Thank You For Giving...
2009-08-29

Home from an early PT session this morning. Christi's cooking breakfast....mmmm the smell of bacon wafting through the house...


Here's a prayer request from the PPT site.

More Families See Power Cut. According to a report by USA Today, more Americans are having their power shut off. A weak economy and resulting difficulty to pay bills are the top reasons. "We see record numbers of households becoming disconnected or in danger of disconnection," says Mark Bixby, energy director of Rockford, Ill. We lift up our leaders in leading policy and action for the strengthening of our economy as more families in the country face economic pain.



Psalm for today: 97:7-9

7-8 All who serve handcrafted gods will be sorry�
And they were so proud of their ragamuffin gods!
On your knees, all you gods�worship him!
And Zion, you listen and take heart!

Daughters of Zion, sing your hearts out:
God has done it all, has set everything right.

9 You, God, are High God of the cosmos,
Far, far higher than any of the gods.
(The Message)

"All have naturally a something of religion born with them, but owing to the blindness and stupidity, as well as the weakness of our minds, the apprehension which we conceive of God is immediately depraved. Religion is thus the beginning of all superstitions, not in its own nature, but through the darkness which has settled down upon the minds of men, and which prevents them from distinguishing between idols and the true God."

(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)

That Calvin...he didn't mince words, did he?



It's now 12:45 and the bacon is long gone. It was really good, too!!


Tabletalk Magazine

"Our Great and Glorious God"
1 Timothy 6:15-16

15 which he will display at the proper time�he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (ESV)

I like Paul's way of erupting into spontaneous praise in the middle of his writing. He's just writing along, giving some instruction or spouting off some theology, then, all of a sudden, launches into a doxology like the one above. Can almost see him kind of sheepishly clearing his throat at the end and saying, "Oops. Sorry..." Only there's really nothing to be sorry for, is there?

But there is always a nugget or two of theology in his doxologies. In this one, the first thing is that Christ will appear "at the proper time." This refers to the second coming. It tells us that God is firmly in control of history. His sovereignty reigns supreme. We have already been instructed to "fight the good fight" of faith until that time.

We also see that God is sovereign over men, being "ruler over those who exercise rule" (King of kings), and "lord over those who exercise lordship" (Lord of lords).

Finally, God is the sole owner of immortality. It is his to dole out as he pleases. Calvin says, "We and all the creatures do not, strictly speaking, live, but only borrow life from Him." Very good quote.



Holiness Day by Day

"Clean Conscience"
Romans 4:8

blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

We have all been given a conscience, a sort of a moral compass. The conscience bears witness to the law of God. In those whose lives a characterized by sinful behavior, the conscience becomes, to a degree, hardened. But in growing Christians, it becomes more and more sensitive to sin. "As a result, our consciences continually indict us, accusing us not only of particular sins, but, more importantly, of our overall sinfulness." We also tend to find it very difficult to believe that God could no longer remember our individual sins.

Once again, there is reference back to the Old Testament "scapegoat," carrying the sins of Israel off into the wilderness. "This is an accurate picture of what Jesus did with my sin."

But the work of Jesus is even greater than that! According to Hebrews 9:14, his blood has cleansed our conscience! how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (ESV) "To experience this cleansing subjectively we must agree with our consciences in true penitence, then by faith appropriate the reality of His cleansing blood. The burden of uncanceled guilt ceases."

If we believe by faith in Jesus's work as our scapegoat, we will be freed from the guilt of our conscience so that we may effectively serve God.



Father, I thank you for the work of Christ that sealed our redemption and cleansed our consciences. I pray for all believers to be able to receive this cleansing by faith, that their consciences will not condemn them for sins that have been forgiven. I thank you that Christ, as our scapegoat, has carried our sins far away from us.

I praise you, Lord, for your sovereignty. Were it not for that, I might not be saved today. Who knows? But you, in your sovereignty, ordained that I was born into a family with a faithful mother and father who raised me to love you. Through them, along with the church that we attended, your Holy Spirit drew me to you. I thank you that you place people like Miss Juanita Sullivan in my path. She was the best Sunday School teacher I ever had. Please tell her thank you for me. I'll tell her when I get there.

Thank you, God.



Wow. That kind of came out of nowhere. So...give it some thought. If you can think of someone who crossed your path in your life, someone who is partially responsible for your life of faith, give God some thanks for ordaining that part of your life. If that person/persons are still alive, give them some thanks, too.

Grace and peace, friends.



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