Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts

Top Tweets for July

I started a new job this month, back at my alma mater.

Here's some other new things in the twitter world . . .

From Others:

@BrentNelson:  A good reminder that Germany got 50% debt relief before postwar econ miracle.

@DearTeacherLT:  , join me in the revolution to remind the world: is !

@Snandez:  "Being a good father comes down to showing our kids how to live, love, think, and behave." -

@ScottSauls:  The devil knows your name but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin but calls you by your name.

@MarkMerrill:  Parenting is about unconditionally loving your child for who they are, not for what they do.

@itsandygill:  "Forgiveness is not an utterance, it's a process." — Cornel West

@GraceChurchSC:  Establish a new community, a colony, with singleminded purpose and full of love, sympathy, tenderness, and blessing for “one another.” 

@Gospel_Project:  Only the gospel changes the heart, and therefore, only the gospel can lead to lasting change in our lives.

From Me:

Followers of Jesus -- God calls and empowers you to live out your faith.

We welcomed some friends (and new teachers at ) to Greenville! #1…  

If I was doing all this blogging and social media stuff for God, I’d think there would be more fruit.



on 8/01/2015 2 comments
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Marriage Is Not about Fairness

Tomorrow is a special day for my wife and I. Only July 18, 1999 I asked Joanna to marry me (I was serious), and she said "Yes," of course.

I could give lots of reasons for why I asked her to marry me (here's 11), and many more for why I'm glad she did.

We have learned a lot over the past 16 years -- about each other, about our gracious God, and about ourselves. We've learned how selfish we can be, and we've learned that God can transform our minds and hearts. Even more, He transforms our hearts to want to be changed.

If there is one thing we have learned, and are still learning, it's that marriage is not about "fairness." Marriage is about sacrificially putting your spouse first. Marriage is about truly knowing that you are "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

Marriage is not 50/50. It's 100/100. It flourishes when both spouses give 100% of who they are, regardless of how they feel and irrespective of return expectations.

Here's what others have to say on this topic:

Jen Pollock Michel (Is This What Love Looks Like?):  "Fairness cannot be demanded in marriage. Unfortunately, many refuse this advice, entering marriage today like collective bargaining. . . . The only biblical model for marriage we have isn't equity; it's self-sacrifice." 

Philip Holmes (She Is Me):  "Refusing to nourish my wife by providing for her is more foolish than not feeding myself. . . . God empowers me to see that she is me, and to love selflessly and sacrificially as I have been loved."

Matt Chandler (The Importance of Marriage):  A 12-minute video, worthy of your time. My main take-away: If you want your marriage to stand out in this culture, make sure it's covenantal, not contractual. Here's the video:




Brett and Kate McKay (The Surprising Benefits of Marrying Young): A little off-topic, but applicable since I was 23 when I got married, and Joanna had just turned 25. "My goal with this article is to simply provide some reassurance to the young gents out there who are in their early to mid-twenties, have already met the right person, and feel like they’re ready to get hitched, but are scared to pull the trigger because they’ve heard the constant drumbeat of “Marry young and you’ll regret it!”"

Of course, we should always listen to Paul's words, in his letter to the Ephesian church: 
 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.  

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.


Finally, I highly recommend What Did You Expect??, the best marriage book I've ever read.


Happy engagement anniversary, Joanna!

on 7/17/2015 0 comments
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Forgiveness, Patriotism, Heritage, and the Gospel


I love our family meal times. Not every meal time involves a serious discussion, but almost every Saturday morning I have been trying to focus my family on the Bible.

One of the themes that we've focused in on this past year is "Love God, Love Others." Some recent current events presented a great opportunity to explain Biblical forgiveness.

A few weeks ago, as I'm sure you know, Dylan Roof shot and killed nine people at a prayer meeting in Charleston, SC. Unfortunately, senseless murder is not too uncommon nowadays.

However the response by the remaining family members was striking. They offered forgiveness and prayed for God's mercy on him.



As a family, we discussed how we would feel if someone killed one of us. Sad. Angry. Upset. And those feelings are all valid.

Then I read Ephesians 4:32:
"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." 

Paul makes it clear that our actions should not be dependent on our feelings. Our actions should flow out of our relationship with Christ. That is, our love for God is directly connected with our love for others. And love for others should know no bounds, even if those bounds involve hate-filled murder.

More Thoughts on the Charleston Shooting

Brandon Smith writes in Reflect Christ, Deflect Satan:
"The gospel frees us from our own interests. Christians have an obligation to love God and love others well precisely because of the cross."
And my friend Jim Taylor, before he preached a sermon that I really needed to hear, shared thoughts on the Charleston shooting:



 

On a Related Topic . . . 

If you've been following the story of this shooting (and probably even if you haven't), you know that our country is awash in a Confederate Flag controversy. Again. (Yes, I know that the flag is technically the Confederate Battle Flag.)

A few days after it began, I tweeted this late one night:

And then I followed up a few days later with a 1500-word expansion on that thought.

Now, as we are about to celebrate our nation's independence, I want to expand on that thought even more. It's not just "Southern Heritage" that Christians need to be careful of. We can put any other identity issue in that tweet as well.

Here are a few other variations you can try on for size:
Any Christian who puts his Patriotism over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Any Christian who puts his family ancestry over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Any Christian who puts his work or ministry over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Any Christian who puts his ethnic group over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Any Christian who puts his hobby over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Any Christian who puts his (________) over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Examine your heart. What could you fill in this blank with?

Remember, Christian, any freedom you have in your heritage is trivial compared to the freedom Christ brought for you.

These posts may help you think through why our Christian identity should matter so much:

Final Thoughts and Related Links

I encourage you to spend some time reading one or more of these links:

**image courtesy of melodi2 via rgbstock
on 7/03/2015 0 comments
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Favorite Tweets for June

Happy Summer!!

It's hot around here, which means it's a good time to do a little reading. I've read a few fiction books this month, which is abnormal for me. One of those books was To Kill a Mockingham, my first time reading this classic.

Hopefully, you get time to relax with a good book. And maybe some good tweets, like these:


From Others

@TGC:  20 years of marriage have taught me much about my own heart and the way in which God works to make us like his Son.

@StudentsFirst:  What the best schools have in common is that they set high expectations for students from day one:

@Gospel_Project:  It is important that we tell ourselves again today that we need the grace of Jesus right now as much as we needed it when we first...

@BRobson90:  Any other desire of our heart will look like rubbish when compared to the immense riches and treasure of having Christ as our chief desire!

@GraceChurchCE:  "God is God. I dethrone Him in my heart if I demand that He act in ways that satisfy my idea of justice." -Elizabeth Elliot 

@ChrchCurmudgeon:  Due to our inability to find VBS clean-up volunteers, tomorrow's wedding will be jungle-themed. 

@JonathanOwens21:  Guys, we are not just "offended" by the Confederate Flag. It's pain. Real, real pain. I wish people would understand that.

From Myself

Thanks to generous church members, I just dropped off a check to provide partial scholarships for 5 kids to attend Long Branch's summer camp. 

I can't believe that & just had senior night, and we forgot to submit this for a memory.

"When teachers believe a student can perform at a high level, the student is much more likely to do so."

Big thanks to for giving its employees time off to volunteer in our community…

We have a dentist that gives out cookies, & an orthodontist that gives out popcorn (& rents out movie theaters for all his clients).

Any Christian who puts his "Southern Heritage" over our identity and unity in Christ, tramples on the gospel.

Had a great time at Landon Powell Hit House! Grateful for their investment in youth, and t…
on 6/30/2015 0 comments
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