What is your Bible intake plan for 2008?

Have you settled on a plan to intake the Scriptures in 2008. There are many many helpful "plans" available. Which plan is the best? The one you use! It really matters not whether you cover the whole Bible, the New Testament, the Old Testament, or simply read the Gospel of Mark over and over again. But planning usually helps. Me? I've had my butt kicked by Robert Murray McCheyne's plan for years... but I keep coming back to it. Now I've found that someone has made it a 2 year plan... half the reading!! Here's the link

US Letter size.

“The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are, but an awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace. Spiritual maturity is not measured in the rules you keep. Spiritual maturity is not measured in the Bible answers you know in small groups. Spiritual maturity is not even about what you do. Primarily, Spiritual maturity is knowing who you are in Christ.” --Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted for me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters. This is a momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort--the sort of comfort that energizes. . . in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. Three is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me. . . He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and I am glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. . . not merely that we know God, but that He knows us
-- (J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 37).

Sweet Baby Jesus, Temptation & Johnny Cash

To save us all from Satan's power, when we had gone astray....

That great line from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" reminds us that Christ has come to deliver us from sin... its penalty AND power. And so here's a brief video on the life of Johnny Cash, with an emphasis on temptation & Christ

Immanuel... God with us

Preaching on Isaiah 7:14 over a century ago, Charles Spurgeon closed his sermon with this flourish:

"God with us." It is hell's terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, "God with us," back he falls, confounded and confused. "God with us" is the laborer's strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor, if that one word were taken away? "God with us" is the sufferer's comfort, the balm of his woe, the alleviation of his misery, the sleep which God gives to his beloved, their rest after exertion and toil. "God with us" is eternity's sonnet, heaven's hallelujah, the shout of the glorified, the song of the redeemed, the chorus of angels, the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky.

Thanks, Spurgeon, for reminding us of our deepest resource for life today: "God with us."

Sunday December 23 with Christ Community

the only thing hap'nin on Sunday morning at Oak Hall School is 10:15am worship service...

we'll be finishing our look at how Christ is incarnated as our Prophet, Priest, and King

sunday afternoon... if you'd like, there is a group of CCC folk meeting at Palm Gardens at 5pm to do a bit o' Christmas Caroling for the folks there... scroll down for details

Have yourself a Martin Luther Christmas

The true believer’s response to the true meaning of Christmas is beautifully expressed in a carol that Luther wrote for his young children—a carol commonly known by its opening words: “From Heaven High.” The carol seems to have been written for a Christmas pageant to be performed in Luther’s church. First an angel sings, announcing the Savior’s birth. The final stanza of the angel’s song goes like this:

Look now, you children, at the sign,
A manger cradle far from fine.
A tiny baby you will see.
Upholder of the world is he.

These words serve as the cue for the church’s children to come forward and worship the Christ. With reverent wonder they sing:

How glad we’ll be if it is so!
With all the shepherds let us go
To see what God for us has done
In sending us his own dear Son.
Look, look, my heart, and let me peek.
Whom in the manger do you seek?
Who is that lovely little one?
The Baby Jesus, God’s own Son.
Be welcome, Lord; be now our guest.
By you poor sinners have been blessed.
In nakedness and cold you lie.
How can I thank you—how can I?
O dear Lord Jesus, for your head
Now will I make the softest bed.
The chamber where this bed shall be
Is in my heart, inside of me.

Then the whole congregation joins the song, celebrating Christmas the Martin Luther way, and the way of every true believer in the Christ of Christmas:

To God who sent his only Son
Be glory, laud, and honor done.
Let all the choir of heaven rejoice,
The new ring in with heart and voice!

Lauren Winner

Recently I was talking with a friend about a very gifted woman named Lauren Winner... and i thought i would make you aware of her and her work.

Lauren Winner is the author of Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, and Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity. She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, and Christianity Today. Winner has degrees from Columbia and Cambridge universities and recently completed her doctorate in the history of American religion. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, Griff Gatewood.

Download her talks here (MP3s, 7MB):
Girl Meets God
Not Just Another Church Talk About Sex
Rest in a Frenetic Culture

4 different 10 minute segments on Kindling Muse

--Interview on "Real Sex" at Covenant Seminary website here

-- Link to tons of other resources of Lauren Winner

All depends on incarnation

Underline this thought: assurance, peace, access to God, knowledge that He is our Father, and strength to overcome temptation all depend on this-the Son of God took our flesh and bore our sins in such a way that further sacrifice for sin is both unnecessary and unintelligible. --Sinclair Ferguson

Risen with healing...

