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I found the perfect answer to this question, in a way its comical. You use a blog! Use a blogthis bookmarklet/extension. You select a bit of text on a web page, click the blogthis button and POOF a wonderful formatted post with a block quote in an editor comes up. You write your own ramble under it. Add appropriate tags and/or categories.If you want to be really meta about it you start blogs about separate topics. Enable comments if you like but don't make an effort for others. The target audience is just you. Real traffic is even undesirable since it requires comment moderation. A private/invitation only blogger blog honestly will do just fine. Host your own if its not a big deal for you.Funny notes:Not a week goes by without an email from someone looking to do SEO on my bookmarks.Google search banned one of my blogs one time, probably because it had to many links or a lot of links to unpopular pages.I arrived at this formula trying to build an audience for my blogs both high and low effort postings did nothing. Why should I even care? I find everything onthere fascinating. The largest one has a ton of people making claims that seem to good to be true. If it was aimed to create an audience I would have to endlessly explain to what extend I believe the claims.http://blog.go-here.nlI even write postings for my own amusement http://blog.go-here.nl/8616

Hacker News

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I found the perfect answer to this question, in a way its comical. You use a blog! Use a blogthis bookmarklet/extension. You select a bit of text on a web page, click the blogthis button and POOF a wonderful formatted post with a block quote in an editor comes up. You write your own ramble under it. Add appropriate tags and/or categories.If you want to be really meta about it you start blogs about separate topics. Enable comments if you like but don't make an effort for others. The target audience is just you. Real traffic is even undesirable since it requires comment moderation. A private/invitation only blogger blog honestly will do just fine. Host your own if its not a big deal for you.Funny notes:Not a week goes by without an email from someone looking to do SEO on my bookmarks.Google search banned one of my blogs one time, probably because it had to many links or a lot of links to unpopular pages.I arrived at this formula trying to build an audience for my blogs both high and low effort postings did nothing. Why should I even care? I find everything onthere fascinating. The largest one has a ton of people making claims that seem to good to be true. If it was aimed to create an audience I would have to endlessly explain to what extend I believe the claims.http://blog.go-here.nlI even write postings for my own amusement http://blog.go-here.nl/8616

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But one of the things to know about complexity is complexity is governed by principles rather than rules. CS: What do you mean by that? MBS: Yeah. So the model – I can’t remember where I got this model from – basically says, everything has one or three different forms that’s either simple, complicated or complex. Simple is, “bake a cake”. You know, it’s like, “follow these five instructions: add flour to water, to egg, to milk and butter, blend it all up, put it in the oven for this heat and this time and you get a cake.” Complicated is like a bigger version of that. And the example I’ve seen is launching a space shuttle. You know, there’s an enormous amount of spreadsheets involved in launching a space shuttle. But if you follow all the instructions, you basically get a space shuttle up into orbit. Complex is like a relationship or a flock of birds. And when you see a flock of birds, one of those swirling, flocks of sparrows or starlings – CS: Yeah, it’s a murmuration. MBS: Yeah, exactly. Love that word. Murmuration. You know, nobody has a list of to–do’s taped to the underside of their wing. They’re operating off three core principles: fly as close as you can to the other birds, fly towards the center, don’t run into any of the other birds. And those three rules are what create those amazing shapes of the murmuration, of the swirling thousands of thousands of birds flying together. So, we live complex lives. But once you understand what the principles are that govern that life, you get to focus on how I do my best job at living to those principles.

Michael Bungay Stanier: Be Lazy, Be Curious, Be Often — Transcript - Blinkist Magazine

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(via Noah Primeval (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (Volume 1): Brian Godawa: 9780615550787: Amazon.com: Books)

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Do all the words we read give us a richer life? Or is the increase of information we consume having the reverse effect? In his classic How to Read A Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, Mortimer J. Adler well captures the issue of knowledge without understanding:We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding.

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When I preach through the Ten Commandments, each sermon has four points, because each commandment does four things at once.

First, each of the Ten Commandments is revelation. Each one gives us an insight into the character of God. For example, what kind of amazing Person would say to us, “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15)? Only a just and generous Person who can be fully trusted, who would never rob us or defraud us, who would never lie or cheat, who would never hold out on us wrongly, who is not out for himself, who feels no need and no appetite but only overflowing kindness and abundance. This is Jesus.

