How Deep the Father's Love For Us

According to the people who made this short video, the message is "Family is Forever." But I would encourage you to watch it under the heading of "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." Enjoy.

The Reality of the Resurrection

I came down the birth-canal and landed in church. In my entire 54 years on the planet I cannot remember a time when I was not being taught the Bible, enjoying the friendship of other believers, encouraged to "walk my talk", being prayed for and being prayed with. Although I have heard the message given in the poem (below) too many times to reckon, I am still not anywhere near tired of hearing the "I owed a debt I could not pay. Jesus paid a debt he did not owe" message of the Gospel. Can I get a witness? Enjoy.

Click here for full screen version.

Sanctification: Slow, Not Seismic

As we considered a few weeks ago in our study of Nehemiah 8 (Authority of the Bible, part 2), a much neglected aspect of getting the Word of God "into our bones" is the ritual reenactment of the core tenets of our faith. Here is a helpful post on the importance of "becoming the liturgy." Be sure and watch the video which is linked near the end of the post. I agree with Ian Morgan Cron's observation that despite our craving for what some have described as the "quiver in the liver", sanctification is most often "slow" rather than "seismic." Enjoy.

HT: Angela Marton

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Pastor John Piper on true worship:

The fuel of worship is a true vision of the greatness of God;

  the fire that makes the fuel burn white hot is the quickening of the Holy Spirit;

    the furnace made alive and warm by the flame of truth is our renewed spirit;

     and the resulting heat of our affections is powerful worship, pushing its way out in confessions, longings, acclamations, tears, songs, shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands, and obedient lives.

Embrace the Chaos

Last Sunday, Trinity Church (Wenatchee) formally commissioned me (pastor Gene Helsel), three deacons and a handful of households from Trinity Church to plant a new CREC church here in Wenatchee. David Hatcher and Brett Baker are serving King's Cross Church as elders pro-tem and were present at the service. Pastor David Hatcher presented a powerful homily/charge to the saints of both congregations entitled, "The Hand of the Lord in Church Planting" which you can read here (and I strongly recommend that you do.) Straight talk, straight from the Lord, for any sending or being-sent church. Enjoy.

The Three Deadliest Words on the Planet: It's a Girl!

God loves women. Women share equally with men the privilege of bearing God's image to the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26) and share equally in redemptive glory (Gal. 3:28.) Given the social norms of first century Palestine, Jesus' associations with women were near scandalous. Christ's conversation with the Samaritan woman, his friendship with Mary and Martha, and the gender that he chose to bear the first witness to his resurrection all testify to God's intense devotion to the fairer sex. And Paul's Spirit-led, frequent acknowledgments and affirmations of the women he considered his partners in ministry were no less astounding, and likewise reveal God's love for his feminine creations.

In our day, "It's a girl" is the deadliest phrase on the planet. In the past year, in China and India alone more girls were eliminated than were born in the United States. And they were all murdered or abandoned simply for the "crime" of being girls. Lord have mercy on us...

For a larger screen viewing, you can watch the video here.

Practicing Affirmation

In Paul's second letter to the first century church in Corinth he reminds us that we are to wage war against every system of thought that disparages true knowledge of God. But the apostle quickly adds that we are not to do battle using the weapons that the world employs. But rather to wield weapons with divine power. Few would consider affirmation a suitable weapon in the warfare that God calls us to. But given that accusation is a favorite weapon of our Adversary, and that affirmation is a near opposite of accusation, it sort of makes sanctified sense to regard affirmation as a weapon of spiritual warfare.

If you doubt this, then read this wonderful excerpt from the book, Practicing Affirmation, by Sam Crabtree. And if you're convinced, then get out there and start "thrusting and parrying" with the sword of affirmation until every thought is taken captive and made obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Imitating Christ

What does it mean to imitate Christ? Volumes could, and have been, written on this bottomless subject. But B. B. Warfield's observations (below) are a very good place to start. We tend to think of holiness in terms of isolation from the world and all the things that we're not going to do. But true, Christ-like holiness engages the world and is really more about "holy additions" than "holy subtractions." Lord, teach us to begin every attempt to imitate Your Son by first taking "no account of self." Enjoy.


