Filed under: Humor
Kevin, I had no idea. Way to express your true feelings!
Filed under: Culture
By: Travis Evans
Creativity is a gift from God. And, it seems to be lacking around here as of late. Creativity can be applied to all areas of your life. Men are generally seen as bland individuals while women are the creative ones. I say that a man is not a man unless he is creative. Why? Creativity takes thought, intentionality, and time. As men, we should desire to not live in “the same ol’ same ol'” and to add variety to our lives and others. So, how do you become creative?
Pray Seeing as that creativity is a gift, one cannot “churn” creativity out of nowhere. Pray that God would make you a creative person. God loves variety and loves a variety of worship. Pray that, as creativity is applied to what you do, God would receive glory from your creative acts.
Now, we shift into application.
Buy a journal and sketchbook Borders sells a nice, hardcover journal and sketchbook for only $4 each. (They have either a J or S on the cover.) Free time can be spent writing down thoughts and/or sketching and doodling.
Carpe…opportunity [Seize the opportunity] Attention husbands and future husbands, if you find yourself with a day off from work, don’t spend the day playing Xbox while your wife cleans the house. Take this wonderful opportunity to be creative and do something out of the ordinary.
Everyone, look intently for opportunities to be creative. There are so many things around us that can have creativity added to them.
I don’t post this to show what I have done but rather to show God’s faithfulness to creativity (because I do not consider myself a poet and, while writing this, it became a wonderful time of worship) and to hopefully edify you guys with this creative moment.
Twas I
Twas I who saw this Jesus die
for I was one yelling “Crucify!”
Twas I who helped to nail Him there,
as His eyes were fixed in stare.
“Forgive them,” was His only cry.
“Forgive from what?” thought I.
Now, I saw what I had done,
killing the only innocent One.
All of my sins were being brought nigh,
as I killed this One from on high.
Then, I saw the price I must pay
for all my evil that led to this day.
I knew for my sin that one must die.
That’s when I heard Him say, “Twas I.”
Filed under: Featured Resource
by Mike Plewniak
Sovereign Grace has made all their mp3 messages online FREE! That’s right, download as many as you want for FREE. What you do is put them in your cart, check out, and pay NOTHING. Let me put it another way, FREE messages from speakers like:
Randy Alcorn
Mark Altrogge
Mike Bullmore
Mark Dever
Ligon Duncan
Wayne Grudem
Joshua Harris
C. J. Mahaney
John MacArthur
Carolyn McCulley
Albert Mohler
John Piper
David Powlison
Ken Sande
R.C. Sproul
Bruce Ware
Did I mention that all these messages are FREE?
Filed under: Throttle Up Thursday
GUITAR EDITION!
Why yes, this is a harpguitar!
Filed under: Books
by Mike Plewniak
This is from Milton Vincent’s little book “A Gospel Primer”. You can download this book or purchase it.
“The gospel reveals to me the breathtaking glory and loveliness of God, and in so doing, it lures my heart away from love of self and leaves me enthralled by Him instead. The more I behold God’s glory in the gospel, the more lovely He appears to me. And the more He appears, the more self fades into the background like a former love interest who can no longer compete for my affections. Preaching the gospel to myself every day reminds me of God’s astounding love for me and also of His infinite worthiness to be loved by me above all else. These reminders deliver a one-two punch to my innate self-absorption and leave me increasingly absorbed with Christ.”[1]
[1] Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer, p. 34.
Filed under: Humor
It has come to my attention that guys and girls use language in almost completely different ways. Let’s take group conversations for instance.
When a group of guys are together and talking (which is rare) there is a clear direction for the discussion and every comment interjected by each guy is an attempt to reach a conclusion and end the conversation. Not that the guys don’t want to talk, but the whole point of entering a discussion in the first place, for guys, is to find an answer to a question, reach a conclusion concerning a decision, or to get something done.
Not so with the ladies. When ladies are together talking, each comment interjected only opens up exponentially more questions and multiplies the number of topics being considered. Not only that, but girls often care more about the way comments are made or the environment in which the conversation is being held than actually talking. Usually, in the middle of everything, one girl will start doing another girl’s hair or altering the room’s decorations. Two others will excuse themselves into the kitchen to bake brownies and to develop a side/sub conversation. (This sub conversation will be reintroduced into the main conversation when the brownies are done, further multiplying the topics/questions)
Also, a conclusion is an alien concept to female conversations. There is no attempt to answer the question that began the discussion, or to make a decision concerning the topic that initiated the conversation. Most conversations end in three ways:
1. Since emotions play a huge role in female conversations, at least one or maybe two girls will begin crying and the rest of the girls will spend the rest of the time consoling, hugging, praying for, and rubbing the distressed girls’ back(s) until they finish sobbing.
