tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42090048533875950402024-03-05T15:12:41.032-05:00Love In The Truth"I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes." (Psalm 119:48 ESV)
It is truth alone that capacitates any soul to give glory to God. - John OwenTrevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.comBlogger439125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-38438493395856654202014-03-11T10:44:00.000-04:002014-03-11T10:44:04.621-04:00Blessed Are the Vanished<div style="color: #40464b; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 28.3px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.4px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/gospeldrivenchurch/">Jared Wilson…</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">An Egpytian Muslim by birth, [Sharaf] el-Din converted to Christianity in 1983 after both he and his wife had visions of Jesus (a surprisingly frequent occurrence in Muslim countries). They left Egypt for Kenya in 1988 to search for employment and to avoid the increasing religious persecution they faced at home. Desperate for a job, Mr. el-Din legally returned to Egypt in 1994. But upon his return, his family did not hear from him for five months because he was immediately “detained.” A hearing was eventually held in which no charges were raised, yet he continued to be detained. After getting legal permission, his lawyer attempted to visit him in the prisons, but he couldn’t find him. The only reason given for his incarceration, informally, was that he converted to Christianity. He was suffering for his faith.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>– Mark Dever, “1 Peter: When Things Get Tough,” in <i>The Message of the New Testament</i> (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2005), 445.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In a footnote, Dever writes, “At date of publication, no further information on Mr. el-Din could be found.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The man simply vanished into the disappearing torture cabinet of martyrdom.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And yet, he did not. He is united with Christ, seated with Christ in the heavenly places (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Eph.%202.6"><span style="color: #961402; letter-spacing: 0px;">Eph. 2:6</span></a>), hidden with Christ in God (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Col.%203.3"><span style="color: #961402; letter-spacing: 0px;">Col. 3:3</span></a>). Some day we will learn truly that obscurity, lack of recognition, being swallowed up into thin air and forgotten by all earthly powers, whether by persecution or simply by the circumstances of life, is but a light momentary affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory that is every believer’s in Christ Jesus. And I suspect the most glorious of us in the age to come will be those we’d never heard of in the age that is.</span></div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-89176009903056255342014-02-12T13:09:00.000-05:002014-02-12T13:09:21.440-05:003 Myths About Small Groups<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://philipnation.net/2014/02/3-small-group-myths/">Philip Nation</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Small groups are an essential part of church life. It goes by a multitude of names – Life Groups, home groups, Sunday School, Bible fellowships, and the list goes on. When a ministry is so important, for some reason, myths begin to swirl around it. Here are three of the myths about small groups.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>1. Small groups are just for fellowship.</b> Small groups must be an environment where people grow closer but not just for the sake of friendship. As believers, our fellowship deepens when it is centred on the truth. Fellowship is one of the functions of the church but it is not the ultimate reason for small groups. Transformation is. Small groups draw people together with a higher purpose than just hanging out in the name of Jesus. We want to draw people around His Word so they can be fed and then transformed by it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>2. People in small groups should stay together indefinitely.</b> In other words, breaking up a group is bad. The argument is made that “our healthy small group should not be separated.” But healthy group members will want to share with others what’s occurred in their lives. Conversely, it is also a myth that leaders just want to split every group for an underhanded reason; control, spitefulness, power-grabbing. In reality, we all know that healthy things grow and then multiply. As leaders, we also know that when things don’t grow, then they begin to drain energy from other parts of the body. Small groups are the same. Now, this is not to say that a small group that does not multiply is moldy, rotten, or cancerous. But it can be reveal an inward-facing spirit that runs counter to the mission of God. By engendering a spirit of multiplication, small groups will eventually reach more people for Christ and help more people mature in Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>3. Anyone can lead a small group.</b> I want to tread carefully in this one because it is so close to true. If the statement read, “Anyone can learn <i>to lead</i> a small group,” then we’ve got it. But, as it stands, it is a bit naïve. It comes back to purpose. If you buy into myth #1, then anyone can lead a small group. Just be there to host everyone for a good time and a quasi-spiritual conversation. But, if you want to lead people toward transformation, then as leaders, we need to produce leaders. Rather than just throw people into the situation of handling whatever comes up on their own, teach/train/prepare them to be a great small group leader.</span></div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-16462688506468696442013-12-06T09:44:00.000-05:002013-12-06T09:44:20.754-05:00Union With Christ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">In the words of Augustus Strong...</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">“Christianity is summed up in the two facts: Christ <i>for</i> us,
and Christ <i>in</i> us—Christ <i>for</i> us upon the
Cross, revealing the eternal opposition of holiness to sin, and yet, through
God’s eternal suffering for sin making objective atonement for us; and
Christ <i>in</i> us by his spirit, renewing in us the lost image of
God, and abiding in us as the all-sufficient source of purity and power. Here
are the two foci of the Christian ellipse: Christ <i>for</i> us, who
redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, and
Christ <i>in</i> us, the hope of glory, whom the apostle calls the
mystery of the gospel."</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"> “The
union with Christ is mediated by his Spirit, whence we are both renewed and
justified. The great fact of objective Christianity is incarnation in order to
atonement; the great fact of subjective Christianity is union with Christ,
whereby we receive the atonement. We may add that this union with Christ, in
view of which God elects and to which God calls the sinner, is begun in
regeneration, completed in conversion, declared in Justification, and proved in
sanctification and perseverance."</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEK5RF60-CRPOqtPLRCDBY_9QcPZqfeLhc6HiQsNiCAsNVTrNvXnoxnWJsNy4PI7dRGeLcJS5DunmEYADCJ6sCMi5RhMhiTHXLY4ONJ5u5cd8iuOfyf2RZSFLmOANIdYi8e9xdSenP_nQ/s1600/blog+sig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEK5RF60-CRPOqtPLRCDBY_9QcPZqfeLhc6HiQsNiCAsNVTrNvXnoxnWJsNy4PI7dRGeLcJS5DunmEYADCJ6sCMi5RhMhiTHXLY4ONJ5u5cd8iuOfyf2RZSFLmOANIdYi8e9xdSenP_nQ/s1600/blog+sig.png" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 24px;"><br /></span>Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-27559545047442794892013-12-04T14:47:00.002-05:002013-12-04T14:47:44.540-05:00Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YqWiIp_KLUc" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBNFIbI9QVyT_m_iZd9sKjRkA2FlOptc3QM0Wq8mNBClmAZ0Fdlb_HorfSnosXJwfp7kXNYNrhtBtRKf-_mnvwNwOX-yc3ItLZqWfDzcVO8mGxQe26bgvlBxNy7l3fxsHKmffK_rfJFg/s1600/blog+sig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBNFIbI9QVyT_m_iZd9sKjRkA2FlOptc3QM0Wq8mNBClmAZ0Fdlb_HorfSnosXJwfp7kXNYNrhtBtRKf-_mnvwNwOX-yc3ItLZqWfDzcVO8mGxQe26bgvlBxNy7l3fxsHKmffK_rfJFg/s1600/blog+sig.png" /></a></div>
<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-64590516680688876822013-11-19T11:37:00.000-05:002013-11-19T11:37:16.077-05:00Why Church Membership Matters<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcF_DcANWabwyLVNnbo-ZfR4qkc4WzKDD3tLoEJdkbzz1QJ7EPrZJ5rOjwdAIL06DCOxFPZHdiRLLi9vMBfLrE903eHszlq4foJ9hwbnyk-yAVhnWXpD81evWnKxxlGO52E9HYosHsW2U/s1600/71QNlkJIuhL._AA1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcF_DcANWabwyLVNnbo-ZfR4qkc4WzKDD3tLoEJdkbzz1QJ7EPrZJ5rOjwdAIL06DCOxFPZHdiRLLi9vMBfLrE903eHszlq4foJ9hwbnyk-yAVhnWXpD81evWnKxxlGO52E9HYosHsW2U/s640/71QNlkJIuhL._AA1500_.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Bitter, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
