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balance the secret to life skip to main skip to sidebar balance the secret to life one hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind eccl 4 6 wednesday august 19 2015 your opinion god will never ask your opinion and he will mostly disagree with you but he will always be right joe novenson posted by jason at 6 27 pm no comments friday february 04 2011 the riptide within sometimes life hurts like heaven which feels sometimes worse than hell because heaven wants you to change and hell hopes you never do from the sermon entitled the riptide within by pastor joe novenson given at lee university in 2008 you can download the sermon by clicking here posted by jason at 1 57 pm 7 comments saturday january 08 2011 the nature of temptation by bonhoeffer in our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce with irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh all at once a secret smoldering fire is kindled the flesh burns and is in flames it makes no difference whether it is sexual desire or ambition or vanity or desire for revenge or love of fame and power or greed for money or finally that strange desire for the beauty of the world of nature joy in god is in course of being extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature at this moment god is quite unreal to us he loses all reality and only desire for the creature is real the only reality is the devil satan does not here fill us with hatred of god but with forgetfulness of god the lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness the powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us it is here that everything within me rises up against the word of god dietrich bonhoeffer creation and fall and temptation pp116 117 posted by jason at 11 32 am no comments monday august 31 2009 you are my righteousness lord jesus you are my righteousness i am your sin you took on you what was mine yet set on me what was yours you became what you were not that i might become what i was not martin luther posted by jason at 9 06 am no comments wednesday august 19 2009 pragmatic success spiritual failure have you ever thought that you could appear spiritually successful but be displeasing to god the book of judges speaks to this end and is echoed by the apostle paul in both i corinthians 3 and galatians 6 sometimes sowing to our religious flesh can outwardly look the same as sowing to the spirit dale davis writes appropriately regarding this challenge in his commentary on judges the picture judges 1 gives us is of an israel in substantial control of canann a people clearly successful though certainly disobedient pragmatic success and spiritual failure a strange but possible combination for one thing it tells us that it is possible for the believer s life to display the marks of success and yet be a failure in the eyes of god christian success whether personal or in the form of a glossy evangelical enterprise is not necessarily the same as pleasing god posted by jason at 8 19 am 1 comment friday september 12 2008 we try harder growing up my parents gave me plenty of opportunity to try many extra curricular activities one of those happened to be boy scouts while i thoroughly enjoyed my time as a scout never made eagle settled for first class i traded that experience in for sports soon before my teenage years began the camping and survival skills obtained benefit me to this day and leave me with lasting memories our motto in troop 218 was we try harder i have the t shirt to prove it as you can see that motto became the goal for most of us kids at a very early age that goal remains the goal for many of us as adults however through the years i have also found this motto to be the mantra of many in their christian life and is the motto held both explicitly and implicitly by most church leaders the challenge for holding this view is that it contradicts the essence of the gospel remember this quote give god your best and he ll take care of the rest i fail to remember anyone rejecting this notion with the verse from isaiah 64 6 where god essentially said your best is like filthy rags do a word study on filthy rags comment on what you find god saying about our best don t get me wrong trying harder makes sense when it comes to our jobs sports etc but not in our christian life here s why the christian life is not about trying but dying it s not committing rededicating the rededication to try harder but dying to self reliance i have been crucified with christ and it is no longer i who live but christ lives in me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself up for me gal 2 20 the apostle paul reminds us of how easily we forget that living the christian life is accomplished by the same way we received that life by faith therefore as you have received christ jesus the lord by faith so walk in him col 2 6 so many of us think that we live the christian life by simply trying harder hoping we accomplish it this takes on so many forms quiet time quotas church attendance witnessing quotas 10 tithes etc paul goes on to challenge us in galatians 3 when he writes 1you foolish galatians who has bewitched you before whose eyes jesus christ was publicly portrayed as crucified 2this is the only thing i want to find out from you did you receive the spirit by the works of the law trying harder or by hearing with faith 3are you so foolish having begun by the spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh trying harder do we get what paul is saying you received eternal life by god s spirit and the channel g reek word dia through was faith you live in your new life pleasing god not by trying harder but by dying harder see galatians 2 20 so what about pleasing god he is pleased with you as a son or daughter who has placed your faith in the finished work of jesus christ on the cross your work is finished trying to please god that s what jesus meant when he said it is finished the work of man trying to do enough things for god to remove his wrath over their lives is over this is the gospel the idea of working hard for god should not be to make god pleased with us but should be motivated because his is pleased with us is there work to be done for god yes again paul tells us what this looks like for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them ephesians 2 10 how do we walk in them by faith how do we accomplish it we don t but god s spirit inside of us does paul again for it is god who is at work in you both to will and to work he tries harder for his good pleasure phil 2 13 do you see a pattern here it is all god why so he receives the glory alone he told us he will share his glory with no one isaiah 48 11 he is only impressed when he looks at us and sees himself posted by jason at 7 00 am 5 comments saturday august 02 2008 the glory of god displayed in the lives of the ambiguous i am blessed to work for a christian organization on many occasions i ride the elevator there with employees of a contracted janitorial service two particular employees from that service always bless me by their sweet smiles positive attitudes and uplifting comments even though they are on their way to their next not so glamorous task it is a constant reminder that god displays his glory in the lives of the sometimes ambiguous it also reminds me of a group of people in the bible who were also ambiguous the sons of korah several years ago i found this site that articulates their story the name sons of korah comes from a group of old testament levitical musicians to whom at least 13 of the psalms are attributed the original sons of korah were responsible for the ministry of music and song in the old testament worship and particularly with the musical composition and performance of the psalms what follows is a short account of the biblical genealogy of this family in the old testament text of the psalms reference is made to those who were involved in the composition of the psalm psalms 42 to 49 as well as psalms 84 to 88 are attributed to a group known as the sons of korah see the small print titles under the numbers of the psalms it appears that this family of musicians were descendants of the same korah who led a rebellion against moses in the desert numbers 16 this was a serious crime that led to serious consequences for all those involved we read that god caused the ground to open up and swallow all those who were involved in the rebellion along with their families vs31ff the idea of a judgement like this that involved the wiping out of the rebels as well as their families was that the line of the rebellious should not continue in the earth it is therefore quite surprising that in numbers 26 11 we read the words the line of korah however did not die out and sure enough as we follow the genealogies through chronicles we see that that the line of korah did indeed continue according to 1chronicles 6 31ff david when he was organizing the different tasks for the temple worship assigned the ministry of song for a large part to the kohathites the head of this group was heman who is the writer of psalm 88 and more significantly is a direct descendant of korah the kohathite hence the psalm is also attributed to the sons of korah it seems that at some point this musical family came to be called after their rebellious forefather korah was an infamous historical figure in the israelite consciousness remembered as an example of rebellion against god to be related to him would have been a notable thing though not necessarily a negative thing the continuing existence of this family line was a testimony to the grace of god who although he would be right to wipe out the memory of sinful men from the earth is nevertheless forgiving and whose heart is always for restoration and redemption rather than for destruction posted by jason at 10 50 am 1 comment older posts home subscribe to posts atom music i like blog archive 2015 1 august 1 your opinion 2011 2 february 1 january 1 2009 2 august 2 2008 9 september 1 august 1 july 1 june 3 may 2 april 1 2007 13 december 4 november 2 september 2 august 4 july 1 about me jason view my complete profile blogs of interest luke mcelroy michael kelley fire fall down passion worship video 268 blog