Links & Quotes

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I love studying my Bible, and I have loved discovering the great work at The Overview Bible Project! They have a new free email course that will send you a weekly email with a summary of every book of the Bible. Please sign up for this course by clicking here.

“If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.” —C.S. Lewis

“God’s grace was God’s acting in Paul to make Paul work hard. So when Paul says, ‘Work out your salvation,’ he adds, ‘it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure’ (Philippines 2:13). Grace is power from God to do good things in us and for us.” —John Piper

“Society will be better off if the facts about pornography use and its consequences are widely and effectively circulated so that people from all walks of life can take account of them.” Read more in this post: Is Porn To Blame For The Declining Marriage Rate?

“‘Used to be,’ is not necessarily a mark of failure or even obsolescence. It’s more often a sign of bravery and progress. If you were brave enough to leap, who would you choose to ‘used to be’?” —Seth Godin

Book Reviews From 2014

BookshelfHere are the books I read and reviewed in 2014. Click a title to read the review…

12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid

A Call To Prayer

Beyond IQ

Bible Reading

C.S. Lewis In A Time Of War

Create

David Wilkerson

Did Jesus Rise From The Dead?

Discipleship In Crisis

Finding God In Hidden Places

Finding The Love Of Your Life

From This Day Forward

God’s Pursuit Of Man

High Adventure In Tibet

Holy Fire

How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

How High Will You Climb?

Humility

I Like Giving

Impertinent Poems

In His Steps

Inspire To Be Great

Jesus Daily

Keeping The Ten Commandments

Lincoln’s Battle With God

Mansfield’s Book Of Manly Men

Miracles

Pentecost

Pilgrim’s Progress

Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study

Sidelined

Smith Wigglesworth On Prayer, Power & Miracles

Stand Strong

Tactics

Taste And See

The Cell’s Design

The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life

The Facts On World Religions

The Furious Longing Of God

The Global War On Christians

The Greatest Words Ever Spoken

The Illustrated Guide To The Authors Of The Bible

The Love Of God

The Ministry Of God’s Word

The Moral Foundations Of Life

The Quick-Start Guide To The Whole Bible

The Solomon Seduction

There Is A God

This Day In Christian History

Transforming Grace

Winning With Principle

Yawning At Tigers

Here are my book reviews for 2011.

Here are my book reviews for 2012.

Here are my book reviews for 2013.

Links & Quotes

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“God make you—you that do little for Him—to humble yourselves before Him, and to begin the next year with this determination, that knowing the terrors of the Lord, you will persuade men, and labour, and strive to bring sinners to the Cross of Christ.” —Charles Spurgeon

Something to think about as you read your Bible: Don’t Just Read The Bible For Yourself.

I agree with Seth Godin, in his post In Search Of Arrogance, that people should think of you as arrogant every once in awhile.

Wow…

Family government

“Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.” —C.S. Lewis

“God knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict: He loves you still! No discovery will disillusion Him. No rebellion will dissuade Him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing, never ending.” —Max Lucado

“God never hastens and He never tarries. He works His plans out in His own way, and we either lie like clogs on His hands or we assist Him by being as clay in the hands of the potter.” —Oswald Chambers

[VIDEO] Ken Davis always makes me laugh—

Links & Quotes

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“When we meet with our kinsfolk and acquaintances, let it be our prayer to God that our communion may be not only pleasant, but profitable; that we may not merely pass away time and spend a pleasant hour, but may advance a day’s march nearer heaven, and acquire greater fitness for our eternal rest.” —Charles Spurgeon

“When Scripture says that Christ died ‘for’ us, I think the word is usually υπερ (on behalf of), not αντι (instead of). I think the ideas of sacrifice, ransom, championship (over death), substitution et cetera are all images to suggest the reality (not otherwise comprehensible to us) of the atonement. To fix on any one of them as if it contained and limited the truth like a scientific definition would in my opinion be a mistake.” —C.S. Lewis

“Christ will really help us in our fight. He really will help you. He is on your side. He didn’t come to destroy sin because sin is fun. He came to destroy sin because it is fatal. It is a deceptive work of the devil and will destroy us if we don’t fight it. He came to help us, not hurt us.” —John Piper

A really cool timeline of the events surrounding Christ’s birth.

“You will not experience the real presence of Jesus until you have within you a growing hatred for sin—a piercing conviction for your failures and a deepening sense of your exceeding sinfulness. Those without Christ’s presence become less and less convicted by sin. The further they withdraw from His presence, the bolder, more arrogant and more comfortable in compromise they grow.” —David Wilkerson

Have you seen Unbroken or read the book? This post—Unbroken Uncut—is very interesting.

This is a disgusting twist of Scripture that perverts God’s Word to make it sound like those who are pro-abortion are the evildoers.

“You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.” —Max Lucado

[VIDEO] A sweet video of a 10-year-old boy who finds out he is going to be a big brother—

Links & Quotes

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“I also get a quite new feeling about ‘If you forgive you will be forgiven.’ I don’t believe it is, as it sounds, a bargain. The forgiving and the being forgiven are really the very same thing. But one is safe as long as one keeps on trying.” —C.S. Lewis

“You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God. How dead we are! How callous and unfeeling to Your glory and Your story! How often have I had to repent and say, ‘God, I am sorry that the stories men have made up stir my emotions, my awe and wonder and admiration and joy, more than Your own true story.’” —John Piper

“Experiencing the presence of Jesus in a church is not so much a corporate matter as it is an individual one. It is true that a spiritually lifeless, prayer-less shepherd can spread death over the people. Yet every member is still a temple and remains personally responsible to obey God and be available as an instrument of His presence. Your church can be dead and yet you can be full of Christ’s presence.” —David Wilkerson

Links & Quotes

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Parents, check out what Tim Elmore says about Trends In How Today’s Students Handle Relationships.