This is a bigger issue than most "members" would admit. In his little book, Leeman summarizes his argument into 12 points...</div>
<ol style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Bitter, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 3em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s biblical. </em>Jesus established the local church and all the apostles did their ministry through it. The Christian life in the New Testament is church life. Christians today should expect and desire the same.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The church </em>is <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">its members. </em>To be a church in the New Testament is to be one of its members (read through Acts). And you want to be part of the church because that’s who Jesus came to rescue and reconcile to himself.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s a prerequisite for the Lord’s Supper</em>. The Lord’s Supper is a meal for the gathered church, that is, for members (see 1 Cor. 11:20-33). And you want to take the Lord’s Supper. It’s the team flag that makes the church team visible to the nations.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s how you officially represent Jesus.</em> Membership is the church’s affirmation that you are a citizen of Christ’s kingdom and therefore a pass-port carrying Jesus representative before the nations. And you want your representation to be authorized. Closely related to this…</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s how you declare your highest allegiance</em>. Your membership on the team, which becomes visible when you wave the flag of the Lord’s Supper, is a public testimony belongs to Jesus. Trials and persecution may come, but your only words are, “I am a Christian.”</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s how you embody and experience biblical images</em>. It’s within the accountability structures of the local church that Christians live and experience the interconnectivity of the body, the spiritual fullness of his temple, and the safety and intimacy and shared identity of his family.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s how you serve other Christians</em>. Membership helps you know which Christians on planet Earth you are specifically responsible to love, serve, warn, and encourage. It enables you to fulfill your biblical responsibilities to Christ’s body (for example, see Eph. 4:11-16; 25-32).</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s how you follow Christian leaders.</em> Membership helps you know which Christian leaders on planet Earth you are called to obey and follow. Again, it allows you to fulfill your biblical responsibility to them (see Heb. 13:7, 17).</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It helps Christian leaders lead.</em> Membership lets Christian leaders know which Christians on planet Earth they will “give an account” for (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2).</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It enables church discipline.</em> It gives you the biblically prescribed place to participate in the work of church discipline responsibly, wisely, and lovingly (1 Cor. 5).</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It gives structure to your Christian life</em>. It places an individual Christian’s claim to obey and follow Jesus into a real-life setting where authority is actually exercised over us (see John 14:15; 1 John 2:19; 4:20-21). <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s God’s discipling program. </em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It builds a witness and invites the nations. </em>Membership puts the alternative rule of Christ on display for the watching universe (see Matt. 5:11; John 12:34-35; Eph. 3:10; 1 Pet. 2:9-12). The very boundaries, which are drawn around the membership of a church, yield a society of people that invites the nations to something better. <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s God’s evangelism program. </em></li>
</ol>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Bitter, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px;">I would recommend reading this and thinking deeply about partnering with your local church. As Josh Harris would say, "Stop dating the church" and make a commitment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Bitter, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px;">HT / <a href="http://derekzrishmawy.com/">Reformedish</a></span></span></div>
Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-65792991172332235922013-11-15T08:51:00.000-05:002013-11-15T08:51:16.755-05:00The Glorious Gospel<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">You will hard pressed to hear the gospel any clearer than right here - repent and believe. Jesus is mighty to save - SDG!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHW68k7sSmbWsYr-mwwYcqIGP4RS20RwPC1tMFpMmrmLBNk_AIStFhueg9WkERHZ_lcpzMOf853uTnDYNPfC0A1nc8LznLvtqbLe4mWgdJdni1Tt-vrd-KIlWdvh6_RTmYN51FNfaQtH8/s1600/blog+sig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHW68k7sSmbWsYr-mwwYcqIGP4RS20RwPC1tMFpMmrmLBNk_AIStFhueg9WkERHZ_lcpzMOf853uTnDYNPfC0A1nc8LznLvtqbLe4mWgdJdni1Tt-vrd-KIlWdvh6_RTmYN51FNfaQtH8/s1600/blog+sig.png" /></a></div>
<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-58840117380753108912013-11-14T10:00:00.000-05:002013-11-14T10:00:06.922-05:0010 Errors to Avoid When Talking about Sanctification and the Gospel<br />
After having this discussion with a friend just yesterday, I came across <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/11/05/10-errors-to-avoid-when-talking-about-sanctification-and-the-gospel/">these wise words</a> from <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/">Kevin DeYoung</a>...<br />
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #1: The good we do can in some small way make us right with God.</b> This is a denial of the gospel. The good we do is of no use to us in our justification because “even the very best we do in this life is imperfect and stained with sin” (HC Q/A 62). We “cannot do any work that is not defiled by our flesh and also worthy of punishment” (BC Art. 24).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #2: We must be good Christians so that God will keep loving us.</b> To the contrary, the good news of justification by faith alone means that we can now “do a thing out of love for God” instead of “only out of love for [ourselves] and fear of being condemned” (BC Art. 24). In the midst of daily sins and weakness the struggling Christian should “flee for refuge to Christ crucified” (CD 5.2), truths that “it is not by their own merits or strength but by God’s undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost” (CD 5.8).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #3: If sanctification is a work of divine grace in our lives, then it must not involve our effort.</b> We are absolutely “indebted to God for the good works we do” (BC Art. 24). He is the one at work in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. At the same time, “faith working through love” leads “a man to do by himself the works that God has commanded in his Word” (BC. Art. 24). Our ability to do good works “is not at all” in ourselves, but we still “ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in [us]” (WCF 16.3).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #4: Warning people of judgment is law and has no part to play in preaching the gospel.</b> Actually, “preaching the gospel” should both “open and close the kingdom of heaven.” The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming to believers what God has done for us in Christ. The kingdom of heaven is closed by proclaiming “to unbelievers and hypocrites that, as long as they do not repent, the anger of God and eternal condemnation rest on them. God’s judgment, both in this life and in the life to come, is based on this gospel testimony” (HC Q/A 84).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #5: There is only one reason Christians should pursue sanctification and that’s because of our justification.</b> The Heidelberg Catechism lists several reasons—motivations even—for doing good. “We do good because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ” (HC Q/A 86).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #6: Since we cannot obey God’s commandments perfectly, we should not insist on obedience from ourselves or from others.</b> While it is true that “in this life even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience,” that’s not the whole story. “Nevertheless, with all seriousness of purpose, they do begin to live according to all, not only some, of God’s commandments” (HC Q/A 114). Because we belong to Christ and our good works are “sanctified by his grace” (BC Art. 24), God “is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections” (WCF 13.6).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #7: The Ten Commandments should be preached in order to remind us of our sin, but not so that believers may be stirred up to try to obey the commandments.