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Well, it happened.  Lauren and I went to DC to look for apartments.  By the way…I’m moving to Washington DC and I start a job with Homeland Security on January 7th.  (Surprise)!!  Anyways… We rode in on the metro and stopped at the Smithsonian.  We toured the Holocaust museum (her request) and then took a cab to Georgetown because we had reservations at Sequoia.  This restaurant overlooks the Potomac River.  We had reservations in the Atrium upstairs overlooking the water and riverfront.  Over coffee after dinner I popped the question.  Originally,  I intended to take her to the Lincoln Memorial and pop the question but it was raining and cold.  She said “Yes” and we’re engaged.  I got a pretty nice ring if I say so myself

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Monday, November 12, 2007 - Don’t Fight; Just Show Up!

One of my constant struggles is that I try to do God’s work too often. Do you have that problem, too? Probably because I’m impatient and tend to be a controlling person, I want to manipulate and call the shots and direct the action, instead of letting God be God.

Do you recall the story found in 2 Chronicles 20, where Jehoshaphat was facing war with a bunch of enemies who could undoubtedly wipe him off the map? He was a godly king of Judah, and when he realized this vast army was marching his way, he was alarmed–frightened, worried! Who wouldn’t be? But as soon as he saw his predicament, he “resolved to inquire of the Lord and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.”

Notice how he responded to a crisis–he resolved to inquire of the Lord. What is the first thing you do when facing an overwhelming enemy of some sort? It could be a relationship enemy or a financial enemy or a jobless enemy or a health enemy; they come in all types and sizes. Our first emotional reaction is alarm; that’s to be expected. But what does that alarm cause us to do?

Often the first thing I do is to plan my fight. Whatever the problem is, I start figuring how I can win this battle. I can do this or that; I can talk to this person or that one; I can pull this string or another one. Surely there is something I can do to fix this situation and fix it fast! So I start drawing up my battle plan.

Jehoshaphat knew better. He remembered to first of all “inquire of the Lord.” What is your mission impossible today, your impossible person, your mountain too high to climb? Have you inquired of the Lord yet for His guidance? Or are you struggling and working and fretting to come up with your own battle plan so you can solve that problem?

Tell you what–let’s you and I just stop right where we are and inquire of the Lord. That means to tell Him that you trust Him, you believe He is smarter than you are, and you admit that your ideas usually make matters worse rather than solve anything. So, instead of fighting your battle today, you’re going to inquire of the Lord as to what to do. That’s the first important step.

Excerpt from Let Love Be Genuine by John Piper

[Romans 12:9-13]

…

Reading over texts like this once, and quickly, has little effect to produce all these beautiful things in our lives. So what are we to do? What would make these things happen?

Paul gives us guidance in chapter 15. In Romans 15:15-16 he says . . . (keep in mind he is writing mainly to Gentiles, that is, non-Jews in Rome and he is explaining how his ministry of writing this letter helps him accomplish his aim of transforming Gentile sinners into a worship gift to God),

On some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Notice several things:

1. His aim is that the Gentiles be an “acceptable offering” (v. 16)—just like he said in Romans 12:2 that we prove what is good and “acceptable”: the will of God.

2. His means of preparing the Gentiles—us—for God as acceptable living sacrifices of worship (Romans 12:1) is to write to us and remind us boldly of things we may already know (15:15).

3. But the writing alone does not produce the holiness and the newness and the love that Paul is aiming at in us, so he says at the end of verse 16, “sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

So now we know Paul’s goal for us when we read Romans 12. He writes to us boldly to remind of some things that we already know with the aim that we be transformed in our hearts and minds and begin to embrace the acceptable will of God, and that this all happen by the power of the Holy Spirit. Neither can be excluded from Paul’s strategy: the word and the Spirit. Not the word without the Spirit, and not the Spirit without the word. The 13 exhortations of Romans 12:9-13 are written so that the Holy Spirit may take them and make them the means of his transforming, sanctifying work.

