Links & Quotes

Christians need to be very cautious about not quarreling in a way that pushes people away from the love of God.

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In discussing how Thomas Huxley coined the term agnostic, John Stonestreet and Dr. Glenn Sunshine note, “If God is rational and created an orderly universe and human beings in His image, we can study the universe. Without these assumptions, there is no reason to assume the world is knowable or that humans are able to know. It is the theistic assumption, not the agnostic assumption, that grounds science. By rejecting God, scientists undercut the foundations for their work.”

“There will come a time when every culture, every institution, every nation, the human race, all biological life is extinct and every one of us is still alive. Immortality is promised to us, not to these generalities. It was not for societies or states that Christ died, but for men.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory 

“If Patrick Henry could arise from the dead and revisit the land of the living, and see the vast system and social organization and social science which now controls, he would probably simplify his observation and say, ‘Give me death.’” —G.K. Chesterton, speaking in New York City’s Time Square Theatre in 1921 

T.M. Moore has an excellent series of posts about God and reason. In the post Since God is Reasonable, he writes, “If we are sluggish in reason, so that we do not like to have to think hard and long about matters; or if our skills in reasoning are inadequate, poorly honed, or rusty from disuse, then we should make it our business to overcome our laziness and improve our use of reason, since the great prize of reasoning with and knowing God lies open to us.”

We all experience conflicts with other people, but this post—8 signs you’re the problem in your arguments—is quite insightful.

Stanley Horton’s influence on the Assemblies of God—and wider Pentecostal circles too—cannot be understated. This is a great mini-biography of his life. 

I’m always impressed by the historicity of the Bible. “Archaeology has demonstrated that numerous people, places, and events within the books [of Ezra and Nehemiah] are historically accurate,” says this post.

“The Jewish high priests went once a year into the Holy of Holies. Each year as it came round demanded that they should go again. Their work was never done; but ‘He entered in once,’ and only once, ‘into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.’ I love that expression, ‘eternal redemption’—a redemption which really does redeem, and redeems forever and ever. If you are redeemed by it, you cannot be lost; if this redemption be yours, it is not for a time, or for a season, but it is ‘eternal redemption.’ Oh, how you ought to rejoice in the one entrance within the veil by our great High Priest who has obtained eternal redemption for us!” —Charles Spurgeon 

Links & Quotes

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Some good reading & watching from today…

[VIDEO] Derek Jeter has been a classy baseball player (even if he does play for the Yankees!). This Nike video tribute to The Captain is also very classy and well deserved. #Re2pect

[VIDEO] This is a lot of fun: Toy Wars.

I have to agree with this: Israel’s ‘Reasonable’ Response To Hamas.

“For real business at the mercy seat give me a homemade prayer, a prayer that comes out of the depths of your heart, not because you invented it, but because the Holy Spirit put it there. Though your words are broken and your sentences disconnected, God will hear you. Perhaps you can pray better without words than with them. There are prayers that break the backs of words; they are too heavy for any human language to carry.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Generous pastors lead generous churches, and generous churches embody the true Spirit of Christ, Who gave Himself a ransom for all.” —T.M. Moore

Dr. Horton was a giant, not because of his impressive achievements, but because he embodied what it meant to have a servant’s heart. I pray that his legacy of godliness and servanthood live on in future generations of Pentecostal scholars.” Read more about the life of Dr. Stanley Horton.

This is a hard-hitting piece, but it is definitely on-target. Too many churches are selling out on the pro-life message. Read Faith & Forceps.

“…While man and woman are equally valuable in God’s image, and while both of them have essential and satisfying roles to play in the drama of God-exalting human life, nevertheless men bear a primary (not solitary) responsibility for leadership and protection and provision in the human race. Therefore they bear a representative role when it comes to accountability (Genesis 3:9; Romans 5:12-14). This unique calling is a responsibility to bear in sacrificial love, not a right to seize in dominating power. Where it is embraced with servantlike, Christ-honoring courage, and supported by women with faith-filled, fearless, intelligent joy, the best harmony of man and woman prevails.”—John Piper

Links & Quotes

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Some links to some interesting reading and quotes I found today.

An April Fools joke that’s not funny at all! The Joke’s On Us!

Great thoughts about church music from 97-year-old Bible professor Stanley Horton: What About Church Music?

I’m normally a University of Michigan fan, but this grotesque support of abortion is just over-the-top: University Goes Out Of Its Way To Support Abortion.

Love this from Ken Davis: This House Guest May Be Stealing Your Life.

“Unutterable mercy! There is no sinner out of hell so black but that God can wash him white. There is not out of the pit one so guilty that God is not able and willing to forgive him; for He declares the wondrous fact—‘I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.’” —Charles Spurgeon 

6 Things God Will Never Do To You (it will help if you sing Rick Astley while you read this!).

Tim Elmore shares Five Qualities Google Looks For In Hiring Employees.

“The Holy Spirit is the missing factor in our personality, and without Him we cannot be altogether as God wants us to be. An abiding gift makes an abiding change in the person to whom the gift is made.” —Thomas Selby

“Continually revise your relationship to God until the only certainty you have is not that you are faithful, but that He is.” —Oswald Chambers

Temptation

Have you ever thought, “Well, of course Jesus could say ‘no’ to temptation! After all, He is God.”

Yes, Jesus is fully God. But He is also fully Man. And it was as a Man that He defeated temptation.

“As a Man, without using any of His divine powers, Jesus defeated temptation in the same areas where Eve failed and where we fail. … By this He condemned sin in sinful man, that is, He showed we sin, not because we have to sin, but because we choose to sin and because we ignore the help available through the Word and the Spirit.” —Stanley Horton

We don’t have to sin, but we choose to sin.

Ouch!

“In His temptation, Jesus did not use His divine power to defeat the devil. Still identifying Himself with us as Spirit-filled human, He defeated satan by the same means that are available to us — the Word, anointed by the Spirit. Eve, tempted in exactly the same areas—the lust of the flesh (appetite), the lust of the eyes (desire), and the pride of life—failed (Genesis 3:6; 1 John 2:16). In these areas, which John says together comprise the things of the world or worldliness (1 John 2:15). Jesus won a complete victory for us. He has truly overcome the world (John 16:33). We can do the same by our faith (1 John 5:4).” —Stanley Horton

We can do the same thing. Instead of saying, “I gave in to temptation,” we can say, “I gave in to the Holy Spirit, Who helped me defeat temptation!”

What The Bible Says About The Holy Spirit (book review)

I know a lot of people get uneasy when people starting talking about the Holy Spirit. But what about when the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit? In Dr. Stanley M. Horton’s book, What The Bible Says About The Holy Spirit, you won’t get opinion, just Scripture.

I’m a fourth generation Pentecostal, which means I’ve grown up in an environment where the discussions about the Holy Spirit were numerous and candid. As a result, I thought I knew quite a bit about Him, but it turns out I was so wrong! Dr. Horton is a brilliant scholar, and his knowledge of Scripture is wonderfully on display in this book.

Dr. Horton begins with the Pentateuch and progresses all the way through the Bible, showing exactly what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. Other books I have read talk more about what the Holy Spirit does, but Dr. Horton pulls out the Scriptures to show Who the Holy Spirit is. And, believe me, there’s a huge difference! The first approach broadens your mind; the second approach deepens your relationship.

If you want to go deeper in your relationship with the Holy Spirit, or if you are simply interested in learning more about (as Francis Chan calls Him) the Forgotten God, then check out What The Bible Says About The Holy Spirit.