Jesus Gets & Fills My Heart

i had the HARDEST time getting these lyrics... had to email dude personally... so want them available to more... (buy the album, this song and couple others are worth it)


None Among
From the album All I Owe, available at www.matthewsmith.us
Words by John Berridge and Matthew S. Smith, Music by Matthew S. Smith
© 2006 Detuned Radio Music (ASCAP)

1. When by faith my Lord I see,
Bleeding on a cross for me
Quick my idols all depart,
Jesus gets and fills my heart

Chorus
None among the sons of men, none among the heavenly train
Can with Jesus then compare, none so sweet, none so fair

2. Soon my tongue would fain express
All His love and loveliness
But I lisp and falter forth
Broken words, not half His worth

Bridge
Oh I try and try again, still my efforts are in vain
And I know, despite my pride, that His truth will still remain
Idols crowd my heart and mind and demand I shed my blood
But the Lord, the risen Christ has secured me in the flood
Has secured me in the flood

excerpts from Piper's amazing chapter on power of Word in our fight for joy in his book WHEN I DON"T DESIRE GOD

Oh, how precious is the Bible! Here is where we see God most clearly and most surely.

To be sure, in the fight for joy we will not kneel forever over our

Bibles. We will get up and walk with Jesus onto the Calvary road. And

there, in the risks and the afflictions of love, we will see the Jesus of the Word in the manifestations of power. This too is part of our joy.

We need the Word of God not only to see God in the Word, but to see him rightly anywhere else.

I want to stress that ultimately, in and through all its benefits,

the Bible leads us to superior and lasting joy because it leads us to Christ, especially to see his glory and enjoy his fellowship. All the varied benefits are beneficial finally because they show us and bring us more of Christ to enjoy.

the Spirit binds his faithwakening ministry to the Christ-exalting Word. Which means that when we go to the Word of Christ, we put ourselves in the path of the

Spirit’s willingness to reveal Christ to us and strengthen our faith.

If we want more of the Spirit of God, we must hear more of the Word of God with faith. We must hear his promises, see their blood-bought certainty, value their goodness, and bank on them. That is the way God supplies more of his Spirit. The command in Ephesians 5:18-19, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” is parallel with the command

in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching

and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs.” Being filled with the Word of Christ and

being filled with the Spirit of Christ are almost the same, because the

Spirit comes with joy where the Word is embraced with faith.

We may lack hope because we think we need something we do not need. It may take the Word of God to show us what we really need, and then to give us the power to get it. In the end what we really need is Christ. He is the sum of all our hopes. Paul commends the Thessalonians for their “steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ”

(1 Thess. 1:3). He says that our “blessed hope [is] the appearing of the

glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13). Therefore

we are to “hope in Christ” (Eph. 1:12) and rejoice in the mystery of the

gospel, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

Sometimes what we need from the Bible is not the fulfillment of our

dream, but the swallowing up of our failed dream in the all-satisfying

glory of Christ. We do not always know the path of deepest joy. But all

Scripture is inspired by God to take us there. Therefore Scripture is

worth more than all this world can offer.

the impurity of sin so distorts our perception that we cannot see God as desirable. Therefore sin makes the greatest joys impossible.

" . . . we bring the power of the Spirit into vigorous, sin-killing action by hearing with faith. Hearing what? The Word of God. Therefore, the way we destroy deceitful, joy-killing desires that threaten to overwhelm us with destructive cravings is to hear and believe the Word of God when it says that he and his ways are more to be desired than all that sin can offer" (105).

Oh, how many people in our world glory in their shame and relish poisonous pleasures!

the power of sin comes from its promise of pleasure and is meant to be defeated by the blood-bought promise of superior pleasure in God, not by raw human willpower.

The fight for joy is the fight to see and believe Christ as more to be desired than the promises of sin. This faith and sight come by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. We look to the Word, we ponder, and we plead with God that the eyes of our hearts would be opened to

see the superior glory and joy. This pleading is so important we will devote the whole of Chapter Nine to it. But suffice it to say for now that we are utterly dependent on the Spirit to make the promises of God more desirable to us than the promises of sin. And for that vital eye-opening,heart-changing work we pray every day.

-- all quotes not marked are from J.Piper

life of parent of teenager

well... while i wait for my son to come home i had a chance to clean out some old stacked up paper... came across John Piper's lecture on John Newton.... man was I grabbed and helped by the one footnote my eyes fell upon... containing these words:

the question: "Why does the Lord permit some of his people to suffer such violent assaults from the powers of darkness" ?
--not to gratify Satan, but
-- to humble and prove His people;
-- to show His children what is in their hearts,
-- to make them truly sensible of their immediate and absolute dependence upon him and
-- to quicken them if to watchfulness and prayer"

He goes on to suggest that another design (of God) of temptation is "for the manifestation of his power, and wisdom, and grace, in supporting the soul under such pressures as are evidently beyond its own strength to sustain"

RP: I read this to mean that God uses our struggles & temptations to show how HE -- and not our wit or strength-- is our sustaining strength. He gets all the glory. I get humbled, and the opportunity to praise and worship my Savior God.

