Rooted and Grounded

Setting up for Bible quizzing today; actual competition tomorrow. Lots of work for lots of staff and volunteers. Why done? Over 200 teenagers are memorizing consecutive chunks of God's Word...God's living, active, powerful, life-giving Word. As they ingest the living Word the Spirit of God works within...not necessarily in immediately tangible ways, but the work continues...

And over time many are rooted and grounded in the written Word to the glory of the living Word.

Because, as observed in the following strip, 'tis better to be a tree than a leaf!

Thursday Tozer Tidbit of Truth

"Keep one compartment of your life back from the Holy Spirit and it grieves Him that He cannot go any further."

Take a Few Minutes to be Spiritually Refreshed

So Important to Remember, Reflect, Refocus

Why False Teachers Have Such a Large Audience

J. C. Ryle died in 1900. His observations remain contemporary:


What is the best safe-guard against false teaching? Beyond all doubt the regular study of the word of God, with prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (Psalm. 119:105.) The man who reads it aright will never be allowed greatly to err. It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear. They would have us believe that "they are not learned, and do not pretend to have decided opinions." The plain truth is that they are lazy and idle about reading the Bible, and do not like the trouble of thinking for themselves. Nothing supplies false prophets with followers so much as spiritual sloth under a cloak of humility.

~ J.C. Ryle

When All Else Fails?

Thursday Tozer Tidbit of Truth

 "An honest man with an open Bible and a pad and pencil is sure to find out what is wrong with him very quickly." AW Tozer 

Creation Testifies

Jane's flowers outside of our front porch are beautiful, and a particular type has started drawing butterflies like crazy...here's a few that visited tonight
:

Every Moment

“It’s no wonder that self-help books top the charts in Christian publishing and that counseling offices are overwhelmed. Our pride and our neglect of the gospel force us to run from seminar to seminar, book to book, counselor to counselor, always seeking but never finding some secret to holy living.

Most of us have never really understood that Christianity is not a self-help religion meant to enable moral people to become more moral. We don’t need a self-help book; we need a Savior. We don’t need to get our collective act together; we need death and resurrection and the life-transforming truths of the gospel.

And we don’t need them just once, at the beginning of our Christian life; we need them every moment of every day.”

- Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson

Thursday Tozer Tidbit of Truth

So sadly true...all too often in my case...

In an effort to get the work of the Lord done, we often lose contact with the Lord of the work. —A.W. Tozer

And I am Sure Many of Them Are (Sincere)

Too Much Truth Sang in Jest

Thanks to my buddy Kent Ottot for pointing me to this:

Why Did God Allow This To Happen?

Whatever "this" is; the following quote is worth chewing on:


"If the children of God were always saved from floods like believing Noah and his family; if every time somebody pointed a gun at a Christian, the gun just turned to salami; if we really had a money-back guarantee against hatred, disease, and the acts of terrorists, then of course we wouldn't have to worry about church growth. Our churches would fill with people attracted to the faith for secondary reasons. These are people who want an insurance agent, not a church."

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr

Appropriate for this Date

Don't know if this is legit or photoshopped; don't care; is appropriate:

The Freaky Four-Letter Word

No, not that word.

The four-letter-word to which I refer freaks out Christians more than what most would label as obscenities.

That four-letter-word?

W O R K

As in "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

I think as part of the reformation and beyond those who wanted to leave the "saved by works" crowd behind got paranoid about the four-letter-word.

And that is a huge reason why there are so many baptized pagans in the church today.

They "go forward." They "raise their hands." They "pray the prayer."

And there is zero difference in their lives.

And they are told that they are "saved by grace and that not of works."

They are, all too often, not told that we are "created in Christ Jesus to bring forth good works, which God has before ordained that we should practice them."

And if one ever refers to another's lack of "good works" one is attacked as being judgmental. (the unforgiveable contemporary 'sin')

Or could it be the main reason we are so freaked out by the word is because there are so few examples of "ordained work" in our own lives?

Thursday Tozer Tidbit of Truth

"Only after all the noise has spent itself do we begin to hear in the silence of our hearts the voice of God." A W Tozer

What's the Most Important Word???

What is the most important word?


Chew on that before you answer...


Then really, really chew on this:


Some years ago, in a faculty devotional at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Dr. Murray Harris proposed this line of thinking:

"What is the most important Book in the universe?  The Bible.  Which book within the Bible is the most important?  Romans.  Which chapter in Romans is the most important?  Chapter 3.  Which paragraph in Romans 3 is the most important?  Verses 21-26.  Which verse in that paragraph is the most important?  Verse 25.  Which word in verse 25 is the most important?  Propitiation: “. . . whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Therefore, the most important word in the most important verse in the most important paragraph in the most important chapter in the most important book within the most important Book in the universe is propitiation.
Worthy of our reverent contemplation.

Fall Festival Fun

Wathena, Ks is where our church is located; and Labor Day weekend is their "Fall Festival." Went every day...hot Friday, wet and hot Saturday, perfect today...community-wide worship, several of our friends later sang, the parade with obligatory candy...a fun day...a couple shots:

                                                       Janelle with a photo-shy friend...

                                              The patient cameraman finally gets her!

                                               Only God can make a color like this!




                                                   Missed the pig Jacob was trying to catch!

Not exactly a prayer for ease and peace:

Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life today
that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.
Let me use disappointment as material for patience;
Let me use success as material for thankfulness;
Let me use suspense as material for perseverance;
Let me use danger as material for courage;
Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering;
Let me use praise as material for humility;
Let me use pleasures as material for temperance;
Let me use pains as material for endurance.

- John Baillie

No, Snoopy, It Isn't

Ah, pity poor Snoopy, bombarded with ideas, concepts, philosophies, religions, different interpretations of what "Christianity" is...sort of like you and me...

But it is not hard for the converted to know what to believe...it just takes two terrible four-letter words: t i m e and w o r k.


Could it be that "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" actually means "work out your salvation with fear and trembling"?

Ya think? Could "study to show yourself approved" actually mean "study to show yourself approved"?

Ya think?

It's Labor Day weekend...how much do you "labor" in your faith?

Thursday Tozer Tidbit of Truth

"To pray with your fists closed means you're hanging onto something. Let it go. Open your hands to God." A W Tozer