from PaulTripp

Unfailing love, sufficient grace, abundant provision. You have been and are being redeemed!

(Oh yes, men's b'fast 6:30am Perkins on Newberry Rd-just East of I-75. )

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The Gospel & Relationships

"Grace liberates your relationships because you no longer have to ask the other person to provide what Jesus has already given you."

--Paul Tripp

Thursday Men's Breakfast 6:30am

@ Perkins on Newberry, just East of I-75

Christ saves, not strength of faith

"Our salvation does not depend upon the strength of our faith."

-- J. Gresham Machen

John Calvin's definition of FAITH

"A firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence towards us, 

found upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ,

both revealed to our minds 

and sealed upon our hearts 

through the Holy Spirit."

--Institutes, book 3

Spurgeon on Faith

The old writers, who are by far the most sensible—for you will notice that the books that were written about two

hundred years ago by the old Puritans have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books and more in a

page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity. 

The old writers tell you that faith is made up of three things—

first knowledge, 

then assent 

and then what they call affiance—or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent and making it our own by trusting in it.

2 thoughts:
1.) Funny that Spurgeon would say this in 1856!  This is exponentially true now.

2.) Would apply like this: Knowledge ("Flipping that switch turns on the light? Really")
Assent ("I think flipping that switch would turn on the light.")
Affiance ("I flip the switch.")

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more on Faith

Faith is clearly one of the most important concepts in the Bible.  Everywhere it is required and its importance insisted upon.  Faith means abandoning all trust in one's own resources.  Faith means casting oneself unreservedly on the mercy of God.  Faith means laying hold on the promises of God in Christ, relying entirely on the finished work of Christ for salvation, and on the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God for daily strength.  Faith implies complete reliance on God and full obedience to God.

--Leon Morris, New Bible Dictionary

KNOWLEDGE 
TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD COMES THROUGH FAITH 
by J.I. Packer

But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the LORD. JEREMIAH 9:24

In 1 Timothy 6:20-21 Paul warns Timothy against "what is falsely called knowledge (Greek gnosis), which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith." Paul is attacking theosophical and religious tendencies that developed into Gnosticism in the second century A.D. Teachers of these beliefs and practices told believers to see their Christian commitment as a somewhat confused first step along the road to "knowledge," and urged them to take more steps along that road. But these teachers viewed the material order as worthless and the body as a prison for the soul, and they treated illumination as the complete answer to human spiritual need. They denied that sin was any part of the problem, and the "knowledge" they offered had to do only with spells, celestial passwords, and disciplines of mysticism and detachment. They reclassified Jesus as a supernatural teacher who had looked human, though he was not; the Incarnation and the Atonement they denied, and replaced Christ's call to a life of holy love with either prescriptions for asceticism or permission for licentiousness. Paul's letters to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 4:1-7; 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 3:1-9); Jude 4, 8-19; 2 Peter 2; and John's first two letters (1 John 1:5-10; 2:9-11, 18-29; 3:7-10; 4:1-6, 5:1-12; 2 John 7-11) are explicitly opposing beliefs and practices that would later emerge as Gnosticism.

By contrast, Scripture speaks of "knowing" God as the spiritual person's ideal: namely, the fullness of a faith-relationship that brings salvation and eternal life and generates love, hope, obedience, and joy. (See, for example, Exod. 33:13; Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:8-12; Dan. 11:32; John 17:3; Gal. 4:8-9; Eph. 1:17-19; 3:19; Phil. 3:8-11; 2 Tim. 1:12.) The dimensions of this knowledge are intellectual (knowing the truth about God: Deut. 7:9; Ps. 100:3); volitional (trusting, obeying, and worshiping God in terms of that truth); and moral (practicing justice and love: Jer. 22:16; 1 John 4:7-8). Faith-knowledge focuses on God incarnate, the man Christ Jesus, the mediator between God and us sinners, through whom we come to know his Father as our Father (John 14:6). Faith seeks to know Christ and his power specifically (Phil. 3:8-14). Faith's knowledge is the fruit of regeneration, the bestowal of a new heart (Jer. 24:7; 1 John 5:20), and of illumination by the Spirit (2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:17). The knowledge-relationship is reciprocal, implying covenantal affection on both sides: we know God as ours because he knows us as his (John 10:14; Gal. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:19).

All Scripture has been given to help us know God in this way. Let us labor to use it for its proper purpose.