the whole footnote is here

full footnote on temptation's use in believer's life

Another example of the limits of this age that make us patient with people's failings is the God-ordained necessity of temptations. He asks, "Why the Lord permits some of his people to suffer such violent assaults from the powers of darkness" (The Works of the Rev. John Newton, Vol. 1, 226). "Though the Lord sets such bounds to [Satan's] rage as he cannot pass, and limits him both as to manner and time, he is often pleased to suffer him to discover his malice to a considerable degree; not to gratify Satan, but to humble and prove them; to show them what is in their hearts, to make them truly sensible of their immediate and absolute dependence upon him [see p. 232], and to quicken them if to watchfulness and prayer" (p. 227). He goes on to suggest that another design of temptation is "for the manifestation of his power, and wisdom, and grace, in supporting the soul under such pressures as are evidently beyond its own strength to sustain" (p. 228). He gives Job as an illustration: "the experiment answered many good purposes: Job was humbled, yet approved; his friends were instructed; Satan was confuted, and disappointed; and the wisdom and mercy of the Lord, in his darkest dispensations toward his people, were gloriously illustrated" (p. 228). If the Lord has any children who are not exercised with spiritual temptations, I am sure they are but poorly qualified to 'speak a word in season to them that are weary'" (p. 231). ---taken from John Piper's incredible lecture on life of john newton

Spurgeon Morning April 25

"Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away."—Song of Solomon 2:10.
LO, I hear the voice of my Beloved! He speaks to me! Fair weather is smiling upon the face of the earth, and He would not have me spiritually asleep while nature is all around me awaking from her winter's rest. He bids me "Rise up," and well He may, for I have long enough been lying among the pots of worldliness. He is risen, I am risen in Him, why then should I cleave unto the dust? From lower loves, desires, pursuits, and aspirations, I would rise towards Him. He calls me by the sweet title of "My love," and counts me fair; this is a good argument for my rising. If He has thus exalted me, and thinks me thus comely, how can I linger in the tents of Kedar and find congenial associates among the sons of men? He bids me "Come away." Further and further from everything selfish, grovelling, worldly, sinful, He calls me; yea, from the outwardly religious world which knows Him not, and has no sympathy with the mystery of the higher life, He calls me. "Come away" has no harsh sound in it to my ear, for what is there to hold me in this wilderness of vanity and sin? O my Lord, would that I could come away, but I am taken among the thorns, and cannot escape from them as I would. I would, if it were possible, have neither eyes, nor ears, nor heart for sin. Thou callest me to Thyself by saying "Come away," and this is a melodious call indeed. To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes. But Lord, how can a stone rise, how can a lump of clay come away from the horrible pit? O raise me, draw me. Thy grace can do it. Send forth Thy Holy Spirit to kindle sacred flames of love in my heart, and I will continue to rise until I leave life and time behind me, and indeed come away.

cover letter for FAQ sheet

Dear Christ Community,

In 1997 God, through His Church, brought me and my wife and two year old Andrew to Gainesville. I was funded, charged, and envisioned by the North Florida Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) to establish--from the ground up and in the power of the gospel-- a new congregation in Southwest Gainesville.

During the past 10 years there have been more highs and lows, joys and sorrows, victories and defeats than I can mention here. But the overwhelming theme of our corporate song has been the faithfulness of God. He has shown us time and time again that nothing will stop Him from building His Church. It has been a wild ride to be carried by the frightening and faithful God.

Christ Community, you have taken some big steps in the past three years: hiring Frank Matthews as Associate Pastor, pledging in Journey of Faith to give 1.28 million above & beyond your regular giving, electing and ordaining elders from our midst, moving to two morning services to accommodate growth and reach more people. And these are just a sampling. I am sure most of you could provide your own verse to that song.

Well, the next big step is here! We stand, as a church family, on the brink of our next opportunity to catch our breath, gulp, pray, and fling ourselves toward our mission in faith. Your elders believe that God is calling us to borrow up to $1.8 million to build a facility and renovate our church house on Parker Road. And we are bringing it to you for a vote. Please join me in focused prayer towards the congregational meeting of April 27th. Enclosed is what we hope will be helpful & envisioning information for you.

Again, let me express what a joy it is to serve among a bunch like you... a people who know they have a great need for a Savior and who are finding out, with me, that we have a great Savior for our need.

In Christ, and for the session,

Rob

Sermon on Food, extended post

AT first hearing it seems weird. You almost wonder... how will I come up with much to say. Then you start thinking about it... and thumbing through your bible... and you are at the other end of the spectrum saying, "a sermon about food??" ... shouldn't it be a sermon SERIES on food.

One day it may be, or at least a break-out class or seminar. Close parenthesis.

What about all the things that I simply CANNOT address in one brief sermon? As I've had discussions with people about food it seems that certain issues and ideas emerge. Each of them is, at least for some of us, loaded with emotion and questions.

Things like:
What i cannot talk about today:
anorexia, bulimia, binge eating or drinking, the goodness of wine, world hunger, can you pray with integrity for God to bless a fast-food meal? These and many more...

But I can't just say that I won't say ANYTHING about these things.... I got an email from a friend who wisely stated on this topic:
we have lost our way regarding food and that this shows up in many ways. I see it in everything from our vast consumption of "fast foods" and all that this says about how we live through our obsession with diets and with exercise programs and devices through various forms of disordered eating that can become very serious, through to the fact that the eating channel has now become a primetime competitor with leading cable channels. The food channel has some merits, for sure, (it is one of my personal favorites) but it is also curious to see that we now have a "food as spectacle and obsession" phenomenon.