I love "Hark the Herald" & it has such rich lyrics.... i'm always grabbed by this line

Light & Life to all He brings...........Risen with healing in His wings.

Christ coming to us as our Physician is good news for the sin-weary soul... the following makes a great prayer...

Physician of my sin–sick soul,
To thee I bring my case;
My raging malady control,
And heal me by thy grace.

Pity the anguish I endure,
See how I mourn and pine;
For never can I hope a cure
From any hand but thine. --John Newton, complete hymn here

Caroling at Palm Gardens

There is a group from Christ Community planning to Christmas Carol at Palm Gardens, Sunday afternoon--DEC 23rd--at 5pm.

Palm Garden of Gainesville
227 S.W. 62nd Boulevard
Gainesville, FL 32607

Much Love

The promises of Scripture tell you that your Savior-God will guard you, guide you, keep you, feed you, care for you, uphold you, forgive your daily shortcomings, free you from Satan's snares and bondages, and shepherd you through this world to the next, where you will see and enjoy Him forever.
--J. I. Packer

Wondering About the Incarnation

“How are we to think of the incarnation? The New Testament does not encourage us to puzzle our heads over the physical and psychological problems that it raises, but to worship God for the love that was shown in it. For it was a great act of condescension and self humbling. ‘He, Who had always been God by nature’ writes Paul, ‘did not cling to His prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped Himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave to nature and being born as mortal man. And having become man, He humbled Himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death He died was the death of a common criminal. And all this was for our salvation.” --J I Packer, Knowing God.

“From the first sin in the garden of Eden to the final judgment of the great white throne, human beings will continue to embrace the love of God as the gift of everything but Himself. Indeed there are ten thousand gifts that flow from the love of God. The gospel of Christ proclaims the news that He has purchased by His death ten thousand blessings for His bride. But none of these gifts will lead to final joy if they have not first led to God. And not one gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel’s greatest gift was not the Lord Himself.”

John Piper, God is the Gospel (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2005), 12.

He Himself

The plan of salvation teaches me, not merely that I can never do anything to earn, increase, or extend God's favor, or to avoid the justified fury of His wrath, or to wheedle benefits out of Him, but also that I never need to try to do any of these things. God himself has loved me from eternity. He Himself has redeemed me from hell through the cross. He Himself has renewed my heart and brought me to faith. He Himself has now sovereignly committed Himself to complete the transformation of me into Christ's likeness and to set me, faultless and glorified, in His own presence for all eternity. When almighty love has thus totally taken over the task of getting me home to glory, responsive love, fed by gratitude and expressed in thanksgiving, should surface spontaneously as the ruling passion of my life. It will be my wisdom to brood on and mull over the marvelous mercies of God's plan until it does.

--J.I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness, page 76

It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in His presence.

--George MacDonald

O For a Thousand Tongues...

Sunday Chris Hiatt mentioned that "O For 1000" was written by Charles Wesley on the anniversary of his conversion to Christ. And Chris mentioned that the song originally had 18 stanzas. Well, as someone who grew up in the Methodist church I am privileged with the heritage of zeal for Christ that the Wesley brothers had. Those guys knew they were sinners and that Christ was a Savior! So when Chris mentioned it I remembered that the last stanzas are noteworthy. And they follow:

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Watching an elderly man bust a move

There really is nothing sweeter, is there? than watching someone you thought to ONLY be distinguished, wise, and formal... bust a move on the dance floor.

That is how I felt reading this article from Richard Gaffin. I've long respected him from afar and he's helped me tremendously form my understanding of the Bible's teachings on certain matters... but I stumbled across his sermon on my text for Sunday and read this:

We tend to think of Christ as a divine being who is far removed from us. But he has become one with us, and he has been tempted, really and truly, just like you and I in every respect, but with one important difference–he did not yield to temptation. He overcame temptation. And so "he is able to help those who are being tempted" (2:18).

Jesus knows the desert, with the stresses and temptations that you and I are exposed to. He knows it by his own intimate experience. And so Jesus also knows something that some who call themselves Calvinists overlook. He knows that the certainty of our salvation does not cancel out the seriousness of our present situation. He knows that only those who endure to the end are going to be saved (Mt. 24:13). And he knows that enduring to the end is not something that happens automatically. He knows that for us to endure to the end will not happen without prayer. In particular, it will not happen without his prayer.

