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Weekend Recap – Prayer, Prayer and Christ

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Yesterday’s sermon, Clinging To Christ, from Hebrews 4:14-16 is online.  The sermon was led by this big idea in this portion of Scripture about Jesus being our high priest and the exhortations to hold fast our confession and draw near to the throne of grace with confidence.  It was an encouraging and needed word in my life.

In the PM, we met for corporate prayer praying together for some needs that are pressing in our congregation.  We typically do this once a quarter and have found it to be most productive when the Elders lead out with some specific requests.

At any rate, we enjoyed a tremendous Lord’s day and I’m grateful that I got to participate in it.

Some Helpful Links From TGC…

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This week, I’ve found a couple of links on The Gospel Coalition Blog helpful…
First off, last week Don Carson answered a question on how Peter handled the OT in a sermon in the book of Acts.  Particularly, this question alleged that Peter mishandled the text.  And, with the brilliance we’ve come to expect from him, Don answered and in his answer unfolded much helpful teaching on how we understand the NT use of the OT. 
The blog is also posting a series of posts on Pastors and Depression.  (One, Two, Three, Four, Five)  I doubt if many I have the privilege of serving believe pastors “don’t do anything but preach.”  But, it’s easy to think that because we have a sit down job of assembling things for public speaking each Sunday that it happens easily.  These posts will help give you ways you can particularly care for and understand the shepherds God has entrusted to you in the local church.  Seek to serve them so that their ministry to you is a joy.

Family Decline…Are you helping?

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I was challenged by a recent post on the Resurgence entitled The Decline of the Nuclear Family.  Among other things, this post highlighted how the demographics of families have changed and how the church should respond.  The point:

Perhaps the most loving, most prophetic thing the church can do is to call men in their 20s to love Jesus, read their Bibles, get a job, to leave their parent’s house, and to love one woman—according to the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the New York Times, no one is doing that.

Creating a culture of manhood is, evidently, not that hard. Let’s call men to this high standard and watch the fruit it produces.

Weekend Preview – He’s Tuned In

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This coming Lord’s Day we will, Lord willing, look at Hebrews 4:14-16 and the amazing picture we are given of our sympathetic high priest, Jesus the Son of God.  In reading to prepare for this, I thought Kent Hughes gave an amazing illustration that helps us see just how tuned in Jesus is to us:

His instrument, so to speak, was the same as ours. It is a fact that if you have two pianos in the same room and a note is struck on one, the same note will gently respond on the other, though not touched by another’s hand. This is called “sympathetic resonance.”

Christ’s instrument was just like ours in every way. And hear this! He took that instrument, that body, to Heaven with him. It is his priestly body. And when a chord is struck in the weakness of our human instrument, it resonates in his! There is no note of human experience that does not play on Christ’s exalted human instrument. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” — praise His name!

I hope as you consider the picture we see of Jesus in Hebrews 4:14-16, you too would be humbled by the truth that He’s tuned in to your struggles and the result would be you praising God.

Weekend Recap – God’s Powerful Word

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My sermon from 7/10/11, God’s Powerful Word out of Hebrews 4:12-13 is online.  I thought we had an amazing morning in corporate worship coupled with some great time examining these familiar verses as we continue to make our way through this book.  God’s Word is powerful and this sermon, in particular, pointed us to how God’s Word prepares us for the Gospel.

In the evening, our small group read through Chapter 5 of Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins on The Power of the Holy Spirit.  We were encouraged that in the fight with sin, we aren’t left to our devices but have been given God Himself to help us in the fight.

It was a full day, but filled with blessings from our Lord at each turn.  I hope you had a blessed day yourself.  

Gospel Friday – Do You Really Need The Gospel?

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Every Friday I try to post something related to Gospel centrality.  And, I was thinking this AM about how little I really “feel” my need of the Gospel.  Sure, press me objectively and I realize that as a sinner, I am separated from God and without hope apart from Christ.  But, subjectively, I thought I did pretty well this morning on my own.  And, this is a particularly frightening thing to me. 

You see the reality is that I am a sinner.  In preparation for Sunday’s sermon on Hebrews 4:12-13, it was intriguing to see the way God’s Word is so effective at cutting through the surface to the real, substantial issues of the heart.  Furthermore, God’s Word will render us guilty as we stand before God someday.  I need to be one who enters God’s rest not because I pulled my bootstraps up and finally got with the program.  I need to enter God’s rest by ceasing from my works (Hebrews 4:10).  Therefore, today, in those moments you don’t feel your need of the Gospel, take a moment, pause, and consider your soul.  The reality is that you need the Gospel far more than you let on…

Three For Thursday – Some Links I’ve Recently Found Helpful…

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ESV, the Bible translation our church uses,recently had a post on how to they are capitalizing on the digital craze. If you have an e-reader, they offer the Bible free there and have apps for Android, IPhone and IPad.

If you would like to read some great encouragement for children’s ministry, our elders have been greatly helped by Yancey Arrington’s Gospel Centered Curriculum for Children.

Related to that, this Fall, we are heading a bit of a different direction on Wednesday nights with our children and will be using a new curriculum called God’s Story. One feature I especially appreciate is what they call the Emmaus Moment each week, so that no matter where you are in the Bible, you can relate that back to Jesus (much like Jesus did on the Emmaus Road with His disciples). We’re excited about the Gospel-centrality that may emerge in the lives of children through this.

Thoughts on Affirmation in Marriage…

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…from Sam Crabtree, ala the Biblical Counseling Coalition blog:

BCC: “What does affirmation practically look like in a marriage? Parenting?”

SC: “Spot any aspect of Christlikeness in your family member—honesty, patience, diligence, creativity, endurance, faithfulness (there are easily dozens of such commendable qualities)—and then say something like, ‘God is developing the beautiful quality of (hospitality, generosity, orderliness, etc.) in you. I want to be like you as you are becoming like God in that way.’ It’s that simple. But such brief conversations inject immeasurable freshness and encouragement into relationships, while God gets praised for being the Source of such good things.”

So…are you using your words to draw attention to Christ in your family? Good thought, indeed.