You can get a large audience together for a striptease act--that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food? CS LEWIS

(What Lewis could only imagine... we have on our TV's!) All Emeril need do is mention garlic and the crowd whoops and hollers.
In other words, there are real expressions in contemporary culture of where our fallenness has taken us....encourage people to seek help for themselves and friends where the problems become overwhelming. "Don't let yourself get isolated in these struggles. These are not other people's problems, they are ours, and we need to learn better how to be there for each other and be open about these struggles, whatever form they may take."

Well said. Don't struggle alone. This week it is eating. Next week working. April 20 is sleeping. Each of these can be the source of great joy and sorrow. It is vital to look at your failures in each area in the shadow of the cross of Christ. And not just in the shadow of the cross, but with your friends in that shadow... not alone.

Enjoying Wine

Enjoying Wine by Douglas Jones

Wine is quite a miracle. It's something like the birth of a child. A man and woman mix and then create a being wholly distinct from themselves, yet with deep family traits—new and yet the same. A ripe grape contains two parts, unmarried—an interior sugar juice and an exterior skin full of yeast. But if you marry and mix these parts by crushing a grape, it will start toward creating wine, a third distinct thing, new and yet the same—a "wine that maketh glad the heart of man" (Ps. 104:15). In meditating on Christ's miracle of creating wine, Augustine lamented that we accept normal wine creation as any less miraculous, for even as water "turned into wine by the doing of the Lord, so in like manner also is what the clouds pour forth changed into wine by the doing of the same Lord. It has lost its marvellousness by its constant recurrence."

From the simple miracle of fermentation, we gain all the wonderful wine varieties of the world. In broadest strokes, wine has been divided into three general groups: table wines, sparkling wines, and dessert wines. Sparkling wines start with the same process of mixing sugar and yeast, a process which produces about equal parts carbon dioxide and alcohol. If you let the carbon dioxide escape, you move down the road of creating normal wine. If you trap that gas, you get sparkling wines, such as Champagne (French) and Spumanti (Italian).

Dessert wines, on the other hand, such as Ports and Sherries, start down the normal path, but then get fortified somewhat artificially by adding other spirits, raising both the alcohol and sugar levels. Port and other dessert wines have many fans, but I don't count myself one of them (an understatement). They lack the natural beauty and mystery of normal table wines, as well as the fact that Ports only got their push as a spite to the French during an English-French war.

The broad category of table wines divides into red and white wines, a difference that does not result from the color of the actual juice of a grape. All wines start out with clear juice. The color enters from the length of time the juice is allowed to mix with the skins. If the time is longer, then you create red wines; if shorter, then white wines.

Red and white wines divide into several major groups. Both red and white wines are now more often named for the particular grape variety in question, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc. Other wines are more generic blends of several grapes, such as Chablis, Burgundy, Rose, etc. For simplicity's sake, this division between varietal (particular grape) and nonvarietal (more generic blends) is found in both red and white wines. Among red wines, the world's favorite varietal has long been Cabernet Sauvignon. The other prominent red varietals are Pinot Noir, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Gamay. Among white wines, the world's favorite varietal has proven to be Chardonnay, with Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Gewurtztraminer also standing tall. Various mixes and cheats also make the rounds, including such market driven inventions as White Zinfandel, a sugary, cinderella wine invented because Americans used to only like white wines, but California had an abundance of straight Zinfandel vineyards.

Enjoying wine involves experimenting with all its varieties, and the most interesting feature of enjoying wine is combining multiple senses—sight, smell, taste, and touch. We miss out on some of the best parts of wine if we concentrate only on the taste.

Sight: When you take a glass of wine, stare at it for a while before you do anything else. We don't have to be experts to enjoy its color, though color can tell the experts much about many details of the particular harvest, age, etc. Examine the wine from all sides. Is it clear or cloudy, bright or dull? More mature red wines will appear slightly orange along the edge. You can enjoy color best against a white background. Perhaps most important for delighting in the color is to use real wine glasses—thin, clear bowls on stems. Thick or colored or clouded goblets diminish the joy and elegance of seeing wine.

Smell: Then swirl the wine in the glass to release and intensify the bouquet. Place your nose deeply into the glass and inhale deeply and meditate. Supposedly, the human nose can identify up to 10,000 different smells, good and bad. Professional tasters say they learn the most from smell, insights about character, origin, and history. But for the pure enjoyment, aromas connect powerfully with our minds and memory. Notice how much emphasis the Song of Solomon places on the delights of perfume.

Taste: Finally, you can taste the wine itself. Take a sip and let it roll around your mouth for ten seconds or so. Sense it against all parts of the tongue and cheeks. They say the tongue senses four fundamental tastes: sweet, astringency (bitterness), sour, and acidity (saltiness). Our tongue tip senses sweet and salty. The sides of our tongue senses sour and salty, and the back does bitterness, with the center actually being the least sensitive. Try them all and compare wine to wine.

Touch: This also involves the tongue. How does the wine sit? Is it heavy or light, airy or smooth? Temperature plays here as well. Red wines do best at room temperature and not cooled, whereas some whites do a little better cooled. Temperature can greatly affect taste. Some reds accidentally refrigerated can taste like vinegar. Learn to enjoy room-temperature reds.

Many books are commonly available which can provide much more depth. Christ created a high-quality wine, and so we should at least be able to tell the difference as we obey the divine command, "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works" (Eccl. 9:7).

Grace in Trials

Father of mercies,
Hear me for Jesus' sake.
I am sinful even in ....