</b> The Heidelberg Catechism acknowledges that “no one in this life can obey the Ten Commandments perfectly,” but it still insists that “God wants them preached pointedly.” For two reason: “First, so that the longer we live the more we may come to know our sinfulness and the more eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and righteousness.” And “Second, so that, while praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, we may never stop striving to be renewed more and more after God’s image, until after this life we reach our goal: perfection” (HC Q/A 115).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #8: Being fully justified as Christians, we should never fear displeasing God or offending him.</b> The promise of divine preservation does not mean that true believers will never fall into serious sin (CD 5.4). Even believers can commit “monstrous sins” that “greatly offend God.” When we sin in such egregious ways, we “sometimes lose the awareness of grace for a time” until we repent and God’s fatherly face shines upon us again (5.5). God being for us in Christ in a legal and ultimate sense does not mean he will never frown upon our disobedience. But it does mean that God will always effectively renew us to repentance and bring us to “experience again the grace of reconciled God” (5.7).</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #9: The only proper ground for assurance is in the promises of God found in the gospel.</b> Assurance is not to be sought from private relation but from three sources: from faith in the promises of God, from the testimony of the Holy Spirit testifying to our spirits that we are children of God, and from “a serious and holy pursuit of a clear conscience and of good works” (CD 5.10). Assurance is not inimical to the pursuit of holiness, but intimately bound up with it. We walk in God’s ways “in order that by walking them [we] may maintain the assurance of [our] perseverance” (5.13). Personal holiness is not only a ground for assurance; the desire for assurance is itself a motivation unto holiness.</div>
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<b style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Error #10: Threats and exhortations belong to the terrors of the law and are not to be used as a motivation unto holiness.</b> This is not the view of the Canons of Dort: “And, just as it has pleased God to begin this work of grace in us by the proclamation of the gospel, so he preserves, continues, and completes his work by the hearing and reading of the gospel, by meditation on it, by its exhortations, threats, and promises, and also by the use of the sacraments” (CD 5.14). Notice two things here. First, God causes us to persevere by several means. He makes promises to us, but he also threatens. He works by the hearing of the gospel and by the use of the sacraments. He has not bound himself to one method. Surely, this helps us make sense of the warnings in Hebrews and elsewhere in the New Testament. Threats and exhortations do not undermine perseverance; they help to complete it. Second, notice the broad way in which Dort understands the gospel (in this context). In being gospel-centered Christians, we meditate on the “exhortations, threats, and promises” of the gospel. In a strict sense we might say that the gospel is only the good news of how we can be saved. But in a wider sense, the gospel encompasses the whole story of salvation, which includes not only gospel promises but also the threats and exhortations inherent in the gospel.</div>
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<a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/11/05/10-errors-to-avoid-when-talking-about-sanctification-and-the-gospel/">To see the article in it's entirety go here...</a></div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-9766811235190497832013-11-07T13:39:00.001-05:002013-11-07T16:25:22.472-05:00Quotable: Growing Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Loved this section from <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1462729983/ref=rdr_ext_tmb">"Growing Up"</a>....<br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Another reason for
the lack of disciple-making is the influence of the secular world upon
believers. As Christians, we can easily fall into the trap of gauging success
in the church by our buildings, the number of bodies present, and the size of
our budgets. However, this mentality presents a serious problem: Jesus never
gauged effectiveness by these criteria. During His earthly ministry, He never
owned anything. In fact, our Lord never had a place to lay His head, much less
a regular meeting place for His “congregation” (Luke 9:58).”<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Additionally, Jesus never attempted to draw large crowds
for the sake of counting heads. Although He spoke to the masses, He
consistently departed to be with the twelve. Acts 1 records that, after He
ascended into heaven, only 120 disciples gathered together to pray for God to
empower them through the sending of His Spirit. This fact defies all modern
church growth standards. Jesus spoke with unprecedented authority. He raised
the dead. He gave sight to the blind. He healed the sick.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And at the end of His ministry, the church had grown to only
120 people. This is not to discount the miraculous work of our Lord, but to
simply point out that Jesus was not interested in growing a mile wide and an
inch deep. Rather, He focused on developing mature, faithful disciples who
would go out and make more disciples.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Jesus, as demonstrated above, measured success by something
other than buildings, bodies, and bucks. He taught us that disciple-making is
what matters, and it is a process that takes time...”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Excerpt From: Robby Gallaty. <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1462729983/ref=rdr_ext_tmb">“Growing Up.” </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Looking forward to the rest!</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-55514395143745917552013-07-31T12:03:00.001-04:002013-07-31T12:03:30.612-04:0020 Pictures of Jesus<div>
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<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Jesus is the Savior. His name means the one who will save us from our sins.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He is the Messiah. He’s Jesus Christ. Christ is not His last name. It means the Promised One. The One Promised through out the old testament has come.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He is the Son of David. He’s from the kingly line of David.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Son of Abraham.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Center of history.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Fully human.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Fully divine.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Sovereign over the wise.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Shepherd of the weak.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Jesus inaugurates a new exodus.</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s ending</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He loves his fiercest enemies</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s the Savior King</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s Righteous Judge</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s filled with God the Spirit</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s loved by God the Father</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s the new Adam</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s the true Israel</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s the Light of the World</li>
<li style="color: #333233; font-size: 17px; font: normal normal normal 17px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He’s the hope for all nations</li>
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HT / <a href="http://www.vergenetwork.org/">Verge</a></div>
Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-38769741339945420222013-07-18T12:39:00.001-04:002013-07-18T12:39:34.088-04:00The Nature of True Discipleship<br />
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"In Jesus, these men found someone worth losing everything for. In Christ, they encountered a love that surpassed comprehension, a satisfaction that superseded circumstances, and a purpose that transcended every other possible pursuit in this world. They eagerly, willingly, and gladly lost their lives in order to know, follow, and proclaim him. In the footsteps of Jesus, these first disciples discovered a path worth giving their lives to tread.<br /><br />Two thousand years later, I wonder how far we have wandered from this path. Somewhere along the way, amid varying cultural tides and popular church trends, it seems that we have minimized Jesus’ summons to total abandonment. Churches are filled with supposed Christians who seem content to have casual association with Christ while giving nominal adherence to Christianity. Scores of men, women, and children have been told that becoming a follower of Jesus involves acknowledging certain facts or saying certain words. But this is not true. Disciples like Peter, Andrew, James, John…show us that the call to follow Jesus is not simply an invitation to pray a prayer; it’s a summons to lose our lives."</blockquote>
