Parenting: Prayer, Purpose, Persistence, Patience

These 4 things are HUGE in parenting. Without prayer you might as well quit. Without purpose you will only cause confusion. If you want to lead you children to Jesus you have to be focused. You need to be persistent in pursuing this goal. Praying for God's grace as you go. You will need it. The hardest part of parenting is patience. Why can't I just say a quick prayer and know for sure that my children will spend eternity with Jesus?

May God help us to be parents full of grace, wisdom, and patience!

If you don't know why you should desire to lead your kids to Jesus click here.

What I Believe: 2. There is a Savior!

And what a wonderful Savior he is! He is Jesus. He is the Christ, Messiah, chosen of God. He is the one for whom the universe exists and he holds it together. He is and was and always will be. He left his throne in the joy of heaven to live a perfect life, to die a perfectly bloody death, and to give the perfect evidence for all to be absolutely sure. He did all this for his enemies. For those who would try to take his glory for themselves. For me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

If you do not know Jesus like this go here. Rejoice in your Savior in the comments!

What I Believe: 1. I'm in Need

My "What I Believe" series will inform readers of what I believe and help me to develop my theology. I will try to do things in order of importance. I also want things to be simple but not simplistic. May we grow in God's grace together.

I believe the most important thing to know is that I am in need. This is displayed in the most important fact: I am a sinner in need of a Savior. As I look at my heart I know there is something wrong. As I look at the world I know there is something more. As I look at the 10 Commandments I see my sin and my guilt before God. The truth is I have broken the 10 Commandments (yes, all of them) and I deserve to be punished. I am in great need. What can I do? The facts show I am guilty. My only hope is a Savior.

We all have this need. If you have questions the first place to go it here. Then leave a comment.

Grace for More Grace

I just started reading Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Don Whitney. I have read it before but I felt the need again for it. It is a book all Christians need. It got me thinking about discipline. How should I look at discipline? What is discipline? Discipline is God's grace working in me to put me in situations where grace is given. Shorter, it is grace for more grace. God is working on my heart to want to put myself in situations where God will give me more grace. I praise God for his grace that brings me to his abundant grace more and more as he increases my appetite for it!

If you have never experienced grace through Jesus click here.

Fighter Verse Friday: Matthew 5:27-28

Matthew 5:27-28

27 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:27-28

Marriage is a sacred union. It is not even to be defiled in thought. Jesus love for his bride is perfectly holy. His seals his promises with his blood.

Men your devotion to your wife(future wife if not bound) is more important than your life. Your eyes are hers. Your thoughts are hers. Honor your wife even to the momentary thought.

If this seems unrealistic read this.

Who Fights Your Battles?

I am in Joshua in my Bible reading and I am watching God do mighty things for the sons of Israel. Who fights your battles? Who do you look to to do mighty things of you? I find myself looking to my own strength far too often. Jesus won the war with his sacrifice on the cross. Why am I looking anywhere else for the victory of every battle until I receive my prize? May I look to Jesus for every victory!

Is he fighting your battles? If not, start here.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord! Always?

As is my habit, I will get right to the point. The answer is, "Yes!" God's name is always worthy of blessing. God is always good to those who love him. So what is my problem? The littlest things are taken from me (my time, my plan, etc.) and I lose my joy in the sovereign goodness of God toward me. Can you relate? Maybe next time "my" ideals are taken away I need to remember who gave them in the first place and remember that it is grace upon the grace he has shown my through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is good all the time! Unbelief of this fact is what makes the commandment to rejoice burdensome.

If this is hard to swallow please click here.

Blog of the Week

I'm busy today. This my second series. Today.

The Blog of the Week series is to show honor to vessels being used by God to bless me. I know you will receive great blessings from these blogs as well.

The first blog to be on my Blog of the Week series in Heavenward by Scotty Smith. Scotty's blog posts are prayers based on Scripture passages. The way he deals with issues and struggles while drawing us into the throne room of grace is a great gift. You will be blessed by this blog as you humble yourself at Jesus' feet reading these prayers.

