Where God Dwells - Psalm 132 (ESV)

A "Wordle" of Psalm 132 from the ESV:

Do Christians Have to Go to Church?

Check out this helpful video taken from Justin Taylor's blog


Pastor Mike McKinley, author of Am I Really a Christian?


Do Christians have to join a church? from Crossway on Vimeo.

Songs for the Journey

Right now we are going through Psalms 120-134, the Psalms labeled, "Songs of Ascents". These are Psalms used by Old Testament believers as they journeyed towards Jerusalem, the special place where God and his people dwelt together. 

We, too, are on a journey, making our way to our final home when we will dwell with God and his people forever. These wonderful Psalms instruct and inspire us along the journey.

Click on this graphic to enjoy a "Wordle" word cloud of Psalms 120-134:

Make Every Effort

Great post from Kevin DeYoung on the place of effort in the Christian life. It is so important to enjoy and rely on grace but not think that this means we are to be simply passive. Here are some excerpts:

Make Every Effort

Count the letters carefully: effort is not a four letter word. Even those who believe in blood-bought, Christ-wrought, undeserved, sovereign, gospel grace do not despise effort in the Christian life. How can we? 2 Peter 1:5 tells us to “make every effort.”

Of course, anyone familiar with this passage will remember that the effort enjoined by Peter is God-graced effort. Verse 3 says we have divine power through “knowledge of him.” Verse 4 says we can become “partakers of the divine nature” through “his precious and very great promises.” Verse 5 harnesses these twin turbines of Spirit energy when it says “For this very reason, make every effort.” In other words, Peter holds up a pattern of godliness–increasing faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. This pattern relies on gospel power. And the gospel-powered pattern requires effort....

Christians work–they work to kill sin and they work to live in the Spirit. They have rest in the gospel, but never rest in their battle against the flesh and the devil. As J.C. Ryle put it, the child of God has two great marks about him: he is known for his inner warfare and his inner peace....

But let us not misunderstand what it means to be gospel-centered. As gospel Christians, we are not afraid of striving, fighting, and working. These are good Bible words. The gospel that frees us from self-justification also frees us for obedience. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6 and Galatians 5 and 1 John and Revelation 21 and a dozen other passages make clear that when we have no obedience to show for our gospel profession, our conduct shows we have not understood the gospel....

When it comes to growth in godliness, trusting does not put an end to trying.

Read the whole thing here: Make Every Effort

Happy Maundy Thursday!

Sound funny to you? It sounds almost like we are saying “Happy Monday Thursday.” Ever wondered what “Maundy” means? The word “Maundy” comes from the same root as “mandate”. The reason it is called, “Maundy Thursday” is because it was on the Thursday of Holy Week when Jesus gave his new mandate, or, new commandment:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 ESV)

Jesus gave this commandment in the context of the last supper where he had washed the disciples feet. It is amazing that Jesus Christ, the Holy One become a man, the rightful King of all and, the one to whom we all owe perfect worship, would lower himself to act like an abased servant and wipe the muck and filth from the feet and toes of his disciples. Furthermore, we know that his love led him even to do more than wash feet. On the next day, Good Friday, he bore the sins, the countless, horrific sins, of his people, on the cross. He did this in amazing humility and love. He did it to bear the just wrath of God for your sins and mine. He did it to forever wash us from the muck and filth of our sin. There is no greater love than this.

So, today, on Maunday Thursday, let’s remember the amazing love of the Savior and find ourselves profoundly grateful, rejuvenated and freshly eager to obey his new commandment  - his mandate – to love like he does.

Happy Maundy Thursday!



