Tag: Jesus
Condescending Love, Pt. 2
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” … Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” … So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. → Read more...
Condescending Love, Pt. 1
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. → Read more...
Followers vs. Admirers
No, there’s absolutely nothing to admire in Jesus, unless you want to admire poverty, misery and contempt. -Søren Kierkegaard I don’t know about you, but Pastor Dave’s sermon last Sunday really struck a chord deep within myself. For those of you who weren’t present, it was an examination of Jesus’ words said in Matthew 16, that we had to take up our own cross in order to follow him and that we had to lose our life in order to find it. → Read more...
Mortification
I hope you have been enjoying Pastor Ron’s CENTERED sermon series for the past few Sundays. I know I have been challenged by the truth he has been sharing from the book of Colossians. There is one truth that I have been especially grappling with these past few days, and it’s from Colossians 3:5, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” In his discussion of this passage, he called this process mortification, which is defined as “practicing ascetic discipline or self-denial of the body and its appetites.” → Read more...
I Can’t Do It All, But God Can!
A little background first: My sixteen-month-old son, Caleb, has an enduring fascination with lights. Streetlights, lamps, desk lights, parking lot lights, hallway lights, you name it, he loves them all. He loves pointing them out to me and his mother. Whenever there is a light that is off and he notices, he asks us to turn it on by using the American sign language form of the word “please” that we taught him. When we turn it on, he looks at it with a look of sheer, absolute, innocent delight and then looks at us with the same look. → Read more...
Crazy Love
The staff at Calvary have been reading a book together called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book is a wonderful love letter to God and contains some of the simplest, but most powerful theology that I’ve encountered. I highly recommend it for Christians at all levels. One of the more illuminating things that the book has helped me understand more clearly is how big, deep, and wide is God’s love for me, a sinner. It’s not just a simple thought that can be easily grasped. → Read more...
Kinsman-Redeemers
I just finished reading the book of Ruth last week. It’s a beautiful short story, only four chapters long, set in the dark times of the Judges, the time period in Israel’s history after Joshua had taken them to the Promised Land. Even though the story of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi is short, there is a lot of things to unpack from it and learn from it. The book of Ruth is essentially about redemption and rescue from despair and emptiness to a place of hope and fullness, something that God has promised and provided for through Jesus Christ. → Read more...
Actually Love
Someone once asked Jesus which commandment he thought was the most important. His reply is one of the most famous and oft-quoted passages in the Bible. Quoting from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” → Read more...
The Called
God calls people. That much the Bible makes very clear. He called Noah to make an ark. He called Abraham out of his home and sent him on a journey to create an entire nation of people that would bless the entire world. He called Moses to lead this nation out of their slavery and subjugation by Egypt. He called Joshua to lead the same nation into their inherited land. I could go on through the entire Bible, pointing out more people but I think you get my point: God calls people to do amazing, crazy and wonderful things, all in His name. → Read more...
Amazing Grace No Longer
January 28, 2015
Devotionals
Comments Off on Amazing Grace No Longer
Matt
Today, I’d like to look at the implications of one of the quotations that I pulled from R.C. Sproul’s book The Holiness of God the other day: “Grace no longer amazes us. We have grown used to it; we take it for granted.” This statement is a staggering one to consider when you consider the enormous price and the power of God’s grace. The Bible, especially the New Testament and the Apostle Paul’s writings, has a lot to say about grace, but I’d like to examine what Sproul said through the prism of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. → Read more...
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