Friday, February 21, 2014

Love God

I thought this was very good from Matthew Henry this morning commenting on Luke 10:27

"We must love God with all our hearts, must look upon him as the best of beings, in himself most amiable, and infinitely perfect and excellent; as one whom we lie under the greatest obligations to, both in gratitude and interest. We must prize him, and value ourselves by our elation to him; must please ourselves in him, and devote ourselves entirely to him. Our love to him must be sincere, hearty, and fervent; it must be a superlative love, a love that is as strong as death, but an intelligent love, and such as we can give a good account of the grounds and reasons of. It must be an entire love; he must have our whole souls, and must be served with all that is within us. We must love nothing besides him, but what we love for him and in subordination to him."

Thursday, February 20, 2014

What's the Blog Scoop - February 20, 2014

Executive Pastor role - this is a great book review and some very helpful thoughts

Finding the Point of the Passage - good article for bible study

Thinking about Inerrancy - thought this was a good article about the subject of inerrancy

3 Questions to Ask Before Watching a Movie

Monday, February 17, 2014

Happy

Psalm 1:1-2 reveals the pathway to true happiness. The HCSB translates the first part this way: "how happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked..." The ESV translates it this way: "blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked..."

But, who are "the wicked"? We normally think of wicked people as those who commit terrible acts of cruelty and are barbaric in nature like murderers, pedophiles, etc. And, while wicked can refer to those types of things, it refers primarily to those who stand in opposition to God and his truth. It refers to those who disregard God and his truth, to those who seek to live autonomously apart from God (i.e., Genesis 3:1-8), to those who have a worldview that is man-centered rather than God-centered.

The antidote for following the advice or counsel of the wicked is to delight in the "instruction" or "law" of the Lord. By extension, this refers to all of God's revealed truth about Himself, his purposes, his ways, his decrees, commands, and statutes.

The "happiness" promised by the world (cf. 1 John 2:15-17) will never be lasting. It will always be short-lived. Nothing this world offers will satisfy the depths of our soul. Only Jesus can.