Second, each of the Ten Commandments is confrontation. Each one gives us an insight into our own character. What kind of people need to be told, “You shall not steal”? People who will be unfair to one another without even realizing it. We need to be alerted to our own unjust and grasping impulses, which have a deep hold on us. It’s hard but healing to realize this about ourselves, if we turn to Jesus for gracious forgiveness and a new heart, which he gives freely to law-breakers like us.

Third, each of the Ten Commandments is instruction. Each one charts for us a new path to walk, by God’s grace. So “You shall not steal” guides us into the ways of generosity, fairness, honesty, moderation, frugality, timely payments, wholehearted efforts, faithful promises, and so forth. In this life, we can walk this path imperfectly but visibly—not in order to earn God’s approval, but because in Jesus we have freely received God’s approval.

Fourth, each of the Ten Commandments is promise—because of the New Covenant. God promises that he will write his law on our hearts. He will move each commandment from the pages of the Bible down into the deepest instincts of our personalities (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8, 10). Thanks to the finished work of Christ on the cross and the endless power of the Holy Spirit, we who are in Christ will be so transformed in heaven above, at the core of our beings, that forever we will be joyously surging with the life-giving generosity of the eighth commandment. We will finally be like Jesus.

Here is just one way to preach the Ten Commandments within the larger framework of the gospel, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.

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3. And the last thing I would say is go to Spurgeon and get this. I love this. Don’t neglect the soul-refreshing world outside your house that God has given you precisely to touch your soul with new vision, new energy, refreshment. I am talking about the sky and the trees and streams and the fields and birds and the animals, even the beautiful cityscapes like I have outside my house, as well as landscapes, which you have to drive away to see. The soul needs God’s beauty. Take it in directly from nature. And here is the way Spurgeon put it: He who forgets the humming of the bees among the heather, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling of rills among the rushes, and the sighing of the wind among the pines, needs not wonder if his heart forgets to sing and his soul grows heavy. A day’s breathing of fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours’ ramble in the beach woods’s umbrageous calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is the next best thing. . . . For lack of opportunity, or inclination, these great remedies are neglected, and the student becomes a self-immolated victim. So, let me summarize. First, ask God to protect you from wasted leisure. Second, reverse the order of your days and give your best energies to feeding your soul on the sweetness of Christ. Third, leave your Bible for the sake of your Bible — and that means, when you leave, don’t do anything that would diminish your capacities to revel in the riches of the Bible.

I’m Exhausted — How Do I Recharge My Body Without Neglecting My Soul? | Desiring God

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You are Not a Slave to Sin!

A major disconnect for many Christians is understanding that sin is no longer our master, but still feeling trapped in sin’s bondage. The following excerpt from Be Yourself: Discover Your New Identity in Christ by Colin S. Smith (@PastorColinS) has greatly helped me understand the freedom believers have over sin. I pray it will do the same for you.

When you are ‘in Christ,’ you stand in a completely new relationship to the power of sin. Sin used to be your master. Sin used to reign over you. But now you have ‘died’ to the reign of sin (Rom. 6: 2).

Imagine yourself travelling down a long country road. Looking ahead, on one side you see a high chain link fence, and on the other you see an open field. As you drive closer, you can see people behind the fence and people in the field.

You slow down to take a closer look, and you discover that the fence is actually part of a huge cage. The people inside are trapped with no way out. There is a man in the cage who seems to be in charge, and he is angry. He shouts orders at the people telling them what to do. Sometimes the people in the cage seem to protest, but eventually they do what the angry man tells them to do.

The cage is a picture of our situation apart from Jesus Christ. The angry man’s name is ‘Sin,’ and he reigns in the cage. Sin tells the people what to do. “The whole world is a prisoner of sin” (Gal. 3: 22).

But those who are in Christ have died to sin (Rom. 6:2). Think about that: Death involves a translation from one realm to another. When you die, God will move you out of this old world and into a new world that is eternal. You will be done with this world. You will have nothing more to do with it.

Paul uses this picture to describe what God does for us in Christ. When you came to faith in Jesus, God moved you out of the cage and into the field. God moved you from imprisonment to freedom, from an old life in which sin was your master to a new life in which sin is no longer in a position to control you (Rom. 6: 14).

