Endurance.

Paul writes a lot about joy, rejoicing in the midst of trials, rejoicing because the Gospel is proclaimed even though circumstances aren't all rosy, rejoicing in growth of his brethren, rejoicing because of soul refreshment for Titus. Now you might wonder... why is the title Endurance and not Joy or Rejoicing?

Because of a profound yet simple truth found in James. Yes. You read right, James, not a Pauline epistle.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. But if you lack wisdom let him ask of God, who gives generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

When you encounter various trials...[various is nicely explained here]
to have joy... but why should we have joy? What is this joy rooted in? The joy is knowing that the temporary pain and trials that come.. are to grow us, grow us in endurance. So that we might be more and more like Christ. Complete.


so rejoice knowing that it produces endurance. and through each trial, each test. the endurance brings us closer to our Savior.

more on the subject here

Wise words.

that is the only cure for silliness.

prayer.

spoken by a wise woman.

Excerpt from "Who pays for your spouse's sins?

Let's suppose my wife, Lucia, sins and I get angry with her as a response to her sin. In such a case, which sadly is how it goes in our home from time to time, I would be punishing her for her sin. I would be acting as "God" by demanding justice, while completely missing the Gospel. Christ bore the Father's wrath, died, and rose from the grave in order to accomplish salvation for anyone who authentically believes this story. Thankfully, Lucia was regenerated by the grace of God many years ago. Her sin, past, present, and future has been paid for because of the Gospel.

When I respond in anger to her sin, I am making her do what Christ would never do. I am punishing her.

Christ did not make me pay for my sin. He sacrificed for my sin by giving His life for me. If I truly understand the Gospel in the moment of my wife's sin, my response would be a Gospel-motivated sacrifice rather than self-centered punishment.

Thus is so when we respond in anger at others sins. Read more at Competent Counseling

 

Sin Test

Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself.   -Susanna Wesley

 

Sermon notes from the archives

Since I have more time now, I've started organizing my sermon notes from the past... and I always enjoy reading through the teaching. Here's one from last year. On Christian Dating (1) -Feb 10, 2010

"If this is the will of God in your life, then constantly exposing yourself to the bible, will give you a biblical worldview... Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2

Do not be conformed- command
that by testing- through Scripture

Definition of dating a la Danny Bae: Apply biblical principles towards the goal of marriage
Why date if you're not going to get married? The patterns you establish in dating, continue in marriage, which is why dating is so important.

Immerse yourselves in the Bible, live the Word of God out, and live consistently to what you believe.. there is no special model of dating; you apply Scripture to your life, you OBEY.

... wait on your affections. Be patient and wait on your affections, the quietness of your own heart, and there's something in trusting the Lord when you wait. There is something about waiting and keeping it to yourself and praying about it and meditating about it, for 3, 6 months, a year...

It is good to wait, it is good to be patient, and it is really important to you... That's how it is with big decisions, there is just something about waiting that is good.

There is a special level of intimacy when two people are dating, hearts are more tightly bound together. Proverbs 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. There is only 2 things a relationship can do....

1. Draw you AWAY from Christ OR 2. Draw you CLOSER to Christ
   
   
   To be prepared for dating is to be a Christian... an obedient Christian, a real Christian, a faithful Christian, a mature Christian, a walking Christian.
   

Resolution #5

Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

-Jonathan Edwards

on my desktop.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Gal 5:24

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. -Prov16:3-4


"For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers" -1 Timothy 4:10

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. Psalm 147:10-11

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." -Phil 3:20-21

Wise words.

As I was cleaning today, came across an excerpt I jotted down quickly from http://dt1021.wordpress.com/2010/

I don't need those around me to affirm that I would be the best wife ever and that my singlenss has nothing to do with my own shortcomings.

What I do need is someone to point out that evert single thing is ordained by my ind and gracious Father for my good (Rom 8:28-29). What I do need is to hear when I confess my sin He [Christ] is just and faithful to forgive me and cleanse me of all unrightousness and any lingering shame is my declaration that His sacrifice just wasn't enough to cover the sin.

 

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

 

a taste of fall

Since I've been behind in uploading pictures, I figured I would make a small collage. A sampling of the things these past couple of months. Mostly catching up on baking and scenery shots.

Snippets of Spurgeon for the Soul

Spurgeon is simple to understand, yet immensely profound. The truths he lays to bare penetrates deeply in my soul, to think upon the relationship we have with Christ, and the things we bring before Christ, no secrets, nothing hidden, and I will allow Spurgeon himself to speak for he is much more eloquent than I.

