It’s OK to admit that you’re weak

“Contrary to cultural opinion, it’s okay to admit that you’re weak, God’s grace is sufficient, but it’s not okay to fake strength!”

- Paul David Tripp, Twitter post

(HT: Of First Importance)

By faith in Jesus

“We become Christians by faith in Jesus, we stay Christians by faith in Jesus, and we grow as Christians by faith in Jesus.”

- Tim Chester, You Can Change (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway, 2010), 43-44.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Nothing is better than God

Ultimately, nothing is better than anything else if it's just another substitute for God, who alone can eternally satisfy.

G. K. Chesterton on belief

G. K. Chesterton: The danger when men stop believing in God is not that they'll believe in nothing; but that they will believe in anything.

What was a church service like in the second century?

In the first century, "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42 ESV), but "what was a church service like in the second century?" What should a church service look like today?

What are we apart from Christ?

In a post titled "What are we apart from Christ?" Justin Taylor considers what everybody is apart from Christ in light of Romans chapter 1 and provides a good example of active reading, which is nothing less than asking questions about a text and attempting to answer them within the context of that text.

The Name of Jesus

Here's a prayer titled "The Name of Jesus" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 38-39):

ALL-SEARCHING GOD,

Thou readest the heart,
viewest principles and motives of actions,
seest more defilement in my duties
than I ever saw in any of my sins.

The heavens are not clean in thy sight,
and thou chargest the angels with folly;
I am ready to flee from myself because of
my abominations;
Yet thou dost not abhor me
but hast devised means for my return to thee,
and that, by thy Son who died to give me life.

Thine honour is secured and displayed even in
my escape from thy threats,
and that, by means of Jesus
in whom mercy and truth meet together,
and righteousness and peace kiss each other.
In him the enslaved find redemption,
the guilty pardon,
the unholy renovation;
In him are everlasting strength for the weak,
unsearchable riches for the needy,
treasures of wisdom and knowledge for
the ignorant,
fullness for the empty.
At thy gracious call I hear, take, come, apply,
receive his grace,
not only submit to his mercy but acquiesce in it,
not only glory in the cross but in him crucified
and slain,
not only joy in forgiveness but in the one through whom atonement comes.

Thy blessings are as secure as they are glorious;
Thou hast provided for my safety and my prosperity,
and hast promised that I shall stand firm and
grow stronger.
O Lord God, without the pardon of my sin I cannot
rest satisfied
without the renovation of my nature by grace
I can never rest easy,
without the hopes of heaven I can never be
at peace.
All this I have in thy Son Jesus; blessed be his name.

Biblia.com = Bible study online

From Andy Naselli:

The president and CEO of Logos Bible Software explains:

•Biblia.com is “a super-simple Bible for the web that’s backed up by the incredible technology (and massive library!) of Logos Bible Software.”
•“Logos 4 users can access their library online, complete with synchronization of ‘last read’ position between Logos 4, the iPhone/iPad, and Biblia.com!”
•“With shared licenses between Logos Bible Software 4 for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Mobile Web, and Biblia.com, your content is available wherever you are.”

More about Biblia.com:

Biblia.com is your place for Bible study online. Part of a family of services from Logos Bible Software, it offers free access to a collection of Bibles and Bible reference works, with an easy user interface and powerful search engine.

More Content
Everyone gets free access to a number of Bibles and a few other resources. Log into Biblia.com (with your Logos.com account, or by making a free account here) for access to dozens of free Bible study resources.

Biblia.com uses exactly the same e-books and account management as Logos Bible Software, whether you download software or not. That means that Biblia.com already offers thousands of high quality resources for Bible study. You can purchase content for use with Logos Bible Software for Windows or Macintosh, or simply unlock it online at Logos.com, and you’ll have access to it online at Biblia.com.*

Anywhere Access
Logos Bible Software works on the Macintosh, for Windows, on the iPhone, iPad, and even supports mobile web browsers at http://library.logos.com. Your single user account works with all of these platforms, as well as here at Biblia.com. Purchase an e-book in one place and you can use it everywhere!* Future releases will even synchronize your notes across all the platforms.