2. One girl realizes that she talked far too long and is going to be late for (fill in the blank). This snaps all of the girls back into reality and they all go their separate ways, feeling like they have accomplished big things, when in reality they are probably more confused about life than when they began.
3. No girl can think to say anything else because no two girls are talking about the same thing anymore. Each girl’s brain has been completely sidetracked by the number of topics discussed or from emotional overload. They simply couldn’t handle one more idea or emotional stimulus. Each girl wanders off confused and disconnected from reality, wrestling with significant questions, not about the conversation, but whether not so-and-so is mad at her or if so-and-so is making a poor decision or if so-and-so liked so-and-so’s new haircut, etc.
Kevin
For the math nerds and engineers out there, here’s some graphs to explain.
Filed under: Devotions
by tmaples
Erik Raymond over at Irish Calvinist on why we should value Jesus above all else:
“This is amazing to me. Here you have Jesus eternally enjoying the uninterrupted glory and joy within the Godhead (Jn. 17.5) and, at the same time, willingly condescending in draping himself in humanity, becoming a servant, humbling himself to the point of mockings, rejection, and ultimately death (Phil. 2.5-8).”
“O’ let it boggle your mind that Jesus Christ left heaven’s beauty to breathe in the smog of our sin and ultimately guzzle the vat of condemnation that we as humanity have been fermenting since that fateful day in Eden.”
Mike Plewniak encouraged us to develop a habit of staring at the Son. Let’s stare until we can no longer recognize what’s so attractive about sin. Let’s stare until the glory of the World fades to black and it’s false imitations are burned away. Use the quote above as a spring board into meditation on the cross.
Meditate on Christ willingness to endure the horrors of the cross. Not just the beatings, mockings, spit, cursings, rejection, nails, hunger, or thirst. I’m convinced the the horror lay not so much in those physical feelings, but rather in the darkness that enveloped Christ on the cross. He who lived in unapproachable light from eternity past enjoying sweet continual communion with the Father and the Spirit was swallowed up in darkness. In an instant darkness covered the land and all you could hear was the terrifying cry of the King of kings “‘Eli Eli, lema sabachthani? that is ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'”(Matthew 27:46)
He must of seemed like a boy groping, flailing, panicking in complete darkness calling for the Father that he loves, “Father!? Father!? Where did you go!?” We must keep in mind he had always enjoyed complete perpetual intimacy with the Godhead, never had he known a moment apart, never had his communion been interrupted, never had he experienced darkness until the cross.
Here’s how Spurgeon portrayed the scene:
“This[darkness] it was that made Him sweat great drops of blood falling to the ground, and this it was that on the cross made Him utter that appalling cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ It was not the crown of thorns, or the scourge, or the cross that made Him cry, but the darkness, the aweful darkness of desertion that oppressed His mind and made Him feel like one distraght. All that could comfort Him was withdrawn, and all that could distress him was piled upon Him” (The Power Of The Cross of Christ, P.98)
Be blinded by the light of the Son for he was blinded by the darkness of God’s judgement for our sin.
Cambodian Government Bans Door-to-Door Evangelism
Abortion Raises Crime Rates, Economist Says
Homosexual Content Prominent on Primetime TV, Study Says
Evolution Theory Overhauled after the Discovery of “Handy Man” Fossil
Walking May Harm Environment More than Driving
by Travis Maples
Sunday’s message reminded me of a verse Amy and I memorized a couple of months ago. That ONE verse kept resounding in my head as I listened to the quote by JC Ryle that Plew referenced in the previous post. That verse being:
“ONE THING have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon his beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4
Have you ever dug into why King David would say such a thing? Out of everything the man had, everything he could’ve longed for, asked for or sought after, he only wanted one thing. That one thing he wanted was to dwell in the house of the Lord always. He was ate up with this one desire. I love it! “ONE THING have I asked, and that ONE THING will I seek!” Forget the concubines, forget the kingdom, forget all my enemies, he wanted God. His source of joy and satisfaction was God himself. He was a man after God’s own heart.
Here’s description of a resource by Sam Storms that reaches for David’s heart while helping you fan into flame that same passion for One Thing:
“The goal of our creation was not simply that we might be happy, but happy in appreciating God’s own glory. Not in reviewing our own accomplishments or in the enjoyment of our own sensual appetites. This inspiring work helps us see that beauty has the power to convince the inquiring mind of truth. The soul’s contact with God’s beauty elicits love and forges in us a new affection that no earthly power can overcome.”
Filed under: Manly men of history
by Mike Plewniak
This is a quote Bill Kittrell used last Sunday in his message at CCK. Great quote. Great message.
Enjoy.
“Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way. It is a desire which no man feels by nature – which the Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted…A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God…He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God’s glory.” JC Ryle
Manspeak 