That really helps me see Jesus as my priest and how valuable it is to have a priest like Him. And puts my heart right out there on the dance floor with Dr. Gaffin!

Youth Group Boys at Christmas Party

Honest War

“Honest war with yourself comes paired with incomprehensible gifts. The peace of God passes all understanding, at the cost of all your fears! The love of God surpasses knowing, at the cost of every false love! Whatever you do, get this wisdom, this kingdom of God, this Christ! Nothing you could possibly desire compares. The cost is high: yourself. The reward is higher: no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

- David Powlison, Speaking Truth In Love

So sing out with joy for the brave little boy
Who was God but he made himself nothing
Well he gave up his pride and he came here to die
Like a man

So gather ‘round, ye children come
Listen to the old, old story
Of the power of death undone
By an infant born of glory
Son of God, Son of Man

--Andrew Peterson

The Wonders of Technology & Digital Music

You may have said, and i'm sure you've heard it said... "Why can't the nightly news ever report good stuff? All they talk about is murder, etc.

The same can be true of prices, can't it... "I remember when a can of Mt. Dew was 25 cents. Now I pay almost $1."

Without getting into all the economics stuff (THAT is why we have Dr. Hamersma!) I just have to report the following...

In 1987 my older brother gave me the cassette tape "A Very Special Christmas"... i have no idea what he paid. But today I bought that from Itunes for $8. So I can slap it on my ipod and enjoy the Boss doing "Merry Christmas, Baby" and U2 (a young U2!) doing "Baby, Please Come Home" as well as Whitney Houston's incredible "Do You Hear What I Hear"... all the while exposing my children to my high school musical diet...........forgive my happy rant.

Great phrases

Christmas hymns & songs have some tremendous biblical truth in them. Here's one:

The weary world rejoices...

Just some simple notes

Great book with the cheesiest cover ever... (sidenote: the same is true of a book called "Raising a Christian Daughter in an MTV world)

from time to time i try to read a book by Paul Tripp called, "Age of Opportunity: Parenting a Teenager." I think i always put it down because I realize... "I need much more work than my son does!" Anyway,
this morning i was looking and and started outlining
Chapter 5 Parents, Meet Your Teenager

Tendencies of teens, from proverbs
1. No hunger for wisdom or correction
A. We cannot give in and let teen set the agenda for our relationship
B. Easy for them to be defensive
3 ways to help secure them when they are defensive:
1st 'i am not against you......for u'
2nd Help them examine their defensiveness... if it is true you can say, "I haven't raised my voice or threatened anything. Why do you think there's tension in the room?"
3rd confess my sin & express confidence in Christ that He's forgiven me... let your teen see that confession leads to freedom

that is the first of about 6 tendencies... i may never blog about another one... knowing my ADD... but perhaps this might send some of you to buy the book

Finally, my highest recs for children's books are:
Shepherding a Child's Heart... balances teaching your young ones that they are under authority but also gives parents a vision for reaching their heart
Parenting without Perfection... nuff said?
Age of Opp
How Parents Raise Children by Dan Allender.... don't get me started... Allender thinks that God gives us the perfect children to draw out sin in us so that God can sanctify us... and that is mysteriously the very vehicle God uses to draw our children to Him

We must get to the cross... and dwell there

“Every plant must have both soil and root. Without both of these there can be no life, no growth, no fruit. The root is ‘peace with God’; the soil in which that root strikes itself, and out of which it draws the vital sap, is the free love of God in Christ. ‘Rooted in love’ is the apostle’s description of a holy man.

The secret of a believer’s holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the Surety, and his daily intercourse with a crucified and risen Lord. All divine life, and all the precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness, spring from the cross. All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of the cross is nothing better than Pharisaism. If we would be holy, we must get to the cross, and dwell there; else, notwithstanding all our labour, diligence, fasting, praying and good works, we shall be yet void of real sanctification, destitute of those humble, gracious tempers which accompany a clear view of the cross.”

Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness

I have good news for you

“The Gospel teaches that Christ was born for our benefit and that everything he did and suffered was for us. As the angel says, ‘I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Today your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born in David’s city’. With these words, you can cleary see that he was born for all of us. He doesn’t say a savior was born, but rather, ‘your Savior, Christ the Lord was born’. In the same way he says, ‘I have good news for you’…this joy is for everyone who has this kind of faith.” --Martin Luther, Faith Alone

Meet Me at the Manger & Sunday

What a great night "Meet Me At the Manger" was for our church family and many friends. The music, the children, the decorations... announcing & celebrating God's sending of our much-needed Savior.