Paul

My Hero

John W. Buckley

  Visit Guest Book

BUCKLEY, John W. Of Wellesley, 75, passed on peacefully March 13, 2011 while vacationing in Naples, Florida after a courageous battle with cancer. He is survived by his beloved wife of 52 years, Donna (Fitzgerald); his daughter Sheila and husband Lance Tucker, their children Victoria and Emma; his son Michael and wife Karen, their children Brendan, Joseph, and Susanna; his son Paul and wife Margaret, their children Daniel, Caleb, John, and Mary; his son Matthew and wife Ann, their son Noah; and sister and brother-in-law, Claire and Terence O'Shea. He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Winifred, siblings Margaret (Santagate), Thomas, Catherine, and Eleanor (Couture). John was raised in Brighton, MA where he was an all-scholastic athlete at Brighton High School and later graduated from Northeastern University. After serving his country as an Army officer, he had a long career with the Raytheon Company retiring in 1992 as a highly honored engineer and executive. He was a devoted husband, father, friend and faithful member and Eucharistic Minister of St. John the Evangelist Parish, Wellesley. He enjoyed golf, tennis, bridge, fishing, puzzles, the vacation home he built, his friends, and, most of all, time with his family. His steady love, unique humor, genuine faith, and constant devotion will be sadly missed by so many. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, March 23rd, 10AM at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Wellesley. Visitation will be on Tuesday, March 22nd, 4-8PM at Henry J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home, 56 Washington St., Wellesley. Memorial gifts may be made to St. John's Discretionary Fund, St. John the Evangelist Parish, 9 Glen Rd., Wellesley, MA, 02481. Henry J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home www.BurkeFamilyFuneralHomes.com

John W. Buckley Obituary: View John Buckley's Obituary by The Boston Globe

Parenting: The Joyful Impossibility

Paul David Tripp has been so helpful to us in parenting - not only helping us actually parent better but also helping us pay attention to our own hearts in parenting. I recommend reading everything you can find by him. Here is a portion of a recent article from the Gospel Coalition site.

Parenting: The Joyful Impossibility

It was eleven o’clock on a Sunday night, and I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot exhausted and overwhelmed. After we had put our four children to bed, later than we had planned, Luella discovered that we had nothing in the house to pack for lunches the next day. With an attitude that couldn’t be described as joy, I got in the car and did the late-night food run. As I waited for the light to change so I could leave the parking lot and drive home, it all hit me. It seemed like I had been given an impossible job to do; I had been chosen to be the dad of four children.

It is humbling and a bit embarrassing to admit, but I sat in my car and dreamed of what it would be like to be single. No, I didn’t want to actually leave Luella and my children, but parenting seemed overwhelming at that point. I felt like I had nothing left to face the next day of a thousand sibling battles, a thousand authority encounters, a thousand reminders, a thousand warnings, a thousand corrections, a thousand discipline moments, a thousand explanations, a thousand times of talking about the presence and grace of Jesus, a thousand times of helping the children to look in the mirror of God’s Word and see themselves with accuracy, a thousands “please forgive me’s,” and a thousand “I love you’s.” It seemed impossible to be faithful to the task and have the time and energy to anything else...... Read the rest here: Parenting: The Joyful Impossibility

A Must Read for All Those Concerned for Our Nation's Critical Marriage Debate *

Do you want to be salt and light in a culture confused about truth? One of the most significant ways to do this is to be informed and equipped for the nation-wide discussion of the nature of marriage. The conclusions to this discussion will drastically determine the future of our country because the nature of the debate goes to the roots of law, justice, family, society and morality.

For starters, check out this excellent presentation by Robert P. George, Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis, “What Is Marriage?” published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

You can also follow the inevitable counter arguments and debate here:

• “The Argument Against Gay Marriage: And Why It Doesn’t Fail” (first response to Professor Yoshino)
• “Marriage: Merely a Social Construct?” (Response to Northwestern Law Professor Andy Koppelman)
• “Marriage: Real Bodily Union” (Response to Family Scholars blogger Barry Deutsch)
• “Marriage: No Avoiding the Central Question” (Response to second Yoshino piece)

Stay informed and equipped to be salt and light!

* HT & Sources: Justin Taylor




 

Enjoy the Silent Singing Monks

This is funny and very well done!

HT: Kevin DeYoung

The Digital Story of the Nativity

How the Nativity might have been if the internet were around in the ancient near east!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Leo Harrington

Leo on the day he joined King of Grace church.

