February 2012
63 posts
Lent or No Lent, Life Is War →
Lent or no Lent, not doing some things you feel like doing is the daily pattern for the disciples of Jesus. Yes, daily. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
In the resurrection there will be no self-denial because none of our desires will be sinful or foolish. Till then we have sinful and foolish desires daily. Hence, “Let...
“One cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion.”
– G.K. Chesterton (via bgospelm)
“The church of America was once salt and light. Now, rather than having any real...”
– Clyde Cranford in “Because We Love Him”
Bob Kauflin on Ineffective Music →
Bob Kauflin is one of the musicians who I will almost unfailingly seek to emulate. Here he briefly discusses something we all already know but rarely practice—that our melodies are of importance.
Anonymous asked: Oh.... i see.
Blessed
I saw Kwadwo 3 different times today. Kwadwo was the one who alerted me to the practice of answering people with words of grace—every time I ask, “How are you?”, he responds, “Blessed.” This isn’t fake—he means, blessed. And even if he didn’t mean it, we know in our hearts that we are truly blessed. So it makes sense. And it’s God-directing.
...
How much of your life do you want God to Change?
joanna-banana:
For some reason, this question caught me off guard today. Sure, I want God to change me, but do I really desire for Him to change all of me?
This isn’t asking how much of your life are you going to surrender to God (although, it can infer this question) but rather, how much of your life are you willing to let God change- because He is capable of changing it- it’s all up to...
“We’re more loved than we deserve. Even our worst days are a gift.”
– Lecrae (@lecrae) February 21, 2012
“For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is...”
– James
“As long as you look to yourself there is no hope for you. It is not a...”
– C.H. Spurgeon
Jeremy Lin’s bold humility →
Last one, I promise. This one talks a little bit about the Harvard version of ACF.
Jeremy Lin: From Zero to Hero
junehokim:
(Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images)
What a whirlwind month it has been for the “hero from Harvard.” What a week it has been for “Linsanity.” Jeremy Lin has transformed his career, seemingly overnight, and it has been an honor and delight to watch this man and his successes. Despite his meteoric rise, however, he has long been laying the foundations for this breakout and, this past...
Faith, sin and Jeremy Lin →
Stephen Chen is head pastor of the English-language ministry at Redeemer Bible Fellowship in Mountain View, Calif. Among the longtime members of his 300-person, largely Chinese American immigrant church is basketball’s latter-day wunderkind, the Knicks’ Jeremy Lin.
Chen has known Lin since the basketball phenom was 13, when Chen worked with him as a youth counselor at their church. Chen never...
Men Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy
There are certain incredibly powerful, memorable lines in Scripture that resonate in me.
And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from...
Age of Accountability
20 years old? And notice that they are not only accountable for their own actions, but they bear the responsibility for the wanderings of their children:
“As I live,” says the LORD, “just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old...
My Take: Looking for faith amid persecution →
As the relief team took assessments for supplies, our interpreter, also a Christian, turned to me and said, “We see the destruction of their homes, but not the destruction of their lives. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.”
I cried. Christians don’t welcome crises and persecution, but in Jesus, we surely are the only ones on this earth who can stand up against all evil.
Psalm 40: Obedience Better Than David's →
Verses 1–10 are David’s song of thanks to God for rescuing him from dire straights. Verses 6–8 then raise the issue of what should David do in response to God’s life-saving rescue. Slaughter another sheep? Sacrifice a bull or goat? Is that really an apt response to God pulling him up from the very pit of destruction (verse 2)? Thanks for saving my life, God. Here’s a goat. It doesn’t work.
RU Praise Night →
brianli:
aboutkee:
RUNITED PRAISE NIGHT :D
we’re bring all the rutgers campus ministries together on february 24th! spread the worD!!!
Reach will be performing! Please come out :]
Honestly, ALL The Time I Have No Idea What I’m... →
jspark3000:
I always thought my parents and these grown-ups had a super-secret system for organizing their life and making Huge Forever-Changing Decisions. Writing checks and doing taxes and paying the rent was like second nature to them. Me in my little kid boots, a sore neck from looking up all the time: it was daunting to think of being a grown-up.
It turns out, they were guessing...
