the Building of the Church

'I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' - Matthew 16:18

'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.' - Matthew 28:18-19

These two verses point out a lot about the sovereignty of God and the importance / His care for the church.

God's Workings at Work

Praise God! Last week it was confirmed that I got the new promotion in Sherwin-Williams. It is a great working of Him. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement during this time. It is definitely a blessing.

Josh

The Happiness of God

'God's saving designs are penultimate, not ultimate. Redemption, salvation, and restoration are not God's ultimate goal. These He performs for the sake of something greater: namely, the enjoyment He has in glorifying Himself...

If God were not infinitely devoted to the preservation, display, and enjoyment of His own glory, we could have no hope of finding happiness in Him. But if He does in fact employ all His sovereign power and infinite wisdom to maximize the enjoyment of His own glory, then we have a foudnation on which to stand and rejoice.'

- J.Piper - Desiring God (pg. 33)

Then Let All My Pleasures Tell

But I do bid that all will come
And drink with me the waters from
The Fountain of delights whom we
Call Christ, and that we taste and see
The fullness of his Father's joy
Which none can make and none destroy;
And that we take from his right hand
Eternal pleasures he has planned
For those who love him more than all
His gifts, and gladly leave the small
And fleeting pleasures of this earth
To savor God and all he's worth.

...

His goodness shines with brightest rays
When we delight in all his ways.
His glory overflows its rim
When we are satisfied in him.
His radiance will fill the earth
When people revel in his worth.
The beauty of God's holy fire
Burns brightest in the heart's desire.

- J.Piper - Desiring God

Praising God

'I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.'

- C.S. Lewis - Reflections on the Psalms

'Praising God, the highest calling of humanity and our eternal vocation, did not involve the renunciation but rather the consummation of the joy I so desired. My old effort to achieve worship with no self-interest in it proved to be a contradiction in terms. Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us.'

- J.Piper - Desiring God

A New Job ?

I humbly ask for your prayers. This coming Thursday I will have an interview for a full-time job. I hope to get this, and put forth my best capabilities. Pray that I will use this opportunity to exalt Christ, that I would be humbled by that, and truly live it out in my work-life. Thank you.

Contentment

Do you think you are content in life? Pastor Horner laid out a lot about our / my state of contentment. Convicting words that cut to the heart.

"We always want more than we have, not less. I need just a little bit more ..."

And then even to the point of:

"We don't know the meaning of enough."

A lot of this sermon was pointing our need for contentment, and the wrong attitudes of contentment we have and the wrong things we have contentment towards. But he then went on to explain a solution for this problem.

"We won't be content with anything unless we are satisfied with Jesus Christ."

Praise God we have a remedy that will truly be all-satisfying and fulfilling to exactly what we need.

This passage for the sermon was Philippians 4:10-20

D.Horner - 'To Learn Contentment' 5/1/05