"Living Really Does Make Dying Worth It."

This video shows just how blessed we really are. HT: CFG

A Pastor's Regret: 'Not Preaching the Gospel'

Chuck Collins shares one of his biggest ministerial regrets, and then gives some great advice for you and I:

"When you get to church to find out that the preacher is in the third of a 10-sermon series on “10 steps to cure depression” get up and run out of there as fast as your depressed legs can take you.  It’s self-help, not the gospel.  Chalk it up to a well meaning preacher who hasn’t yet realized that our real hope is in God, in the sufficiency of his work on the cross and in the salvation that is not found in get-better sermons."

Read the entire post here.

The Great Exchange

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Cor. 5:21

Tullian Tchividjian: Grace Changes Everything

Here is another great story from Tullian.

The Benefit of Brokenness

The beauty of hitting rock bottom is that it brings you face to face with the reality of who you are. All masks are discarded at that point. There is no more running or hiding from your inadequacies, no more faking it, no more plastic smiles. All of your flaws are out there in the open.

Living in an environment of denial where you can ignore the reality of your brokenness is no longer an option; that ship has sailed.

You are stripped bare for the world to see.

Empty religion means nothing at that point. 

Living to please others loses its grip on you.

This culture's shallow, superficial garbage that it keeps pushing down your throat becomes of little interest as well. 

Life becomes much more raw, much more real.

In hitting rock bottom, you see yourself for who you really are: ruined, sin-stained, and in need of a Savior.

When you are here. 

When you are ruined.
When you are broken.

When you are shamed.

When you are humbled.

When you are overwhelmed.

When you realize that you have absolutely nothing to offer this world.

When the blinders are taken off and you can now see your depravity.

When your life motto becomes: "Oh wretched man that I am!"
When all of your pride is gone.

Now you may finally see your need of salvation.
Now you may be ready to have an encounter with a holy and righteous God, so keep your eyes open. In the darkness, the light of Christ sometimes becomes more evident.
Run to him.
Cling to him.
Put all your eggs in that basket.
He's the only hope that this world has, and if it takes brokenness for you to realize that - it is a small price to pay for what you will get in return.

Until You Alone Are Seen in Me

Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach...

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until You alone are seen in me...

I have no master but You, no law but Your will, no delight but You, no wealth but that which You give, no good but that which You bless, no peace but that which You bestow.

I am nothing but what You make me. I have nothing but that which I receive from You. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.

-Adapted from Valley Of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Before We Have Done Anything, We Are Accepted!

"How does grace teach us? It begins by telling us that we are totally accepted to God through our faith in Christ. We are justified freely as a gift. So I am a winner before I start. I am accepted before I have done anything. What a relief! How magnificent!

Some would argue, ‘How dangerous!’, but they don’t understand. God starts by totally qualifying us. He will test us later, but he qualifies us first. We start accepted, qualified, justified as a gift.

The righteousness of Christ is freely given to me, not only to start my Christian life, but every day of my life, and he is the same yesterday, today and forever."

-Terry Vigo via OFI

The Valley of Vision

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, You have brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see You in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Your glory. 

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. 

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Your stars shine; let me find Your light in my darkness, Your life in my death, Your joy in my sorrow, Your grace in my sin, Your riches in my poverty, Your glory in my valley.

-Adapted from Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

"Am I Really A Christian?"

For most of my life I assumed that I was redeemed, I thought that I was saved, I would have told you that Jesus was my Lord, I was "religious;" however, there was no spiritual fruit in my life. Christ was not my passion and the cross was certainly not my boast. I was a Christian-in-name-only. That's when the story gets really good, that's when "the man" showed up, that's when the hero arrived...

“Most people think that Christianity is spelled DO: they look at the Bible or the life of Christ and they simply try hard to live like Jesus. Christianity is really spelled DONE: it is what Christ has done that enables us to live a life of obedience.” -Darrin Patrick

Teach Me to Seek You

O Lord

teach me to seek you,

and reveal yourself to me

when I seek you.

For I cannot seek you unless

you first teach me,

nor find you unless

you first reveal yourself to me.

Let me seek you in longing,

and long for you in seeking.

Let me find you in love,

and love you in finding.

- Ambrose of Milan, c. 340 – 397 via T.Wax

Forgiveness

And you, who were dead in your trespasses... God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. -Colossians 2:13-14 

Grace: Love That Seeks You Out

"What is grace? Grace is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return. Grace is love coming at you that has nothing to do with you. Grace is being loved when you are unlovable. It is being loved when you are the opposite of lovable.

Grace is a love that has nothing to do with you, the beloved. It has everything and only to do with the lover...

Grace is one-way love.The one-way love of grace is the essence of any lasting transformation that takes place in human experience... One-way love lifts up. One-way love cures. One-way love transforms." -Paul Zahl

Do Nothing But Speak, Think, and Live in God's Praises

"Surely, if the angels are so astonished at God's mercy to you, and do even shout with joy and admiration at the sight of God's grace to you, you yourself, on whom this grace is bestowed, have much more reason to shout.