From: Concise Theology: A Guide To Historic Christian Beliefs

--
Rob Pendley
Christ Community Church
www.cccgainesville.com

Grammar lesson on Faith

The tenses of the verb "pisteuo" (greek word "faith") are also instructive.  The aorist tense points to a single act in past time and indicates the determinative characteristic of faith.  When a man comes to believe he commits himself decisively to Christ.  The present tense has the idea of continuity.  Faith is not a passing phase.  It is a continuing attitude.  The perfect tense combines both ideas.  It speaks of a present faith which is continuous with a past act of belief.      --Leon Morris, New Bible Dictionary

Kids @ VBS having a blast

Beggars

(C) 2009; Words by Dustin Kensrue, Music by Dustin Kensrue, Teppei Teranishi, Eddie Breckenridge, Riley Breckenridge

 
All you great men of power, 

you who boast in your feats, 

politicians and entrepreneurs.
Can you safeguard your breath in the night while you sleep, 

keep your heart beating steady and sure?

As you lie in your bed, does the thought haunt your head, 
that you're really rather small?
If there's one thing I know in this life, we are beggars, all.

All you champions of science and rulers of men, 
can you summon the sun from it's sleep?

Does the earth seek your council on how fast to spin?

Can you shut up the gates of the deep?

Don't you know that all things hang as if by string 
o'er the darkness poised to fall?
If there's one thing I know in this life, we are beggars, all.

All you bigshots who swagger and stride with conceit, 

did you devise how your frame would be formed?

If you'd be raised in a palace or live out on the streets? 
Did you choose the hour or the place you'd be born?

Tell me what can you claim?

Not a thing, not your name! Tell me if you recall just one thing.
Is that not a gift in this life?
 
Can you hear what's been said? Can you see now that everything is grace after all?

If there's one thing I know in this life

If there's one thing I know in this life

If there's one thing I know in this life, we are beggars, all.

--
Rob Pendley
Christ Community Church
www.cccgainesville.com

VBS day one

vbs

Low quality pic but great VBS

"I am the bread of life." --Jesus

. . . Gods Tender Bowells run

Out streams of Grace: And he to end all strife

The Purest Wheate in Heaven, his deare-dear Son

Grinds, and kneads up into this Bread of Life.

Which Bread of Life from Heaven down came and stands

Disht on thy Table up by Angells Hands.

— Edward Taylor, "Meditation 8: I Am the Living Bread"

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CHAPTER 8 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR, from the Westminster Confession of Faith

1. It pleased God, in his eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of his church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world: unto whom he did from all eternity give a people, to be his seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

2. The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.

3. The Lord Jesus, in his human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, above measure, having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell; to the end that, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator, and surety. Which office he took not unto himself, but was thereunto called by his Father, who put all power and judgment into his hand, and gave him commandment to execute the same.

4. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake; which that he might discharge, he was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfill it; endured most grievous torments immediately in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was crucified, and died, was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption. On the third day he arose from the dead, with the same body in which he suffered, with which also he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of his Father, making intercession, and shall return, to judge men and angels, at the end of the world.

5. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience, and sacrifice of himself, which he, through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him.

6. Although the work of redemption was not actually wrought by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefits thereof were communicated unto the elect, in all ages successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices, wherein he was revealed, and signified to be the seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's head; and the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; being yesterday and today the same, and forever.

7. Christ, in the work of mediation, acts according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet, by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.

8. To all those for whom Christ hath purchased redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same; making intercession for them, and revealing unto them, in and by the Word, the mysteries of salvation; effectually persuading them by his Spirit to believe and obey, and governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner, and ways, as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation.

Lunch after church Sunday!!

Proceeds help Mexico team.

John 3:16 is true

God loves the world

The broken world

He gave His Son to rescue the perishing

Hallelujah

Of Functional Importance

It's hard for us to make the truly important things functionally important to us. Adam and Eve quickly fell into this trouble as well.

--Paul Tripp

Come to Jesus, today

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

--William Sleeper

Communion Table

Our beautiful communion table has been taken back to the manufacturer for a slight change.

The spacing on the letters in the word "Remembrance" was a little funky.

The company, Ratigan Schottler, has been amazingly great to work with.

http://www.ratiganschottler.com/

@ The Resource Desk Today

Sin is a Relationship by Paul Tripp
and
JI Packer article on Original Sin


From the Tripp meditation:Sin isn't first rooted in a philosophical debate of the appropriateness or healthiness of a certain ethic. No, sin is rooted in my unwillingness to find joy in living my life under the authority of, and for the glory of, Another. Sin is rooted in my desire to live for me.

