October 2010
4 posts
the greatest gift..
“The best thing about Christ is Christ himself. We prize his bounty to us, but we worship him. His gifts are valued, but he himself is adored. While we contemplate, with mingled feelings of awe, admiration, and thankfulness, his atonement, his resurrection, his glory in heaven, and his second coming, still it is Christ himself, stupendous in his dignity as the Son of God, and superbly...
“Historians of religion like to say that Christianity was born in the Middle East...”
– Dan Kimball “They Like Jesus but not the Church” pg.82 (via kjaere)
Ouch
“I asked for strength—
and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked...”
– FROM THE FAMILY OF MICHAEL JOB, AN INDIAN CHRISTIAN MEDICAL STUDENT WHO WAS KILLED IN JUNE OF 1999 BECAUSE OF HIS FATHER’S EVANGELISTIC ACTIVITIES (via kjaere)
September 2010
5 posts
psalm 77
matthew henry commentary on psalm 77:7-9
“If fear and melancholy ask such peevish questions, let faith answer them from the Scripture: Will the Lord cast off for ever? God forbid, Rom. 11:1. No; the Lord will not cast off his people, Ps. 94:14. Will he be favourable no more? Yes, he will; for, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion, Lam. 3:32. Is his mercy clean gone for...
“Let not the missionary be afraid, even if for thousands of years to come there should be little apparent success to the preaching of the gospel. If the Lord should tarry another six thousand years, ay, sixty thousand years—and he may—we are still to go on working, and still to go on labouring, looking for his coming, and expecting it, but not relaxing our efforts because he pleases to delay...
August 2010
6 posts
The price for our nondiscipleship is high for those without Christ. It is also high for the poor of this world. Consider the cost when Christian ignore Jesus’ commands to sell their possessions and give to the poor and instead choose to spend their resources on better comforts, larger homes, nicer cars and more stuff. Consider the cost when these Christians gather in churches and choose to...
grace
I did not choose God; He chose me (1 Peter 1)
I did not merely accept Christ into my life; He accepted me (romans 15:7)
Nor did I just allow Jesus to enter my heart; He, through His blood shed on the cross, provided a way for me to enter into His (Hebrews 10:18-22)
slavery
“For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us…”
Ezra 9:9a
“But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18
July 2010
4 posts
"least-wanted people" →
I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor.
psalm 140:12
For the Scripture says, ‘whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord be saved.
romans...
We must not only have an adequate theology of God, but also of Satan, when we are suffering. We are to avoid the two extremes: overestimating Satan’s power and therefore being intimidated by him, or underestimating his power and becoming vulnerable to his schemes…even when God allows Satan to break through His hedge around us, it is one of the ways we are lovingly chastened by God. Our...
without Christ
“Without Christ your religion is dead, corrupt, a stench, a nuisance before God—a thing of abhorrence, for where there is no Christ there is no life in any devotion, nothing in it for God to see that can possibly please him. And this, mark you, is a true description, not of some, but of all who are without Christ. You moral people without Christ, you are lost as much as the immoral. You rich...
June 2010
3 posts
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘the Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I have hope in Him.’
Lamentations 3:22-24
WE WANT YOU TO PRAY WITH US!
realityinthailand:
We are asking anyone who has the heart to pray for the Thailand team to join us this coming Tuesday, the 8th evening at 7 pm on the Carpinteria campus. The team will share current prayer needs that we can all beseech the Lord for. Please, please join us!
a love for justice: a present confidence and forward looking anticipation towards God’s righteous reversal of every wrong and ultimate renewal of all the earth.
“…the Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed…” ps. 9:9a
“…behold, I am making all things new.’ and He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.” rev....
May 2010
5 posts
“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit,...”
– Proverbs 16:32
“If it doesn’t break your heart, it isn’t love. If it doesn’t...”
– Jon Foreman, yet
April 2010
9 posts
“A bottle may be submerged in the waters of a fountain. But if the cork is not...”
– John A. MacMillan, The Authority of the Believer
“They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.” Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge—the...
“Our Lord did not use His divine power to defeat Satan. He used the same weapon...”
– Warren W. Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan
“Death is no longer banishment; it is a return from exile.”
– Spurgeon, Morning and Evening.
Pray for Burma. →
suppressed by an awful military regime, oppressed by the demonic forces behind buddhism and animism, and now a recent bombing killing 9. one more reason to pray.
“I believe that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do...”
– Shane Claiborne, founder of Servants Asia.
“Whose job is it to take care of the people who die needlessly from curable...”
– -Thomas Tighe, President & CEO of Direct Relief International.
my thoughts- perhaps the church??
the far reaching effects of salvation (it's not...
the reason for God’s blessings:
”God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples...
March 2010
10 posts
oops!
We error when we mistake personality or personal appearance with spirituality.
“When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance,...
Spurgeon makes me smile (on Rom. 10:13)
“Now, in order to make this will of God very distinct, he does not go into any detail, but he just says, “Whosoever.” That means the black man, and the red man, and the yellow man, and the white man. It means the rich man, and the poor man:, and the man who is not a man. It means everybody of every sort, and those who are of no sort at all, or of all sorts put together....
“How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
– Psalm 119:103
“Justification by faith is not contrary to the production of good works: God...”
– Charles Spurgeon
psalm 73:21-28
When my heart was embittered And I was pierced within, Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God...
February 2010
9 posts
Watch…
