The God Who is There...

Just read this from John Pipers sermon, "The Fatal Disobedience of Adam and the Triumphant Obedience of Christ." Well worth the time to read the entire message.

"...Christianity is not merely a set of ideas and practices and feelings designed for our psychological well-being—whether designed by God or man. That’s not what Christianity is. Christianity begins with the conviction that God is an objective reality outside ourselves. We do not make him what he is by thinking a certain way about him. As Francis Schaefer said, he is the God who is there. We don’t make him. He makes us. We don’t decide what he is going to be like. He decides what we are going to be like. He created the universe, and it has the meaning he gives it, not the meaning we give it. If we give it a meaning different from his, we are fools. And our lives will be tragic in the end. Christianity is not a game; it’s not a therapy. All of its doctrines flow from what God is and what he has done in history. They correspond to hard facts. Christianity is more than facts. There is faith and hope and love. But these don’t float in the air. They grow like great cedar trees in the rock of God’s truth."

"...I am deeply convinced from the Bible that your eternal joy and strength and holiness depend on the solidity of this worldview putting strong fiber into the spine of your faith. Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won’t survive the days ahead. Rootless emotionalism that treats Christianity like a therapeutic option will be swept away in the Last Days. Those who will be left standing will be those who have built their house on the rock of great, objective truth with Jesus Christ as the origin, center, and goal of it all. "

Google Bible Map

This is one of the most useful tools I have ever seen on the web. When you read through the Old Testament do you ever find yourself wondering where on earth is that? Do you ever find yourself wishing you had a really good, useful bible atlas? You need to go here now. It is flat out incredible. You can go to any chapter in the bible and it loads the google earth for you in relation to that chapter. It also gives pictures for certain locations. The creator of the website has logged over 200 hours so far in updating. You need to check it out for yourself. Do however keep in mind it is a "beta" version and still has a few kinks to work out.

Here is a link to an interview with the creator of the website.

Henry Center

Today I discovered a website called the "Henry Center" in honor of Carl F.H. Henry. What a goldmine! It has articles, audio, and media. In the media section there is a 4-part video series on "Know your Roots - Evangelicalism - Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." Well worth your time to watch! Enjoy!

Too Busy To Pray: Part Three

In the eighteenth Psalm and the first verse David begins his prayerful psalm with these beautiful words, "I love you, O LORD, my strength." The immediate question that raised in my mind was, "when was the last time I started one of my prayers expressing my love for God?" After all, I love him because He first loved me, I love him because he created me and gave me the capacity for love, indeed, in God alone I discover what true love is, so is it too much for me to take time in my prayers throughout the day to say, "I love you, O LORD, my strength." So may I ask you, have you told God you love him recently?