Fighter Verse Friday: Matthew 5:25-26

This is going to be my first attempt at a series. I go to Bethlehem Baptist Church and our Bible memory verses are called Fighter Verses. These will be the most frequent thoughts I have had on these verses as I memorized them. (I use the ESV for memorization.)

Matthew 5:25-26

25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Matthew 5:25-26

What a Gospel warning! Who is your greatest accuser? Satan. Who is the greatest judge? Jesus. In light of the Gospel the terms are, Jesus paid it ALL! Eternity is how long it will take for me to pay for my wretchedness but Jesus came and paid my debt. May we rejoice in the glorious hope of the Gospel and live lives that would shine the light of King Jesus to a world that will have to pay unless they repent and believe that Jesus paid for them.

If you have a debt that will take eternity to pay please go here.

You'll Never Eat the Same Way Again

Yes that is right! If you read this post you will never approach eating the same way again. I have been receiving blessing though Heavenward for a couple days now. I pray that I will be bless by it for a long time more.

Now it is time for dinner. I will be eating it with view toward the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Leaders, You're Not the Destination

This post is a fantastic word picture. It is humbling. Too many times I find myself leading my family in my way, the way that ends with me. That is not what I am called to. I am call to prepare my family for Jesus. They are to grow more and more in love with him. Not me.

Anyone else feel the same way? May we seek Jesus' help to prepare for him his bride.

Ever Needy Yet Ever Provided For

Inspired by this post. I left the following comment:

I've been meditating on my need in general, the Gospel being my greatest need of all. I am amazed by my own foolishness and rejoice that God has given me his word to increase in wisdom. May I treasure his word, which contains his Gospel, more and more. And less and less may I need the stern rebuke of, "Get behind me, Satan!" to regain the joy of my salvation.

May we never forget our need for Jesus' word, Gospel, most importantly Jesus himself.

A Mini Guide With Mega Applications

I have been praying for wisdom and where does God answer from? Proverbs! Who'd a thunk it? ;)

This post gives a mini guide with mega applications. It contains "five things that comprise a wise, godly life." You will be exceedingly bless by it. It will become a priority in you prayer time.

Praise Jesus who answers prayers!

Free Will

No there is no need for quotes around that title. Below is a comment I left on this excellent summary of the TULIP acronym.

Regarding the freedom of the will no one choose that goes against their hearts desires. Thanks be to God that he has graciously changed my desires! We are all free. I praise God that I am now free indeed! The joys of sovereign grace are inexpressible!

Yes, I believe in free will. And I praise God for giving me a new heart to change that will to be conformed to his. Rejoice in the sovereign grace of God.

If God has not given you a new heart click here.

ALWAYS Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide?

I was meditating about the conscience this morning. Can we ALWAYS let our conscience be our guide? By the grace of God I am Reformed and came to a quick answer of "NO!" While the conscience is common grace that leaves us all without excuse it is not enough to increase our holiness. We need the miracle of regeneration, evidenced by repentance and faith, to begin the renewal of the conscience. Then we need on going guidance by the Holy Spirit through the Bible. Rejoice in the grace upon grace that God has provided by his Holy Spirit to bring us to ever increasing joy by the renewing of our minds!

I googled Jiminy Cricket during my meditation and stumbled upon a similar post that was more detailed and scholarly. Click Here.

If you have never experienced the miracle of regeneration please go here!

FIGHT the good fight!

I have begun working out again recently. I have not seen much results yet. I know I will if I strive for it. This got me meditating on 1 Timothy 6:12. The Christian life is a fight. A fight that will end in joyful rest. And a fight which has a goal that has been accomplished already by Jesus. Yet I fight now to experience more and more of what I will experience when I see Jesus face to face. Do you have a desire to fight? To fight to mortify sin?

