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A Soft Heart Gathers No Plaque
Hardheartedness is a signal sin in the Bible. As Jonathan Edwards described,
Now by a hard heart is plainly meant an unaffected heart, or a heart that is not easy to be moved with virtuous affections, like a stone, insensible, stupid, unmoved, and hard to be impressed. (Religious Affections, 46)
A hard heart isn’t necessarily missing truth; gathering up more truth often makes a heart more stiff, not more soft.
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Communion and Provision
After the familiar story of Jesus feeding the five-thousand in John six there is much about how Jesus is the bread of life and about how His disciples must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to live. Though Jesus doesn’t institute the Lord’s Supper at that time, our communion with Him is connected to our provision from Him.
Paul also connects communion with provision in 1 Corinthians 10.
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Quite Appalling
One of the biggest reasons that the gospel (and gospel worship) appalls men is that men don’t want to forgive others.
The good news is that God sent His own Son into the world, born of a virgin, fully God and fully man, who lived a sinless life and then was crucified unjustly as a substitutionary sacrifice. He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day.
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Boasters Welcome
The Lord’s Table is a table of glory. God invites boasters to eat and drink with Him, boasters who have repented of boasting in themselves and who now boast in Christ alone.
We offer nothing to a self-sufficient God or His Son. In fact, God calls the low, the despised, the foolish, and the weak of this world for Himself. This was “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29).
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Exalting Dignity
We don’t use it much any more, maybe because there isn’t much any more, but dignity is a great word. Dignity refers to a quality or state worthy of honor and respect. It describes a man with worth, someone with nobility and gravitas and glory. True dignity can’t be reached via shortcuts and, once there, dignity acts in a certain way to maintain itself.
Our weekly corporate confess of sin is entirely about dignity.
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The Path of Life
Every Lord’s day we gather as Christians to celebrate Christ’s historical, bodily resurrection. If He has not risen, if His resurrection is a myth or a scam, our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins. Unless He lives, we cannot face tomorrow, let alone eternity.
In Psalm 16:10, David looks forward to the glad security that the Savior’s flesh would not see corruption. His soul would not be abandoned to Sheol, to death.
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Not the One They Wanted
Israel rejoiced in John the Baptist’s lamp-light for a while (John 5:35). Many Jews saw the straight path from Baptist’s ministry to the Messiah’s coming. They were anticipating the Messiah’s arrival, expecting Him to defeat their enemies and to share His kingdom with them. They couldn’t wait for the Messiah to change their lives. But John lost his luster when he kept talking about the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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THIQ Obedience
Most Christians probably don’t need another acronym for our spiritual walk, and yet a well-applied acronym can slow down unraveling strings when we’re in the fray. YMMV but, at our house, we’ve written a certain acronym on our “heinie remindie” tool (AKA, “the rod”) to remind us all about obedience.
What is obedience? Oftentimes a child who asks the question knows the definition, he’s filibustering to save his fanny. In order to avoid the need for a word study in the heat of a disobedience, we talk about obedience that is THIQ: total, happy, immediate, and quick.
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The Author of Life
The apostles John and Peter were in the temple when a man, lame from birth, asked for them alms. Instead of silver or gold, Peter told the him to rise up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 3:6). The man was healed and began walking, leaping, and praising God, which earned Peter and John an attentive audience.
Peter began to preach and, among other things, told the Jews that they “killed the Author of life” (Acts 3:15).
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Tebow in Babylon
Tebow in Babylon ➔ Ross Douthat for The New York Times on Tim Tebow’s trade to the “Babylon-upon-the-Hudson” Jets:
Why is Tim Tebow such a fascinating and polarizing figure? Not just because he claims to be religious; that claim is commonplace among football stars and ordinary Americans alike. Rather, it’s because his conduct — kind, charitable, chaste, guileless — seems to actually vindicate his claim to be in possession of a life-altering truth.
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All of Us
Does Jesus have all of us? All we are and all we have is from Him and should be utilized to honor Him. Last week our congregation practiced, with a low grade physical awkwardness, kneeling during our prayer of confession. Most importantly Jesus should have our humble hearts but, as many experienced, something is different when He gets our humble knees, too.
I’ve come to a personal conviction that when we sing songs or read Psalms in our corporate worship that refer to raising hands, I am going to do it.
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We Shouldn't Be Careless
We emphasize that the Lord’s Table is a banquet, a feast, a celebration. We emphasize the joy of communion, God’s joy over us and our corporate joy with Him. Jesus made peace by the blood of His cross and reconciled us in His body of flesh by His death in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before Him (Colossians 1:20-22). Christ’s finished sacrifice is a reason to rejoice.
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Out of Place
There is an uneasiness we deal with every Lord’s day. We want to worship. We love God and we know that He is our good. We know that His Word reveals that He’s glad to meet with us and to bless us. But we are sinners. We do not deserve to fellowship with Him. We come into His presence as those who are out of place, as those who are humbled before His majestic holiness.
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Display Purposes Only
If you sat down at a dinner table, what might cause you to get up after a while unsatisfied? There might be nothing on the table, no food to eat. There might be no one else at the table, no fellowship to enjoy. There might be a family tradition passed down for generations that strictly forbids anyone from eating, the food is for display purposes only. Or, there may be no reason to eat because you ruined your appetite with junk an hour earlier.
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Getting in Shape
Worship is dangerous, especially to the status quo and especially to our pride.
Of course, worship is inescapable. We were made to be admiring creatures, always looking for greatness to praise. We can’t avoid it; we will worship someone or something whether or not we’ve found true greatness. Worship of the true God gives meaning to life. Because we were made in God’s image, better views of Him show us more what we’re to be.
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Little Miss Red Shoes
Little Miss Red Shoes ➔ I don’t always read Challies but, when I visit his site, I typically scan through his A La Carte links. A week ago he started with a post at Paradox Uganda about a young girl in Africa whom the author named “Little Miss Red Shoes.” She’s nine. She had gone to the police and then to the “casualty department” at the hospital to report being raped by a 15 year-old neighbor.
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What It's Good For
Our fellowship with God comes on very specific terms. Peace must be established between two parties that were previously enemies. In our case, the defiance was entirely with us. Our enmity must be defeated and our rebellion accounted for. Communion also requires a certain likeness between parties. In our case, we must walk in the light as He is in the light in order to enjoy fellowship. God’s Word, therefore, is crucial if we’re to know the terms, if we’re to respond to follow the light, if we’re to understand the sacrifice of Christ that establishes the peace.
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Two Great Things
Two great things go together: the great commandment and the great commission. They do not compete with each other, they compliment each other (and they do so even better than peanut butter and chocolate). Obedience to the great commandment makes obedience to the great commission a no-brainer. Obedience to the great commission requires seeing others become obedient to the great commandment.
So evangelism and worship meet in the disciple-making process. That’s why worship can have an evangelistic impact.
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Training for Hypocrisy
Words matter. When there are no words, there is no clarity. When words come from an empty heart, there is no integrity. When words are inconsistent with behavior, this is hypocrisy.
As Christians, we must sing and speak words. Our faith, our worship depends on words. We cannot be clear about the gospel, about Christ, about salvation, about His glory without words. Even if we have to borrow it, we need language to thank Him.
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They Belong Together
When we come to confession before the Lord, should we think more about our sin or His holiness? Should we think more about our sin or the sacrifice of His Son? Should we think more about our sin or His grace? The answer is obviously both but, I would argue that even when we confess our sin, our focus is on God and not ourselves.
Apart from His holiness, we would have no standard by which to examine ourselves.