The Prosperity Gospel (Video)

Adopt Without Debt

Adopt Without Debt

In 2000, Julie and her husband, Mark, declared war on their debt – credit cards, student loans, cars and the house. Seven years later, as they wrote the check for their last mortgage payment, God called them to adopt two children from Ethiopia. A few months later, with their income unexpectedly cut by two-thirds, they wondered if they could finish the adoption without crossing back over into the red.

When they brought Wendemagegn and Beza home 12 months later, Julie and her husband proved debt-free adoption is possible!

Passionate about helping others achieve their adoption dream, Julie shares how to find extra money in your household budget, apply for grants, and fundraise in order to build your family without saddling it with debt. With over $65,000 worth of creative fundraising ideas from more than 25 adoptive families, Adopt Without Debt shows you how to fulfill your adoption dream without signing away your financial freedom.

(HT: ABBA Fund)

Why Young People Are Leaving the Church (Video)

"...because our portrait of Jesus Christ is not compelling enough." "Fix your eyes on the cross and never get beyond it."

To The One Who Conquers...

To the one who conquers:


1) "...I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Revelation 2:7


2) "...will not be hurt by the second death." Revelation 2:11


3) "...I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." Revelation 2:17


4) "...I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star." Revelation 2:27-28


5) "...will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels." Revelation 3:5


6) "...I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name." Revelation 3:12


7) "...I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne." Revelation 3:21


And Paul tells us in Romans 8:37 that "...we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Those in Christ will conquer and receive these 7 gifts.

Legalism: Wanting More Holiness vs Wanting More of Christ

They differ in their complaints. The legalist will complain more for want of holiness than for want of Christ; seeing he hath taken up with self-righteousness, it is his all, it is his happiness, it is his husband, it is his God. But the language of the evangelical Christian, who is dead to the law, is, O for Christ! O for a day of power! O to be wrapt up in the covenant of grace! to get an omnipotent power, determining me to comply with the gospel-offer.

Ralph Erskine (1685-1752), Gospel Truth, pp. 292-293

Via

Thoughts from Pastor Mark on Friendships

Pastor Mark Driscoll has some helpful thoughts on what friendship is in his post titled "The Pastor and His Wife Get to Pick Their Own Friends"

He defines a friend like this: "A friend is a trustworthy peer with whom we mutually choose to lovingly live by pursuing intentionally, giving privileged access, and serving for God’s glory and their good."

Based on this definition he concludes that "we are to be friendly with all, but only friends with a few." He ends his post with this upshot:

...we only have a few true friends. A real friendship takes so much time, energy, emotion, and sometimes even money, that we can only have a few true friendships. Our nearest and dearest friend after Jesus is to be our spouse. After that, we may only have one or two truly close friends, as that is all we can handle. This explains why Jesus had only three close friends (Peter, James, and John), despite having a working relationship with the other disciples as well as fans numbering the tens of thousands who wanted to be his friend. Such people chose Jesus, but he never chose them as his friends or gave them the access he did the three.

 It will be worth your time to read the whole post here.

St. Augustine and the Sovereignty of God in Salvation

St. Augustine confesses this so beautifully back to God in his Confessions written in 397 AD:

Belatedly I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new. See, You were within and I was without, and I sought You out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things You have made. You were with me, but I was not with You. These things kept me far from You, even though they were not at all unless they were in You. You called and cried aloud, and forced open my deafness. You gleamed and shone, and chased away my blindness. You breathed fragrant odors and I drew in my breath, and now I pant for You. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for Your peace.

Saint Augustine, Confessions, p.281-282