As we continue with our Week of Prayer, I thought I would commend John Piper’s Sunday message, which was also on prayer and is now online.
Entitled Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit, this sermon explores the tension between prayer being free and disciplined. You can read, watch, or listen to or download it.
Today’s sermon, which was overview from Colossians on Prayer, is now online. This sermon helped to serve our church by kicking off the Week of Prayer. We were encouraged to pray:
– gratefully
– for growth
– for the Gospel’s progress
and – with discipline
I was encouraged by the example of Epaphras in Colossians 4:12, who of whom it was said his prayers were striving for the growth of others. I hope you practice prayer this week and you are encouraged to depend on God for all things in 2010.
Donald Whitney, who will be speaking at Crestview March 12-14, has pieced together some excellent questions to ask during the New Year. We put these in a bulletin insert today and you should really make time to consider these things in your stewarding your life to God’s glory.
I’ve had a couple people contact me about Bible Reading Plans.
Please go to Justin Taylor’s helpful summary to find one that suits your needs.
I just saw online that the Gospel Coalition has started a daily devotional from D.A. Carson, which is the one I used in 2008-2009.
For what it’s worth, this year I will be using the Discipleship Journal Plan. This year I’m hoping to spend more time in Scripture Memory and this plan frees up 5 days a month to use. You also read in OT, Psalms, NT Gospel and NT. Allow God’s Word to settle in you in 2010.
I guess some of you see that there has been a break in the blogging for me. We left Christmas Day and drove through the historic midwestern snow storm last week. Pretty uneventful trip and ended up here at my Mom’s safely. I’ve had pretty relaxing days all in all. We went to her church on Sunday and have been shopping for some post Christmas bargains. Yesterday, worked on my Mom’s clothes dryer for a bit. Today, helping her take down Christmas decor. Oh, we also finished a 1000 piece puzzle. Watched some movies as well. That’s about it. I anticipate the week gaining speed as we return home later this week and get back in the swing of things here soon.
May your day be filled with praise to Jesus for His coming and taking on human flesh so that we might be redeemed far as the curse is found. Let’s praise God today for the Gospel! Here’s a link to listen to or download Advent Songs by Sojourn Music:
The song “Glory Be” is my favorite.
At the height of the song, we hear:
Hallelujah, the Lord of life has come
To reconcile the nations to their God
Hallelujah, he’s coming back again
To finish what began in Bethlehem.
This is what we celebrate today.
Holiday break is fast approaching and as we think about Jesus coming to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), I am going to take Justin Buzzard’s challenge. He recommends we work through this chart this holiday to remind ourselves of the truth that in Christ, we are sons and daughters of God:
He links to a longer version of this chart and while you’re on that page, download Gospel Encouragement to Cheer Up (2nd from the top). (We will be using World Harvest Misson’s Gospel Centered Life curriculum in small groups this Winter.)
I’ll close with an amazing quote from the Gospel Encouragement to Cheer Up article and see if your heart isn’t better stirred to praise Jesus:
The gospel is the best news we could ever hear. The gospel is about Jesus Christ and his power to transform our lives and relationships, communities, and ultimately, the nations. Through this gospel, we are freely given a new identity—an identity not based on race, social class, gender, a theological system, or a system of rules and regulations. Rather it is a new and perfect identity based solely on faith in Christ, an identity that defines every aspect of our lives. We are now forgiven, righteous, adopted, accepted, free, and heirs to everything that belongs to Christ. So even our sin, weakness, and failures do not define who we are. Because of this good news, we no longer have to hide from our sin and imagine that we have it all together, for God knows and loves us as we are, not as we pretend to be.
May you spend this Christmas season honoring the Savior who accomplished these very things for you in His life, death and resurrection.
As the year winds down here, I have been thinking about how busy I’ve been in a recent season and considering what adjustments need to be made and where and I came across a helpful tool that I used in years previous to think about this. Check out this Pastor’s Accountability Form from Desiring God. I appreciate how this tool gets at more than just “so what’d you do?” to the deeper heart issues of thoughts, energy level, feelings, rest, Bible memory, family, integrity, eating and exercise. I commend it to all of you to use.
A Sermon Jam takes clips from sermons, sets them to music and it gives the message an interesting twist. Here’s one from Matt Chandler entitled 7 Miles…
(HT: Aaron Fenlason)
Enjoying some free holiday music from Amazon and noticed they have this single from Brandon Heath: The Night Before Christmas as part of their free downloads…