Powerful Platform
Biblia.com is designed to make it easy to use a Bible side-by-side with helps and reference books. But underneath it is built on the same powerful platform as Logos Bible Software 4, the world’s leading Bible software. Logos has been developing Bible software for nearly two decades. Today it is a team of more than 170 people offering more than 10,000 titles for Bible study; Biblia.com is our way of delivering all that experience and content to users who prefer a web interface.

Open APIs
Biblia.com is designed as a service for everyone who wants to study the Bible. The site features a rich Application Programming Interface (API) at http://api.biblia.com. It’s possible to integrate Bible content from Biblia.com into your own projects. In the coming months we’ll be exposing even more of the powerful technology underneath the site.

Just the Beginning
Biblia.com is in beta release now; this release represents just a fraction of the features we have planned! Please share your ideas by joining the conversation on our forums.

Jesus: The Only Way to God - Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved?

John Piper asks and answers the question "Is Jesus the only way of salvation" in his book "Jesus: The Only Way to God - Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved?"

Here's a description of the book:

If the evangelical church at large was ever too confrontational in its evangelism, those days are gone. In our shrinking, pluralistic world, the belief that Jesus is the only way of salvation is increasingly called arrogant and even hateful. In the face of this criticism, many shrink back from affirming the global necessity of knowing and believing in Jesus.

In Jesus: The Only Way to God, John Piper offers a timely plea for the evangelical church to consider what is at stake in surrendering the unique, universal place of Jesus in salvation. If you're concerned about the current state of evangelism--and the church--this book is a must-read.

Read an excerpt

Here is a list of the contents:

1. Is Jesus the Only Way of Salvation? Three Questions in One 17
2. Will Anyone Experience Eternal, Conscious Torment under God’s Wrath? 31
3. Is the Work of Jesus Necessary for Salvation? 53
4. Is Conscious Faith in Jesus Necessary for Salvation? Part One: The Mystery of Christ and the Times of Ignorance 61
5. Is Conscious Faith in Jesus Necessary for Salvation? Part Two: The Case of Cornelius 79
6. Is Conscious Faith in Jesus Necessary for Salvation? Part Three: No Other Name under Heaven 91
7. Is Conscious Faith in Jesus Necessary for Salvation? Part Four: The Missionary Task as Seen by Paul and John 106

The Gospel Song: An animation of the greatest news in all the world

Here's a video of "The Gospel Song" with an excerpt from a John Piper message.



(HT: Justin Taylor)

The Bible is not about you; it is about Jesus Christ

(HT: Justin Taylor)

God's grace triumphs over people's problems and sin, and God's Word trumps mere human advice

‎90 percent of the time I have an answer to people's problems, but the answer is usually mine, not God's. And when the answer is from God's Word, 90 percent of the time people don't want to hear it, including me. Thank God that 1 percent of his grace is greater than 100 percent of my and other people's sin.

Weeping and rejoicing

"See yourself and weep. See your God and rejoice.” - Paul David Tripp

(HT: Of First Importance)

Union with Christ

Here's a prayer titled "Union with Christ" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 36-37):

O FATHER,

Thou hast made man for the glory of thyself,
and when not an instrument of that glory,
he is a thing of nought;

No sin is greater than the sin of unbelief,
for if union with Christ is the greatest good,
unbelief is the greatest sin,
as being cross to thy command;
I see that whatever my sin is,
yet no sin is like disunion from Christ by unbelief.

Lord, keep me from committing the greatest sin
in departing from him,
for I can never in this life perfectly obey
and cleave to Christ.

When thou takest away my outward blessings,
it is for sin,
in not acknowledging that all that I have is of thee,
in not serving thee through what I have,
in making myself secure and hardened.

