A Prophetic Sermon preached on Jan 25, 1998?

Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George Bush, Chief Justice Roberts, etc

...Beware of thinking and praying toward an impeachment of President Clinton because of his most recent turmoil. That may be the right thing to do. But our puny wisdom is not worthy of running the world. If he is impeached and convicted and forced out of office, Al Gore will become the president of the United States. That will make his chances of being elected president in the next election much higher as an incumbent.

And where was Al Gore Thursday on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade? At an abortion-rights gathering, not a pro-life gathering. Richard Neuhaus points out that it is very likely that the next president will appoint four new Justices to the Supreme Court. That means that an impeachment and conviction of President Clinton would probably put a radically pro-choice president in office for the next ten years, namely Al Gore. But if Clinton has to limp to the end of his presidency in disgrace, history may take a very different turn. We don't know.

I only point this out to remind you that God is in heaven and rules over the affairs of men, and is much wiser than we are in running the world. It behooves us to pray for God's wise and just and merciful plan to unfold rather than to assume that our shortsighted guesses are the best. When Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, became proud and defied the living God, Daniel 4:31-32 says,

A voice came from heaven, saying, "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes."

This is still true. God will rule over who is chosen for the Supreme Court in the next several years and we do well to join him in his wise and just and sovereign rule of the world by praying for his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth the way the angels do it in heaven, and by voting and acting in accord with God's will revealed in Scripture....

- John Piper

Read the whole sermon,

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/47/1027_Where_Does_Child_Killing_Come_From/

Red

"Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away the part of you that knows its a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But still the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend"

-"Red" Ellis Boyd Redding

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The Mystery of Love

"...the mystery of love... no one can figure out who is doing the giving and who the receiving. Real lovers know giving and receiving are hilarious and splendid parados, in which lo the giving becomes receiving and the receiving giving until any efforts to sort it out collapse in merriment or adoration."

- Thomas Howard

When the heart is fat with the love of Jesus

“On the most basic levels, I desire fullness, and fleshly lusts seduce me by attaching themselves to this basic desire. They exploit the empty spaces in me, and they promise that fulness will be mine if I give in to their demands. When my soul sits empty and is aching for something to fill it, such deceptive promises are extremely difficult to resist.

Consequently, the key to mortifying fleshly lusts is to eliminate the emptiness within me and replace it with fullness; and I accomplish this by feasting on the gospel. Indeed, it is in the gospel that I experience a God who glorifies Himself by filling me with His fullness. . . . This is the God of the gospel, a God who is satisfied with nothing less than my experience of fullness in Him! . . .

Indeed, as I perpetually feast on Christ and all His blessings found in the gospel, I find that my hunger for sin diminishes and the lies of lust simply lose their appeal. Hence, to the degree that I am full, I am free. Eyes do not rove, nor do fleshly lusts rule, when the heart is fat with the love of Jesus!”

- Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians (2008), 45-46

"We must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake"

“My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be partakers of His victory.”

—Charles Simeon, quoted in John Piper, The Roots of Endurance (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006), 77

Monsoon

No lightning, no thunder

Just heat and sticky arms

comes as a warning

How I long for you

Probably heat and sticky arms

makes more the yearning

The coolness brought in

Lost heat and sticky arms

Still, dust free morning

Do I look forward to

another heat and sticky arms

knowing the rain would come

Despair of Overcoming Chronic Temptations

“I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience et cetera doesn’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us: it is the very sign of his presence.”

- C.S. Lewis, in a letter to Mary Neylan, January 20, 1942

Wordled - Gospel of John in Nepali

http://wordle.net/create

Things that I love to do (Praying Mantis)

Study my Bible, take pictures, God's creation... Interesting fact about this bug is that the females are known to eat the males after mating..., Isn't that hilarious? Guess what book is in the picture...?

This is the sweetest thing I've seen...

The Story http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2006/08/17/building-a-blank-bible-part-3-the-blank-bible/

One Thing...

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25) One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:13,14) One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. (Ps 27:4) Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

A Very Godly Wise Man Said,

"You're going to be, what you're now becoming." "Every day the choices you make will determine who you'll be down the road." - Jerry Bridges

John Piper Admits - He was wrong and puts forth what our church desperately needs

"Is there an essence of Baptism with the Holy Spirit, the heart of, this is it and sometimes its all the other things (Acts 2), But this is always the Baptism of the Holy Spirit… that is the question I want to answer right now. And, to answer it I want to begin by saying what I don’t think the essence is… Here I’m going to distance myself from a view that I have argued for in 1984 and one that has great and wonderful historic tradition behind it. But which I have become increasingly persuaded as not accurate, at least the way the way I was arguing for. I don not think that baptism with the Holy Spirit refers to new birth, conversion to Christ, being united by the Spirit to the body of Christ. In other words Luke or Acts 2 is not talking about what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12:13. The view that I’m turning from is perfectly orthodox. And, if you hold it when I’m done you’re welcome at Bethlehem and welcome into my heart and loved and have a great historic tradition behind you namely that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 12:13 are one and the same thing. And, nobody is going to boot you out of this church for holding that view otherwise I would have been gone six years ago. But, not to make light of the disagreement, I have prayed and struggled, and labored, and sought, and studied, and wept, and talked, and I believe that I was wrong, and that view is wrong, and that the view I’m going to give you this morning is right and desperately needed in the church. So, the question is what’s the heart of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit?... …I think the essence and the heart of the baptism with the Holy Spirit when a person who is already a believer receives from the Holy Spirit extraordinary spiritual power for Christ exalting ministry…" Preached in front of a congregation of 400. 

