Stopping to Think

  Doubtless: Because Faith Is Hard by Shelby Abbott My rating: 4 of 5 stars Helpful little book. It's aimed at students, but that only comes through explicitly at a few points, and I would feel comfortable handing it to someone of any age struggling with doubts over the truth of Christianity. The main point he makes it that doubt, in and of itself, is not the enemy. Lingering over those doubts in a morbid way, being a lazy doubter who won't bother to actually seek answers, or we might say being the wrong kind of doubter, is the issue. Doubts used as motivation to lean into our search for truth, doubts used to push us further into the arms of the loving Father, these can actually become His tools for our joy. View all my reviews

"Faithful children follow a good example and refuse to follow a bad one." Douglas Wilson Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

This is the outline to a lesson I taught a while back. Numbers of these thoughts are not very well developed, so if you have questions or comments, feel free to take advantage of the comment section below. 1 Peter 1:6-9 LBC ABF, 10/9/2016 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Where is your Joy? (v6a) Where is your joy? That is, what makes you happy? I’m not asking what do you think should make you happy (we’ll get there), but just try and think about the word joy or  the word h...

Levi K is a man I have had the privilege of knowing and watching grow over the last several years, and whom I respect greatly. He has a passion for apologetics and more importantly, for truth. He blogs at Faith with Reason . When Will asked me to write a guest post, I was a little taken aback to hear the subject he suggested: "Why Christianity is Logically Coherent." The reason for this is that in order to accomplish this fully and comprehensively,  I would have to write something equivalent to a master's or doctor's thesis. Sadly, my education is far from that level at this point. Hopefully, by the grace of God, I'll be there someday. I would like to point out that each post you read from Will or myself, whether it has to do with theology, apologetics, etc. and their implications and truths, each contributes to the case for the logical coherency of Christianity. With this in mind, I thought it would be much more helpful to talk about worldviews, for the...

As a deer pants for flowing streams,  so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: How I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise,  a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are at turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,  my salvation and my God. Psalm 42:1-5 Psalm 42 moves me. This, of course, is intended. Poetry springs from the poet feeling, seeing, or experiencing something, and then through poetry attempting to covey that to others. David here us crying out for God. We all experience times when we feel as if God is not there, and David clearly struggles with that here. I want to quickly point out three things I gl...

Life is well...well, it's life. Beautiful, terrible, wonderful, painful. This poem came to me as I spent some time with my "Grammy" yesterday and talked life. I know I speak for not only myself, but many who know her. A faith like my grandma is what I long to gain Her trust it never wavers regardless of life's pain She is strong and sure her God does never fail Even when life's storm darkens she trusts Him to prevail I have studied many hours learning deep theology But my truest times of learning were at my "Grammies" knee Without the fancy wording of a deep and heavy book She taught me simple trust "He is Sovereign" says her look So when I face my own trails I will know that from His hand Flows a sweet and bitter providence and His plan is beyond grand This faith is what God asks and indeed, what He requires And so I thank my Grandma for this kind of faith, she inspires.

Mark 3:22-30 ESV And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons." And he called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" — for they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."  Hebrews 10:26-31 ESV For if we go on sinning ...

Preface: This is the manuscript for a sermon I preached at Plummer Bible Church on 7/1/12. We had several people not at church that day who requested I get them CD's...and well, I haven't done that. Until that can happen, here is the manuscript. Faith in the Rock or faith in the sand? 7/1/12 Plummer Bible Church Prayer: Father God, I pray for this sermon. I pray that as Your word is opened that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and soften our hearts to respond. I pray that we would seek to know you, Father. That we would long for the reconciliation you offer through Jesus, and the transformation done by the Holy Spirit. I pray that you would do these things in us for the praise of Your glorious grace. We pray in the holy name of Jesus. Amen. Intro: *Matthew 7:13-29 (ESV) “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and ...

This is a series of snippets from previous posts.  I have a tendency to clutter pages with many words, so I tried to sift through and pick out a few that I thought might be helpful. The first thing we need to know…is that ultimately, the glory of God is the primary reason our focus is to be on the Gospel. We see this in verses 5 and 6[of Romans 1]. We have received grace and apostleship to bring about obedience through faith for the sake of His name among the nations. Nations including us, right here, right now. All ministry, all personal growth, all faith, obedience, and work are meant not to somehow earn God’s favor, which Ephesians 2 makes very clear is a gift that we cannot earn. It is meant to display the glory, the weightiness, the importance, and the worthiness of Almighty God to the nations. -The Import of the Gospel in Youth Ministry God's glory is the Big Deal. I am saved, the Gospel exists, and God redeems sinners for the sake of His name among all the nations. ...

So this will probably be another short one.  But I have been wrestling for a while now with the whole concept of sin.  What is sin?  I can go to the Bible and from there determine what actions and inactions are sinful, but is that really what sin is?  How does fit with the Gospel?  Jesus came to die, not from my wrong actions and/or inactions, but from my sin that condemns me to Hell.  But how can we call actions a heart condition?  We seem to teach something that is contradictory, like there is a disconnect between our doctrine of sin in reference to actions and our doctrine of sin in reference to salvation.  And this has bugged me.  If sin is merely to "miss the mark", to do what I ought not, or to not do what I ought, how can I be saved from it?  I still do things I ought not and fail to do that which I ought.  Even the Apostle Paul wrestled with this problem!   But.  What is the mark that we are missing?  It is t...

So.  A few quick thoughts on something that has been ripping at my mind and wrenching at my heart lately.  I have lost many hours of sleep to it without necessarily finding so many answers as I do more questions.  But here is my primary question?  What does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?  What should life as a Christian look like?  I look around and see all these different ideas clashing in culture, in our church sub-culture, in society in general, but in the midst of all these ideas I notice a lack of sufficient answers.  Rare is the person that you can look at and say "Wow. They have something different. They must be a Christian."  And yet the very term Christian finds its origin back in the 1st century, it's literal meaning is "little Christ".  People used it as a derogatory term to make fun of believers in Jesus, or as Luke calls them in Acts, followers of the Way.  That last term I think is an int...