-David Platt, <i>Follow Me</i>, p. 3,4</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-53314130568422708352013-06-01T09:25:00.000-04:002013-06-01T09:25:33.328-04:00The Explicit Gospel ~ Free!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"><a href="http://christianaudio.com/free">This months free audio book from Christian Audio</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"> is "The Explicit Gospel" by Matt Chandler (and Jared Wilson). Do yourself a favour and grab this one up. You will never outgrow your need for the gospel. Check out this trailer for the book. Crossway explains, "You know you know it... But then again, maybe you don't. Just because you go to church, used to go to church, or spend all your time at church, doesn't mean you really get the gospel—at least not in all its fullness and specificity. Inspired by the needs of both the overchurched and the unchurched, popular pastor Matt Chandler shows that the gospel has implications for more than just conversion as it comes to bear on the cosmos, our every day lives, and the full scope of redemptive history. With wisdom and wit, Matt plumbs the depths of the gospel in his debut book so that we might see the staggering implications of the good news of grace."</span></div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-52822339862620908642013-05-02T10:32:00.000-04:002013-05-02T10:32:36.034-04:00Open Letter To All Who Call Me An Intolerant BigotI couldn't have said (wrote) it better. Thanks to <a href="http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2013/05/an-open-letter-to-all-those-who-call-me-an-intolerant-bigot.html">Stephan Altrogge</a> who writes...<br />
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Dear Friends,</div>
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It’s been a pretty big brouhaha (I’ve always loved that word) lately, hasn’t it? First, NBA player Jason Collins openly admits that he is gay. Then, ESPN analyst Chris Broussard raises questions about the rightness/wrongness of being gay. Then all fury erupted. Now, Christians, and anyone else who questions the morality of homosexuality, are being accused of “intolerance”, “bigotry”, “closed-mindedness”, and other similar things.</div>
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And I get it, I really do. It takes a lot of courage for a professional athlete to admit that he is a homosexual. And then us hoity-toity Christians swoop in, raining on everyone’s parade. If I wasn’t a Christian, I’d probably be mad too. Christians are always ruining everyone’s party, or so it seems.</div>
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But see, here’s the thing: the reality is, you probably shouldn’t be calling me a bigot, you should be calling Jesus a bigot. Or I suppose you could call us both bigots. What I mean is, the only reason I oppose homosexuality is because of what Jesus says in the Bible. If it were up to me, I’d agree with the Beatles that all you need is love. Or, as Sheryl Crow put it, if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. I want everyone to be happy, to find love, and to be able to find meaningful relationships in life.</div>
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But ultimately it’s not up to me. As a Christian, I have given my life completely over to Jesus, which means all my opinions, ideas, desires, and dreams are submitted to him. He is the king, I am not. His word is final, his rule is complete. I can’t make Jesus fit me, I must fit him. I can’t make Jesus fit my opinions, I must make my opinions fit Jesus. The reason I oppose homosexuality is rooted solely in what Jesus says in the Bible (I am counting all of the New Testament as being the words of Jesus). The New Testament makes it clear that homosexuality is a sin. It’s not worse than any other sin, but it is a sin nonetheless.</div>
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Therefore, please don’t interpret my opposition to homosexuality as personal opposition to you. I have no vendetta against you, and carry no grudge toward you. I love you, and want you to experience God’s absolute best. I want to be friends with you, hang out with you, barbecue together. My opinion about homosexuality springs out of my allegiance to Jesus. My allegiance to Jesus takes highest precedent in my life, and informs everything I think and do.</div>
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So am I an intolerant bigot? I guess that depends on what you mean by “bigot”. Do I think certain things are objectively right and wrong? Yes. Jesus defines what is right and wrong, and my opinion must line up with his. Does that mean I hate those who do wrong things? No, absolutely not. In fact, I actively “tolerate” and respect those who hold different opinions than me, which is the true meaning of tolerance. When you call me a bigot you are implying that I actively hate you, which is far from the truth!</div>
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Ultimately, I want to be like Jesus. The Bible describes him as being full of grace and truth. On the one hand, he was gracious, loving, and respectful to those who did what was morally wrong. He spent many hours hanging around those who were despised by the religious leaders of the day. His love for people was not based on their righteousness. On the other hand, he lovingly spoke the truth to those who did what was wrong. He called people to submit their lives totally to him.</div>
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So if you’re going to call me a bigot, you must also call Jesus a bigot. But please don’t call Jesus a bigot. Bigotry implies venom and hatred, which is the opposite of Jesus. He loves you far more than you can possibly imagine.</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-46940792385478925642013-03-28T13:49:00.000-04:002013-03-28T13:49:25.068-04:00Good Friday<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A36UYrkpOw0" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-32074459207376515532013-02-12T11:23:00.002-05:002013-02-12T11:23:54.310-05:005 Things Every Daughter Needs to Hear From Dad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.danieldarling.com/2013/02/5-things-every-daughter-needs-to-hear-from-her-dad/">Daniel Darling writes...</a><br />
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I love having daughters. There is something about having a daughter that softens a man, adds a certain tenderness to his soul. In that spirit, I’d like to share five things every daughter needs to hear from her father:</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">1) You are beautiful and you are loved. </strong>This is something you should tell your daughter at least once a day and probably more than that. Telling her once every so often doesn’t cut it. I’m no psychologist, but daughters who know their father loves them grow up with more confidence and tend to avoid looking for love in all the wrong places. Hearing she is beautiful is oxygen for your daughter’s soul. So do it often, in different and creative ways.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">2) Your mother is beautiful and she is loved. </strong>The best gift you can give your daughter is to show her how a man treats a woman. Let her see modeled in you, however imperfectly, the God-given love between a man and a woman. Tell your wife daily that she is beautiful, that you love her, and that you are glad you married her. Tell her you are committed to her for life. And say these things, periodically, in front of your children.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">3) You belong to God and were created for his glory. </strong>Girls frequently battles insecurity over a number of issues: their weight, their looks, their friends. Maybe sometimes they feel unimportant or unwanted, even in a home with love. This is why you, as a father, should remind them often that they are special creations formed lovingly by the Creator in His image. You should read with them the words of David, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” from Psalm 139. That passage should be well-worn in your Bible and something internalized by your daughters for moments of doubt.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">4) You are forgiven. </strong>Your girls will mess up. They will sin. They will disappoint you. And if you don’t have the good news of the gospel at the center of your family, she may grow up wondering how to measure up or what to do with her sins. Evangelize your daughter and then disciple her. Train in her in the vital Christian practice of repentance and forgiveness. Repentance for her sin and forgiveness of others’ sins. Let her know that Christ is always ready with fresh supplies of grace. Let her know that she must apply that grace not only to herself, but toward others who will wound her.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">5) You are accepted. </strong>Whatever you do, don’t let your daughter consume the poison of the culture which measures a woman’s worth by her independence, by her ability to give away freely her purity. Don’t for a moment let her swallow the lie that sexual license is anything but a bondage of the worst kind, the enemy’s way of stealing the creativity and beauty and purpose for which she was created. Teach her what to look for in a man (hint: not the slackers you see on TV). Also: be that man so she knows what it looks like. Make her aware of the beautiful image of womanhood painted by the Creator. Her acceptance, her sense of self, her worth are bound up in her unique calling as God’s daughter.</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-58877852738825481882013-02-05T10:28:00.000-05:002013-02-05T10:28:50.914-05:00Follow Me<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/58562213?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
