humanity: you are clearly not in control of the details or destiny of your life, yet as a rational, purposeful, emotional being, you cry for a deep and abiding sense of well-being. In your quest, what you are actually discovering is that you were hardwired to be connected to Another. You weren’t hardwired to walk the pathway of life all by yourself. You weren’t hardwired to be independently okay. You weren’t hardwired to produce in yourself a system of experiences, relationships, and conclusions that would give you rest. You were designed to find your “solid rock” only in a dependent, loving, worshipful relationship with Another. In this way, every human being is on a quest for God; the problem is we don’t know that, and in our quest for stability, we attempt to stand on an endless catalog of God-replacements that end up sinking with us.

In fact, our inability to find security for ourselves is so profound that we’d never find on our own the One who is to be our rock; no, he must find us. The language of Psalm 27 is quite precise here: “He will lift me high upon a rock.” It doesn’t say, “I will find the rock and I will climb up on it.”

Here is the hope for every weary traveler whose feet are tired of the slippery instability of mud of a fallen world. Your weariness is a signpost. It’s meant to cause you to cry out for help. It’s meant to cause you to quit looking for your stability horizontally and begin to cry out for it vertically. It’s meant to put an end to your belief that situations, people, locations, possessions, positions, or answers will satisfy the longing of your heart. Your weariness is meant to drive you to God. He is the Rock for which you are longing. He is the one who alone is able to give to you the sense that all is well. And as you abandon your hope in the mirage rocks of this fallen world and begin to hunger for the true Rock, he will reach out and place you on solid ground.

There is a Rock to be found. There is an inner rest to be experienced that’s deeper than conceptual understanding, human love, personal success, and the accumulation of possessions. There is a rock that will give you rest even when all of those things have been taken away. That rock is Christ, and you were hardwired to find what you are seeking in him. In his grace, he won’t play hide-and-seek with you. In your weakness and weariness, cry out to him. He will find you, and he will be your Rock.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

Has God providentially preserved His Word throughout the centuries. I believe he has based on the following texts of Scripture.

“Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.” (Psalm 119:152, ESV). This is a strong affirmation and, in the context, a clear proof of the doctrine of God’s preservation.

“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” (Psalm 119:160, ESV). This again is a strong affirmation and provides clear implications for God’s providential preservation of His Word.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18, ESV).  Jesus clearly states the authority of Scripture here and the preservation of Scripture is a strong corollary to this truth.  Another strong attestation of authority is, “Scripture cannot be broken—” (John 10:35, ESV).

And the very fact that God instructs us to pass on His Word to the next generation as well as to delight in His Word would strongly suggest that God will preserve His Word.

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9, ESV)

“but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2, ESV).

So I conclude that God has preserved His Word providentially so that His people might possess the Scriptures!  Or as John Skilton writes,

“But we must maintain that God who gave the Scriptures, who works all things after the counsel of his will, has exercised a remarkable care over his Word, has preserved it in all ages in a state of essential purity, and has enabled it to accomplish the purpose for which he gave it. It is inconceivable that the sovereign God who was pleased to give his Word as a vital and necessary instrument in the salvation of his people would permit his Word to become completely marred in its transmission and unable to accomplish its ordained end. Rather, as surely as that he is God, we would expect to find him exercising a singular care in the preservation of his written revelation. (John Skilton, The Infallible Word,  p. 143)

We can have full confidence thus that when we pick up a faithful translation of God’s Word today in our language, we have God’s truth accurately preserved for us.

Are you looking for a shortcut to contentment. There are none.   Rather contentment comes by learning it–which comes through the power of Christ, not from counselors, therapists, self-help formulas, improved cash flow, marriage, better health, or more friends.  Contentment comes from abiding in Christ.  Abiding in Christ comes from knowing Christ more.  Knowing Christ more comes from communing with Him more.  That is the source and the secret of true contentment.

Happy Veteran Days!  Thanks to all who  have served our country in the armed forces!  Thanks for standing for and protecting our freedom! We salute you! Let freedom keep on ringing! Be sure to thank a veteran today!