Friday, February 28, 2014
The Complete Anti-God State Of Mind
"According
to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.
Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites
in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil;
Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of
mind." (C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity pg 122)
Lewis tells us that all of these sins of the flesh are little fleabites, little irritants when you compare them to pride. Think of all the sins Christians get bent out of shape about, dis-fellowship people over, reject people for, reject family members for, condemn, criticize, look down on people for, but you never hear them talk about pride. Why? Because its their sin, the one they deny, the one they refuse to face. These people are willing to alienate family members, split Churches, wound others but they never own up to their Pride. Lewis says Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Lewis goes on to say "as long as you are proud you cannot know God" as Howlin Wolf sang "Thats evil" Look at what the Religious leaders did to Jesus, those self-righteous proud legalists wanted to kill Jesus. They are still in the church and will try and destroy you to if you preach the gospel of grace. They are really anti-God!
Lewis tells us that all of these sins of the flesh are little fleabites, little irritants when you compare them to pride. Think of all the sins Christians get bent out of shape about, dis-fellowship people over, reject people for, reject family members for, condemn, criticize, look down on people for, but you never hear them talk about pride. Why? Because its their sin, the one they deny, the one they refuse to face. These people are willing to alienate family members, split Churches, wound others but they never own up to their Pride. Lewis says Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Lewis goes on to say "as long as you are proud you cannot know God" as Howlin Wolf sang "Thats evil" Look at what the Religious leaders did to Jesus, those self-righteous proud legalists wanted to kill Jesus. They are still in the church and will try and destroy you to if you preach the gospel of grace. They are really anti-God!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour
With the Muscle Shoals rhythm section at Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals AL
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett
Recorded at Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals AL with the famous rhythm section
How to Stop Misusing the Word “Hypocrisy”
Boston
College philosopher Peter Kreeft: The common, modern misunderstanding
of hypocrisy [is] not practicing what you preach. . . . Actually, we
have misdefined “hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy is not the failure to practice
what you preach but the failure to believe it. Hypocrisy is propaganda.
The great art critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830): He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves.
The American Heritage Dictionary: [Hypocrisy is] the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
Inigo Montoya:
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
The great art critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830): He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves.
The American Heritage Dictionary: [Hypocrisy is] the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
Inigo Montoya:
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Aretha traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record at FAME Studios to record the song, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" in front of the musicians of the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.
The piano player played a riff and a song was born. They recorded this song in about 20 minutes.
Aretha Franklin with Duane Allman ~ ''The Weight'' & ''It Ain't Fair'' 1970
Musicians - Bass -- David Hood; Drums -- Roger Hawkins; Guitar -- Duane Allman; Keyboards - Barry Beckett; Vocals,piano - Aretha Franklin. This is the Muscle Shoals sound from Fame Studio.
Wilson Pickett - Hey Jude (with Duane Allman- Guitar)
It was in November of 1968, when Wilson Pickett - already a star - showed up at Rick Halls Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL wanting to record, but with no material or ideas. Duane, who was working for Rick but was not even the main, lead session guitarist....yet, suggested that they cut "Hey Jude", which Rick thought was "the most preposterous thing" he had ever heard and Wilson agreed they would NOT do it. The Beatles had just recently released it and it was climbing the charts. But Duane somehow convinced them both it was a good idea because it "was" a Beatles song and it "would" be Number 1. And, as you hear, it was a GREAT idea. This song sparked the beginning of Duane's future nickname and the formation of Allman Brothers Band. The lead solo at the end of the song was the birth of Southern rock.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
What Can And Cannot Change In Our Relationship With God
In a chart entitled 'Our Relationship with God,' Dr. Chapell lists what can change and what cannot change. Very Clarifying.
What Can Change in our relationship with God:
our fellowship
our experience of his blessing
our assurance of his love
his delight in our actions
his discipline
our sense of guilt
What Cannot Change in our relationship with God:
our sonship
his desire for our welfare
his actual affection for us
his love for us
our destiny
our security
--Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001), 196
This is very helpful. Learn what cannot change in your relationship with God and let it comfort you in difficult times. Learn what can change In your relationship with God you can have greater fellowship, greater experience's of God's blessing, greater assurance of his love, experiencing his delight in your actions and his discipline and your own sense of guilt which can change for better or worse.