Giver of all graces,
I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me,
for it is hard to practice what I believe.
Strengthen me against temptations.

My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin,
a river of corruption since childhood days,
flowing on in every pattern of behavior.

Congregational Letter about March 30

March 19, 2008
Dear Christ Community Church Family,

One year ago we spent 2 months as a church asking God to:
· Secure us in His love

· Guide us in our role in sacrificing to build a facility

It was a highlight time for many of us. I don’t think we have ever been tighter as a community. Our Father enabled us to trust Him and pledge to give $1.2 million during a 3-year commitment from April 2007 to April 2010. As encouraging as that was, the 78% participation rate, was my most personally encouraging number. We were all stunned and overjoyed!

During the first year of our “above tithe” giving to Journey of Faith, God and you have been faithful and we have corporately given $485,000. This has radically and positively affected the amount of money that we are in need of borrowing to begin construction. Thank you!! And praise God!

Not only has there been tremendous progress toward building from a financial standpoint but also a great deal has been accomplished in other areas during the last few months. Our building plans have received final approval from Alachua County, our general contractor has begun receiving bids from several sub-contractors, and the loan-seeking progress is reaching a conclusion. All of this is possible because of your faith and continued response.

We have much to give thanks for and celebrate. God has been good to us.

I want to make certain that you are aware of what is happening on Sunday, March 30^th.

Both the 9:00 & 10:45 worship services will include:

· Children of CCC coming forward to formally give the money they’ve been collecting all year

· Re-commitments from all who made initial commitments in 2007

· New commitments from all who are newer to Christ Community Church

Enclosed is one pledge card that will serve all of us. Some will use one side to make a re-commitment and some will use the other side to make a 1^st time commitment.

Also, during our “Live Together Time” between services, we will be enjoying a Micro Fiesta complete with cake, punch, and piñatas for the children. This is a wonderful day to bring friends along to help give them a sense of what Christ is doing in our midst. There will also be artist’s renderings and floor plans of the new facilities on display.

Grace to you,
Rob

Packer & SmartyPants notions of substitutionary atonement

It is impossible to focus the atonement properly until the biblical mode of Trinitarian and incarnational thought about Jesus Christ is embraced. The Trinitarian principle is that the three distinct persons within the divine unity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always work inseparably together, as in creation, so in providence and in every aspect of the work of redemption. The incarnational principle is that when the Son took to himself all the powers and capacities for experience that belong to human nature, and began to live through his human body, mind, and identity, his sense of being the Father’s Son was unaffected, and he knew and did his Father’s will, aided by the Spirit, at all times. It was with his own will and his own love mirroring the Father’s, therefore, that he took the place of human sinners exposed to divine judgment and laid down his life as a sacrifice for them, entering fully into the state and experience of death that was due to them. Then he rose from death to reign by the Father’s appointment in the kingdom of God. From his throne he sent the Spirit to induce faith in himself and in the saving work he had done, to communicate forgiveness and pardon, justification and adoption, to the penitent, and to unite all believers to himself to share his risen life in foretaste of the full life of heaven that is to come. Since all this was planned by the holy Three in their eternal solidarity of mutual love, and since the Father’s central purpose in it all was and is to glorify and exalt the Son as Saviour and Head of a new humanity, smartypants notions like “divine child abuse”, as a comment on the cross, are supremely silly, and as irrelevant and wrong as they could possibly be. JI PACKER

Freedom to love

A joyless bondage if deeply desired is still a joyless bondage | by Andrée Seu

One cannot love unless one is free. One cannot be free apart from consciousness, in the moment, of being enveloped in God's love. (Oh, for freedom!) This is the whole of the matter. The rest is details.

The freedom I mean is freedom from need. All the business in the songs of "Does he need me?" and "I need him to need me" has to go. It is abject bondage and misery. The horrifying thing is that those in this bondage don't see it as bondage. Or more inscrutably, those who see it as bondage want it anyway. Those in bondage choose it. They would kill to have it.

This curiosity of human nature (It must baffle the angels no end. The only way I can write about it is as a privy insider to the infected race, testifying personally to the truth of what would otherwise be too mad too contemplate.) is partly explained as a failure of imagination. Morally, it is a failure of faith. The offer of real joy is repeatedly extended from heaven; the creature repeatedly rejects it.

A woman loved her husband but felt he did not love her back. He had other interests besides her—like friends, or reading a book. She cooked and cleaned and worked her fingers to the bone for him, to get his attention. She had little "pep talks" with him to urge the seriousness of her plight. She interspersed these with the "silent treatment." Nothing availed.

The husband tried to reassure her. She was not reassured. He kept trying till, over the years, he became a defeated shadow of a man. Ironically, her happiest times were these, for at least she knew by his deep sighing that he was paying attention to her, that he was thinking of her. And when he was thinking of her, she knew she existed.

It's a wonder to me that anyone at all can manage to love even half badly. What but a hand grenade of grace thrown into her profound solipsism can show the woman what she is doing? Her strategies are darkness. They do not produce what she intends, but the opposite. Plead with her from the light, and paint pictures of the joy of freedom, but she will block her ears and shut her eyes, for light understands the darkness, but the darkness doesn't comprehend the light.

But let us imagine better possibilities, things pertaining to salvation (Hebrews 6:9):

The woman, after all this, receives unmerited favor from above. The light that has often tried to break in upon her, she one day sees and rather than refusing it again, seizes it. The hardest part is this first crossing of the great divide. She believes and surrenders to the love of the Trinitarian God. What she thought would kill her does not.

