my burg

"The Christian life is meant to be lived in community... the important thing is to get involved in some small group of Christians so that you can be 'one-anothered' by them.  "I came across a great illustration of the need for Christians to be in community with each other. A grove of sequoia trees is a wonderful sight; majestic trees reaching up to 300 feet into the sky. But did you know that the sequoia tree has its roots just barely below the surface, and in some cases on the surface?  How is it possible that such a tall tree can have such shallow roots and not blow over in a high wind? The answer is that they grow only in groves and their roots intertwine under the surface of the earth, making one huge mass of intertwined roots extending throughout the grove. So, when the strong winds come, they hold each other up; they are supporting and upholding one another. A single tall sequoia tree could never stand up to the wind; it would just blow over.  "And th...

Good podcast on the characteristics of a cult . Bob Pardon being interviewed by Neil Damgaard:     "The member confuses their commitment to God with their commitment to the institution.  The two become synonymous.  So, to leave one is to leave the other."  (Bob Pardon)  Other characteristics...  Is there use of "undue influence"? Is it enslaving or freeing?   Is there a leader with a pipeline to God but without any accountability? Does it take biblical principles beyond their proper use? Listen to Neil Damgaard interview with Bob Pardon . 

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1 Peter 3:15 NIV) "Defense is proper and necessary because in every age historic Christianity will be under attack. Defense does not mean being on the defensive. One must not be embarrassed about the use of the word defense. The proponents of any position who are alive to their own generation must give a sufficient answer for it when questions are raised about it. Thus, the word defense is not used here in a negative sense, because in any conversation, in any communication which is really dialogue, answers must be given to objections raised. Such answers are necessary in the first place for myself as a Christian if I am going to maintain my intellectual integrity, and if I am to keep united my personal, devotional and intellectual life."   (Francis Schaeffer)

"For all of its joy and celebration and for all of its gifts of life and grace, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of sacrifice. The central event in the history of this kingdom is a shocking and unthinkable sacrifice. This moment of sacrifice confounded the followers who were there to see it and has interested theologians ever since. It is at once the most terrible and most beautiful event in the kingdom. It is a sacrifice that makes perfect sense and no sense at all. And this sacrifice forms the operating agenda of the kingdom from that time on. "Jesus, by his bleeding and broken body on the cross, not only gave the kingdom of God its life and hope, but its paradigm for living as well. That history-changing death on the cross is also the life-changing call of Christ to everyone who would follow him. And as it did on the cross, that willingness to die will always result in life. This kingdom is a kingdom of the cross, and everyone who celebrates that sacrifice is called to...

This quote was sent out recently by Of First Importance :  "I feel when I have sinned an immediate reluctance to go to Christ. I am ashamed to go. I feel as if it would not do to go, as if it were making Christ the minister of sin, to go straight from the swine-trough to the best robe, and a thousand other excuses. But I am persuaded they are all lies direct from hell.   "[In 1 John 2:1] John argues the opposite way—‘If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father.’  The holy sensitiveness of the soul that shrinks from the touch of sin, the acute susceptibility of the conscience at the slightest shade of guilt, will of necessity draw the spiritual mind frequently to the blood of Jesus. And herein lies the secret of a heavenly walk. Acquaint yourself with it, my reader, as the most precious secret of your life. He who lives in the habit of a prompt and minute acknowledgement of sin, with his eye reposing calmly, believingly, upon the crucified Redeemer, soars in s...

I need to continually remind myself that my life and ministry needs to be saturated with God's Word. God alone knows his thoughts and He alone is qualified to reveal this to us.  His revealed truth is the basis of our confidence and competence  in Christian ministry...  "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."  (Acts 6:4 ESV) "And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified."  (Acts 20:32) "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..." (Colossians 3:16)  "Now the church has not received this Scripture from God in order to simply rest on it, and still less in order to bury this treasure in earth.  On the contrary the church is called to preserve this Word of God, to explain it, to preach it, to apply it, translate it, spread it abroad, recommend it, and defend it -- in a word, to cause the th...

"All religion rests on authority. In fact, every academic discipline and every sphere of human inquiry rests on authority. Whether we realize it or not, we all give someone or something the last word—our parents, our culture, our community, our feelings, the government, peer-reviewed journals, opinion polls, impressions, or a holy book. We all have someone or something that we turn to as the final arbiter of truth claims. For Christians, this authority is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments." (Kevin DeYoung,  Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me )  

Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck on the institution of marriage (Gen 2)... "A third particular of this second chapter of Genesis is the gift of the woman to the man and the institution of marriage. Adam had received much. Though formed out of the dust of the earth, he was nevertheless a bearer of the image of God. He was placed in a garden which was a place of loveliness and was richly supplied with everything good to behold and to eat. He received the pleasant task of dressing the garden and subduing the earth, and in this he had to walk in accordance with the commandment of God, to eat freely of every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But no matter how richly favored and how grateful, that first man was not satisfied, not fulfilled. The cause is indicated to him by God Himself. It lies in his solitude. It is not good for the man that he should be alone. He is not so constituted, he was not created that way. His nature inclines to the social — he wants comp...