This really meant alot to me ~ Seth 

BECOMING THE PERSON GOD WANTS

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all . . . are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit

When you begin to align your goals with God’s goals and your desires with God’s desires, you will rid your life of a lot of anger, anxiety and depression. The homemaker who wants a happy, harmonious family is expressing a godly desire, but she cannot guarantee that it will happen. So she’d better not base her identity and sense of worth on it or she will be a basket case of anger or resentment toward her sometimes less-than-harmonious family.

Instead she could decide, “I’m going to be the wife and mother God wants me to be.” That’s a great goal! Is it impossible or uncertain? No, because it’s also God’s goal for her and nothing is impossible with God. Who can block her goal? She’s the only one who can. As long as she cooperates with God’s goal for her, her success is assured.

“But what if my husband has a mid-life crisis or my kids rebel?” she may object. Problems like that aren’t blocking her goal of being the wife and mother God wants her to be, but they will put her goal to a serious test. If her husband ever needs a godly wife, and if her children ever need a godly mother, it’s in times of trouble. Family difficulties are merely new opportunities for her to fulfill her goal of being the woman God wants her to be.

The pastor whose worth is based on his goal to win his community for Christ, have the best youth ministry in town, or increase giving to missions by 50 percent is headed for a fall. These are worthwhile desires, but they are poor goals by which to determine his worth because they can be blocked by people or circumstances. Rather he could say, “I’m going to be the pastor God wants me to be.” That’s a great goal because nothing can block him from achieving it.

God’s basic goal for your life is character development: becoming the person God wants you to be. Because it’s a godly goal, no one can block it except you.

Prayer:

Lord, I want to be the person You called me to be today. Thank You that by Your grace I can be that person.

Weekly Walk, Walk in the Word with Dr. James MacDonald

Finish the Race

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:6-8

I’ve been around long enough to know some men and women whose lives were totally sold out to God a few years ago who have since walked off the track in the middle of the race. They’ve given up. They’ve lost their longing for God and all that He is. They’re awol from the Christian life . . .

The fear of following in their footsteps haunts me. It should you, too. The possibility is real for all of us unless we allow our hearts to be completely gripped by God . . . today— now. The faithfulness of my walk with God in the next year and the next decades depends on my willingness to stay current with God. In a word—to stay in relationship with Him.

I never want to lose the hold God’s greatness has on my life and the supreme privilege it is to be in relationship with Him and to serve Him faithfully till the day I am welcomed into His presence. That passion compels me. It keeps me very honest and very humble before God.

The last thing I want to do is crawl across the finish line a defeated, derailed Christian or worse—give up the race before my life is over. I want to break that tape with arms high and my face to the sun and say with the apostle Paul, “I have finished the course; I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 3:7).

So what can we do now to ensure that finish line victory? We can get back to basics: Honestly answer these seven questions:

* Do I hunger after God?
* Does God’s Word govern my life?
* Do I grieve over sin?
* How quickly do I repent when I see my wrong?
* Am I sensitive to the Spirit’s prompt in me?
* Do I obey?
* Is my faith growing?

Return to these questions regularly and ask God to help you every morning to run the race.

My cousin Ryan just released his hymn CD and it definitely deserves a listen.  He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and now attends Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta.  He’s the worship pastor of Christ Church and is an awesome man of God.  He’s married to the lovely Leslie Dean and they love Jesus!  Check out his site!  You can download his hymn recordings off the site. 

www.ryandeanmusic.com  

What Is Christian Hedonism?

By:  John Piper

My shortest summary of Christian Hedonism is: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in. Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure—pleasure in him.

By Christian Hedonism, we do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. We mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. We should pursue this happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God.

October 4, 2007  |  By: John Piper
Category: Written Posts by John Piper

I have asked the question in public, “When does God become 100% for us?” And I have given an answer that rightly troubles thoughtful, biblical people. So this article is an effort to answer their question.

In my message to the Desiring God National Conference on Sunday, September 30, I answered the question like this:

What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.

The question this leaves unanswered is, “Doesn’t the Bible teach that in eternity God set his favor on us in election?” In other words, thoughtful people ask, “Did God only become 100% for us in the moment of faith and union with Christ and justification? Did he not become 100% for us in the act of election before the foundation of the world?” For example, Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-5, “[God] chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.”

Is God then not 100% for the elect from eternity?…

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