Death, thou shalt die!

"One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die."

John Donne, Holy Sonnets

Source: (quoted on p. 208)

A Sermon - Hebrews: A Call to Jesus and a Call to Endurance

The sermon I preached at The Crossing Church in AZ is now up. It is an overview of the book of Hebrews. Let's call it Hebrews: A Call to Jesus and a Call to Endurance (click to listen or right click and "save as" to download). I will probably post the text eventually but for now here is the audio.

Update

I've had some business and church-related activities the past few days so I will get to posting again soon. I'll be back to my normal life schedule next week.

I preached at The Crossing Church in Arizona yesterday on the book of Hebrews and will post that soon. I was told they will have it on there website anytime so I will link that as well.

March Madness is finally here. It's a great time to watch basketball. Even if you don't its an American responsibility to fill out your bracket.

I posted a link to Abraham Piper's (John Piper's son) blog the other day on the blogroll. Do check it out. It's a clever blog that usually only has posts of twenty-two words. Here is one of them:

"Many admirable parents let their little children watch TV and movies every day.

Would anyone be interested in explaining this to me?"

Killing Bunnies and Settling Catan

My wife and I love board games.

Recently we have been playing The Settlers of Catan and its expansion pack Cities and Knights. This is a great strategy game and I recommend to all, especially those who like to play games with a couple friends for 3 hours. Pure strateg-ery and good times :)

Just yesterday we purchased another wonderful new game: Killer Bunnies. All I can say is you should play it. It cannot be explained. Its a card game that was probably invented after a few hallucinogens and takes the sobriety out of your normal everyday game of cards. Ya, well, just buy it and play it. Don't be intimidated by the bunny on the cover, nor by the time it takes to look through the manual(s). It is well worth it and there are several expansion packs of cards to be purchased at a later time to continue the bunny carnage.

Cheers to board gamers, er...and card gamers!

El Numero Uno

MJ.

...could it be anyone else?

Yes, I'm the guy who is still wearing back to back Bulls championship T-shirts to the gym.

Tim Keller - Love's Constraints the Ultimate Freedom

Timothy Keller:

"Love is the most liberating freedom-loss of all.

One of the principles of love--either love for a friend or romantic love--is that you have to lose independence to attain greater intimacy. If you want the 'freedoms' of love--the fulfillment, security, sense of worth that it brings--you must limit your freedom in many ways. You cannot enter a deep relationship and still make unilateral decisions or allow your friend or lover no say in how you live your life. To experience the joy and freedom of love, you must give up your personal autonomy." (p. 47-48)

Love is not without constraints, and constraints are not always bondage.

For instance see this law which is love:

"Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Jos. 22:5

Carpe Diem

Paul Ellingworth states of the letter to the Hebrews' audience: "The readers are to seize the opportunity of access to God which Christ's priesthood and sacrifice have made possible." (p. 522).

If you are a Christian you, by God's grace, should seize this day to draw near to God in prayer and into His presence. See verse.

Falling Slowly

Yes, you've heard this song. For some reason it makes me want to weep and smile at the same time.

Abraham Kuyper - Living as in the Divine Presence

"...the persuasion that the whole of a man's life is to be lived as in the Divine Presence has become the fundamental thought of Calvinism." (p. 25).

Abraham Kuyper - A Whole Religion

I picked up a book Saturday morn that I have had for along time and never read and have been blessed by it. The very nature of the book, especially its title, immediately will turn many off, but that does not lessen its importance or truthfulness. The book is Abraham Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism. I have heard people speak of Mr. Kuyper positively and thus far he has not disappointed. Abraham argues throughout for a robust view of Calvinism as not simply a doctrinal distinctive within Christianity but as an entire worldview itself. He speaks of Calvinism in robust terms and affirms it holistic nature for all of life rather then only on issues say of election or predestination which much of Calvinism is known for. I will do a series of posts on some quotes from Kuyper and even if your not a "Calvinist" you may be encouraged by them or at least have your interest piqued.

"A religion confined to the closet, the cell, or the church, therefore, Calvin abhors. With the Psalmist, he calls upon heaven and earth, he calls upon all peoples and nations to give glory to God. God is present in all life, with the influence of His omnipresent and almighty power, and no sphere of human life is conceivable in which religion does not maintain its demands that God shall be praised, that God's ordinances shall be observed, and that every labora shall be permeated with its ora in fervent and ceaseless prayer. Wherever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand, in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science, he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of his God, he is employed in the service of his God, he has strictly to obey his God, and above all, he has aim at the glory of his God. Consequently, it is impossible for a Calvinist to confine religion to a single group, or to some circles among men. Religion concerns the whole of our human race. This race is the product of God's creation. It is His wonderful workmanship, His absolute possession...For not only did God create all men, not only is He all for all men, but His grace also extends itself, not only as a special grace, to the elect, but also as a common grace (gratia communis) to all mankind. To be sure, there is a concentration of religious light and life in the Church, but then in the walls of this church there are wide open windows, and through these spacious windows the light of the Eternal has to radiate over the whole world. Here is a city, set upon a hill, which every man can see afar off. Here is a holy salt that penetrates every direction, checking all corruption. And even he who does not yet imbibe the higher light, or maybe shuts his eyes to it, is nevertheless admonished, with equal emphasis, and in all things, to give glory to the name of the Lord. All partial religion drives the wedges of dualism into life, but the true Calvinist never forsakes the standard of religious monism. One supreme calling must impress the stamp of one-ness upon all human life, because one God upholds and preserves it, just as He created it all." (p. 53-54)

I guess then my comment to you is, could not the word "Christian" go in every place that Kuyper puts "Calvinist." Is not this Christianity in full form?