Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Preparing Your Church for Suffering

Live life long enough and you will encounter trials and suffering; on this side of heaven pain and suffering is inevitable. Join C J Mahaney and Matt Chandler in this special session of the T4G Conference as they talk about "Preparing Your Church for Suffering." This talk is especially convicting and moving as Matt Chandler, a faithful young pastor and preacher who has experience much God-given success in past years, is in the midst of battling cancer. He is bearing his suffering well for the glory of God.

Remember to keep Matt Chandler and his family in your prayers.

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Grace and Peace
Apr 2010
Ollie

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Reading of Books

Tim Challies has written two blogs on the reading of books. For those who struggle with reading or simply wish to read better, his two posts Read More, Read Better and How I Read a Book give helpful pointers on how to read better and read widely.


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Grace and Peace
Ollie
Apr 2010

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Ironies of the Cross



On the wretched day the soldiers mocked him,
Raucous laughter in a barracks room,
"Hail the king!" they sneered, while spitting on him,
Brutal beatings on this day of gloom.
Though his crown was thorn, he was born a king-
Holy brilliance bathed in bleeding loss-
All the soldiers blind to this stunning theme:
Jesus reigning from a cursed cross.

Awful weakness mars the battered God-man,
Far too broken now to hoist the beam.
Soldiers strip him bare and pound the nails in,
Watch him hanging on the cruel tree.
God's own temples down! He has been destroyed!
Death's remains are laid in rock and sod.
But the temple rises in God's wise ploy:
Our great temple is the Son of God.

"Here's the One who says he cares for other,
One who says he came to save the lost.
How can we believe that he saves others
When he can't get off that bloody cross?
Let him save himself! Let him come down now!"-
Savage jeering at the King's disgrace.
But by hanging there is precisely how
Christ saves others as the King of grace.

Draped in darkness, utterly rejected,
Crying, "Why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus bears God's wrath alone, dejected-
weeps the bitt'rest tears instead of me.
All the mockers cry, "He has lost his trust!
He's defeated by hypocrisy!"
But with faith's resolve, Jesus knows he must
Do God's will and swallow death for me.

D A Carson - "The Ironies of the Cross" in Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

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Grace and Peace
Ollie
Apr 2010

Holiness in Heaven's Plan

Dr Bryan Chapell preached this message in the second of three messages for the E.Y. Mullins Lectures at Southern Seminary. In his preaching of one's need to put to death sin and to put on holiness, he reminded us that the truth of who we are in Christ and what God has done for us precedes our doing - our action is to be motivated by love and gratitude to God. Listen to the rest of his sermon below:



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Grace and Peace
Ollie
Apr 2010

Hope's Journey

"All of scripture shows us that God is faithful to accomplish his redemptive purposes.... and this gives us hope..." said Bryan Chapell. Watch the video of his sermon as Dr Bryan Chapell unpacks "Hope's Journey".



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Grace and Peace
Ollie
Apr 2010