Tried With Fire

I have been trying to wrap my mind around the concept of glory, specifically the glory of God as manifested in Jesus Christ. This was triggered by reading The Glory of Christ by John Owen. I'm reading the abridged Puritan Paperback and even this version has so much to take in. Each sentence by Owen is packed full of meaning that I have to read much more slowly than I am used to. Owen defines the glory of God this way in chapter 2: The glory of God includes both the holy properties of his nature and the things he has purposed to do. The only way we can know these things of God is 'in the face' or person 'of Jesus Christ', for he is 'the image of God' (2 Cor. 4:4). But Christ is especially glorious because he and he alone perfectly reveals God's nature and will to us. Without Christ we would have known nothing truly about God for he would have been eternally invisible to us. We would never have seen God at any time, either in this life or the next (Jo...

that I would be listening to Christian rap music. Not your typical listening material for a 40-something, homeschooling mom. I also admit that rap is not a genre that I would naturally be drawn to. But I had read about a brother named Shai Linne here and here . Also, my curiosity was piqued about anyone who would write a rap about Charles Spurgeon. Well last night, a brother and sister graciously gave us a copy of Shai Linne's The Atonement . We listened to some of it and were stunned by what we heard. After we listened to Were You There , I wanted to cry and repent for my lack of love for Christ in the face of all that He has done. There are songs about the cross that express some of the horror of the event that secured our salvation. Yes, the brutality of the crucifixion is portrayed but the cruelty is greater because the spotless Son of God willing endured God's wrath to bring glory to the Father and secure my redemption. Some of these songs are not easy to listen to bec...

This humorous pos t is from reformationtheology.com. Here is a sample: The Bible says,'The Lord thy God is one', but I think He must be a lot older than that After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat. Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments.

Note : I just realized that just putting quotes up without their context will not do justice to the whole so I've tried to put the first two quotes in context. Better yet, listen to the sermon!) It has been a blessing to go through the book of Hebrews verse by verse. These quotes are from Pastor Ryan's sermon on Hebrews 9:11-20, The Blood of Jesus . They serve God to maintain their standing. We serve God because of our standing. (Our service does not give us standing with God. That is by Christ's work alone. We are enabled to serve Him as worship because of our standing in Christ.) You think something you can do can equal what Christ can do? (In regard to cleansing our consciences, His blood speaks louder than my accusing conscience.) We don't just get the stuff; We get the writer of the will. I hope the last quote makes sense. Pastor Ryan's 3rd point was that Jesus' blood seals a will, as in last will and testament. A will is not active until the one who mad...

Spring is a beautiful time in Virginia with the exception of the pollen. The brownish stuff on the ground and driveway are fallen oak tassles. It was literally raining pollen today, and the driveway is covered with it. I would have taken a closeup of the pollen but it's quite nasty looking. The following is more worthy of a closeup. These are very fragrant narcissus. The blooms are small and delicate. This variety blooms much later than our regular yellow daffodils.

These are two quotes that grabbed my attention. What we need is not “free will” but wills made free. From this post by John Samson at reformationtheology.com "You can listen to Greg Boyd and the open theists and frankly, I think you'll want to jump off a bridge to be worshipping a god who didn't know that was going to happen." Quote from Todd Friel of Way of the Master Radio on this program featuring Shai Linne's song Triune Praise

I received a call today from a dear, older sister in Christ. I hadn't seen her since September 2008, and she wanted to know how I was doing with the divorce. I was able to testify of God's goodness and faithfulness to her. However, it was very interesting when I mentioned that the knowledge of God's absolute sovereignty was the anchor that kept both my daughter and I. She immediately mentioned how God gives us free will and that my husband made the choice to leave, and he is choosing to reject God. She mentioned that God's hand is always out but he is choosing to not turn back to God. One specific thing she said was "God did not want this to happen." Probably out of respect for her age (she's the same age as my mother) and she needed to go run errands, I did not embark on a heated debate that our free will is a slave to sin, only being able to choose what is wrong. However, her immediate response was very interesting and a little bit sad because it reminde...