Michael Horton: The Gospel Offends
“Jesus was not revolutionary because he said we should love God and each other. Moses said that first. So did Buddha, Confucius, and countless other religious leaders we've never heard of. Madonna, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Dali Lama, and probably a lot of Christian leaders will tell us that the point of religion is to get us to love each other. "God loves you" doesn't stir the world's opposition. However, start talking about God's absolute authority, holiness, ... Christ's substitutionary atonement, justification apart from works, the necessity of new birth, repentance, baptism, Communion, and the future judgment, and the mood in the room changes considerably.” Found here: http://rockedbygrace.blogspot.com/ That blog has kept me pretty busy lately! Ha! Been listening to several sermons by Pastor Eric Mason at Epiphany Fellowship in West Philidelphia. He is great! All about the Lord and teaching the Word to His glory! Great teacher. http://www.epiphanyfellowship.org/aggregator/sources/1 Just in case this can get out there, I have a complaint about the volume level of the sermons. They are just quiet enough that I can't cook and clean while I listen. : ( I prefer good volume so I can crank it and still wash dishes and run the food processor! Ha! I occasionally listen to a sermon series from The Village Church, usually preached by Matt Chandler, but all the guys over there are good. Listened to a short series on Gluttony that was very convicting and inspiring! http://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/sermons/ Every sermon in his Ultimate Authority sermon series is amazing! I'm also reading his book Explicit Gospel. I have a great place in my heart for Chandler because the dude can preach God glorifying sermons on suffering so well because of his circumstances. To God be the glory. And if I have nothing else to listen to then I mosey back on over the Gospel of Luke by Driscoll. Been slowly working my way through that sermon series off and on for a quite a while. http://marshill.com/media/sermons I have recenlty listened to Tim Keller sermons too. Although, for whatever reason I find him hard to listen to and easier to read. Short articles by him here and there have been a great encouragement too. He sounds just enough like Jeff Goldbloom that I can't help but feel like I'm being taught by his character in Independence Day! Ha! But that is what he does! He teaches very well. Just finished The Freedom of Self-forgetfulness and it...was...awesome!! In the Word I have been, for the first time in my life (embarassingly), reading straight through the Bible. I just began Joshua. When I hit Levitivus a couple months back I realized that I needed a little help in keeping reading because that one is hard! So I started adding in a little of the NT starting in Acts. So now I am in 2 Thesselonians there too. There are some amazing parts that have really touched me and I've gone back to read many times. Too many to go into all of them, but the two that stick out in my mind are two places where we get a glimpse in at the immense love God has for these chosen people of His. Keeping in mind how horribly rebellious they were it makes that love all the more glorious! In Numbers 24 Balaam is asked to curse the Isrealites (God's people) and the Holy Spirit comes upon him and causes his eyes to open and see the Isrealites as God sees them and what follows is a beautiful section of scripture about God's love for His chosen people. I cried and cried because, well, we all know how dumb and whorish the Isrealites were to God. Much in the same way we are to Him now. Go read it and be blessed. And just to mention one other, the song that God sings at the end of Deuteronomy for Moses to share right before he dies. Starting around Deuteronomy 32:10. There is something so humbling about an all-powerful, perfect God singing over His chosen people that just leaves you feeling like a million bucks and totally worthless at the same time. So undeserving and so grateful. I want to read it over and over because when God is singing about His people, He's not really singing about the people, but about how He is glorified through them!! I mean, if we were worth anything, then there would be less glory for God. But since we are worth nothing and completely dependant on His grace and love, it just keeps pointing back to Him! All of this has really opened my eyes to how marriage is suppose to show a mirror image of this relationship! How God continued to choose and love His people even when they were so awful to Him! How in our christian marriages God is most glorified through our forgiveness and repentence as that gives us a glimpse of what Jesus does for the church. Some marriages experiences this in a much deeper way than others. While God gives exceptions to us, weak humans, there is no exception for the Lord. He forgives ALL!! This is so beautiful and should continually call us back to seeking holiness out of love.
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LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
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