Being in Christ puts you in a new position in relation to sin. Sin is still your enemy, but it is no longer your master. The angry man will still shout instructions across the road. And when he does you will immediately feel that you should do what he says. After all, that’s what you always did before. But the fact of the matter is that the angry man is no longer your master. You are under no obligation to do what he says. You are not in the cage. You are in the field. You are free!

Resistance to sin was ultimately futile when you were held hostage in the cage, but out in the field you are in a position to fight, and you can triumph over your enemy. Every person is either in the cage or in the field. You cannot be in both places at the same time, and knowing where you stand is a crucial part of discovering your new identity in Christ.

Freeing the Hostages

“Christ has become for us… our redemption” (1Cor. 1: 30). The way to true freedom is not through a technique but through a person. Christ moves you from the cage to the field. He is our redemption.

Paul gives us a marvelous description of a man in the cage, overwhelmed by the compulsive power of sinful habits. He says that he is “a prisoner of the law of sin,” and he describes how he is unable to do the good that he wants to do, repeating the same evil that he intended to avoid (Rom. 7: 19, 23). Finally he bursts out in exasperation: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7: 24)

Notice the question: He’s not asking, ‘What will rescue me?’ but ‘Who will rescue me?’ If you are struggling with addictions or problems of compulsive behavior, it’s important to ask the right question. If you ask “What will rescue me?” there are all kinds of answers on offer: Self discipline, accountability, counseling, joining a small group, etcetera. All of these things may be helpful in changing your behavior, but none of them will get you out of the cage.

You can pray in the cage, set up accountability in the cage, or join a small group in the cage, but at the end of the day you are still in the cage.

If you want to get out of the cage, the question you need to ask is not “What will rescue me?” but “Who will rescue me?” That’s the biblical question, and Paul gives the answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ out Lord” (Rom. 7: 25). Christ sets the prisoners free. He is our redemption.

In a recent interview, an American soldier who had been taken prisoner during the war in Iraq described the moment of his liberation, as his colleagues stormed the building in which he was being held. “They came in just as they had been trained to do,” he said. “It was beautiful. They burst through the door, and in a moment they had me out. I can’t describe it…” He broke down in tears and couldn’t continue.

If you can picture the drama of that great moment, you will be able to understand what happens when Jesus Christ redeems you. He raids the cage and sets you free. He takes you from a position of powerlessness in the hands of the enemy to a position where you can fight with new strength.

Sin shall not be your master! You might find it helpful to name the specific sin that that has mastered you in the past so that you can hear and apply the promise of God more clearly in your life. If you are in Christ, drink shall not be your master; money shall not be your master; sex shall not be your master; drugs shall not be your master; pride shall not be your master; rage shall not be your master. The truth of your new identity is that in relation to sin’s guilt you are clean, and in relation to sin’s power you are free. So be who you are!

But That’s Not How I Feel!

Maybe you are thinking, “It’s all very well to tell me that I am free, but that’s now how I feel. In fact, sometimes I feel totally defeated.”

That’s not surprising. When slavery was abolished in America after the civil war, many former slaves found it very difficult to adjust to their new freedom. If you have been in slavery to a particular sin for ten, twenty or thirty years, you may well find that you continue to feel as if you were in the cage even though Christ has redeemed you.

If that’s your struggle, here’s what you need to do: Tell yourself the truth. The biggest cause of defeat in the Christian life is that we go on repeating the lies of the enemy. If you look at a powerful temptation in your life and say, “I can’t overcome this,” you are talking as if you’re still in the cage. Stop talking defeat! Tell yourself the truth.

Sin is not your master, so don’t do what it says. In Christ you are free. Be who you are.

