Gospel Living

I came across a great quote the other day reading a book I highly recommend, The Prodigal God, by Tim Keller.

"Religion operates on the principle of 'I obey - therefore I am accepted by God.' The basic operating principle of the gospel is 'I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ - therefore I obey.'"

We believe this principle at the moment of salvation when we cry out to God to be saved but then it must be worked into our lives at the practical level. I call it gospel living. We must take it out of our doctrine file and put it to work every day. If we don't make an effort to do this, we will inevitable go back to our old way of thinking and doing. Listen to Keller again:

"We habitually and instinctively look to other things besides God and his grace as our justification, hope, significance and security. We believe the gospel at one level, but at deeper levels we do not. Human approval, professional success, power and influence, and family and clan identity - all of these things serve as our heart's 'functional trust' rather than what Christ has done, and as a result we continue to be driven to a great degree by fear, anger, and a lack of self-control...we only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves."

This has been such a good book for me to read since my tendencies are to do spiritual things to be approved by God instead of basking in the finished work of justification through his Son's cross.

Pro-choice arguments addressed

Here's a great article that addresses most of the Pro-choice arguments. Check this out and keep it handy... 39 Pro-choice arguments

Right to Life Sunday - Jan. 18

I'll be preaching on the evil of abortion on Sunday which is "Right to Life Sunday." While preparing the sermon, I came across a great article out of World Magazine giving a history of the fight against abortion. The bottom line is this: more must be done than simply working to overturn Roe vs. Wade. May God give us insight into what that means for Harvest Bible Church here in Rockford.

Take a look at the article...

Sacred Exhange - passing the faith to another

This Sunday starts our new series that focuses the attention on parenting and discipleship. I really sensed that after speaking about the roles of men and woman I needed to say something about parenting. I am making this a four week series but it will also touch on the need for discipleship (mentoring). Whether you are married with children or not, all of us are commanded to "disciple the nations." Parenting is just one form of discipleship.

For all you parents who have not read these books by the Tripp brothers, you need to pick them up. I have been helped by them...


You will be able to purchase these books in our lobby starting Jan. 18.

God at work!

I have been praying and asking others to pray for revival for our church, not because I don't see God at work among us, but because I want to see more.

What is revival anyway? It used to be that a church would have on its calender a week long event every year where a special preacher would come and deliver messages on personal holiness (kind of a "camp experience" for adults) and call it "revival." That is not what I have in mind. God may use a week long event to bring revival but what I'm talking about is more organic and less structured.

Revival is the extraordinary awakening of desires for God within a church that liberates people from enslaving sins, causes hunger for God's Word, and emboldens the church's witness in the community.

I just want to say that last Sunday as Andy was teaching on the sin of homosexuality I sensed God breaking and humbling us over our own particular sins. During the Lord's Supper, I continued to sense God at work among us. I believe that these are gifts from God and initial flickers of revival. Revival always starts with an awareness of sin and a humbling before God.

I am so thankful. Keep praying!

Through The Bible in a Year on Your iPod

The post below comes from Justin Taylor's blog "Between Two Worlds."  What a blessing!

Someone asked about getting the ESV audio daily as a podcast to coincide with the reading schedules. Here's how to subscribe to this in iTunes:

1. Go to the ESV Reading Plans page.
   
2. Right-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac) the “RSS” link of the feed you want.
   
3. Choose “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut.”
   
4. Start iTunes.
   
5. Choose Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast
   
6. Paste the URL from step three into the box.
   
7. Click OK.
   

For the original post, click here.