The idea of God's love begins to dominate her life. Out of it flow new adventures. Because she is loved, accepted, cherished, delighted in, by a Lover who will never leave her or forsake her, or be distracted from her, or too busy for her—a Lover who not only doesn't mind her barging in, but insists on it as a much desired daily rendezvous—she finds inner resources.

She is able to ask forgiveness of her mate, even in cases where the fault is not mainly hers, and even if he does not admit blame. She is able to overlook unintentionally hurtful remarks because she is confident in her status with her Lover—"The King is enthralled by your beauty" (Psalm 45:11). She is able to overlook deliberately hurtful remarks because she has behaved that way herself, and so knows the misery of its origin and is pained into praying for her mate's release. She "believes all things" about her mate and is able to visualize his future glory, when all blemishes will be removed to release the real saint.

Heaven has already begun. Already all our needs are met, and we can love because we don't need. We can also have a joy that is not hostage to another's insistence on misery. Already "the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining" (1 John 2:8). Why wait another hour? "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1).

If you have a question or comment for Andrée Seu, send it to aseu@worldmag.com

Copyright © 2008 WORLD Magazine
February 09, 2008, Vol. 23, No. 3

Jesus will now perform another miracle–feeding a
multitude of people out in the wilderness. This miracle will demonstrate what has been hinted at all
along–Jesus is not only the new Moses, the consummate covenant mediator who will lead his people in a
New Exodus, but when Jesus provides the people of Israel with a miraculous provision of food in the
wilderness, this is a foreshadowing of the long-promised messianic feast and a sure sign that Jesus is
much greater than Elijah and far more than a prophet. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah who has come to lead his
people in a new Exodus. The New Israel will eat bread in the desert and be well-satisfied.

Who was St. Valentine?

It would be nice to know the true story of Saint Valentine, but alas, it seems to have been lost somewhere in the mists of history. Hard facts are hard to come by. According to Catholic Online, “Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome,” where he was beaten with clubs and beheaded. This happened in the year A.D. 270 (although not necessarily on February 14, as one might have expected).

That much is probably true, but what’s love got to do with it? According to legend, Claudius had Valentine killed because he continued to marry young couples in secret even after the emperor had forbidden it, possibly because he wanted Roman soldiers to remain single. Because of his defiance to the emperor’s anti-marriage agenda, Valentine became the Patron Saint of Lovers.

This is not the only version of the story, however. Early manuscripts mention at least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs. One is said to have been a third-century priest in Rome, another to have been a bishop from somewhere else, and a third to have come from somewhere in Africa.

According to one version of the story, Valentine antagonized the Roman Emperor by preaching the gospel and by giving aid to the victims of imperial persecution. He was arrested and thrown in prison. There—according to yet another legend—he fell in love with the jailor’s daughter. Some say that he cured her of her blindness. Others tell a similar story in connection with the imprisonment of Charles, Duke of Orleans, in 1415. But in any case, the story ends with the doomed lover pouring out his love to his beloved in passionate epistles, and before his execution sending one final letter, signed “From Your Valentine.”

There are also various explanations as to why Valentine’s Day should be associated with February 14. Some people say this tradition goes back to Roman times, and that it is connected to the erotic Roman festival of Lupercalia, when sexual partners would be drawn by lottery. Celebrating Valentine’s Day was the church’s attempt to sanctify this pagan revel. Others say the custom did not arise until the Middle Ages, when the middle of February was considered to be the time when songbirds began to pair off. As Geoffrey Chaucer has it in his Parliament of Fools:

For this was sent on Saint Valentine’s Day
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.

There is, of course, nothing sacred about celebrating Valentine’s Day. On the one hand, the day does have its virtues. Certainly it must be said that most men need every encouragement to show tangible affection to the women they love. Are you surprised to learn that of the one billion Valentine cards that are exchanged each year, 83% of them are purchased by women? Not if you’ve been paying attention, you’re not. What could be more useful, therefore, than a holiday that encourages men to show a little romance?

Since at least the Fourteenth Century, Valentine’s Day has been an occasion for sending letters, flowers, and other tokens of personal affection. In the 1840’s people started sending commercially made Valentine’s Day cards, and in more recent times, it has become common to give jewelry and chocolates. Far be it from me or anyone else who wants people to stay in love to discourage these expressions of affection.

On the other hand, Valentine’s Day can be one of the hardest holidays of the year for people who get overlooked. At the same time that it embraces some people, Valentine’s Day gives other people the cold shoulder. And when romance is in the air, it is painfully isolating to be left out. So Valentine’s Day is a mixed blessing, at best.

Yet perhaps we can still make good use of the holiday by reflecting on some of its noble virtues. Whether they are true or not, the legends about Saint Valentine have a moral purpose.

Some of these legends encourage us to defend marriage. What threatens this God-given institution today is not some imperial edict, but the open acceptance of sexual relationships—whether heterosexual or homosexual—outside the sacred bonds of marriage. Valentine’s Day is a good time to remember that marriage is a gift from God, and that it consists of one man living in a love covenant with one woman for life (see Gen. 2:24; Mal. 2:14–16).