If you do not desire to fight against sin or you aren't sure that you will experience joyful rest with Jesus, please click this or comment below.

Lesser Punishment Equals Lesser Love

A while back 2 Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door. During our conversation they tried to tell me that the punishment of hell is not eternal. Sadly I was not able to get this point across to them. If you say that the punishment of hell is less than eternal then you are saying that the love of Jesus displayed on the cross is less than it actually was. The regenerate will spend eternity learning that the love of Christ is greater than even eternity will allow us to understand. And the unregenerate will spend eternity wishing they had believed that Jesus loved them.

Please repent and believe the Gospel! Go here.

The Way of the Righteous

I couldn't figure out which option I thought was right from this post.

This is how I would put it:
1. My goal, prize and treasure is Jesus.
2. That end being sealed by the Holy Spirit and evidenced by my faith in the finished work of Jesus, I strive to increase my joy by forsaking the ways of the wicked and living the ways of the righteous.
3. I long for the day when all my ways are righteous and I see Jesus face to face.

How would you put it? Is this actually one of the options or a different option?

"Family First?"

The comment below was provoked by this post.

It would seem that Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 are the most specific teachings on the ministry of mothers. From them it seems that priority in the ministry of mothers is given to the home and as she grows in wisdom it extends to other mothers.

So in my family my wife supports my provision for the family by tending to the needs in the home. As she grows in wisdom she will her ministry will extend to other mothers.

What are your thoughts? Join the conversation here and there.

Truth by Trial

Most of us have hear the phrase "tried and true." Yet I have never heard the title of this post. This is shocking to me because as I meditate on it I see the grace in it. Our trials reveal the truth. They reveal the truth about the desires of our hearts. With this revelation we are able to grow closer to God (by grace) where there is fullness of joy.

So next time we meet a trial, great or small, lets obey the commandment to "count it all joy."

"Well, it just didn't work out between us"

This is what I commented on this post: http://pastorpierre.blogspot.com/2010/03/security.html

"Well, it just didn't work out between us"

What kind of comment is this? It is a red flag to the fact that we don't understand what marriage is about. Marriage is about Jesus! Marriage is one of the greatest pictures of the Gospel. I rejoice that Jesus will never say, "Well, it just didn't work out between us."

Thanks for the post.

In Christ,
Matt

What would you comment?

My First Mention

Big thanks to @stabatt for mentioning my blog on his blog: http://ping.fm/BxsjT

Reclaiming Definitions

In the battle of ideas definitions are important. We need to fight for them!


Reclaiming Definitions: Without the Holy Spirit we are demonic not spiritual!

The Greatest Fact

Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is. I asked myself what the most important thing to know is.

The most important thing to know is that you are a sinner and you need a Savior. Jesus is the only Savior.

Apart from Jesus himself, I want nothing more than for all to see the joy that is found in Jesus. So all need to know their guilt and Jesus' payment.

Responding to Light

Sometimes light hurts and we turn away. Whenever light is shined on darkness in our hearts we need to keep in mind the following:

If you get defensive you need to beware. Are you defending your sin?

If your sin is brought to your attention it is grace. Repent and rejoice!

If you are committing an abomination Jesus is your only hope.

If you not a Christian:
Comment: "You are committing an abomination." Response: "Thank you! What must I do to be saved?" (Please click here)

Most in Need

I am the first person that needs to read my comments. All preachers of righteousness need to acknowledge their need to fight for righteousness in their own hearts if they are to have any power to change others.

All my thoughts begin with the implication that I am the most wicked person I know.

FREEDOM!!!

Men do we fight for the freedom of our hearts as William Wallace fought for the freedom of Scotland? We are in a battle men. A battle to free our hearts from the chains of sin. Jesus has given us the power. The Spirit has given us our defenses and our weapon. Let's go and fight for our chains to be cast away, our joy to be increased and the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be exalted in the hearts of all men. FREEDOM!!!