Sunday.... if you haven't committed to one of the worship services (9am or 10:15) in our "80 for 15" campaign... please do.

"I thank God for every minute of that frightening storm."

"After months of darkness, light pierced the clouds. My storm didn’t stop suddenly, but it gradually lost power and dissipated and I flew into clear skies. God’s promises again proved reliable instruments. I didn’t crash. In fact, the storm served me very well. I learned more than ever before how to “walk (or fly) by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). I thank God for every minute of that frightening storm." --the whole post is here

Secure Enough to go "Full Stretch"

Yesterday i had a great conversation with members of the "Loaves & Fishes" Community Group. They've been studying & enjoying John Piper's book, Desiring God. They mentioned the radical nature of the call to follow Jesus.... and how in your face Piper is about materialism, laziness, pride, gluttony, etc. I said, "The other guy who taught your group, JI Packer, preaches the same gospel... only in an understated British kind of way." I couldn't give an example off hand... until now!!!!

Today when looking online for Packer's chapter in Knowing God called "God Incarnate"... i came across this quote
“We are unlike the Christians of New Testament times. Our approach to life is conventional and static; theirs was not. The thought of ‘safety first’ was not a drag on their enterprise as it is on ours. By being exuberant, unconventional and uninhibited in living by the gospel they turned their world upside down, but you could not accuse us twentieth-century Christians of doing anything like that. Why are we so different? Why, compared with them, do we appear as no more than halfway Christians? Whence comes the nervous, dithery, take-no-risks mood that mars so much of our discipleship? Why are we not free enough from fear and anxiety to allow ourselves to go full stretch in following Christ?"

Praying that this Advent Jesus will secure Christ Community (corporately & individually) to go full stretch.

Sweet Amelia

A man hoping to adopt gives a songwriter some pages from his wife's journal. The journal she was writing to her daughter (Amelia) before they ever met her. "We pray it will be an encouragement to all those still 'waiting'!"

--some of the lyrics give you the sense
How long my arms wait for you
Here on the ocean's edge I wait for you...
A letter in july...
I want to take you home..
I pray tonight that I could be the one
Where do you sleep tonight? Who holds you when you cry? I want to take you home!
Sweet Amelia, how I have somehow loved you all my life. I want to take
Your picture in the post and the days are coming close... and i want to take you home!
Sweet Amelia, your name is like a song...
I'm looking northwest in the sky tonight
We paint the walls in pink
Across the waters I will wait for you...

you can hear the song (and see Amelia!!) here IT IS the 3rd song

A Christmas Hymn by Martin Luther

From heaven above to earth I come
to bear good news to every home;
glad tidings of great joy I bring,
whereof I now will say and sing.

To you this night is born a child
of Mary, chosen mother mild;
this little Child, of lowly birth,
shall be the joy of all the earth. --you can-read the rest here

The Bridge of Grace Will Support You

“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by the thousands, by their myriads, e’er since that day when Christ first entered His glory.

They come and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.”

- Charles Spurgeon

Info Meeting THIS sunday night

Christ Community Church Haiti Trip!!!

March 8-15, 2008--week of UF spring break
What are we doing?
• Medical clinic
• Construction
• Possibly working with children

With whom are we working?
• Pastor Charles Amicy, a Presbyterian Haitain minister in Messailler

How much will it cost?
• Approximate cost is $1,100/person (includes airfare)

What if I have questions?
• Steve Omli (316.1117) or
• Mo Omli (316.1828)

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live. --Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, link

Wave of Sorrow

i assume all you U2 fans already knew about re-release of Joshua Tree (with some new stuff!)
here is a little info and reflection and a link to bono explaining wave of sorrow

friday night.... don't want to miss it...

oh by the way... there will be a killer piano duet beginning promptly at 6:30pm... you want to be in your seats by then to fully enjoy

"Christian... To whom do you belong?"