Lawful blessings are the secret idols, and
do most hurt;
the greatest injury is in the having,
the greatest good in the taking away.

In love divest me of blessings that I may glorify
thee more;
remove the fuel of my sin,
and may I prize the gain of a little holiness
as overbalancing all my losses.

The more I love thee with a truly gracious love
the more I desire to love thee,
and the more miserable I am at my want of love;
The more I hunger and thirst after thee,
the more I faint and fail in finding thee,
The more my heart is broken for sin,
the more I pray it may be far more broken.

My great evil is that I do not remember
the sins of my youth,
nay, the sins of one day I forget the next.
Keep me from all things that turn to unbelief
or lack of felt union with Christ.

The best book I've read for new and renewed followers of Jesus

Thabiti Anyabwile said Stephen Smallman’s "The Walk: Steps for New and Renewed Followers of Jesus" is "the best book I've read for new and renewed followers of Jesus." With high praise like that, it's certainly worth a look.

Here are seven reasons he found the book helpful:

1. It’s clear.


2. It’s gospel-centered, gospel-driven, gospel-motivated–choose your favorite “gospel + adjective” combination.


3. It’s clear about conversion.


4. It’s focused on discipleship.


5. It emphasizes the importance of the local church.


6. The Walk also keeps the reader in the Bible.


7. The Walk introduces people to history and biography.

For elaborating comments on his reasons, read his post. He also lists the book's table of contents.

Great servants but lousy masters

Phillip Jensen from the forthcoming book "The Archer and the Arrow": Commentaries, Bible dictionaries and the like are great servants but lousy masters.

Read a longer excerpt from the book at Challies.com.

The cost of discipleship: To give all that you have and are for all that Christ Jesus is

Considering all that God is and promises to be for us in Jesus Christ, the cost of discipleship seems hardly a sacrifice. The Christian life, however, should be a sorrowful-yet-always-rejoicing experience. Consider Steve Lawson's preaching on Luke 14.



Luke 14:25-33

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

(HT: Grant Castleberry)

No people ever rise higher than their idea of God

"No people ever rise higher than their idea of God, and conversely, a loss of the sense of God’s high and awesome character always involves a loss of a people’s moral values and even what we commonly call humanity. We are startled by the disregard for human life that has overtaken large segments of the western world, but what do we expect when countries like ours openly turn their back upon God? We deplore the breakdown of moral standards, but what do we expect when we have focused our worship services on ourselves and our own often trivial needs rather than on God? Our view of God affects what we are and do ..."

James Montgomery Boice, Psalms, Volume 3: Psalms 107–150 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1998), 912.

Fullness in Christ

Here's a prayer titled "Fullness in Christ" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 34-35):

O GOD,

Thou hast taught me
that Christ has all fullness and
so all plenitude of the Spirit,
that all fullness I lack in myself is in him,
for his people, not for himself alone,
he having perfect knowledge, grace,
righteousness,
to make me see,
to make me righteous,
to give me fullness;
that it is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness,
to go to Christ, possess, enjoy his fullness
as mine,
as if I had it in myself, because it is
for me in him;
that when I do this I am full of the Spirit,
as a fish that has got from the shore to the sea
and has all fullness of waters to move in,
for when faith fills me, then I am full;
that this is the way to be filled with the Spirit,
like Stephen, first faith, then fullness,
for this way makes me most empty,
and so most fit for the Spirit to fill.

Thou has taught me that the finding of
this treasure of all grace in the field of Christ
begets strength, joy, glory,
and renders all graces alive.

Help me to delight more in what I receive from Christ,
more in that fullness which is in him,
the fountain of all his glory.

Let me not think to receive the Spirit from him
as a 'thing'
apart from finding, drinking, being filled
with him.

To this end, O God,
do thou establish me in Christ,
settle me, give me a being there,
assure me with certainty that all this is mine,
for this only will fill my heart with joy
and peace.