Other Valentine legends promote sexual purity. Today sexual partners are not determined by lottery, but given the casual coupling that goes on in some communities, they might as well be. As we live in this sexually self-destructive and pornographic society, we long for the union of passion and purity that makes for the truest romance. Valentine’s Day is a good time to remember that we were not made to engage “in sexual immorality and sensuality,” but to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (see Rom. 13:13–14).

Finally, the martyrdom of Saint Valentine encourages us to live for Christ, even to the point of sacrifice. Nowhere is this more necessary than in our romantic relationships. Especially for those of us who are husbands (or preparing to be husbands), Valentine’s Day is a good time to remember that we are called to love others more than ourselves, and to give ourselves in love through daily deeds of sacrificial service.

To think about these noble virtues is to be reminded of Jesus Christ, the lover of our souls. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). --Phil Ryken of tenth pres. in philly

http://womentodaymagazine.com/family/difficult.html

Keller, preaching hell to broad-minded

Preaching Hell in a Tolerant Age Brimstone for the broad-minded. by Tim Keller The young man in my office was impeccably dressed and articulate. He was an Ivy League MBA, successful in the financial world, and had lived in three countries before age 30. Raised in a family with only the loosest connections to a mainline church, he had little understanding of Christianity. I was therefore gratified to learn of his intense spiritual interest, recently piqued as he attended our church. He said he was ready to embrace the gospel. But there was a final obstacle. "You've said that if we do not believe in Christ," he said, "we are lost and condemned. I'm sorry, I just cannot buy that. I work with some fine people who are Muslim, Jewish, or agnostic. I cannot believe they are going to hell just because they don't believe in Jesus. In fact, I cannot reconcile the very idea of hell with a loving God—even if he is holy too." This young man expressed what may be the main objection contemporary secular people make to the Christian message. (A close second, in my experience, is the problem of suffering and evil.) Moderns reject the idea of final judgment and hell. Thus, it's tempting to avoid such topics in our preaching. But neglecting the unpleasant doctrines of the historic faith will bring about counter-intuitive consequences. There is an ecological balance to scriptural truth that must not be disturbed. If an area is rid of its predatory or undesirable animals, the balance of that environment may be so upset that the desirable plants and animals are lost—through overbreeding with a limited food supply. The nasty predator that was eliminated actually kept in balance the number of other animals and plants necessary to that particular ecosystem. In the same way, if we play down "bad" or harsh doctrines within the historic Christian faith, we will find, to our shock, that we have gutted all our pleasant and comfortable beliefs, too. The loss of the doctrine of hell and judgment and the holiness of God does irreparable damage to our deepest comforts—our understanding of God's grace and love and of our human dignity and value to him. To preach the good news, we must preach the bad. But in this age of tolerance, how? How to preach hell to traditionalists Before preaching on the subject of hell, I must recognize that today, a congregation is made up of two groups: traditionalists and postmoderns. The two hear the message of hell completely differently. People from traditional cultures and mindsets tend to have (a) a belief in God, and (b) a strong sense of moral absolutes and the obligation to be good. These people tend to be older, from strong Catholic or religious Jewish backgrounds, from conservative evangelical/Pentecostal Protestant backgrounds, from the southern U.S., and first-generation immigrants from non-European countries. The way to show traditional persons their need for the gospel is by saying, "Your sin separates you from God! You can't be righteous enough for him." Imperfection is the duty-worshiper's horror. Traditionalists are motivated toward God by the idea of punishment in hell. They sense the seriousness of sin. But traditionalists may respond to the gospel only out of fear of hell, unless I show them Jesus experienced not only pain in general on the cross but hell in particular. This must be held up until they are attracted to Christ for the beauty of the costly love of what he did. To the traditional person, hell must be preached as the only way to know how much Christ loved you. If we play down harsh doctrines, we will gut our pleasant and comfortable beliefs too. Here is one way I have preached this: "Unless we come to grips with this terrible doctrine, we will never even begin to understand the depths of what Jesus did for us on the cross. His body was being destroyed in the worst possible way, but that was a flea bite compared to what was happening to his soul. When he cried out that his God had forsaken him, he was experiencing hell itself. "If a mild acquaintance denounces you and rejects you—that hurts. If a good friend does the same—the hurt's far worse. However, if your spouse walks out on you, saying, 'I never want to see you again,' that is far more devastating still. The longer, deeper, and more intimate the relationship, the more torturous is any separation. "But the Son's relationship with the Father was beginning-less and infinitely greater than the most intimate and passionate human relationship. When Jesus was cut off from God, he went into the deepest pit and most powerful furnace, beyond all imagining. And he did it voluntarily, for us." How to preach hell to postmoderns In contrast to the traditionalist, the postmodern person is hostile to the very idea of hell. People with more secular and postmodern mindsets tend to have (a) only a vague belief in the divine, if at all, and (b) little sense of moral absolutes, but rather a sense they need to be true to their dreams. They tend to be younger, from nominal Catholic or non-religious Jewish backgrounds, from liberal mainline Protestant backgrounds, from the western and northeastern U. S., and Europeans. When preaching hell to people of this mindset, I've found I must make four arguments. 1. Sin is slavery. I do not define sin as just breaking the rules, but also as "making something besides God our ultimate value and worth." These good things, which become gods, will drive us relentlessly, enslaving us mentally and spiritually, even to hell forever if we let them. I say, "You are actually being religious, though you don't know it—you are trying to find salvation through worshiping things that end up controlling you in a destructive way." Slavery is the choice-worshiper's horror. C. S. Lewis's depictions of hell are important for postmodern people. In The Great Divorce, Lewis describes a busload of people from hell who come to the outskirts of heaven. There they are urged to leave behind the sins that have trapped them in hell. The descriptions Lewis makes of people in hell are so striking because we recognize the denial and self-delusion of substance addictions. When addicted to alcohol, we are miserable, but we blame others and pity ourselves; we do not take responsibility for our behavior nor see the roots of our problem. Lewis writes, "Hell … begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps even criticizing it…. You can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine." Modern people struggle with the idea of God thinking up punishments to inflict on disobedient people. When sin is seen as slavery, and hell as the freely chosen, eternal skid row of the universe, hell becomes much more comprehensible. Here is an example from a recent sermon of how I try to explain this: "First, sin separates us from the presence of God (Isa. 59:2), which is the source of all joy (Ps. 16:11), love, wisdom, or good thing of any sort (James 1:17)…. "Second, to understand hell we must understand sin as slavery. Romans 1:21-25 tells us that we were built to live for God supremely, but instead we live for love, work, achievement, or morality to give us meaning and worth. Thus every person, religious or not, is worshiping something—idols, pseudo-saviors—to get their worth. But these things enslave us with guilt (if we fail to attain them) or anger (if someone blocks them from us) or fear (if they are threatened) or drivenness (since we must have them). Guilt, anger, and fear are like fire that destroys us. Sin is worshiping anything but Jesus—and the wages of sin is slavery." Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that the people on Lewis's bus from hell are enslaved because they freely choose to be. They would rather have their freedom (as they define it) than salvation. Their relentless delusion is that if they glorified God, they would lose their human greatness (Gen. 3:4-5), but their choice has really ruined their human greatness. Hell is, as Lewis says, "the greatest monument to human freedom." 2. Hell is less exclusive than so-called tolerance. Nothing is more characteristic of the modern mindset than the statement: "I think Christ is fine, but I believe a devout Muslim or Buddhist or even a good atheist will certainly find God." A slightly different version is: "I don't think God would send a person who lives a good life to hell just for holding the wrong belief." This approach is seen as more inclusive. In preaching about hell, then, I need to counter this argument: "The universal religion of humankind is: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then he owes us. The gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then we owe him (Rom. 1:17). In short, to say a good person, not just Christians, can find God is to say good works are enough to find God. "You can believe that faith in Christ is not necessary or you can believe that we are saved by grace, but you cannot believe in both at once. "So the apparently inclusive approach is really quite exclusive. It says, 'The good people can find God, and the bad people do not.' "But what about us moral failures? We are excluded. "The gospel says, 'The people who know they aren't good can find God, and the people who think they are good do not.' "Then what about non-Christians, all of whom must, by definition, believe their moral efforts help them reach God? They are excluded. "So both approaches are exclusive, but the gospel's is the more inclusive exclusivity. It says joyfully, 'It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. It doesn't matter if you've been at the gates of hell. You can be welcomed and embraced fully and instantly through Christ.' " 3. Christianity's view of hell is more personal than the alternative view. Fairly often, I meet people who say, "I have a personal relationship with a loving God, and yet I don't believe in Jesus Christ at all." "Why?" I ask. They reply, "My God is too loving to pour out infinite suffering on anyone for sin." But then a question remains: "What did it cost this kind of God to love us and embrace us? What did he endure in order to receive us? Where did this God agonize, cry out? Where were his nails and thorns?" The only answer is: "I don't think that was necessary." How ironic. In our effort to make God more loving, we have made God less loving. His love, in the end, needed to take no action. It was sentimentality, not love at all. The worship of a God like this will be impersonal, cognitive, ethical. There will be no joyful self-abandonment, no humble boldness, no constant sense of wonder. We would not sing to such a being, "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." The postmodern "sensitive" approach to the subject of hell is actually quite impersonal. It says, "It doesn't matter if you believe in the person of Christ, as long as you follow his example." But to say that is to say the essence of religion is intellectual and ethical, not personal. If any good person can find God, then the essential core of religion is understanding and following the rules. When preaching about hell, I try to show how impersonal this view is: "To say that any good person can find God is to create a religion without tears, without experience, without contact. Hell is the freely chosen, eternal skid row of the universe. "The gospel certainly is not less than the understanding of truths and principles, but it is infinitely more. The essence of salvation is knowing a Person (John 17:3). As with knowing any person, there is repenting and weeping and rejoicing and encountering. The gospel calls us to a wildly passionate, intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ, and calls that 'the core of true salvation.' " 4. There is no love without wrath. What rankles people is the idea of judgment and the wrath of God: "I can't believe in a God who sends people to suffer eternally. What kind of loving God is filled with wrath?" So in preaching about hell, we must explain that a wrathless God cannot be a loving God. Here's how I tried to do that in one sermon: "People ask, 'What kind of loving God is filled with wrath?' But any loving person is often filled with wrath. In Hope Has Its Reasons, Becky Pippert writes, 'Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it…. Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference.' "Pippert then quotes E. H. Gifford, 'Human love here offers a true analogy: the more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, the traitor.' "She concludes: 'If I, a flawed narcissistic sinful woman, can feel this much pain and anger over someone's condition, how much more a morally perfect God who made them? God's wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer of sin which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.' " A God like this Following a recent sermon on the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the post-service question-and-answer session was packed with more than the usual number of attenders. The questions and comments focused on the subject of eternal judgment. My heart sank when a young college student said, "I've gone to church all my life, but I don't think I can believe in a God like this." Her tone was more sad than defiant, but her willingness to stay and talk showed that her mind was open. Usually all the questions are pitched to me, and I respond as best I can. But on this occasion people began answering one another. An older businesswoman said, "Well, I'm not much of a churchgoer, and I'm in some shock now. I always disliked the very idea of hell, but I never thought about it as a measure of what God was willing to endure in order to love me." Then a mature Christian made a connection with a sermon a month ago on Jesus at Lazarus' tomb in John 11. "The text tells us that Jesus wept," he said, "yet he was also extremely angry at evil. That's helped me. He is not just an angry God or a weeping, loving God—he's both. He doesn't only judge evil, but he also takes the hell and judgment himself for us on the cross." The second woman nodded, "Yes. I always thought hell told me about how angry God was with us, but I didn't know it also told me about how much he was willing to suffer and weep for us. I never knew how much hell told me about Jesus' love. It's very moving." It is only because of the doctrine of judgment and hell that Jesus' proclamation of grace and love are so brilliant and astounding. Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