I am His by purchase and I am His by conquest; I am His by donation and I am His by election; I am His by covenant and I am His by marriage; I am wholly His; I am peculiarly His; I am universally His; I am eternally His. -- THOMAS BROOKS

Why we must allow ourselves to be crushed by the Law of God

Why then do you preach the law?
Because it is a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ.
It teaches them the nature of sin, and convinces them of their want of a Saviour. “By the law is the knowledge of sin,” Rom. iii. 20; and vii. 7. Men are secure and careless in sin, until the law, that worketh wrath, reach their consciences, then they begin to know sin, and to feel the exceeding sinfulness of it: “for it is the ministration of condemnation.” 2 Cor. iii. 9.
This then is the office of the law. It brings transgressors to the knowledge of sin, condemns them for it, and puts them under the sentence of their guilt and of their danger, they then find their want of a Saviour.
The law, spiritually understood and applied, convinces the sinner that he is a condemned creature, shows him in God’s word the sentence past upon him, and makes him dread the execution of it. And thus it becomes to him, “the ministration of death,” 2 Cor. iii. 7, proving him to be guilty of sin, and to be deserving of death.
The apostle’s case is very common. I thought myself alive, says he, without the law; he had no doubt but he was alive to God, while he was a strict Pharisee; but when the holy spiritual nature of the law was made known to him, he found himself to be dead in trespasses and sins.
This then is the office of the law. It brings transgressors to the knowledge of sin, condemns them for it, and puts them under the sentence of their guilt and of their danger, they then find their want of a Saviour.
But without this work of the law, they would not have been sensible that they stood in need of Him. If they were never sick, they would never send for the physician. If they were never brought to the knowledge of sin, they would never desire the knowledge of a Saviour. If they never found themselves under guilt and condemnation, they would never sue for His pardon, and would never ask life of Him, unless they found that they deserved to die the first and the second death.
For these reasons the law must be taught. It is the schoolmaster appointed of God to bring sinners (both justified sinners and unjustified sinners!) unto Christ, and when the schoolmaster comes in the name and power of the divine Spirit, and convinces them of their distressed state and condition, and makes them sensible of their guilt and of their misery, then He brings them to Christ, earnestly to ask and humbly to receive mercy from Him, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. ---William Romaine

Mary's pattern of living by faith

“(Consider) Mary’s response to the angel. The angel has come to Mary and says: Mary, you are going to give birth to the long-promised Messiah. This was a unique promise, and unrepeatable. There is something totally unique here: the birth of the eternal second Person of the Trinity into this world. What was her response…She could have rejected the idea and said, ‘I do not want it: I want to withdraw; I want to run’…she could have said, ‘I now have the promises, so I will exert my force, my character, and my energy, to bring forth the promised thing’. But (what she did say) is beautiful, it is wonderful. She says: ‘Behold, the bondmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word.’ There is an active passivity here. She took her own body, by choice, and put it into the hands of God to do the thing that he said he would do and Jesus was born. She gave herself to God…This is a beautiful, exciting, personal expression of a relationship between a finite person and the God she loves.” ---Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

The Words of Christmas

Scot McKnight has a neat idea.... prepping for Christmas by thinking about certain "words of Christmas"..... and starts with the word word.....
“In the beginning,” the Gospel of John tells us, “was the Word.” He furthers this with this: “The Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The first Christmas word we will look at in our Advent 2007 series is Word.
Christmas is about God’s self-expression, God’s Word, in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Christmas message, if it is faithful to John 1:1-14, is the message about Jesus Christ. What God wants to say to us has been said in Jesus Christ.
First, as with Creation so now with the New Creation: it is the act of God. John establishes Advent, Christmas, and the Incarnation as the Act of God to Create.
Second, the Word is the Creator or, perhaps more accurately, God created originally through the Word.
Third, God originally created The Adam; now God’s work begins with the One who becomes Incarnate, taking on flesh and blood (1:14).
Fourth, for John there are almost certainly allusions to Wisdom and Torah when he uses the word “Word.” It is entirely reasonable to think, also, that some would hear the Logos of the Greek world — that by which all things cohere.
Fifth, this Word is a Person. The ultimate and final act of “wording” is “personing” because the “Word” is the communicative act of God. Our words gain meaning from this Word; our words represent and extend who we are to another. Here God’s Word is both “word” and “person.”

80 people for 15 Sundays

A great first response to "80 for 15"... our effort to stabilize the 2 sunday morning worship services at Christ Community....

We received 39 commitments to 9:00 service
We received 58 commitments to 10:45 service

These are encouraging numbers and I expect them both to grow December 9th when those who weren't present (or decided) y'day make their commitments.

Advent is HERE!!!!

“The paradox is amazing. The Creator assumed the human frailty of his creatures. The Eternal One entered time. The all-powerful

made himself vulnerable. The all-holy exposed himself to temptation.

And in the end the immortal died.” --John Stott