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<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-83726806353512607522013-01-16T11:27:00.000-05:002013-01-16T11:27:06.045-05:00Lance is just like everyone else...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.mbird.com/2013/01/lance-armstrong-redeems-lance-armstrong/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mbird+%28Mockingbird%29">Mockingbird...</a><br />
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The Wall Street Journal (online) has a piece in the January 15 issue called “<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324734904578241801441261928.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Behind Lance Armstrong’s Decision to Talk</a>” which attributes a quote to the athlete, and a response by a bureaucrat, that is decidedly not a snore. In a meeting with Travis Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Armstrong pointed to himself and said,”You don’t hold the keys to my redemption. There’s one person who holds the keys to my redemption, and that’s me.” We’ve covered this human desire before (most specifically <a href="http://www.mbird.com/2012/10/slugger-redeem-thyself/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">HERE</a>), but the fascinating thing about this quote isn’t the brazenness; it’s the common nature of the refrain.</div>
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<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Everyone </em>thinks that their redemption is up to them. Except, maybe, for Travis Tygart. Upon hearing Armstrong’s claim, Tygart allegedly responded, “That’s b-[expletive].” Now Tygart seems to have simply been calling bull-waste on Armstrong’s allusion to redemption in any form, claiming that the cyclist would do and say anything to be allowed to race again. But his initial reaction is accurate. The idea that we hold the keys to our own redemption is total b-[expletive].</div>
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That Armstrong might believe that baring his soul (or, at least, the contents of his medicine cabinet) to Oprah would lead to his redemption is, at worst, cynical in the extreme and at best, evidence of a woefully weak definition of redemption.</div>
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When Christians talk about redemption, we don’t refer to a return to a prior state of good standing. Some do, actually, but such thinking, as Gerhard Forde points out in his seminal <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Being-Theologian-Cross-Reflections-Disputation/dp/080284345X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358297780&sr=1-1&keywords=on+being+a+theologian+of+the+cross" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">On Being a Theologian of the Cross</span></a>, hinges on the un-Biblical notion of a “Fall.” We imagine that we were once at a certain place in our relationship with God, we messed that up, and Jesus gives us the ability to get back. That is, according to Forde, “a tightly woven <a class="glossaryLink" href="http://www.mbird.com/glossary/theology-of-glory/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Glossary: Theology of Glory">theology of glory</a>.” The truth is so much better. In our redemption (in <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">real </em>redemption) we are saved to a state higher than we ever had before: we are regarded as <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">one with Christ</em>, as God’s own son.</div>
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If that is the gift, then we cannot hold the keys. And thank goodness, too, because when another (a saving Christ) holds them, our gift is immeasurably more valuable.</div>
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HT / <a href="http://takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.ca/">Z</a></div>
</span>Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-27150878570902750362012-12-24T12:05:00.000-05:002012-12-24T12:05:13.318-05:00Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Let all mortal flesh keep silence,</span></div>
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And with fear and trembling stand;</div>
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Ponder nothing earthly minded,</div>
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For with blessing in His hand,</div>
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Christ our God to earth descendeth</div>
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Our full homage to demand.</div>
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King of kings, yet born of Mary,</div>
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As of old on earth He stood,</div>
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Lord of lords, in human vesture,</div>
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In the body and the blood;</div>
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He will give to all the faithful</div>
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His own self for heavenly food.</div>
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Rank on rank the host of heaven</div>
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Spreads its vanguard on the way,</div>
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As the Light of light descendeth</div>
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From the realms of endless day,</div>
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That the powers of hell may vanish</div>
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As the darkness clears away.</div>
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At His feet the six winged seraph,</div>
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Cherubim with sleepless eye,</div>
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Veil their faces to the presence,</div>
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As with ceaseless voice they cry:</div>
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Alleluia, Alleluia</div>
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Alleluia, Lord Most High!</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-16679116310550741142012-12-04T08:57:00.000-05:002012-12-04T08:57:06.203-05:00The Story of God<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E4cL-Zcxa9M" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-84631484034251691842012-11-08T08:51:00.000-05:002012-11-08T08:51:46.222-05:00Visual Theology<br />
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From <a href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology">Challies</a>...</div>
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Infographics have become all the rage over the past few years and are used to display all manner of information. Last year I found myself wondering if infographics could be used to display theology in a helpful and visually-appealing way. I soon spoke to a few graphic artists and commissioned a series of twelve infographics, each of which dealt with a particular point of theology. I made these graphics freely available to copy and download and also offered them for sale for those who wanted them professionally printed. Here is a round-up of those twelve graphics. And yes, for those who are asking, I do hope to have a new series early next year.</div>
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Simply click on any of the graphics to see it full-sized, to download it for free, or to purchase a poster.</div>