http://www.dbu.edu/jeanhumphreys/DeathDying/preachinghell.htm

"The Flesh" In the New Testament, however, are many places where the term "the flesh" has a darker coloring. Here it refers primarily to the whole human personality -‑ body, soul, mind and emotions as they function apart from the presence and control of the Holy Spirit. It can refer either to non‑Christians or to residual sin in believers. --Richard Lovelace

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But out merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously-no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner-no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him is also Christ vere latitat- the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.” --CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25

Many of us have read the angel’s announcement to Joseph in Matthew 1 so many times that we have lost our sense of wonder at the angel’s message. The angel quotes the prophet Isaiah and says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Immanuel’ - which, means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23). In announcing the coming of Immanuel, God with us, the angel is proclaiming that after years of separation from the Father, we finally, once again, have a home. Remember Adam and Eve? Remember the Garden from Genesis 3? We were created for intimacy with God. But we gave that up when we chose sin and a heart that was separated from Him. We chose an orphan existence and mentality over an existence protected and cared for by the Father.

But, despite the wickedness of the world and the disobedience of His people, the Father’s heart for intimacy and fellowship with His people didn’t change. So He provided a way for fellowship to be restored; He sent Immanuel in the womb of a woman. When we read the angel’s message carefully, we are able to hear the heartbeat of the Father as never before.

As a child, did you ever sit in a parent’s lap and actually hear his or her heartbeat? This is the invitation the angel gives to Joseph. “Joseph, the Father invites you to lean close, to become still, and to hear His heart. For a Son is to be born who will ‘save his people from their sins.’ The barrier that separates God from man is getting ready to be rent in two after centuries of waiting. Immanuel
is coming.”

Many of us never heard a parent say, “Child, I want to spend time with you. I want to be with you. I don’t want anything to separate you from me.” But the good news is that, in the coming of Immanuel, we have the deepest, most passionate display of affection from a Father to His children. This love of the Father is the essence of Advent, for Advent is about pulling up a chair and becoming quiet and still enough to personally hear the message of the Father’s heart. Through the ages, His heart is to be our God, to walk with us, to talk with us, to live inside of us, and for us to be His people. It is to change our orphan hearts into hearts that have a home with the Father.

So the invitation the Angel extended to Joseph is the same invitation the Lord gives to us today. “Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid of the child within Mary. He is Jesus. His name is Immanuel, and He has come that the Lord might be your Father and that you might be, in garden-like intimacy, His child. This week, marvel at the message of the angel...and take time to hear the heartbeat of your Heavenly Father.

Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for sending Jesus, Your son, whose name is Immanuel, God with us. We long for the day when we will see You face to face. Give us courage to wait for that day, and help us to walk in the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love that is ours as Your sons and daughters. We rejoice in Your birth, and we eagerly await Your Second Coming. May You find us faithful on the day that You return to take us home. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.

“The kingdom of God is the new and final age that began with the coming of Jesus. His kingdom is not part of the present age — an age where the flesh reigns; where people are divided, relationships are broken, and suspicion and competition dominate; where money, sex, and power are abused; where leaders are first and servants last; where behavior is controlled by laws, and identity is defined by race, gender, or social standing; and where gifts and resources are used for the advancement of oneself.

Rather, the kingdom of God is the new age. It is the age of the Spirit (Matt 12:28). It is the age of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). The Kingdom of God is about the renewal, restoration, and reconciliation of all things, and God has made us a part of this great story of salvation.

This kingdom is about the restoration of relationships, justice, and equality; about freedom from every lord except Jesus; about reconciliation, forgiveness, and the defeat of Satan. It is about compassion for the poor and powerless, about helping those who are marginalized and rejected by society, and about our gifts and resources for the advancement of others. It is about new communities and the transformation of society and culture, so that race, gender, and social class no longer define identity, nor are they used to control and divide. For Paul, to preach the gospel is to preach the kingdom, is to preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:24-27).

The gospel sums up the whole message of good news that he brought to the nations — particularly to the downtrodden and powerless. And since it is good news, our response to the message of the kingdom is to be one of repentant faith (Mark 1:15).”

- Neil H. Williams, Gospel Transformation, 2nd Ed. (Jenkintown, Pa.: World Harvest Mission, 2006), iii.