“The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God… To distrust Him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.” —Francis Xavier

“Chance exists only in the hearts of fools; we believe that everything which happens to us is ordered by the wise and tender will of Him Who is our Father and our Friend; and we see order in the midst of confusion; we see purposes accomplished where others discern fruitless wastes.” —Charles Spurgeon

“We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise.” —C.S. Lewis

These are indeed: 10 stupid quotes from pro-abortion advocates.

[VIDEO] John Maxwell on the value of being consistent in all we do—

Seth Godin has some wise words on consistency as well in his post Daily.

Links & Quotes

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“Lord, show me just so much (neither more nor less) about myself as I need for doing Thy will now.” —C.S. Lewis personal prayer

“The whole problem of our life was neatly expressed by John the Baptist when he said (John 3:30) ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ This you have realised. But you are expecting it to happen suddenly: and also expecting that you should be clearly aware when it does. But neither of these is usual. We are doing well enough if the slow process of being more in Christ and less in ourselves has made a decent beginning in a long life (it will be completed only in the next world).” —C.S. Lewis

For my pastor friends: “Our preaching and teaching must endeavor to promote three kinds of love: a proper self-love, love for God, and love for our neighbors.” —T.M. Moore

“Among those who are able to enjoy God with us, we love some whom we help, some by whom we are helped, some whose help we need and whose wants we supply, and some on whom we bestow no benefits and from whom we await none ourselves. Be that as it may, we should desire that all enjoy God with us and that all the assistance we give them or get from them should be directed toward this end.” —Augustine

[VIDEO] John Maxwell on the value of exploring new things—

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Who is GodPastor Tom Kaastra continued our series The Carols Of Christmas by looking at the well-known Christmas hymn O Come, All Ye Faithful. The line he especially highlighted comes from the third stanza—Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.

It is so vital that we keep both of those aspects of Jesus Christ in mind: He is both the Word of the Father and the Word become flesh. As Tom pointed out, this fact helps us answer the two most vital questions that humans have:

  • Who is God?
  • Who am I?

I can learn more about who I am when I know more clearly Who God is. And when I know this, I can more fully—as the song says—come and adore Christ the Lord.

Jesus is fully God:

Jesus revealed to us the Father’s love; after all, God is love (1 John 4:16). Jesus came to show us the love of God.

Jesus is fully Man:

  • He got tired and hungry (John 4:6)
  • He limited Himself to do only what the Father told Him to do (John 5:19-20)
  • He limited Himself to say only what the Father told Him to say (John 12:49)
  • He felt anguish and pain (Luke 22:44)

As C.S. Lewis said, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” And as sons of God, we have access to the Heavenly Father—

Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Abba! My Father! (Romans 8:14-15)

Word of the Father now in flesh appearing is cause for adoration because Jesus has made it possible for us to become sons and daughters of God!

O come let us adore Him!!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series, you may check them out by clicking here.

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading from today…

“As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? … Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.” —A.W. Tozer

[PHOTOS] Some great photographs from the scientific world.

Dave Barringer has a great post about marriage and adultery: Affairs And Fruit.

[PHOTOS] Today marks the 73rd anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech. Here are some memorable photos remembering that horrific day.

“It will not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been ‘had for a sucker’ by any number of impostors: but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need. After all, the parable of the sheep and goats [Matthew 25:31-46] makes our duty perfectly plain, doesn’t it? Another thing that annoys me is when people say ‘Why did you give that man money? He’ll probably go and drink it.’ My reply is ‘But if I’d kept [it] I should probably have drunk it.’” —C.S. Lewis

‘Before All Worlds’

C.S. LewisI re-read C.S. Lewis′ book Miracles earlier this year (you can read my full book review by clicking here). As you may have noticed, after reading and reviewing books on this blog, I also like to share some quotes that caught my attention. This particular quote is fairly long in itself, but I think you will understand the context within the quote—

“When we are praying about the result, say, of a battle or a medical consultation the thought will often cross our minds that (if only we knew it) the event is already decided one way or the other. I believe this to be no good reason for ceasing our prayers. The event certainly has been decided—in a sense it was decided ‘before all worlds.’ But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering. Thus, shocking as it may sound, I conclude that we can at noon become part causes of an event occurring at ten a.m. (Some scientists would find this easier than popular thought does.) The imagination will, no doubt, try to play all sorts of tricks on us at this point. It will ask, ‘Then if I stop praying can God go back and alter what has already happened?’ No. The event has already happened and one of its causes has been the fact that you are asking such questions instead of praying. It will ask, ‘Then if I begin to pray can God go back and alter what has already happened?’ No. The event has already happened and one of its causes is your present prayer. Thus something does really depend on my choice. My free act contributes to the cosmic shape. That contribution is made in eternity or ‘before all worlds’; but my consciousness of contributing reaches me at a particular point in the time-series.”

 For other quotes from this book see Miracle Or “Cheating”?Miracles And NatureChristianity And PantheismCorrecting The PantheistAbsolute FactThe Central MiracleThe Miracle of Freewill, Checkmate and Doctors Don’t Heal.