God – the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of the Father and Son by renewing. Saves – does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies. Sinners — men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, unable to life a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. (J. I. Packer, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful)
by Richard Shin
We’re back with another great set. Here we go:
- Thabiti Anyabwile lists five reasons God the Father said “No” to God the Son in the Garden of Gethsemane.
- Affirming others is not optional. How are you with affirming others? Sam Crabtree has a 3-part series on it here, here, and here. He has a book called Practicing Affirmation: God-Centered Praise of Those Who Are Not God, for those who might be interested.
- I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but an old sermon of John Piper recently resurfaced on the Desiring God website. The sermon was given as a senior seminary student at Fuller Theological Seminary, and get this: he spoke on Christian Hedonism.
- Why do you pray? Maybe you want God to do something for you. Maybe you do it because you have to. Read what Paul Tautges draws from the Psalms about why the psalmists pray.
- Tim Challies pens an article on what it means to be a good churchman and what such a person does in the context of a local body of believers.
- Paul Tripp says that for our “ministry relationships to be healthy, [we] must have destructive and constructive zeal.” Does that make sense to you? If not, check out his article here. It’s addressed to pastors, but it applies to us all.
That’s all for now. Have a great weekend everyone. And singles, stay safe at the retreat this weekend!
Coram Deo