Consider that great part of your happiness in heaven, to all eternity, will consist in this: in praising of God, for his free and glorious grace in redeeming you; and if you would spend more time about it on earth, you would find this world would be much more of a heaven to you than it is. Wherefore, do nothing while you are alive, but speak and think and live God's praises." -Jonathan Edwards

Brian Welch: A Story of God's Grace

HT: JT

Alive

“Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good but to make dead people live!” -Ravi Zacharias

The Lightning Rod for Your Judgement

“This is what happened on Calvary. The punishment due to your sin was poured out on Jesus. Christ became the lightening rod for your judgment, and forgiveness was released through his suffering and death on the cross for you. 

The curse fell on Jesus because he ‘bore our sins’ (1 Pet. 2:24). The weight of our guilt was ‘laid on him’ (Isa. 53:6), and he became the sacrifice for our sins.” - Colin S. Smith via OFI

Identity Crisis

"The Puritans used to say that far too many Christians live beneath the level of their privileges. Therefore, I need to be told by those around me that every time I sin I’m momentarily suffering from an identity crisis: forgetting who I actually belong to, what I really want at my remade core, and all that is already mine in Christ. 

The only way to deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already possess in Christ... Knowing this actually enlarges my heart for God and therefore shrinks my hunger for sin...

Christian growth, in other words, does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners...The bottom line is this, Christian: because of Christ’s work on your behalf, God does not dwell on your sin the way you do. So, relax and rejoice…and you’ll actually start to get better. The irony, of course, is that it’s only when we stop obsessing over our own need to be holy and focus instead on the beauty of Christ’s holiness, that we actually become more holy!" - Tullian Tchividjian 

Gospel Amnesia

"One reason we don’t grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. 

In other words, ongoing failure in our growth is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us in the gospel. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we’ll struggle in our sanctification."  -Elyse Fitzpatrick via Tullian

Odd Thomas: The Reality of the Resurrection

I love this! It's the gospel delivered via "spoken word." HT: Challies

Fixing Our Eyes on the Cross

HT: Challies

Hallelujah! All I Have is Christ

My church introduced this song today in our worship set and I was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion. Honestly, I didn't get but two or three of the words out of my mouth. I basically just stood there and wept uncontrollably. God used this song to speak to me today in a powerful way (especially the second verse). I pray that you will be blessed by it as well.

I once was lost in darkest night

Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

The First Adam < The Second Adam

“Adam and Eve faced temptation about a tree in a bright, sunny garden, a paradise with no pressure. But Christ faced temptation about a tree in a dark garden, a garden given the name that meant ‘oil press,’ and certainly he felt squeezed like an olive in a press on that dark night, to the point that his sweat was like drops of blood.

If Adam and Eve obeyed God about the tree, they would live. If Jesus obeyed God about the tree, he would die.

Jesus obeyed. And through his obedience he gained for us far more than Adam lost for us through his disobedience.

Adam lost for us the beautiful ‘naked and not ashamed’ of the garden. But at the cross, Christ hung naked and full of shame. It wasn’t his own shame. It was your shame and my shame. He ‘endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb. 12:2) so that ‘everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame’ (Rom. 10:11).” - Nancy Guthrie via OFI

Michael Horton: We Are Witnesses to His Redeeming Work, Not Extensions of It.

He packs some great stuff into 3 minutes.

As a side note, if you don't already do this, you definitely should check out Michael's fantastic podcast entitled The White Horse Inn.  It is a great resource. 

You (and I) may not line up completely with every theological belief espoused on the show, but the content is solid nonetheless. A fresh episode comes out every week. The White Horse Inn is, without question, my favorite podcast. Check it out here for free!

What Have We Done to Deserve Such Love?

“You may wonder what you have done to deserve God’s love. How is it that God has shown you such kindness?

This is the very stuff of grace, that He amazes you, contradicts every expectation, seeks you out, finds you and lavishes His love upon you. You have done nothing and can do nothing to earn His grace.

The secret of His grace to you lies deep in the mystery of His foreknowledge. Simply receive it, celebrate it, delight yourself in it and live as one whom God is pleased to favor from His overflowing resources of kindness.” - Terry Virgo via OFI

Only The Gospel

"Even after conversion, the believer is in desperate need of the Gospel because he reads the commands, exhortations, threats, and warnings of the Law and often wavers in his certain confidence because he does not see in himself this righteousness that is required. Am I really surrendered? Have I truly yielded in every area of my life? What if I have not experienced the same things that other Christians regard as normative? Do I really possess the Holy Spirit? What if I fall into serious sin? 

These are questions that we all face in our own lives. What will restore our peace and hope in the face of such questions? The Reformers, with the prophets and apostles, were convinced that only the Gospel could bring such comfort to the struggling Christian.

Without this constant emphasis in preaching, one can never truly worship or serve God in liberty, for his gaze will always be fastened on himself--either in despair or self-righteousness--rather than on Christ." -Michael Horton

Freedom to be Honest

“The gospel, applied to our hearts every day, frees us to be brutally honest with ourselves and with God.  The assurance of His total forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ means we don’t have to play defensive games anymore. We don’t have to rationalize and excuse our sins. . .  

We can call sin exactly what it is, regardless of how ugly and shameful it may be, because we know that Jesus bore that sin in His body on the cross. With the assurance of total forgiveness through Christ, we have no reason to hide from our sins anymore.” - Jerry Bridges

Francis Chan: Joy in Suffering

HT: DesiringGod

The Arctic Light