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The Order of Salvation</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-order-of-salvation" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Order of Salvation" src="http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/ordosalutis-thumb-small.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 172px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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The Attributes of God</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-attributes-of-god" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Attributes of God" src="http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/the-attributes-of-god-thumb-small.jpeg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 160px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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The Books of the Bible</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-books-of-the-bible" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Books of the Bible" src="http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/booksofthebible-thumb-small.jpeg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 183px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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Think on These Things</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-think-on-these-things" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Think on These Things" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/ThinkOnTheseThingsThumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 355px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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Awaiting the Messiah</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-awaiting-the-messiah" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Awaiting the Messiah" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/Awaiting_The_Messiah_Thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 435px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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The Trinity</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-trinity" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Trinity" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/Trinity_Thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 379px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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To the Glory of God</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-to-the-glory-of-god" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="To the Glory of God" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/To_the_Glory_of_God_Thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 252px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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The Message of the Tabernacle</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-tabernacle" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Tabernacle" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/Tabernacle_Thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 275px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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The Fruit of the Spirit</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-fruit-of-the-spirit" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Fruit of the Spirit" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/FruitOfTheSpirit_Thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 242px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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Reformed Theology</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-reformed-theology" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Reformed Theology" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/ReformedTheology_thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 185px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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One Another</h4>
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The Atonement</h4>
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<a class="nullify-border" href="http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-atonement" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 138, 138); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.1em; color: #3a3939; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Atonement" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/The_Atonement_Thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: initial !important; border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; height: 263px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; width: 520px;" /></a></div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-66506908909059788242012-11-01T09:03:00.004-04:002012-11-01T09:03:37.235-04:00What is the Mission of the Church - FREE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://christianaudio.com/free"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJkcUZCNDg836708TnDe8Yk2ywL4D9h_8VAEXdZ9u4ntYDBag_t5Se6L8dYJrH-0NYRnsj8r4G8XDbBO1rCGI1CbrT7xrBShD1m5HI9gzJ4gSJadqZGKLGdSeiFeagSJ3bZzTkDsk9PM/s1600/9781433526909.jpg" /></a></div>
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This month's free audiobook from <a href="http://christianaudio.com/free">Christian Audio is "What Is The Mission of The Church"</a> by Greg Gilbert and Kevin DeYoung. As Challies says, "no-brainer". Grab it up!!<br />
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<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-9576251368784006902012-10-25T09:02:00.000-04:002012-10-25T09:02:04.803-04:0012 Things To Do When Criticized<br />
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2012/10/12-things-to-do-when-youre-criticized.html">Mark Altrogge</a> writes...</span></div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">We will all be criticized at one time or another. Sometimes justly, sometimes unjustly. Sometimes others’ criticism of us is harsh and undeserved. Sometimes we may need it. How do we respond to criticism? I haven’t always done well and I’m still learning, but here are a few things I try to think of when others criticize me.</strong></div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Be quick to </strong><strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">hear. (James 1:19)</strong></div>
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This can be hard to do because our emotions rise up and our minds begin to think of ways to refute the other person. To be quick to hear means we really do try to listen to and consider what the other person is saying. We don’t just write it off. Even if it seems unjust or undeserved.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Be slow to speak (James 1:19).</strong></div>
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Don’t interrupt or respond too quickly. Let them finish. If you speak too quickly you might speak rashly or in anger.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Be slow to become angry.</strong></div>
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Why? Because James 1:19-20 says the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger won’t make someone do the right thing. Remember, God is slow to anger, patient and long-suffering with those who offend him. How much more should we be.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Don’t rail back.</strong></div>
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“When (Jesus) was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). Talk about being unjustly accused – Jesus was, yet continued to trust the Lord and did not revile in return.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Give a gentle response. </strong></div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></strong>“A soft answer turns away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1). Be gracious even to those who offend you, even as God is gracious to us when we offend him.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Don’t defend yourself too quickly.</strong></div>
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Defensiveness can rise out of pride and being unteachable.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Consider what might be true in the critique, even if it is given in a poor way.</strong></div>
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Even if it is given with the intent to hurt or mock, there still might be something worth considering. God might be speaking to you through this person.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Remember the Cross.</strong></div>
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Someone has said that people won’t say anything about us that the Cross hasn’t said and more, which is, we are sinners who deserve eternal punishment. So actually, anything anyone says about us is less than what the Cross has said about us. Turn to God who accepts you in Christ unconditionally despite your many sins and failures. We can be discouraged when we see areas of sin or failure but Jesus has paid for those on the cross and God is pleased with us because of Christ.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Consider the fact that you have blind spots </strong></div>
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We can’t always see ourselves accurately. Maybe this person is seeing something you can’t see about yourself.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Pray about the criticism</strong></div>