"He did not cultivate self, even His divine self: He took no account of self.

He was not led by His divine impulse out of the world, driven back into the recesses of His own soul to brood morbidly over His own needs, until to gain His own seemed worth all sacrifice to Him.

He was led by His love for others into the world, to forget Himself in the needs of others, to sacrifice self once for all upon the altar of sympathy.

Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice will lead us, His followers, not away from but into the midst of men.

Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort.

Wherever men strive, there will we be to help.

Wherever men fail, there will be we to uplift. Wherever men succeed, there will we be to rejoice.

Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows: it means absorption in them.

It means forgetfulness of self in others.

It means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings and despairs: it means manysidedness of spirit, multiform activity, multiplicity of sympathies.

It means richness of development.

It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives,—binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours.

It means that all the experiences of men shall smite our souls and shall beat and batter these stubborn hearts of ours into fitness for their heavenly home.

It is, after all, then, the path to the highest possible development, by which alone we can be made truly men. Not that we shall undertake it with this end in view. This were to dry up its springs at their source. We cannot be self-consciously self-forgetful, selfishly unselfish.

Only, when we humbly walk this path, seeking truly in it not our own things but those of others, we shall find the promise true, that he who loses his life shall find it.

Only, when, like Christ, and in loving obedience to His call and example, we take no account of ourselves, but freely give ourselves to others, we shall find, each in his measure, the saying true of himself also: “Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him.”

The path of self-sacrifice is the path to glory."

HT: Justin Taylor

A Letter From Martin Luther to a Despairing Friend

The following is from a letter written in July 1530 to Jerome Weller, a 31-year-old friend who had previously lived in the Luther home, tutored his children, and was now struggling with spiritual despair:

. . Excellent Jerome, You ought to rejoice in this temptation of the devil because it is a certain sign that God is propitious and merciful to you.

You say that the temptation is heavier than you can bear, and that you fear that it will so break and beat you down as to drive you to despair and blasphemy. I know this wile of the devil. If he cannot break a person with his first attack, he tries by persevering to wear him out and weaken him until the person falls and confesses himself beaten.

Whenever this temptation comes to you, avoid entering upon a disputation with the devil and do not allow yourself to dwell on those deadly thoughts, for to do so is nothing short of yielding to the devil and letting him have his way.

Try as hard as you can to despise those thoughts which are induced by the devil. In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil.

Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking.

By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. . .

When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus:

“I admit that I deserve death and hell.
What of it?
Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation?
By no means.
For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf.
His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Where he is, there I shall be also.”

Yours,
Martin Luther

When Your Pastor Doesn't Preach Like John Piper

St. Paul on preaching:

"For necessity is laid upon me.Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Cor. 9:16)

"I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." (1 Corinthians 9:16)

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:2)

We pastors find in these words both encouragement and discouragement. Encouragement to preach regardless of the cost, and discouragement because the standard by which we will be judged is so lofty.

There is indeed a cost to being a preacher. “The pulpit calls those anointed to it,” wrote Bruce Thielemann, “like the sea calls its sailor and like the sea, it batters and bruises.” Pastors who faithfully preach God’s message each Sunday know, “To really preach is to die naked a little at a time, and to know each time you do that, you must do it again.”

Amen, Bruce.

Here is an article that would most likely be helpful to every parishoner who does not sit under the weekly ministry of his/her favorite podcast preacher (e.g. John Piper, Doug Wilson, Mark Driscoll or Mark Dever.) Enjoy. 

Through New Eyes

I believe it was Plato who first said, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." But Paul surely was more helpful when he enjoined the Corinthians to be "controlled by the love of Christ" and to "regard no one according to the flesh" so that we "might no longer live for [ourselves.]"

One of our deacons has recently made it a point to simply talk and then listen to people that he meets in the park or at his children's sporting events. He has been amazed at how hungry people are the barest displays of kindness. It appears that Plato is right, everyone is "fighting a hard battle."

The production values of the video below could use a little help, but the message is spot on. C'mon, what are you waiting for?

Here is a link if you want to watch it at Youtube.

HT: Annette Johnson