"Fatherhood as the core of the universe"

An essay from Glenn Stanton reflecting on how God's Fatherhood is central to the nature and meaning of the universe.

God Is the Ultimate Reality

"The triune God is the central reality around which the secondary and tertiary realities of nature and virtual simulations revolve. In this world, persons in holy, loving, committed relationship are the weightiest and heaviest realities toward which all other beings should be pulled by the inexorable reality-field of God at the center. In this ontology, the world of the supernatural-God, heaven, hell, angels, demons, miracles, the saints and martyrs and prophets and apostles of the invisible church above-is as real as the natural and is more real than the socially constructed world of the virtual...."

-- John Jefferson Davis. "Worship and the Reality of God: An Evangelical Theology of Real Presence" (pp. 23-24). Kindle Edition.

A blessed rest...

‎"Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself. It is an end to thoughts such as, ‘I’m in this room with these people, does that make me look good? Do I want to be here?’ True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. [There is] a blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness can bring." - Tim Keller

"Get to Know the New Theists"

A helpful introduction from the resurgence.com

The evangelical task...

A good post from Collin Hansen, reflecting on this crucial perspective from Carl F.H. Henry

"The evangelical task primarily is the preaching of the Gospel, in the interest of individual regeneration by the supernatural grace of God, in such a way that divine redemption can be recognized as the best solution of our problems, individual and social. This produces within history, through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, a divine society that transcends national and international lines. The corporate testimony of believers, in their purity of life, should provide for the world an example of the divine dynamic to overcome evils in every realm. The social problems of our day are much more complex than in apostolic times, but they do not on that account differ in principle. When the twentieth century church begins to "out-live" its environment as the first century church outreached its pagan neighbors, the modern mind, too, will stop casting about for other solutions."

Spirit-filled intelligence

“In our quest for the fullness of the Spirit, we have sometimes forgotten that a Spirit-filled intelligence is one of the powerful weapons for pulling down satanic strongholds.”

-- Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, 1979), page 183.

"The juvenilization of American Christianity"

An exceedingly important and insightful article on the decades-long impact of youth ministry on the church as a whole.

Our deepest concern?

"We tend to live with what is good for us as our deepest concern. We want our friendships to be happy, our investments to have a good return, our health to be constantly good, our families to be united, and our futures to be secure. Now there is nothing wrong with wanting these things, but if that is all you want, your world is narrower than it was ever meant to be. You see, God isn’t entering into your miniscule little kingdom to do everything he can to make it successful. Instead, he has welcomed you out of your personal kingdom allegiance into the history-spanning expansiveness of his kingdom, to be part of what he planned not only before your first breath, but also literally before the foundations of the world were laid in place. You were never created to live with your goals and needs as your deepest concerns. You and I were created to know, serve, love, and worship him. This means desiring that his kingdom flourish and his glory to be displayed. Practically, this means being motivated more by the glory of God than by what you think would make you comfortable and happy."

Paul David Tripp, "Lost in the Middle" (p. 216). Shepherd Press. Kindle Edition.

"Scattering the clouds"

"One new discovery of the glory of Christ’s face, will do more toward scattering clouds of darkness in one minute, than examining old experience, by the best marks that can be given, through a whole year."

-- — Jonathan Edwards, quoted by Jared C. Wilson in "Gospel Wakefulness"
(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 79


HT: Of First Importance

Refining, not incinerating

‎"God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (v. 13) is a beautifully comforting statement. God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows your spiritual IQ and the size of your spiritual muscles. He knows how much you have learned from experience and how much you haven’t. He knows exactly how functionally blind you actually are. He knows how big the gap is between your confessional theology and your functional theology. So, he knows exactly how much heat to apply. He knows when to send trial your way and when to provide release. He knows the difference between refining you and incinerating you. He knows just how to boil out your pride while he is building your courage. He knows just what resources to send your way and exactly when they are needed...."

-- Paul David Tripp (on 1 Peter 1:6-9)

"Getting to the Crux of Calvary"

Richard Mouw's essay in Christianity Today...the subtitle:  "Each atonement theory highlights a truth about the Cross—but none more so than Christ's substitutionary death."

The Great Exchange

“When we are united to Christ a mysterious exchange takes place: he took our curse, so that we may receive his blessing; he became sin with our sin, so that we may become righteous with his righteousness. . . . On the one hand, God declined to ‘impute’ our sins to us, or ‘count’ them against us, with the implication that he imputed them to Christ instead.  On the other, God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. . . . We ourselves have done nothing of what is imputed to us, nor Christ anything of what is imputed to him. . . . He voluntarily accepted liability for our sins.”

-- John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, 1986), pages 148-149.
HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.

"Why Faithful Is the New Radical"

...3 reasons from Daniel Darling.

Bitterness -- more vertical than horiontal

"Bitterness focuses on a boss that never recognized what you were capable of, a spouse who never got their act together, a rebellious child who destroyed the family dream, or a church that failed to recognize your ministry potential. In reality, however, your bitterness is more vertical than it is horizontal. As believers we deny that life is orchestrated by fate, luck, chance, cause and effect, or some system of natural laws. We affirm that the world and everything in it is controlled by a Person who orders and rules everything by his wisdom, power, and goodness. It’s hard to admit, but when we are angry, we are in reality angry at God."

-- Paul David Tripp, "Lost in the Middle" (p. 151). Shepherd Press. Kindle Edition.

Hope for Those in Mid-life

"Celebrate the fact that God is the God of fresh starts. Remember Moses, David, Peter, and Paul, all people in Scripture who in the middle of their lives were rescued by God and set on a new and better pathway. You do not have to wallow in remorse. You have been graced by God with the opportunity to start fresh once more. Celebrate! Your life is not over; you are only in the middle, and because of his grace, your best and brightest years are still ahead of you. Throw yourself into life with enthusiasm, a life ruled by vertical rather than horizontal dreams. Know that only when your dreams belong to the Lord can you experience the best and brightest of lives."

-- Paul David Tripp, "Lost in the Middl"e (p. 158). Shepherd Press. Kindle Edition.