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Ask God for wisdom – “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Ask others for their opinion</strong></div>
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Your critic could be right or completely off-the-wall. If this is an area of sin or weakness in your life, then others will have seen it too.</div>
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<strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Consider the source. </strong></div>
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Don’t do this too quickly, but consider the other person’s possible motives, their level of expertise or wisdom, etc. They may be criticizing you to hurt you or they may not know what they’re talking about.</div>
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I don't know about you, but don't you kind of wish "completely freak out", or "pinch their neck off" were on that list? Let's face it, all of us have been on both ends of the equation if we're being honest. One lesson I learned long ago (although I still fail to remember on occasion) is this, "if they knew half the sin in my heart, they would rebuke me all the more."</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-27659181318389579782012-10-16T11:36:00.000-04:002012-10-16T11:36:32.093-04:00Why Should You Go to A Prayer Meeting?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.ordinarypastor.com/?author=1">Erik Raymond</a> writes<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Chances are someone has invited you to a prayer meeting. Your immediate response is probably predictable. “What time is it? And where do you meet?” Your next response is also highly predictable, “Why should I go to a prayer meeting?” My goal in this post is to provide help with the latter question.</span><br />
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Here is my short-list of 6 reasons why you should go to a prayer meeting.</div>
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2. <strong style="font-weight: bold; word-wrap: break-word;">Community-</strong> In the NT we know that personal prayer is to be prioritized and protected (<a class="lbsBibleRef" data-reference="Matt. 6.6" data-version="esv" href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Matt.%206.6" style="color: #4d8b97; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Matt. 6.6</a>). But we also see community prayer modeled and prescribed (<a class="lbsBibleRef" data-reference="Acts 1.14" data-version="esv" href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Acts%201.14" style="color: #4d8b97; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Acts 1.14</a>; <a class="lbsBibleRef" data-reference="2 Tim. 2.1-8" data-version="esv" href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Tim.%202.1-8" style="color: #4d8b97; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;">2 Tim. 2.1-8</a>). There is great refreshment in the gathering of believers, in-dwelt and led by the Holy Spirit, calling upon Trinitarian Community while in the church community.</div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; word-wrap: break-word;">3. Edification-</strong> Every time I pray with other believers I find myself edified. People often have different devotional soups on the front burner. God is preparing, teaching, and showing them different things than he is me. As these other believers pray they speak of what they are learning and how God is leading them to be sympathetic and burdened for others. This is surprisingly impactful and is a useful tool for my edification.</div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; word-wrap: break-word;">4. Training- </strong>Along the lines of edification there is great training when believers pray together. I think of the disciples who asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Evidently Jesus’ prayers were so different than others that they heard; they wanted to be instructed in the school of prayer by its headmaster. So too we as believers, as we are instructed by Christ in the Scriptures, find ourselves training together in prayer. Some people may not come to a prayer meeting because they feel that they are not “good” at praying. But this is precisely why they should come. There is great training in the meetings.</div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; word-wrap: break-word;">5. Serving-</strong> As believers gather together to lift of the needs of others and extol the beauty of God there is an aspect of service. This came home to me one day as a person in my family was very sick. In fact, it caused me to miss the weekly prayer meeting in the morning. Later that morning I received multiple messages from guys who were at the meeting saying how they were praying for the situation. I cannot detail the level of encouragement I received from this. Even so meeting, week after week, folks gather together to serve their brothers and sisters, their city, and saints around the world by lifting up petitions to God on their behalf.</div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; word-wrap: break-word;">6. Reminder-</strong> There is little else you can do that will remind you of your neediness than prayer. In fact, your prayer life corresponds directly with how needy you really feel. When you carve out time to meet with other believers you are reminded of your great need and great privilege. You have to be reminded by virtue of the fact that you are coming to God through Christ and petitioning for the glory of God in this world! This is a tremendous blessing for us to be reminded of our need even as we call out in need.</div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-70673139425496699802012-10-10T10:30:00.001-04:002012-10-10T10:30:27.235-04:00A Good Dad is Hard to Find<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGVFjvlY6Q5J6BM8dCSeNr3VYiNyNgL-tt8iL_RiIewYxEF7kfX9CPqXwaZBJzUeHu7AsVaF1kIZUVhfXdARhK8fE49nd4rmiifmWSsV4DYHQv5rH3mXFT5jRXXk5CbGqReoZf6kjeDlU/s1600/iStock_000002558645Large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGVFjvlY6Q5J6BM8dCSeNr3VYiNyNgL-tt8iL_RiIewYxEF7kfX9CPqXwaZBJzUeHu7AsVaF1kIZUVhfXdARhK8fE49nd4rmiifmWSsV4DYHQv5rH3mXFT5jRXXk5CbGqReoZf6kjeDlU/s640/iStock_000002558645Large.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/10/09/a-good-dad-is-hard-to-find/">JEREMY PIERRE writes</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Unreasonable, dissatisfied men roam this world. And many of them have children along the way. This is no surprise to our culture. The terrible father is a recurring motif in our literature and a common feature in our experience. You can read Mark Twain and Richard Wright, or you can talk to your child's classmate or a friend from church. A good dad is hard to find.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">People have generally lost the sense of what a strong, self-sacrificing father looks like, largely because they've never seen one. Anyone with a listening ear and a speck of empathy can see the unique difficulty that growing up under a crummy father can cause.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our early relational experiences---particularly with those entrusted with our care---are incredibly shaping. That's not a bad thing. In fact, it's part of God's design for human development. Through fathers and mothers, children receive a framework for understanding the world and everything in it, from important things like morality to relatively trivial things like clothing styles. Why else would God be so adamant that parents teach their children the knowledge of him in the context of the everyday activities of life (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Deut%206.7"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Deut 6:7</span></a>; <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Deut%2011.19"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">11:19</span></a>)? And alongside the words they speak, parents model the character of God in their affection for, generosity to, and patience with their children. This should be particularly true of fathers (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Psalm%20103.13"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Psalm 103:13</span></a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Matt%207.9-11"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Matt 7:9-11</span></a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Eph%205.4"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Eph 5:4</span></a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Col%203.21"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Col 3:21</span></a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/1%20Thes%202.7-12"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">1 Thes 2:7-12</span></a>).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So how can ministers of the gospel help people whose fathers were bad role models?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>First, we recognize that earthly fathers can lie to their children about the nature of fatherhood.