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This post by Bryan Chapell is adapted from the ESV Men's Devotional Bible. God Can Reach the Hardest of Hearts As Daniel 4 begins, thirty-two years had passed since Daniel’s first interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams had burst the king’s illusions about his own greatness (Dan. 2:36–47). Now Nebuchadnezzar needed a reminder about the limits of his greatness and glory. One day, as he walked atop his palace, surveying his kingdom, he said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (4:30). He was just asking for trouble. And that’s what he got. Months earlier, Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed of a majestic tree growing to wondrous heights. In the dream, the tree was cut down and stripped of its greatness at the command of a heavenly messenger (vv. 13–14). The dream had terrified the king, and once again he had called for Daniel to interpret the vision. The interpretation was as simple as it was scary: King Nebuchadnezzar was going to have a great fall. He would lose his mind and live in the fields like an animal until he acknowledged that God alone is sovereign over all things. This poignant account of a man’s ruin and restoration dramatically reveals a gospel story of God’s mercy toward those who have stood against him. It is a timeless reminder that God shows his grace to those who honor him now, even if they have failed to do so in the past. With the severe mercies of his grace, our God can break the wills and win the hearts of those most resistant to him. So we must pray for the salvation of those whom God places in our care, with the confidence that he is able to break the hardest heart. The battle may be long before it is won. Daniel’s testimony of God in Nebuchadnezzar’s life began decades before the details of this chapter. But the king finally did acknowledge Daniel’s God. We must not cease working and praying for a brother, father, spouse, or friend. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. It does not matter how hard the heart. God can reach it. Bryan Chapell is the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Peoria, Illinois. He is also the host of a daily half-hour radio Bible teaching program, Unlimited Grace, and the founder and chairman of Unlimited Grace Media (unlimitedgrace.com). Bryan previously served as the president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and is the author of a number of books, including Holiness by Grace.

Never Give Up

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I'm currently reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and I am loving it. One reason that I am enjoying it is that it sends such a different message than our culture sends us. In the book (spoiler alert!), Jane falls desperately in love with Mr. Rochester. They seem to be so perfectly suited for each other and their love for one another is passionate and strong. After Mr. Rochester confesses his feelings for Jane and proposes to her, she experiences sheer and total bliss. She is beside herself with happiness and head over heals for her fiance. The only problem occurs on their wedding day, when she finds out that Mr. Rochester has secretly been keeping his insane and uncontrollable wife locked in his attic. After hearing this, Jane is undone. Her feelings for Mr. Rochester remain as strong and fervent as ever before, in fact, she forgives him immediately for deceiving her. However, she quickly decides that she can't compromise her integrity and stay involved with someone who is already married, despite the fact that his wife is demented. Listen to her inner struggle: "I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fury iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol. One dead word comprised my intolerable duty--'Depart!' (321). The easy thing for Jane to do would be to stay with Mr. Rochester, the one man she truly loved and adored. At least, that's what her heart was telling her to do. However, she decided to deny her own emotions and do what she knew to be right. She couldn't stay with someone who was married, not matter how much her heart clung to him.

Hunger for Him: Jeremiah 17:9: Should you Follow your Heart??

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I believe what we need in our day is not to presume the ineffectiveness of the Holy Spirit working through the preached Word but to repent of our decades of pragmatic methodology and materialist theology and to reclaim the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of salvation for anybody, anywhere, any time. The United States desperately needs churches re-committed to the weird, counter-cultural supernaturality of biblical Christianity. And this means a re-commitment to rely on the gospel as our only power. Creativity and intelligence can certainly adorn the gospel of grace, but there is no amount of creativity and intelligence that can waken a dead soul. Only the foolishness of the gospel can do that (1 Cor. 1:18). Not even sacrificial good works and biblical social justice can wake a dead soul, for the law has no power to raise in and of itself. Only the foolishness of the gospel can do that. And it is a shame that there are an increasing number of churches(!) that are blanching at the foolishness of the gospel these days. But Paul knows that the hope of the church and the world is the alien righteousness of Christ announced in that scandalous historical headline. “For Christ did not send me to preach the gospel with words of eloquent wisdom,” he says, “lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor. 1:17). Paul knows that too often our creativity and intelligence don’t adorn the gospel, but obscure it. In some church environments, even though unwittingly, they replace it. But the apostle encourages us not to be ashamed—intentionally or even unintentionally —of the gospel, for it is the only power of salvation we’ve been stewarded. There. is. nothing. else. “I have resolved to know nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). I know some reckon that steady gospel preaching and revival prayer do not amount to much compared to human ingenuity and industriousness. But the Holy Spirit can do much more than we think or ask. Let’s not run ahead of him. Let this, from Maurice Roberts’s sermon “Prayer for Revival,” be our prayer as well: It is to our shame that we have imbibed too much of this world’s materialism and unbelief. What do we need more than to meditate on the precious covenant promises of Holy Scripture until our souls have drunk deeply into the spirit of a biblical supernaturalism? What could be more profitable than to eat and drink of heaven’s biblical nourishment till our souls become vibrant with the age-old prayer for revival, and till we find grace to plead our suit acceptably at the throne of grace? The Lord has encouraged us to hope in him still. O that he would teach us to give him no rest day or night till he rain righteousness upon us!

