encouraged by the chandlers

when i first heard this sermon, it was one of the most influential in my life.

it was preached less than two weeks before matt chandler suffered a seizure, and a grade 3 tumor was discovered in his brain.

this video was recorded at the end of his second week of chemotherapy. it shows his great faith in the Lord, trusting that God is sovereign and good despite the suffering that has--and will--take place in his life.

and then today, i read this article about the chandlers; a realistic picture of family walking well through suffering.

i have literally nothing to add to anything of this. i just am so encouraged by it all, and i want to encourage all of you to be encouraged by this family. because God is good--all the time.

putting all of my eggs in one basket

"What kind of demeanor/character would you expect to see in someone who has fully yielded to Christ's lordship? How will this affect, for example, a person's happiness? His ambitiousness? Her peacefulness? What will this kind of person be like? What will be the effect on others?"

This was one of the application questions asked of this past Sunday's sermon preached on Matthew 12:1-14.

First of all, if you know me well, you know that I'm not a big fan of questions. I'm even less of a fan of questions that I think are "cheesy". But... I think questions (even cheesy ones) are an important part of growing spiritually--they make me think, and reflect, and even humble myself to respond with cheesy answers--so I'm trying to get better at enjoying questions.

This brings me to Monday, when I had printed out the sermon application questions, and was working through them in my quiet time. I came to this one. I deemed it "cheesy", decided to answer it quickly, and move on. But in processing the answer, I decided it was not a cheesy question at all, but rather an important one.

I started writing what I thought was a picture of a person fully yielded to Christ, and I ended up using the using the phrase "placing all of their eggs in one basket". At first I laughed a little (who the heck writes that?!) but then I thought about it, and realized it was actually pretty acturate, and actually beautiful.

A person fully yielded to Christ is placing all of themself in Christ. They are placing their hopes, desires, weaknesses, future, plans, etc. into Christ's hands, and trusting HIM with them. They are not saying "I'll hang out with Christ, and together we'll work towards my goal of becoming successful." They're saying "All I want is Christ, and He alone is in charge of my life. What He wills is what becomes." They are putting everything into His hands; trusting Him with everything.

Normally, "placing all your eggs in one basket" is considered bad advice; it's risky. But here, in this context, it's the least risky thing. It's freeing, even. You are putting everything into the hands of the only stable One in the universe. Essentially, you are putting all of your eggs into the only basket that won't break. And you are surrendering all of your worry about those eggs.

What's more freeing than that?

are we "the most aggressively inarticulate generation"?

a friend of mine posted a link to this video the other day.

it speaks some real truth about our generation.

http://vimeo.com/3829682

do i speak with authority?

or do i speak in a way that causes people to immediately not take me seriously?

and what impact does that have on how i communicate the gospel effectively?

i just can't seem to get this video out of my head.

unconditional election

Last Sunday in Church, Pastor Bullmore shared a quote that I thought was super helpful. It was a quote from Mark Webb explaining the concept of unconditional election in a very understandable way.

“After giving a brief survey of these doctrines of sovereign grace, I asked for questions from the class. One lady, in particular, was quite troubled. She said, ‘This is the most awful thing I’ve ever heard! You make it sound as if God is intentionally turning away men and women who would be saved, receiving only the elect.’

I answered her in this vein: ‘You misunderstand the situation. You're visualizing that God is standing at the door of heaven, and men are thronging to get in the door, and God is saying to various ones, ‘Yes, you may come, but not you, and you, but not you, etc.’ The situation is hardly this. Rather, God stands at the door of heaven with His arms outstretched, inviting all to come. Yet all men without exception are running in the opposite direction towards hell as hard as they can go. So God, in election, graciously reaches out and stops this one, and that one, and this one over here, and that one over there, and effectually draws them to Himself by changing their hearts, making them willing to come. Election keeps no one out of heaven who would otherwise have been there, but it keeps a whole multitude of sinners out of hell who otherwise would have been there. Were it not for election, heaven would be an empty place, and hell would be bursting at the seams. That kind of response, grounded as I believe that it is in Scriptural truth, does put a different complexion on things, doesn’t it? If you perish in hell, blame yourself, as it is entirely your fault. But if you should make it to heaven, credit God, for that is entirely His work! To Him alone belong all praise and glory, for salvation is all of grace, from start to finish.”

Amen.

hello, internet world.

someone who plays the piano is a pianist; someone who works with flowers is a florist.

i suppose i wouldn't want to be called a "bloggist" (it sounds too much like a mixture of "biggest" and "blob") but "blogger" isn't much prettier, either.

regardless, this is my blog.