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sadly, there is a wide spectrum of sins a father can commit against his children. Some fathers are volatile and moody, subjecting their children to an anxious existence. Other fathers are uncaring and unmotivated, showing little interest or delight in their children and thus depriving them of confidence in the relationship. Others are dissatisfied and accusatory, subjecting the children to impossible standards and punishing them with insults and manipulation. Still other fathers are lazy and indulgent, satiating their children with brightly colored distractions so that he can pursue distractions of his own. Each of these ways of relating to children lie to them about the nature of authority, fatherly dedication, familial intimacy, and the privileges of sonship.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Second, we recognize that these false beliefs about fatherhood can hinder a person from trusting the fatherhood of God.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is not to say that something irreparable gets knocked loose in the subconscious during the developmental years. Rather, the false beliefs formed through experience can be more functionally significant than what we learn from Scripture. Often, people approach God with the kind of suspicion they developed for their fathers, projecting on him the same moodiness or ill intent they suffered under. But this is to interpret God in precisely the wrong direction. We don't project on God things from our experience. He reveals himself to us, by which we then understand our experience.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Third, we recognize that God's revelation of himself as Father is ultimately the only way to undermine false beliefs about fatherhood.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Believing the gospel of Jesus Christ is more than just rejoicing that my sins are forgiven and that Jesus is my righteousness. It is also involves believing in my adoption as a son (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Eph%201.5"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Eph 1:5</span></a>, <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Gal%204.5"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Gal 4:5</span></a>) so that I can call out to God with the intimate confidence of a child-heir (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Rom%208.15-17"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Rom 8:15-17</span></a>). God includes his children in the love he has for the eternal second person of the Trinity (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/John%2017.23"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">John 17:23</span></a>,<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/John%2017.26"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">26</span></a>). Even those with excellent earthly fathers cannot imagine such generous divine fatherhood!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Faith in such a surpassing vision of fatherhood is a gift that God gives by the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of his Word. So we unapologetically rely on the Word to do what it alone can do. And as we cast this positive vision of God as he has revealed himself, we should also help identify and consciously put off those false beliefs about fatherhood that undermine childlike trust.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For instance, we may challenge others to consider the following lines of questioning to identify and oppose false beliefs provoked by poor fathering:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #41464c; font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How is your conception of God similar to your conception of your earthly dad? Volatile and moody, uncaring and unmotivated, dissatisfied and accusatory, lazy and indulgent? What does Scripture say about your conception of God?</span></li>
<li style="color: #41464c; font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How do you feel toward God? Do these feelings line up with what you know from Scripture or with something else? What do your feelings indicate about your attitude toward God?</span></li>
<li style="color: #41464c; font: 14.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What is the Father's disposition toward you? Are you thinking of your relationship with God as dependent upon your efforts to appease him? Does God put the burden of the relationship on your shoulders?</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Fourth, we help men to be earthly fathers who reflect their heavenly Father.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">People with crummy dads may know better than anyone else the importance of a good dad but feel the least equipped to be one since they didn't benefit from an example. Specific instruction in parenting is very helpful for those who lack the background to sense it naturally. But the more specific the instruction, we must be careful not to imply that there is a single system of parenting that, if followed, will result in his being a good dad. I've seen men from homes with poor or absent fathers become almost militaristic in an attempt to avoid being an inattentive dad. I've seen others become almost indulgent in an attempt to avoid being a harsh one.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The secret to becoming a great father is not so secret: by faith, be a child of your heavenly Father. As you trust your Father, you will know what fatherhood was meant to be. Here's a pertinent prayer from Paul---that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints" (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Eph%201.17-18"><span style="font: 14.0px Georgia; letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2100a7; text-decoration: underline;">Eph 1:17-18</span></a>).</span></div>
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Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-67435530166359511762012-10-02T12:55:00.002-04:002012-10-02T12:55:29.845-04:00Sounds That Can't Be Made<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGB0tAuV9gcmYOdl6Eu-3yW0SdumdxxKp3ogUSLZVb-oKMZN42TbXD1wi0kjv0zZkxdcTvbvuuEXMhDOBAOf2Lkx-w7DS5ErJkqUr90HCOr9i_SfM3P5blDakHDeE41DP5A0_BQ7y0Cc/s1600/280576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGB0tAuV9gcmYOdl6Eu-3yW0SdumdxxKp3ogUSLZVb-oKMZN42TbXD1wi0kjv0zZkxdcTvbvuuEXMhDOBAOf2Lkx-w7DS5ErJkqUr90HCOr9i_SfM3P5blDakHDeE41DP5A0_BQ7y0Cc/s1600/280576.jpg" /></a></div>
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Today is the day Canadian "Marillionaires" have been waiting for. I have already grabbed the latest offering from Marillion, "Sounds That Can't Be Made" from iTunes. First impression...it is stunning; it very well could be their best.<br />
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Check out the trailer...<br />
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And the single "Power"<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1aZxKeANsIw" width="560"></iframe><br />
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And the epic "Gaza"<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z5VKmyDEF6U" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<br />Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209004853387595040.post-74203902706630577972012-09-21T11:41:00.000-04:002012-09-21T11:41:36.765-04:00Ask For Tolerance<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2012/09/ask-for-tolerance.html">Greg Koukl</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">If you’re placed in a situation where you suspect your convictions will be labeled intolerant, bigoted, narrow-minded, and judgmental, turn the tables. When someone asks for your personal views about a moral issue—homosexuality, for example—preface your remarks with a question.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">You say: “You know, this is actually a very personal question you’re asking, and I’d be glad to answer. But before I do, I want to know if you consider yourself a tolerant person or an intolerant person. Is it safe to give my opinion, or are you going to judge me for my point of view? Do you respect diverse ideas, or do you condemn others for convictions that differ from yours?” Let them answer. If they say they’re tolerant (which they probably will), then when you give your point of view it’s going to be very difficult for them to call you intolerant or judgmental without looking guilty, too.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">This response capitalizes on the fact that there’s no morally neutral ground. Everybody has a point of view they think is right and everybody judges at some point or another. The Christian gets pigeon-holed as the judgmental one, but everyone else is judging, too. It’s an inescapable consequence of believing in any kind of morality.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>Trevor Peckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13682294489709952806noreply@blogger.com0