September 23, 1990 So, something happened to Piper between 1986 and 1990 

Listen to the sermon here. 

Read it here You will be Baptized with the Holy Spirit 

A book to understand this more fully would be "Joy Unspeakable - Martyn Lloyd Jones"

Arm Falls Off

Read this first, Idolatry Walk the Other way

...Because of what bitterness does – causing us to fall short of the grace of God – we should consider it a bit further.

When you have been wronged, you have been wounded. When the wound hurts or throbs, that is not bitterness. But wounds need to be cleaned and dressed, and the bandages need to be changed regularly. If this does not happen, then the wound gets infected. Bitterness is that infection.

If the wound is kept clear of infection, then the wound heals, Perhaps there is a scar, and a story, but the wound really does heal. But if the wound is not kept clear of infection, then it stays tender, stays swollen, stays infected, and one day your arm falls off.

Now when your arm falls off, and someone asks what happened, it will not do to say, "Well, my third grade teacher humiliated me in front of the class," or "When I was in high school, the director’s daughter was chosen for the lead in the play instead of me," or even "My husband deserted me." Those are all the reasons for the wound. They are not really the reason your arm fell off.

Why were the bandages never changed? Why did you not take the antibiotics that were prescribed for you? Why would you not agree to let the nurse clean and dress the wound? The reason is that such a healthy response would temporarily hurt more than sitting in the dark, miserable, picking at it.

Of course, if they had not wronged you to begin with, none of this would have happened. And if they really sinned, God will hold them to account for their sin. You don’t need to worry about that. But just as He told them not to wrong you, so He told you to refrain from bitterness and resentment. Now when God identifies something as sin, should we repent of it, and walk away from it? Or do you agree with the one who wronged about that as well?

(Posted from here) By: Douglas Wilson

Idolatry - Walk the other way

Resentment is one of the most confused and confusing sins that we commit.

Another person has wronged you and hurt you, or you believe that he has, and so you store up bitterness in your heart. But this bitterness pollutes and eats away at your own soul, not the soul of the one who wronged you.

What this means is that someone came into your home and smashed your precious things. And let us say that you are not imagining it—he really did this. And so what does bitterness do? Bitterness goes to the workroom in the basement, finds a hammer, and goes through the house, smashing any of the remaining precious things that the other may have missed. At the basic heart level, this means that bitterness agrees with the vandal. For all the appearance of conflict, it is a false conflict.

Aggressive belligerence says that you should be hurt. And bitterness responds by saying, "No, I need to be hurt and damaged more than that. Leave me now—I can do the rest by myself."

The author of Hebrews says not to let the root of bitterness spring up, defiling many. And when this happens, the people involved fall short of the grace of God (Heb. 12:15). But we must remember that the Old Testament associates the bitter root with the sin of idolatry. When we are resentful, more is involved than just a "cranked attitude." We are no longer worshipping the loving Father who controls all things perfectly, including this situation, for His glory and our good. And this means that, in our bitterness, we are trying to appease an idol, a deity who cannot deliver us.

It works the other way too. When we turn aside to false gods, whether they are the gods of sex, money, ambition, the end of that road is bitter, bitter destruction. This is a two-way street. Bitterness leads straight into idolatry, and idolatry leads straight into bitterness.

If you are anywhere on that road, if you are bitter, if you are idolatrously chasing other baubles, there is only one thing to do. Turn around and walk the other way.

-Douglas Wilson

Posted from here.

What is "The Gospel"

Is the Gospel;

• Going to heaven?
• Forgiveness of sin?
• Healing from sickness and depression?
• Exemption from God' wrath?

These are all true but not the end of it. The highest, the best, the final good is... Reflections on 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6 (The Gospel) You have opened our eyes; Seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Light has shone in our hearts; Having the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. From this, the glory of Jesus Christ, that is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, is the gospel, "The Good News". Is this the good news for us Christians? Or is going to heaven or having a good life the end of it all?

He Will Quite Me By His Love

Your love, Oh LORD!!! I cannot even fathom How you can love me. If I were a father with a child like me I would not be able to stretch my arms like you It is amazing to be known by you Jesus, You the radiance Of the glory of God The exact imprint of His nature Lord of lords, God of gods, Ruler of rulers; My friend, my love, my brother; The great server, The greatest servant, The greatest king. Zeph 3:17, 1 Cor 8:3, Heb 1:2

Beautiful Love

It was pitch dark, outside the moon rose gave a beautiful light to the rose the neighbours drove in the drive way automatic light shone still, the moon shone brighter. It was cold, outside the rose is dead? still the warmth could be caught though old and brittle still is beautiful, You always will be

The Original Webster Dictionary

American Dictionary Of The English Language - 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. -Preface You can search the original dictionary over here. Compare and contrast the meaning of the words back then and now. For example: God n. 1828:

The Supreme Being; Jehovah; the eternal and infinite spirit, the creator,and the sovereign of the universe.

God is a spirit; and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4.

Now: 1 capitalized : the supreme or ultimate reality: as a : the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe b Christian Science : the incorporeal divine Principle ruling over all as eternal Spirit : infinite Mind 2 : a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; specifically : one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality Sources: http://1828.mshaffer.com/ http://www.m-w.com/