Leo Harrington went on to be with the Lord this past Wednesday afternoon after a sudden illness. It was very sad to see him pass so suddenly and the memory of his last days with his wife Maureen by his side will remain with me. But most of all I will remember the life of this man. I met Leo when he attended our Alpha course in 2007. We co-hosted that year with our friends at Ward Hill Church. Leo and his wife came because of their long-standing relationship with Pastor Alex Burgess and Maureen's recent friendship with my wife, Peg. They came and sat through the talks and Leo listened and wrestled with the truths of Christianity. As the course progressed, God gently drew Leo to himself out of the Jehovah Witness background that had painted such a wrong picture of Christianity for Leo into the wonderful grace and glory of God in Christ. Leo was baptized in January, 2008 and joined our church shortly after that. He was so grateful to be rescued from his sins and adopted into God's family and it showed.  He was always eager to be there for worship on Sunday and loved being around his friends and church family and worshiping with us in song and the word. I can still see his smiling face and hear his eager appeals to help him learn more about God. Amidst his battles with sickness, he somehow found the energy to help take care of our church building. He and his wife were such a part of the life of our church family - many in our church befriended Leo and Maureen and will miss him so very much.

Leo being prayed for at his baptism.

Please come join us at King of Grace Church, Tuesday, December 21st from 3-6:30 for his viewing and at 7 pm for his funeral celebration. We will take time to remember his life and celebrate the blessing he has been. And we will commit him to his Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ who died for his sins and rose to life for his justification. Because of the Good Shepherd, Leo is in God's presence right now having the very best Christmas ever. We are so grateful for him and for the new life in Christ his Savior has given him.

Come to celebrate and say good bye to our friend.

Viewing: 3-6:30 pm, Tuesday, Dec 21st

Funeral: 7 pm, Tuesday, Dec 21st

King of Grace Church

28 Chadwick St.

Bradford, MA 01835
(978) 374-6562

Graveside Service: 

12 pm, Wednesday, Dec 22nd

Westlawn Cemetery

7 New Estate Road

Littleton, MA
(978) 540-2480

Donations made be made to cover funeral expenses to King of Grace Church, attn. Leo Harrington (or you can use this PayPal button.)

Some New England Phrases

I love how New Englanders speak. There are so many unique phrases that are endearing. Due perhaps to television and other media the New England dialect is morphing into something sounding more like the Midwest or Southwest dialect. But for now, here are some phrases to enjoy, some taken from the Wicked Good Guide to Boston English by Adam Gaffin.

• "So don't I" - A negative positive, usually said elsewhere as "So do I." 
• "Ghoulsticka" - somebody who stays close to home base in a game of Hide-And-Go-Seek. 
• "Ollie Ollie In Come Free" - what the ghoulsticka says when he beats the seeker to the ghouls.
• "Light dawns ova Mahblehead" - an epiphany of an obvious truth.
• "No-Suh"...."Yes-Suh" - What is said in an argument after nothing else works.
• "Wicked Good" - extremely good but better.
• "I hosie that chair" - that chair is mine because I spoke first.
• "Down Cellah" - located in the basement.

Do you know any other "New England-isms"?

Another Great Book from John Piper

This looks like a must have!

Get it here, or here.

Why We Share the Truth and Love of Christ with a Disillusioned World

Warning: This material is very somber and intense, but a sober reminder of the reality of life without the purpose we can only receive from an infinite, wise and all-good God.

What he left behind: A 1,905-page suicide note

By David Abel , Boston Globe Staff

In the end, no one really knows what led Mitchell Heisman, an erudite, wry, handsome 35-year-old, to walk into Harvard Yard on the holiest day in his faith and fire one shot from a silver revolver into his right temple, on the top step of Memorial Church, where hundreds gathered to observe the Jewish Day of Atonement.

But if the 1,905-page suicide note he left is to be believed — a work he spent five years honing and that his family and others received in a posthumous e-mail after his suicide last Saturday morning on Yom Kippur — Heisman took his life as part of a philosophical exploration he called “an experiment in nihilism.’’..... 

“Every word, every thought, and every emotion come back to one core problem: life is meaningless,’’ he wrote. “The experiment in nihilism is to seek out and expose every illusion and every myth, wherever it may lead, no matter what, even if it kills us.’’

Over the years, as he became more immersed in his work, often laboring over it 12 hours a day, Heisman shared bits with friends and family but never elaborated on the extent of his nihilism — his hardened view that life is vapid and nonsensical, that values are pretense, that the “unreasoned conviction in the rightness of life over death is like a god or a mass delusion.’’.....