http://ftc.co/resource-library/1/2467

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Book Review: Unlimited Grace Unlimited Grace. Bryan Chapell. 2016. Crossway. 192 pages. [Source: Review copy] Do Christians really need yet another book on grace? The answer is yes. Why? Because I think Christians struggle daily--whether they are aware of it or not--with living in the knowledge of the grace they profess. Another good reason, I think, is that everywhere--in and out of church, in and out of "Christian" circles--Christians hear mixed messages about grace. Accepting, understanding, embracing grace doesn't come naturally or easily to us. We're wired to act and live in such a way that opposes notions of grace. We're wired to think that we earn God's approval, we merit heaven; that our standing with God is dependent on US and only us. Sad but true, that surface-only, "cultural" Christians actually think that they get into heaven because of good works. So essentially there are plenty of reasons as to why "yet another" book about grace needs to be published. This book has THREE parts. In the first part, "this book takes us on the journey to discover how grace not only frees us from the guilt and shame of sinful lives but also provides daily fuel for the joy that is the strength of Christian living." In the second part, this book "explains how preachers, teachers, counselors, mentors, parents, and all others who share God’s Word can find grace in every portion of Scripture. My hope is that everyone will be able to see that grace is not a sidebar in the Bible but the consistent theme that culminates in the ministry and message of Jesus." In the third part, this book "attempts to answer the common questions people ask about how to find grace, and how to keep from abusing its blessings." I loved, loved, loved this one. I found it to be a great read. I would definitely recommend this one to new believers especially. Though the older and rustier Christian could probably benefit greatly as well!! I'm just thinking I really wish someone had told me the great news of the good news when I was a new believer!!! Favorite quotes: You cannot claim as “Christian” any message denying that the grace of God is greater than all our sin and always available to cover it. New obedience and daily living in harmony with Christ’s standards may enable us to experience God’s forgiveness, but we never earn it. God is not waiting for us to get good enough to deserve his mercy and pardon. The most powerful human motivation is love. Guilt is not stronger. Fear is not stronger. Gain is not stronger. What drives a mother back into a burning building? Love for her children. Such love is stronger than self-protection, self-promotion, or self-preservation. Such love finds its highest satisfaction and greatest fulfillment in protecting, promoting, and preserving its object. A Christian for whom love of God is the highest priority is also the person most motivated and enabled to serve the purposes of God. Our love will be as strong as our realization of the guilt of sin and the hell of consequences from which we have been rescued. Our reception with God is a consequence of his grace, not of our works. Most Christians nod at this familiar truth, but fail to come to grips with its everyday implications. Sanctification is about being holy as a consequence of being justified. Justification echoes the language of a courtroom to help us understand how Jesus’s provision frees us from guilt. Sanctification echoes the language of the Old Testament temple to help us understand how Jesus’s provision makes us pure, or holy. Sanctification is about being made pure for a purpose: to further holiness in us and others. God makes us pure for his use in the world about us. Our identity determines what we do; what we do does not determine our identity. The message that Jesus loves us because we are good denies that the cross was either necessary or sufficient. The child who obeys Jesus to secure his love will be the adult who doubts Christ’s love when life’s temptations and challenges make it all too clear that we are not always his good little boys and girls. Through that union, I have the identity of Christ and cannot be loved more, because I am already loved as infinitely as he. And because of that union, I will not be loved less, because Christ’s life, not mine, is the basis of God’s love. Knowledge is power. We cannot do our Savior’s will if we do not know what he