What Can Change in our relationship with God:
our fellowship
our experience of his blessing
our assurance of his love
his delight in our actions
his discipline
our sense of guilt
What Cannot Change in our relationship with God:
our sonship
his desire for our welfare
his actual affection for us
his love for us
our destiny
our security
--Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace: Delighting in the Joy That Is Our Strength (Crossway, 2001), 196
This is very helpful. Learn what cannot change in your relationship with God and let it comfort you in difficult times. Learn what can change In your relationship with God you can have greater fellowship, greater experience's of God's blessing, greater assurance of his love, experiencing his delight in your actions and his discipline and your own sense of guilt which can change for better or worse.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
David Berlinski - Evolution Taken Apart in under 5 minutes
David Berlinski is the author of a number of books, including the recent volumes One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics and The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
How Great Justification Really Is
As
understood by the Reformers and their followers, and by Paul as I read
him, [justification] is theological, declaring a work of amazing grace;
anthropological, demonstrating that we cannot save ourselves;
Christological, resting on incarnation and atonement; pneumatological,
rooted in Spirit-wrought faith-union with Jesus; ecclesiological,
determining both the definition and the health of the church;
eschatological, proclaiming God's truly final verdict on believers here
and now; evangelistic, inviting troubled souls into everlasting peace;
pastoral, making our identity as forgiven sinners basic to our
fellowship; and liturgical, being decisive for interpreting the
sacraments and shaping sacramental services.
No other biblical doctrine holds together so much that is precious and enlivening.
J. I. Packer, Here We Stand: Justification by Faith Today (Hodder and Stoughton 1986)
This little statement contains just about everything you need to know. If a believer gets a hold of the truth contained in this statement by Packer they would be a good way down the road of the christian life and would be filled with joy at how great God is and how amazing his grace is.
No other biblical doctrine holds together so much that is precious and enlivening.
J. I. Packer, Here We Stand: Justification by Faith Today (Hodder and Stoughton 1986)
This little statement contains just about everything you need to know. If a believer gets a hold of the truth contained in this statement by Packer they would be a good way down the road of the christian life and would be filled with joy at how great God is and how amazing his grace is.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Friday, February 7, 2014
God's mercy Is greater Than The Mess You Make
“It
is certain that God blesses believers precisely and invariably by
blessing to them something of his truth and that misbelief as such is in
its own nature spiritually barren and destructive.
“Yet anyone who deals with souls will again and again be amazed at the gracious generosity with which God blesses to needy ones what looks to us like a very tiny needle of truth hidden amid whole haystacks of mental error. . . .
“Every Christian without exception experiences far more in the way of mercy and help than the quality of his notions warrants.”
—J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 21-22.
Ain't that the truth! Thank God for his mercy which is abundant and endures forever. How little each day do we think about or realize how much of what happened that day is because of God's mercy.
“Yet anyone who deals with souls will again and again be amazed at the gracious generosity with which God blesses to needy ones what looks to us like a very tiny needle of truth hidden amid whole haystacks of mental error. . . .
“Every Christian without exception experiences far more in the way of mercy and help than the quality of his notions warrants.”
—J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 21-22.
Ain't that the truth! Thank God for his mercy which is abundant and endures forever. How little each day do we think about or realize how much of what happened that day is because of God's mercy.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
C. S. Lewis, 'On Forgiveness'
To be
a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven
the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to
forgive a single person great injury. But to forgive the incessant
provocations of daily life--to keep on forgiving the bossy
mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish
daughter, the deceitful son--how can we do it? Only, I think, by
remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say our prayers
each night 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass
against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse is
to refuse God's mercy for ourselves.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
How Did You Become A Christian?
The
thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the
Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my
mind in a moment—I should not have sought him unless there had been
some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him. I prayed,
thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to
pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so?
Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”
--Charles Spurgeon, as quoted in Dave Harvey, Am I Called? The Summons to Pastoral Ministry (Crossway, 2012), 38
Has the whole doctrine of grace opened up to you? Can you make the confession Spurgeon made? "I ascribe my change wholly to God" This is the beauty of the Lord's salvation.
Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”
--Charles Spurgeon, as quoted in Dave Harvey, Am I Called? The Summons to Pastoral Ministry (Crossway, 2012), 38
Has the whole doctrine of grace opened up to you? Can you make the confession Spurgeon made? "I ascribe my change wholly to God" This is the beauty of the Lord's salvation.
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