As his sister, Laurel Heisman, spent last week sifting through what remains of his things — a poster in German, a well-made bed, piles of books in a small room shrouded with a dark curtain — she said she received a separate, posthumous note from him asking that she preserve a website he created to publish his book, a burden she has agreed to bear.

“I love you,’’ he wrote to her.

She wishes she could have made him see more of the beauty of life, and how we create our own value and give our own meaning to life. She might have taken him up a mountain or held him more closely.

“He just told us the safe things, because he knew we would have tried to stop him,’’ she said. “It’s really hard. It’s not like someone who was really depressed because they lost a lover. His whole ideology was wrapped in this concept of nihilism. I wish we could have made him see things differently.’’

 Read the whole article here.

HT: Dave Herring

How to Name a Church

Jared Bridges has a really funny post on naming a church. It looks like we are somewhat safe from his satire with a name like, "King of Grace Church", but perhaps not.  Enjoy these excerpts:

While there’s ample biblical precedent for the naming of animals, textual support for the naming of a church is scant.Thankfully, we evangelicals (who are typically disoriented without written instruction) have found a way to remedy this. I’m not sure as to the origins of the method, but the system below can account for approximately 83.585 percent of all evangelical churches. It’s really a rather simple process.
STEP ONE: Start with the list of words below:

• Grace
• Life
• Community
• Covenant
• Fellowship
• Creek
• Calvary
• Fire
• River
• Road
• Word
• Bible
• Memorial
• Chapel
• Spirit
• Faith
• Cross
• Hope
• Light
• Redeemer
• First

Of course, one could readily add the word “Pointe” into the mix above, but by all means, make sure that the trailing “e” is in place if you want to look like a bona fide evangelical church. Otherwise, congregants might miss the “point.”
STEP TWO: Take any combination of the words listed above, in any order, add to them your denominational (or lack thereof) appellation, and tack on the word “Church” at the end.......Voila! Your church now has a name.

Read the whole article here.

A Christian and An American?

Collin Hansen has an excellent post, Pay Your Taxes But Put Your Trust in Christ, discussing a Christian's approach to government and politics. Much of what he says is taken from a sermon given by Mark Dever. Having a clear and biblically informed understanding of citizenship is so important as we live in this world awaiting Jesus' return.

Here are some excerpts:

Lincoln Memorial

Enjoying a sunny fall day, I walked around the National Mall on Saturday afternoon. Before visiting any other favorite sites, I ascended the temple steps where Father Abraham presides on his throne over American civil religion. ......

Only three weeks earlier self-appointed political prophet Glenn Beck claimed Lincoln’s imprimatur by packing these same steps for a rally. But religious nationalists who invoke America’s greatest president never seem to understand the irony of his memory. The man who saved the Union understood that God transcends and judges it. God’s ways often surpass our understanding. We cannot manipulate him to baptize our pet causes.....  Jesus Christ didn’t robe himself in an American flag...........

I heard from senior pastor Mark Dever the best sermon I know on Christianity and government ^[3].......In these days of overheated rhetoric and protest rallies, I pray that evangelicals will set aside 70 minutes to listen to Dever’s sermon. Much of the wisdom expressed here echoes the forthcoming book City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era ^[7], written by Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, with a foreword by Tim Keller. We need to hear from the best evangelical thinkers about a faithful, biblical approach to politics. Perhaps I can help the cause by summarizing four pages of notes I scribbled from Dever’s sermon.

Mark Dever

Jesus Paid Taxes
....Jesus regarded the pagan state as legitimate when he said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Mark 12:17). The answer stunned the Herodians and Pharisees, because whatever their differences, Israel and Rome both derived their legitimacy by divine appeals.Human government is deeply biblical.....Government is not specifically Christian, but it is good. Certainly order is better than organizing society around unfettered self-interest.......In his second point, Dever argued that no earthly kingdom can be identified with God’s people. Christians are international. With his answer, Jesus unhitched God’s people from any one government, severing the national covenant that extended all the way back to Moses. If followers of Jesus could support Rome with their taxes, which government today—no matter how corrupt—can’t Christians support? “Christians are, by God’s grace, cockroaches,” Dever said. “We can survive anything.”.....With his third and final point, Dever argued that Christians are finally accountable to God. Many remember that Jesus told the Pharisees and Heroadians, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Not so many remember that Jesus ended his teaching by saying we should render “to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17).