wants. Teaching grace in such a way that God’s people are left ignorant or insensitive to God’s standards actually denies God’s people their heart’s desire. While, it is true that our obedience to God’s law is not the basis of his love for us, that does not mean that God’s standards are bad, irrelevant, or to be ignored. Living in accord with God’s standards—no matter what else may challenge or tempt us—ultimately demonstrates that we believe that walking closely with our Savior is better than anything this world can offer. He is more lovely than anything else, and separating ourselves from anything that would distance or dishonor him brings us joy. We do not become or remain God’s children because of how good we are or how much we know. Knowing ourselves—our strengths, weaknesses, inclinations, susceptibilities—is also necessary to walk the path God has designed to bless our lives. The first thing we need to know about ourselves is that we are human. I know that seems obvious, but without facing the implications of being human, we will be unprepared for the challenges of staying on God’s path. The first implication of being human is that we are vulnerable to temptation. We may think that our character, background, training, or resolve would make us impervious to the assaults of Satan that others experience, but that would be a grave error. Because we are new creations, spiritual change is possible in our lives. Tomorrow doesn’t have to be like yesterday. If you do not believe that spiritual change is possible, you will not strive for it. Knowing we can change keeps our hearts engaged and our hopes alive. The answer to “Why do we sin?” is “Because we love it.” We sin because we love it. Consider this: if sin did not attract us, it would have absolutely no power over us. We yield to sin because we find it attractive, beneficial, pleasurable, or advantageous (John 3:19; James 1:13–14). So, if our love of a sin is what grants the sin power over us, how do we get rid of that love? The scriptural answer is plain: with a greater love. No motivation is stronger than love. Guilt is not stronger. Fear is not stronger. Personal gain is not stronger. While each of these can motivate people for both good and evil, none is stronger than love. Through grace we experience the love that ignites ours. Our disciplines do not make us acceptable to God because they are long enough, deep enough, or frequent enough. The love we show is the love we know. In expressing his love selflessly and sacrificially, we sense more of the reality and depth of his love for us and, consequently, love him more (Matt. 22:36–40; 1 John 3:14–19; 4:12). Our goal as faithful Bible readers is not to try to make Jesus magically appear in every text, but to see where every text fits in this redemptive epic. Grace emerges on the page whenever God provides for people who cannot provide for themselves. By simply asking, “What does this text teach about God and me, we will see something distinctive about his nature and ours—something that separates us unless he unites us to himself—something we require that he alone can provide. The provision may be specifically named in the text, or we may need to discern it by identifying the human need that requires God’s aid. The result will be the same: inevitably these lenses will help us see that God alone supplies the grace we need but cannot provide for ourselves. Even if there is no direct mention of Jesus—and most of the time there will not be—the text will lead us forward in our understanding of the grace that our Redeemer must supply (Acts 20:24; 1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 3:24). Gospel glasses . Together these lenses (the two key questions) function as gospel glasses to help us see basic truths of unfolding grace (e.g., God is holy and we are not, God is sovereign and we are vulnerable, God is merciful and we require his mercy). Such reading glasses always make us aware of our need of God’s grace to compensate for our sin and inability. Christianity cannot be found on any spectrum of beliefs where our behavior is the basis of our relationship with God. Repentance does not cause forgiveness. If either God’s present love or his eternal forgiveness of us is determined by the presence or quality of our repentance, we are all in terrible danger. Because our hearts and understanding are yet imperfect, we remain blind to sins we will see only with further maturity—and perhaps not until eternity (Ps. 19:12).