He carried it

Grace makes you sensitive to conviction, while it removes the guilt/shame for sin. You are free from bearing what Jesus already carried.

Paul Tripp

quotes on sin

In short, a man must be free from the sin he is, which makes him do the sin he does.
George MacDonald

 

I would rather feel remorse than know how to define it.
Thomas A'Kempis

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.
W.H. Auden

Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache.
Hungarian Proverb

About 29 headed tubing

About 29 headed tubing

Total Forgiveness!

Jerry Bridges: With the assurance of total forgiveness through Christ, we have no reason to hide from our sins anymore."

Holy Communion, Sunday @ 10:30am

We have a kind and merciful God who uses earthly elements 'to lead us to himself'. All the benefits we are to receive from partaking of the Supper will be experienced in God leading us to himself. He wants his children to know him better. The Lord's Supper is a gracious gift from a gracious Saviour to help us better grasp, and experience, his love for us.

 

-- Ian Hamilton

Katrina Meets Chernobyl

Read this today by another native Mississippian, a brother from Biloxi:

Moore to the Point by Russell D. Moore: "This is more than a threat to my hometown, and to our neighboring communities. It is a threat to national security greater than most Americans can even contemplate, because so few of them know how dependent they are on the eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico. This is, as one magazine put it recently, Katrina meets Chernobyl."

Walk the Line

In the movie/bio of Johnny Cash there is a scene where Jerry Lee Lewis says:


God gave us a great big apple, see, and He said don't touch it. 
He didn't say touch it once in a while; 
He didn't say take a nibble when you're hungry; 
He said don't touch it! 


Don't think about touchin' it, 
don't sing about touchin' it, 
don't THINK about singin' about touchin' it! 

Thinking a sin and this broken world

There's a line in the movie Platoon:

"There's the way it ought to be, and there's the way it is."

Spot on!

And by the renewing grace of God there is also:

A Way It Shall Be

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Great time with the fellas

6 guys turned up at Perkins today and we had a great time together.

think about participating in July

Tomorrow 6:30am Men's B'fast

Perkins Restaurant on Nberry Rd

A network of compulsive attitudes, beliefs, and behavior

Sin stands revealed as an energy of irrational, negative, and rebellious reaction to God's call and command, a spirit of fighting God in order to play God. The root of sin is pride and enmity against God, the spirit seen in Adam's first transgression; and sinful acts always have behind them thoughts, motives, and desires that one way or another express the willful opposition of the fallen heart to God's claims on our lives.                     --J.I. Packer

Richard Lovelace: ". . . the structure of sin in the human personality is far more complicated than the isolated acts and thoughts of deliberate disobedience commonly designated in the world. In its biblical definition, sin cannot be limited to isolated instances or patterns of wrongdoing; it is something much more akin to the psychological term "complex": an organic network of compulsive attitudes, beliefs, and behavior deeply rooted in alienation from God. Sin originated in the darkening of the human mind and heart as man turned from the truth about God to embrace a lie about him and consequently a whole universe of lies about his creation. Sinful thoughts, words and deeds flow forth from this darkened heart automatically and compulsively, as water from a polluted fountain."

sin, quotes by Tim Keller

"The Bible's purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible's purpose is to show you how God's grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome… religion is 'if you obey, then you will be accepted'. But the Gospel is, 'if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you're accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey'. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference."

 

"The gospel creates the only kind of grief over sin which is clean and which does not crush. It says: 'Look at Jesus dying for you! He won't leave you or abandon you–how then can you respond as you are? He suffered so you wouldn't do this thing! You are not living as though you are loved! As his child! It is not because he will abandon you that you should be holy, but because this is the one who at inestimable cost to himself has said he won't ever abandon you! How can you live in the very sin that he was ripped to pieces to deliver you from?' See the GRACE of God argument? It is the only argument which cannot be answered."

 

"Repentance out of mere fear is really sorrow for the consequences of sin, sorrow over the danger of sin — it bends the will away from sin, but the heart still clings. But repentance out of conviction over mercy is really sorrow over sin, sorrow over the grievousness of sin — it melts the heart away from sin. It makes the sin itself disgusting to us, so it loses its attractive power over us. We say, 'this disgusting thing is an affront to the one who died for me. I'm continuing to stab him with it!'" 

 

 

 

 

- Timothy Keller