Thanksgiving

Verses compiled by Ken Boa:

I will give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, and make known to others what He has done. I will sing to Him, sing praises to Him, and tell of all His wonderful acts. (1 Chronicles 16:8-9)

Glory in the holy name of the Lord; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonderful works He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced. (1 Chronicles 16:10-12)

I will praise You, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1-2)

I trust in Your loyal love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for He has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13:5-6)

I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever. For great is Your love toward me, and You have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave. (Psalm 86:12-13)

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion; who satisfies your desires with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:2-5)

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be pleasing to Him; I will be glad in the Lord. (Psalm 104:33-34)

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless His holy name for ever and ever. (Psalm 145:21)

I will praise the Lord while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. (Psalm 146:2)

I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and enables me to go on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:18-19)

We should not get drunk on wine, for that is dissipation. Instead, we should be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making music in our hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)

I will rejoice in the Lord always. (Philippians 4:4)

I will rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for me in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Since I am receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, I will be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for my God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

Through Jesus, I will continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)

I will fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. I will worship Him who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and the springs of water. (Revelation 14:7)

Thankfulness

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. . . [Romans 1:20-22].


Here's a good post by Al Mohler on thankfulness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Dating of Christmas

Several years ago I came across this interesting article in Touchstone Magazine which details a different perspective from what many of us have been taught about the origins of December 25 as Christmas.

Below is an excerpt. You can read the Touchstone article in its entirety here.

"Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.

Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Son” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance."

Christ-Centered Christmas Music

For those like me who are always on the search for new and interesting Christmas music, especially music that centers us on the coming of King Jesus, here is some good stuff for the season you may not be familiar with:

Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson
This tells the story of the coming of Christ through mostly original songs with an acoustic flavor. You will hear the storyline of the Bible , from the OT to Christ's arrival -given our recent class series this would be a good one. One of the most thoughtful and creative Christmas albums I own.

Advent Songs by Sojourn
This one takes original hymns and puts them to modern arrangements -my favorite is a beautiful, refreshing arrangement of "Joy to the World"

Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens
For those who like simple acoustic arrangements (guitar and banjo) and indie-music (the artsy stuff). A little quirky but it works - very different from anything else I own. Although not marketed as a Christian record, it is surprisingly Christ-centered in the song selection, even including versions of "Amazing Grace" and "Come Thou Fount".

On the Incarnation by Daniel Renstrom
I don't have yet but I keep seeing this new one recommended on the Christian blog sites. See the Amazon reviews.

Class Sunday November 22

Hope to see everyone in class Sunday. We're on our second to last lesson in the series we are working through, God's Big Picture. It is titled "The Proclaimed Kingdom", and focuses on the Last Days, which we are living in now, the time while we await Christ's return. It should be an interesting discussion in light of the recent sermon series. Ask yourself this question in preparation, "To what should I devote my life pursuing in the Last Days?"

In Christ,
Brad

The Gospel Explained #6

Tim Keller explains how one of our culture's (especially in our zip code) great idols can only be conquered by the Gospel:

"The idol of success cannot be just expelled, it must be replaced. The human heart's desire for a particular valuable object may be conquered, but its need to have some such object is unconquerable. How can we beat our heart's fixation on doing 'some great thing' in order to heal ourselves of our sense of inadequacy, in order to give our lives meaning? Only when we see what Jesus, our great Suffering Servant, has done for us will we finally understand why God's salvation does not require us to do 'some great thing.' We don't have to do it, because Jesus has."
- Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

btw, I am reading this book now and I cannot recommend it highly enough, or anything else by Keller for that matter. You will be challenged, blessed and will hear the Gospel articulated in a fresh way. Buy it!

The Gospel Explained #5

“There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.

The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another.

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.

The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did.

And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.”

-R.C. Sproul

The Impact of "Hypersocialization"

We would all do well to read and reflect on Al Mohler's recent commentary here on a recently published Wall Street Journal essay on the "networking" lifestyles of our young people (and ourselves?). Here is a sampling:

"One thing is clear -- Zaslow is not exaggerating. Almost every parent of a teenager or twenty-something will recognize the truth of his diagnosis of "hypersocializing" among the young. If anything, the issues range beyond the concerns he identifies. Business executives are concerned about the financial costs and economic impact. Educators are rightly concerned about distractions from the learning process. But what does this hypersocializing do to the souls of young people?

As prophets of technological pessimism from Jacques Ellul to Neil Postman have reminded us, every technology comes with an effect on the soul. How does this digital revolution effect the souls of young people who quite literally sleep with cellphones on the pillow, lest they miss a text message in the night? What space is left for the development of flesh-and-blood friendships? How are they related to people who do not have access to text messages? Is their communicative ability now limited to 140 characters in a burst?

Among young Christians, what space is left for the development of a devotional life? Do their lives contain any space for extended quiet and reflection, for prayer, or for reading anything longer than a text message?

This is precisely where evangelical Christians need to invest serious thought and reflection. We should all be concerned when Steve Gallagher laments that these young people think they need constant access to social media the way they need oxygen for breathing."

HT: Justin Taylor

Marks of Manhood

One of the responsibilities we have as parents in raising our boys is to give them a vision of what a mature Christian man should look like. Those raising sons (and also those with daughters who want to teach them what makes a mature Christian husband) will want to read this article from Al Mohler on the different aspects of maturity that mark the transition from boy to man. Below is the summary. Read the whole thing here.


1. Spiritual maturity sufficient to lead a wife and children.

2. Personal maturity sufficient to be a responsible husband and father.

3. Economic maturity sufficient to hold an adult job and handle money.

4. Physical maturity sufficient to work and protect a family.

5. Sexual maturity sufficient to marry and fulfill God’s purposes.

6. Moral maturity sufficient to lead as example of righteousness.

7. Ethical maturity sufficient to make responsible decisions.

8. Worldview maturity sufficient to understand what is really important.

9. Relational maturity sufficient to understand and respect others.

10. Social maturity sufficient to make a contribution to society.

11. Verbal maturity sufficient to communicate and articulate as a man.

12. Character maturity sufficient to demonstrate courage under fire.

13. Biblical maturity sufficient to lead at some level in the church.


(HT: Vitamin Z)




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The Gospel Explained #4

"The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin."
— Tim Keller