http://operationreadbible.blogspot.com/2016/11/book-review-unlimited-grace.html

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Lord, I know very well that You can demand my soul from me this very minute. My life is in Your hands. When I go to work in the morning, there is no guarantee that I will return. Lord, help me be joyful and thankful in my heart for this. You decide about my life and You have a purpose for it. Let me realize this purpose every day. Don’t let me waste time and energy on meaningless activities. Only You can fill my life with meaning. Make my life be a blessing and joy to You. Lord, lead me in such a way that there will be someone who thanks You for using me to honor Your name.

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Jason Abbott and I are teaching pastors at Community Evangelical Free Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Our church is not large, by any means, but we are growing. And the growth is putting a strain on our current building facilities. We’re like a toddler with a onesie that’s getting snug—we can make it a little while in our current outfit, but soon we’re going to need a bigger one. Nevertheless, finding and buying a larger building, as well as selling our old building and moving, is a challenging prospect. In addition to this, we feel called by God to plant other churches. This probably won’t happen for a few years, but we need to plan for it now. It, too, will be challenging. Oh, and as if these prospects weren’t enough, our church needs to grow in diversity. Our congregation is not nearly as diverse as our surrounding community. We’ve prayed and talked about this for some time, but now we need to address it in a less passive way. And that’s also going to be hard. These potential changes (along with a dozen others) while exciting, are also scary. People don’t typically like change, and pastors are people too. Despite all this, we’re not at the place of despair. Far from it! We’re full of hope. But, in order to see why, it might be helpful to back up. Somewhere in 2012, another pastor sent me an email that said simply: More people to love. Thanks, John This email changed things for me. When I received it, the church I was serving was growing rapidly. Someone needed to evaluate the current trends and create a plan to accommodate the growth. So I drew from my former career in engineering, opened up Microsoft Excel, and took a hard look at our attendance data. I created pretty graphs and conservative growth projections for the next few years, and I sent them to the staff and elders. At that time, I was primarily viewing the new people as more of a problem than a blessing. As the pastor who was charged with overseeing the connection of newcomers to the church, I viewed new people as new problems. The line on the graph representing attendance might as well have been labeled “Benjamin’s workload.” For every fifty new people, could I really keep adding five hours to my workweek? At some point, simply trying harder wasn’t going to solve the problem. (Again, there’s that word, “problem.”) Then, just a few minutes after I sent my concerned email, I received John’s reply: “More people to love.” That’s all it said. I remember staring at my computer screen. The contrast between my approach and John’s was stark. He was ready for adventure, ready to see his story and the story of our church in light of the Big Story of the Bible. I was not. Following the sting came repentance. That was four years ago. Now, in the providence of God, I’m at a new church. And the situation is similar: a growing church, a growing workload, and growing fear. Then I remember John’s email, and I’m encouraged, even excited. It reminds me that the Big Story of God is about the love of God growing and expanding. John’s email reminds me that what started with two in a garden ends with a multitude in a city. And while faithfully living inside this story, God’s Big Story, has always been hard, it’s also always worth it—because God is worth it. The following seven chapters are about this Big, Always-worth-it Story. These chapters have been adapted from a series of sermons Jason and I preached at our church. But they aren’t simply about our church. Yes, we preached them to prepare our congregants for a potential building change. Yes, we preached them to prepare our local church for the challenges of church planting. And yes, we preached them to prepare our fellowship to grow in its ability to love our surrounding community. But these chapters are about something more fundamental than these objectives. Foundationally, they are not about our church at all. They are about God’s plan, as revealed from Genesis to Revelation, to “make [his] name great among the nations” (Malachi 1:11). In short, this book is about the Big Story of God and seeing our stories in light of his story. Four years ago, when I received that email, things changed for me: the glory of God in his mission to love more and more people softened my heart and opened my eyes. As you read this book, Jason and I pray that it’ll do the same for you.

http://www.fanandflame.com/blog/2016/10/4/more-people-to-love-preface

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As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 2 Thessalonians 3:13 Do we have gifts that are moldering because we’ve been too lazy to develop them? We need to be directed into the love of God so that we might get up off our couches and do some work! What’s the biggest reason that you and I do so little in the kingdom? Mostly, it’s because we’re lazy and feel sorry for ourselves. We feel that God should have given us different, better gifts, and we complain about what we could have been or could have done if we’d just had something different. Do not be weary in doing good. Everything that you think is a burden is an opportunity if you’re walking in step with the Spirit. If you’re really seeing what Christ did at the cross and his love has penetrated your heart, you’re going to want to move, but you have to do some practical things. One of those things is to turn from any tendency to feel sorry for yourself and whine. Don’t say you’re going to look at the cross and then lie down and go to sleep. Look at the cross, and think about Jesus and how he endured to the end. Think of him going to the depths for you, loving you, bearing your burdens, understanding you, and caring for you. Let that draw you into the love of God, and instead of complaining, begin to praise God as you work.

October 6 - Saving Grace Daily Devotions - Miller

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Unlike other religions, where good works are central to success, Christianity proclaims the glory of Jesus Christ and his work, and the good works of his followers become the beautiful dust stirred up in our following him wherever he goes. Christians are not earning their salvation with their good deeds; they are working it out (Phil. 2:12). Since Christians believe that the work of salvation is already accomplished by Jesus, and there is nothing left for them to do to contribute to this work, they are now free to unselfconsciously love and serve others without worrying about recognition or reward. They will be vindicated in heaven, even if they are violated here. Christians are called to good works. This is how people know we are Christians. But they also know we are Christians—and not charitable Buddhists—because we don’t make good works our boast.

How Christianity Flourishes | TGC