From One Degree to Another

Phil Auxier's Blog

Connect

Tripp on the “Little Moments”

by

Tony Reinke did an excellent service in posting this (from Paul Tripp’s latest curriculum What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage):

You and I don’t do many significant things in our lives. We only make 3-4 major decisions. Most of us will not be written up in history books. Sorry, it’s true. For most of us, several decades after we die, the people we leave behind will struggle to remember the events of our lives. You live in the utterly mundane. You live in little moments. And if God doesn’t rule your little moments He doesn’t rule you because that is where you live. I think one of the big problems we make in our marriages is when we name little moments as “little moments” and say they are not important. If the character of a life is not set by four or five big moments but is set by 10,000 little moments, every little moment of your life is important. That’s where your life is formed and that’s where your relationships are built and formed. We cannot back away from the little moments because that happens to be where we live. And our God is a God of the little moments. He enters those little moments with his truth and wisdom and grace. [session 1, 7:50-9:30]

This was especially helpful as I anticipate HomeWord tonight and the truth we will look at from 1 Corinthians 7:32-35.

Wed PM Awana Awards…

by

Tonight, I get to speak to the children who have labored hard all year in memorizing Scripture for our church’s AWANA program. I’m going to give them an appeal from 2 Timothy 2:1-9 and encourage them, as Paul did Timothy to look to the Gospel.

There are 3 analogies used. Here’s the ESV Study Bible on them…
Verse 4 [The Soldier] calls for a single-minded desire to please God.
Verse 5 [The Athlete] reiterates that one must obey God’s rules in order to succeed.
Verse 6 [The Farmer] is the least clear but seems to encourage hard work by holding out the promise of blessing.

Pray that my words would encourage them and point others to the Gospel.

Gospel Coalition Audio…

by

Audio from the main sessions and part of the workshops are online for the taking. Enjoy.

Session 1: Tim Keller, “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry” (Acts 19:21-41)
Session 2: John Piper, “Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:1-12)
Session 3: Phil Ryken, “The Pattern of Sound Words” (2 Timothy 1:13-2:13)
Session 4: Mark Driscoll, “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:14-26)
Session 5: K. Edward Copeland, “Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry” (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
Session 6: Bryan Chapell, “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 3:10-4:5)
Session 7: Ajith Fernando, “Gospel-Faithful Mission in the New Christendom“
Session 8: Panel Discussion: Tim Keller, John Piper, Ligon Duncan and Crawford Loritts (chair: Stephen Um)
Session 9: Ligon Duncan, “Finishing Well” (2 Timothy 4:6-22)
Session 10: Don Carson, “That By All Means I Might Win Some’: Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Good Friday / Easter Posts…

by

Thought I would wrap together some of the excellent posts I’ve seen related to Good Friday and Easter…

John Piper posts A Conversation with Death on Good Friday

GirlTalk give some practical tips, including how to make resurrection cookies. They also link to these videos:

Rick Gamache’s Crucifixion Narrative was again useful in my life.

Justin Taylor had many excellent posts.

Visit these and other sites and let your meditation on this special week continue.

Weekend Preview – Easter

by

It occurred to me this morning that I hadn’t posted since Monday. I had a pretty busy week pulling together our Good Friday Service (which went quite well and allowed us to focus on the death of our Lord) and our Easter Service.

Our Early Time starts at 8AM tomorrow, we will sing the Easter Song and In Christ Alone, and hear God’s Word announce the incredible news that “He Is Risen“.

After a breakfast/brunch and Sunday School, we will return for more corporate worship. Our text is 2 Timothy 2:8-9. There will be much boasting in the Gospel and, specifically, giving glory to God’s Son for all that He accomplished in it. Set your heart on Him this weekend and we will see Him glorified.

Progress…

by

Yesterday, we had one of our missionaries give a report of how the Gospel is thundering forth in the Indonesian islands. This led me to remember (one of those theological “duh” moments) that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). We act as if our world is just hostile and that the Gospel isn’t up to the task of saving even the worst of them. But nothing is impossible with Him (Matthew 17:20). Be encouraged in your work. Center on Christ and the Gospel and watch Him save!