.....If Romans 13 calls Christians to obey government, then Revelation 13 illustrates what happens when the state rebels against God. No government commands the Christian’s unqualified support....

If we were ever tempted to invest our hope in the state, we should remember that Americans live in a country where spanking children is suspect but aborting children is okay. ....

Let us give to God what is God’s, Dever exhorted. Everything is God’s. Let us pay our taxes. But even more, let us trust in Christ.

You can read the whole article here.

A Christian Nation?

Joe Carter's post, Founding Believers, discusses the religious persuasion of some of the founding fathers. It is important for us to understand that many were not orthodox Christians but Deists. While Christianity has had a strong influence on our country we must never think that it is or ever has been a "Christian nation" in the true sense of the word.

Here are some excerpts from the post:

What were the religious beliefs of the founding fathers? That question is at the heart of many of the most contentious debates about the role of religion in the American public square. Countless arguments are centered on claims that the founders were either God-fearing Christians or Deistically-inclined secularists.....

David L. Holmes, a professor of religious studies at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, provides a useful methodology for examining the relevant evidence in his book, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers. Holmes offers four types of evidence that can help us discern whether a Revolutionary-era political leader was a Deist, an orthodox Christian, or something in between:

1. Examine the actions of the founding father in the area of religion (e.g., Did they attend church regularly?).

2. Examine the participation of the founding father in a church’s ordinances or sacraments (e.g., Did they have their children baptized? Did they take Holy Communion?).

3. Comparison of inactivity versus activity in regards to religious involvement.

4. Examine the religious language used by the founding father.

Using these criteria, Holmes claims that the religious beliefs of the founding fathers can be broadly classified as: Non-Christian Deists who rejected all sacraments and rarely attended church services’ Deistic Christians/Unitarians who held Deistic beliefs, attended church regularly, but rejected the Lord’s Supper and confirmation;. and Orthodox Christians who accepted orthodox Christian beliefs, attended church regularly, and participated in the sacraments and ordinances......

Applying the method to other founding fathers, the list could be roughly delineated as:

Non-Christian Deists: Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen.

Deistic Christians/Unitarians: Ben Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe.

Orthodox Christians: Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Jay, Elias Boudinot, John Witherspoon.....

Most—whether they were non-Christian Deists or Deistic Christians—appear to have been held to the classic “five points of Deism”: (1) There is a God; (2) He ought to be worshiped; (3) Virtue is the principle element in this worship; (4) Humans should repent of their sins; and (5) There is life after death, where the evil will be punished and the good rewarded.

The views of the Deistic founding fathers would have been as repugnant to the modern secularist as those of the so-called Religious Right. The founding believers considered belief in a deity to be necessary for good citizenship, believed in intelligent design, had few qualms about establishment of state churches, and took a low view of atheists. They might not pass muster as orthodox Christians, but if they were around today they would considered theocrats.

Regardless of what was believed at the time of the founding, our country is not a “Christian nation” but rather, as the Baptist theologian Albert Mohler duly notes, “a nation of Christians.” America, he argues, “is not Christian by constitutional provision or creedal affirmation—but its people are overwhelmingly Christian by self-affirmation. Thoughtful evangelicals will not overestimate the convictional character of this self-identification. Secularists ought not to overestimate its superficiality.”

Read the whole article here.

Some Laugh Out Loud Humor from Brian Regan

Oh how good it can be to laugh out loud..



HT: Kevin DeYoung

Got Humility?

Not yet, really? Me neither....but we can keep learning by listening in on this excellent discussion on biblical humility between James MacDonald and C.J. Mahaney. via the Gospel Coalition blog.


You can also learn more from CJ's book, Humility:True Greatness.

Have you heard of humble orthodoxy?

Check out this video by Bobby Shook  based on a quote from page 225 of the Humble Orthodoxy chapter of Josh Harris' book, Dug Down Deep:


DugDownDeep_Shook.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.