[The LAS] - Book Review - "Counted Righteous in... →
Piper takes great care to emphasise the fundamental importance that we, as Christians, realise that we ARE counted righteous in Christ. Not only did Christ become sin for us that we might be forgiven, but He died and rose so that we might become the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21). This is fundamental because it shifts out mindset as Christians from the negative- “I am a sinner who has been...
All Spheres of Life — Even Pro Basketball →
Uh Oh
Final Design Project Partner: Today I had the thought: Maybe I'm a sociopath.
Final Design Project Partner: What's a sociopath.
Exclusive: Jeremy Lin Says Faith in God Triggered... →
Subplot—he wouldn’t come out and say why…but he’s been turning down interviews, and then this article comes out and it’s an interview devoted to God.
My guess? Instead of watering down the message by accepting every interview request, he wanted to say it his way, instead of being scripted as a public spectacle. That is a heads-up move! (Also, it says that he’s more committed to...
Tricking
Me: It's sunny and 25 degrees.
Talha: I hate that. It's like, tricking me. It wants me to think it's nice out. But it's cold.
theubergoober:
Forgive me Father
Forgive me...
College vs. Reality →
I don’t know if I’d say there’s nothing real in college, but good stuff.
Scale of Everything →
rarehunter:
Tell me how there could not be a Designer!?
Got some good modular engineering principles going on.
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life...”
– Francis Chan
“Something that I needed to learn was that just because you pray, and just...”
– Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin is blowing up in my social world, and it’s funny because Tebow kind of… didn’t. Tebow is an American’s Christian, perhaps. (I’m not using American detrimentally here.) Asian-Americans are looking for someone to look up to. I hope he becomes a little bit more outspoken about his faith, but really, really good stuff in the early going.
you complete me...
jesshong:
As Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) longingly and apologetically stares at Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), he says, “I love you,” (dramatic pause) and ends by saying, “You complete me.”
Hearts melt and a deep “aww” resounds in the hearts of every female watching this. For those that do not understand this reference, you’re too young to be thinking about marriage.
I mean seriously, what...
Japan Mission 2005-2011 →
There’s a video in this post that gives me hope, but also spurs me on. In the video, there are many testimonies of young Christians who have accepted Jesus over the past few years as a result of (I think?) Cru [formerly Campus Crusade for Christ] Singapore.
The reason it spurs me is because all the interviewed Christians are girls. The ratio, judging strictly from this video, is something...
Irony
So much of my effort in leading or organizing songs for gatherings is focused on how I can help people know that they are singing together, as one body, when so many of our songs talk about “me” and what “I” feel and do. Ironically, in Japan this will be the least of my worries, and my concern will be to encourage people to sing as individuals, making melody in each...
Wove
More insight on Psalm 139 comes from reading Moses:
On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and...
Psalm 139 →
Line-by-line comments. This is a good Psalm. Recommend two zoom-ins, as pdf didn’t treat the font nicely.
Overall, I got the impression that David is bending over backwards to try to convey how amazing this God is. For David, the most interesting thing is not that God is concerned with him… or I guess, that’s not a good way to phrase it. David is interested in what God is doing...
“The Christian lives between two days: the day when Christ, the Messiah, hung...”
– Paul Washer
Abstractions Are Killing Your Testimony →
God calls us to a life of honest vulnerability. Don’t hide behind abstractions or make a habit of sliding into shortcut-Christianese. Lay aside these hindrances and introduce honest vulnerability into your testimony.
To all them single ladies...
jesshong:
When it’s time to hit the dance floor at a wedding and the DJ starts playing “Single Ladies” by Beyonce…the girls usually go crazy. All the girls come into the floor, and when it’s time to shake their hand like Beyonce, they go crazy. I do too. But then as I shake my bare left hand, there are some “faker’s” out there. Glaring in my face are bright diamond stones shaking back and forth...
"Warriors For Christ" →
risingofthesun:
Not sure what to think about this, but as Paul says in Philippians 1:12-18:
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Praise God! Only He could use something as borderline-insane as this to reach people’s hearts!
Really solid. I liked the line, “I declared war on God.” This is the state of...
Jesus Chooses and Uses Failures →
It’s called redemption—he wouldn’t have died unless it was necessary. Look in the mirror—it was definitely necessary.