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Archive for April, 2010

Randy Alcorn wants us to take a pop quiz (actually two) that will teach us a lot about what really matters.  Are you ready?

“Fame is deceptive, isn’t it? There’s lots of school teachers and nurses and people who work with kids, and old women down on their knees praying. They aren’t going to be in the news. It takes a lot more sacrifice to be a hero than to be a celebrity.

The following quiz, which illustrates that point, was adapted by my friend Doug Nichols, founder of Action International Ministries.

Take this quiz:

1. Besides Bill Gates, name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman (football) trophy winners.
3. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.
4. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
5. Name the last five years’ World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday even though these people are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
5. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier? Yes! The lesson: The people who make a difference in our lives are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.

So let’s make sure we are ones who care for others, not just that we will be remembered, but that God will be glorified!”

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“A Christian should at all times keep a strong guard against everything that tends to overthrow or corrupt or undermine a spirit of love.  That which hinders love to men, will hinder the exercise of love to God. . . .If love is the sum of Christianity, surely those things which overthrow love are exceedingly unbecoming to Christians.”

–Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits

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Owen gives the handout of a talk (audio link at the site) by Dr. Bruce Ware that is well worth a look on this topic.

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“Jesus taught that a disciple has to make his relationship to God the dominating concentration of his life, and to be carefully careless about everything else in comparison to that.”–Oswald Sanders,  My Utmost for His Highest, p. 142

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“When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. ” (Psalm 94:19, ESV).  What are God’s consolations or comforts to the Christian?

I would point out two.

God comforts us through His Word: As Charles Simeon writes of God’s people,  “There they see the “covenant ordered in all things and sure;” and there they find promises without number, exactly suited to their state. These are as marrow and fatness to their souls; and, nourished by these, they not only bear with patience, but glory and exult in, all their trials ― ― ― Encouraged by these promises, they are content to go into the furnace, assured that they shall come forth, at last, purified as gold.

And secondly, God comforts His children through the Spirit of Christ:  “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. ” (2 Corinthians 1:5, ESV)

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I wondered why I had so many hits on my blog today regarding Noah’s Ark.

This story probably has something to do with it:  “Noah’s Ark Found in Turkey”.

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Can you be a Christian and a practicing, unrepentant homosexual?  Enter Jennifer Knapp, popular Christian singer, who says “why, of course.”

Denny Burk provides video and good commentary.

Take the time to read the comment section on Burk’s post also.

Also, Trevin Wax has some really good commentary on the Larry King and Jennifer Knapp show.

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“The Hubble Telescope celebrates its 20th anniversary this Saturday as it has been in orbit since April 24, 1990, taking awe-inspiring pictures deep in space. BBC created an audio slideshow to look at some of the pictures it has taken with commentary by Professor Alex Bokenberg from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, who helped build Hubble.

National Geographic also put together some of the most stunning photographs from the telescope.”

–Angela Lu at WORLD has more.

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“We cannot do everything: there is not enough time.  Like Mary, therefore, we shall have to choose and choose very deliberately. Life’s affairs will not automatically sort themselves into a true order of priorities.  If we do not consciously insist on making ‘sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His word’ our number one necessity, a thousand and one other things and duties, all claiming to be prior necessities, will tyrannize our time and energies and rob us of the ‘good part’ in life.”

–David Gooding commenting on Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42,  According to Luke, p. 216

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The people of Israel once sang, “O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage. ” (Psalm 94:3–5, ESV)

What a practical psalm this is.  For Israel as well as those in the church have often found themselves suffering attack in this world by evil people.  (Matthew 5:10-12; John 15:18-20; 16:33).  Many of us in free countries don’t experience such persecution, yet nonetheless some experience great hostility from family or friends for the sake of their convictions and beliefs.  So as Steve Lawson has commented in his work on Psalms:

“Believers often find themselves oppressed by the wicked, but when they do, they should leave vengeance with God.  Rather than seeking their own retribution, they should patiently wait on the Lord  who pledges to judge all evil.  Even when reeling under personal attack, God’s people should never retaliate  in like manner.  “Better to suffer unjustly and wait for God  to make right a wrong than to take matters into one’s own hands with fleshly retaliation.  The attribute of divine wrath brings both patience and peace to God’s people, knowing that one day God will settle all accounts.”

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