Correct me, O LORD

Something to meditate on...

(23) I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.  (24) Correct me, O LORD, but with justice; Not with Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

Jeremiah 10:23-24 NASB

A Holiday Wish From Your Governor....

Got this from a friend, had to share...

"...if His followers looked more Redeemed." - Fredrick Nietzsche

"I might believe in the Redeemer if His followers looked more Redeemed."
-- Fredrick Nietzsche (Who's ideas and works greatly influenced
Hitler...)

We need to walk the walk, a dying world is watching...

Passing on the Blessing...

Compassion International

Get this widget!

Compassion – Make a Donation – Sponsor a Child

Spread the Wealth

When He had made purification of sins...

Hebrews 1:1-4 NASB God's Final Word in His Son
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, (2) in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (3) And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (4) having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

In my morning devotions I started Hebrews today. WOW. After the first four verses I could not go on.

Lately I have heard from more than one place that the Bible and the Christian life is about "Loving God and loving others". This "motto" is good and true but that is not what makes Christians and/or the Bible different from Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, JW's, Mormons, Wiccan’s, and a good Gnostic, Deist, Republican, or Democrat. They can, and do, say the same things.

The difference is Christ.
It is what we believe about whom Christ is and what He did for us that makes us Christians. The Bible is first the redemptive history of God and man and secondly a Christian “how to live” manual. When we get those two things changed around we start to see the Christian life as a 10 step program to do… whatever. Jesus becomes your “Guru” or “Life Coach”, not your Redeemer. Worse yet, we will start to think we must do things to make ourselves “worthy” to “get to Heaven” or so that “St. Peter will let us passed the Pearly Gates”. Even worse, we will start to think that being a follower of Christ is all about doing good deeds.

Christianity is not about "Loving God and loving others” or doing good deeds. Christianity is about relying on Christ’s finished work on the cross to make yourself “right” with God. "Loving God and loving others” and doing good deeds is something that all Christians should do out of a thankful heart to God and to bring glory to His name. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
It may seem like hair-splitting but it is not. It is what birthed the Reformation.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?

"...Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?"

--Abraham "bargaining" with God for the City of Sodom, Genesis 18:25

Knowing that the "Judge of all the earth", God, will deal justly (do right -KJV) is both a comforting and terrifying thought. Comforting to know that all the injustices in this world will be justly dealt with. That all the wrongs will be made right. That all the evil deeds done will be dealt with. But it is also terrifying because how many times have I dealt unjustly? How many wrongs have I not made right? How many evil deeds have I done?

Thank the LORD that He has made a way to be made right with Him. Through faith in Christ Jesus my injustices, my wrongs, my evil deeds, my sins will be counted against Christ on that great Day of Judgment. In light of this help me to do justly, rightly, and forsake the evil ways of my “old man” in this present age.

The unobjectionable residue

The Christian Gospel (cont’d.)

353. 'The unobjectionable residue'

The seventeenth-century Jesuits in China, in order not to upset the social sensitivities of the Chinese, excluded the crucifixion and certain other details from the gospel. But, Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper has written (in a letter to "The Times" on 1 December 1959), 'we do not learn that they made many lasting converts by the unobjectionable residue of the story'.

--From "Our Guilty Silence" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967), p. 49.

source:
http://www.langhampartnership.org/john-stott/devotionals/

The Christian Gospel - Not good advice...

John Stott Daily Thought, 1 August 08

The Christian Gospel (cont’d.)

349. Not good advice
The gospel is not good advice to men, but good news about Christ; not an invitation to us to do anything, but a declaration of what God has done; not a demand, but an offer.

--From "The Message of Galatians" (The Bible Speaks Today series: London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), p. 70.

source:
http://www.langhampartnership.org/john-stott/devotionals/

Love for the Scriptures - John Stott Daily Thought: May 20th, 2008

A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her. So if we love the Lord Jesus we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him. The husband is not so stupid as to prefer his wife's letters to her voice, or her photographs to herself. He simply loves them because of her. So, too, we love the Bible because of Christ. It is his portrait. It is his love-letter.

--From "Fundamentalism and Evangelism" (London: Crusade Booklets, 1956), p. 22.

source link: http://www.langhampartnership.org/john-stott/devotionals/

Hope For The Least Of These

Happy 10th Birthday Greyson!

My son is 10 years old today!
Pictures to come, they are still on my camera!

EXPELLED Trailer

This is a must see movie. For all you locals it is showing now in Moline and Davenport. Check fandango.com for times.



This top trailer explains the movie, this bottom one is just fun!

Couldn’t God Have Used Evolution?

During the Scopes Trial in 1925, ACLU attorney Clarence Darrow placed William Jennings Bryan (seen as the man representing Christianity) on the stand and questioned him about his faith. In his questioning, Darrow pitted Bryan’s faith in the Bible against his belief in modern scientific thinking. Darrow questioned Bryan about the meaning of the word “day” in Genesis. Bryan’s answer rejected the clear teaching of Scripture, which indicates that the days of Genesis 1 are six actual days of approximately 24 hours. Bryan accepted modern evolutionary thinking instead when he said, “I think it would be just as easy for the kind of God we believe in to make the earth in six days as in six years or in six million years or in 600 million years. I do not think it important whether we believe one or the other.”1 This is not the first time a Christian has rejected the intended meaning of God’s Word, and it certainly will not be the last.

Many Christians today claim that millions of years of earth history fit with the Bible and that God could have used evolutionary processes to create. This idea is not a recent invention. For over 200 years, many theologians have attempted such harmonizations in response to the work of people like Charles Darwin and Scottish geologist Charles Lyell, who helped popularize the idea of millions of years of earth history and slow geological processes.

When we consider the possibility that God used evolutionary processes to create over millions of years, we are faced with serious consequences: the Word of God is no longer authoritative, and the character of our loving God is questioned..

Here is a link to the rest of the article:

AiG: Couldn’t God Have Used Evolution?

Martin Luther King Day - Revisited x2

Here is a link to my post a couple years ago on MLK Day:
A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.