From One Degree to Another

Phil Auxier's Blog

Connect

Vacation Update #1…

by

Meg and I are on vacation. Pretty amazing blessing from God. We left Saturday (without our boys…Thanks, Robin!) and arrived in Colorado Springs that night. We got to Garden of the Gods just before sunset, which was amazing. Then we ate at Giuseppe’s Restaurant. Sunday, we got up and after some AM devotions together, headed to Pagosa Springs, CO. They are known for a natural hot spring that is one of the largest in the world. Oh, on our way, we enjoyed listening to Mark Driscoll teach on what it means to be a humble pastor. We enjoyed the discussion of it. We also, on our way here, stopped in at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Driving over Wolf Creek Pass was an amazing experience with the gorgeous scenery. We are here, though. I already feel so refreshed and encouraged. God has used this in amazing ways for us as well. We look forward to some tennis lessons and a lazy Monday today. Thanks so much for thinking of us.

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.

Youth Ministry vs. Adult Ministry…

by

Over at the DG Blog, they are beginning to blog about an interview Abraham Piper and Tyler Kennedy had with Paul Tripp. An early question had to do with the differences seen in ministering to youth versus ministering to adults. I LOVE Tripp’s answer:

There are ways in which there’s no difference. There’s only one gospel, not a different one for children, young people, and adults.

And there’s a way the struggles of the heart are the same. These struggles play out differently depending on our stage in life, but when it comes down to it, we all want to be sovereign over our own lives.

If you understand that about your heart, and you’re humble about it, you’ll get what a kid or teenager is going through. You’ll understand that it isn’t first a problem of misbehavior; it’s first a problem in the heart.

There is also an audio of this interview and probably more posts coming.

I learned this lesson on aiming at the heart a few years back and it has revolutionized my entire approach to ministry in the local church.

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.

C.J. on Productivity…

by

Productivity. Seems like an important topic these days, especially for those of us who live life eying a great day when we will stand before our Creator and give an account for the deeds done in the body (2 Corinthians 5:10). We don’t want to waste our time. We want to use it wisely to the glory of God. C.J. Mahaney recently wrote a 17 part series at his blog on Biblical Productivity. It has now been brought together into one PDF here. Enjoy and be challenged!

Sunday Recap – Courage and Fear

by

I thought we had a great Lord’s Day today.

The morning service featured our congregation learning I Will Glory In My Redeemer, having a baby dedication, and a sermon on courageous discipleship from Mark 14:43-52. The brunt of the message had to do with courageously following Christ not from misguided actions or failure, but with a firm eye on Jesus and His view of history unfolding according to His Father’s plans.

The evening service featured a new song called Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing). The message from Hosea 5:1-15 focused on rightly fearing God as our Righteous Judge. It was an awe-some picture of God in His Word.

I feel really encouraged and mindful of all that God did in our midst today. Any thoughts from anyone who was there today?

Resources recommended at TGC

by

At the Gospel Coalition conference last week, there were allusions made to the following 2 resources available on the web.

Tim Keller’s message pointed to a sermon by David Clarkson entitled Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven.

Similarly, Ligon Duncan alluded to a message by Spurgeon entitled Paul – His Cloak and Books (from 2 Timothy 4:13). Lig assumed that most of us were familiar with this, but we weren’t. However, we can make ourselves familiar with it now.