From The Queen of Sheba: Heart-Communing | Published in 1902; delivered New Park Street Chapels, Southwark.

She communed with him of all that was in her heart. 1 Kings 10:2

I. We will begin by saying that we ought to commune with Jesus of all that is in our heart.

I do not mean all of you who are present; I mean all those who have been redeemed from among men by his most precious blood, all those who are believing in him, and who call him their Savior, their Master, their Lord. You are bound to tell him all that is in your heart, and to have no secrets hidden away from him within your soul.
      Tell Jesus all that is in your heart, for neglect of intercourse with Christ,  of the most intimate kind is ungenerous toward him. Are there any professing Christians here, who have lived for a month without conscious communion with Christ? If I were to speak of a longer period and to ask " Are there not some professing Christians here, who have lived for three months without conscious communion with Christ," I am afraid there are some who, if they were honest and truthful, would have to reply, "That is the case with us." If so, think what that means; you profess to belong to Jesus, and to be his disciple, yet you confess that you have lived all this while without real, intimate communication with him who is your Master and Lord. What is more, you profess to be not only one of his disciples, but one of his friends. "Is this thy kindness to thy Friend?" I may go further than that, for you believe yourself to be married to Christ, for that is the union which exists between himself and his people. That would be a strange kind of marriage union in which the wife should be in the presence of her husband, and not even speak to him by the week, by the month, by the three months, by the six months together. For them to have no fellowship with one another, no  mutual interchange of love, no communications with each other, would be regarded as unnatural, and would  be rightly condemned; but do we not, sometimes, act toward our heavenly Bridegroom in just that manner? Are we not, too often, like the men of the world who do not know him? Do we not live as if we did not know him, or as if he were no longer present with us? It ought not to be thus; unless we would act contrary to all the dictates of our higher nature, we must be continually holding intimate intercourse with our Lord Jesus Christ.
    And we must tell him all that is in our heart, because to conceal anything from so true a Friend betrays the sad fact that there is something wrong to be concealed. Is there anything that you do that you could not tell to Jesus? Is there anything you love that you could not ask him to bless? Is there any plan now before you that you could not ask him to sanction? Is there anything in your heart which you would wish to hide from him? then it is a wrong thing; be you sure of that. The thing must be evil, or else you would not wish to conceal it from him whom, I trust, you do really love. O my Lord, wherefore should I desire to hide anything from you? If I do want to hide it, then, surely, it must be because it is something of which I have cause to be ashamed; so help me to get rid of it.....
        If we canoot tell Jesus all that is in our heart, it shows a want of confidence in his love, or his sympathy or his wisdom or his power. When there is something that the wife cannot tell to her husband, or there begin to be some secret things on the part of one of them, that cannot be revealed to the other, there will soon be an end of mutual love and peace and joy. Things cannot go on well in the home while there has to be concealment. O beloved, I beseech you to  love Christ too much to keep anything back from him! Love him so much that you can trust him even with the little frivolous things hich so often worry and vex you. Love him so much that you can tell him all that is in your heart, nor ever for a moment wish to keep back anything from him.
      If we do not tell it all to Jesus, it looks as if we had not confidence in his love, and therefore thought that he would not bear with us; or else that we had not confidence in his sympathy,, and fancied that he would not take any notice of us; or else that we had not confidence in his wisdom, and thought that our trouble was too perplexing to bring to him; or else that we had not confidence in his power, and dreamed that he could not help us in such an emergency. Let this never be the case with any of you; but every day, unburden your heart to Christ, and never let him think that you even begin to distrust him. So shall you keep up a frank and open and blessed fellowship between Christ and your own soul.
      I believe that our trials usually come out of the things that we do not take to the Lord; and, moreover, I am sure that we make greater blunders in what we consider to be simple matters, which we need not take to the Lord, than we do in far more difficult matters which we take to him. The men of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites because they had on old shoes and clouted, and had moldy bread in their wallets, and the Israelites said, "It is perfectly clear that these men must have come from a long distance; look at their old boots and their ragged garments"; so they made a covenant with them, and inquired not the will of the Lord. If it had not appeared to them to be quite so clear a case, they would have asked the Lord for direction, and then they would have been rightly guided. It is when you think you can see your way that you go wrong; when you cannot see your way, but trust to God to lead you by  a way that you know not, you will go perfectly right. I am persuaded that it is so that the simplest and plainest matter kept away from Christ will turn out to be a maze, while the most intricate labyrinth, under the guidance of Christ, will prove to have in it straight road for the feet of all those who trust in the infallible wisdom of their Lord and Savior....

This just being a short excerpt. So much to chew on.