Delayed Writings

Sorry for the delay in returning to the post, but a lot has been happening over the past couple months. I transistioned to my new position with Sherwin-Williams, and am constantly learning new things every day. It's a transistion working full-time and juggling what was on my plate in less time, but I really praise God for this position and the financial stability it brings and for the future. Also below, I now have a fiance too, it's been a sweet time preparing for that moment of proposal and now for the moment of engagement, heading and planning towards our marriage. Hopefully I will be able to post more and post pictures of some of the events of the past couple months.

Josh

Happy News!

I would just like to announce to you all that this weekend, Meg Madden and I got engaged. We were in Washington DC visiting a friend and away for a little mini-vacation. It was the perfect opportunity for a suprise. We had a peaceful picnic right near the Jefferson Memorial, and then I proposed, asking her to be my wife. Such a sweet weekend, and I had a hard time keeping it under wraps and containing my excitement.

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

Remember the Word - Authorial Intent of 2 Peter

Peter writes 2 Peter to tell his audience - "REMEMBER THE WORDS." Which words? "The words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles." (2 Peter 3:2) WHY do we need to remember the words? I believe the end of 2 Peter sums this up - "the untaught and unstable distort ... Scripture to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:16-18) Also, "you do well to pay attention [to the prophetic word] as to a lamp shining in a dark place." (2 Peter 1:19)

Here are some points of the book that support the above:

• Through the true knowledge of Him, we can see that His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness. (1:3) Where can we find the true knowledge?
• "He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of divine nature." (1:4) Where can we find the promises? In His Word.
• In the section 1:12-15, Peter explains that he wants to constantly remind them of the truth, so that they will be diligent to call it to mind.
• In the section 1:16-21, Peter reveals the authority of the writers of the Word, the eyewitnesses of His majesty and the prophetic word. Verse 21 says, "for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
• Peter sounds the alarm against the false prophet and teachers in chapter 2. They "will secretly introduce destructive heresies" (2:1) and "because of them the way of truth will be maligned;" (2:2) and that "they will exploit with false words;" (2:3). Peter explains the severity of these actions in 2:3, "their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."
• Peter uses 4 Old Testament proofs and examples in regard to the false teachers in chapter 2. Three are specifically examples of 'the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.' (2:9) 1] "God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast into hell." (2:4) 2] God "did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah". (2:5) 3] "He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter;" (2:6) and "He rescued righteous Lot". (2:7) The other is an example of the false teachers following the way of Balaam. (2:15-16)
• In chapter 3, verses 1-2 tell us that Peter is stirring them by way of reminder to remember the words.
• Mocker will come saying "Where is the promise of His coming? ... all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." (3:4) Peter refutes this by using the Word - "it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water." These 'teachers' didn't know their Word well enough to perceive these things or they choose not remember the Word.
• "According to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth." (3:13)
• Peter introduces the value and high regard to Paul's work in 3:15-16 - "just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters," "which the untaught and unstable distort [some things Paul has written] as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
• Again, 3:17-18 tells them to be on guard so they will not be deceived in a manner that leads to destruction but to grow in grace and knowledge.

Check out all of 2 Peter and study it on your own to gain insight from this awesome, powerful book. Figure out the author's intent from the word, which means more than my words. I encourage you to diligently study the word. Let me know what you think and your opinions (shaped through the word).

To Not Be Afraid

'But there are better reason not to let our fears increase. It is not so much because we become smarter or more able to avoid danger, but that we become more confident that, by faith in Jesus, God will take care of us in the way He sees best. It does not guarantee safety or comfort in this life. But it does guarantee everlasting joy, as we trust in Him. Trusting God, through Jesus Christ, is the key to fearlessness. And promises from God are the key that leads us from the dungeon of fear.'

J.Piper - Pierced by the Word

Experiencing God's Love

1. Look to Jesus. Consider Christ. Meditate on His glory and His work, not just casually, but intentionally. Think about the promises He made and guaranteed by His death and resurrection.
2. Pray that God would open your eyes to the wonder of His love in these things.
3. Renounce all known attitudes and behaviors that contradict this demonstration of love to you.
4. Then enjoy the experience of the love of God poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit.

Father, incline our hearts to see the
beauty of Christ and to embrace it with joy.
Grant that we would behold and believe -
that we would see and savor.
May our minds lay hold on the content of faith,
and our hearts receive it with the affection of faith.
Cause Your love to flow like a river through our souls.
May we not just know about it,
but experience the reality of it, to the glory of Christ.
In His name. Amen.

J.Piper - Pierced by the Word.

To Glorify God

'The more people know about God, the more they will want to shout out about His glory."

- D.Horner 4/24/05

Events Galore

It's been a long, busy week, yet still very good with lots of fun moments. So it's been a bit since I've had time to put something new up. There were birthday celebrations (Happy Birthday to Dad, Stephen Day!), basketball games, and the Joy Prom event at Providence in which it was a blessing to participate in the event. So much more too! I'm happy to try out the new Delta Lake Center for the college class, which I had chance to preview this week.

'The World Is Run by Tired Men'

"If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in dilligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.

But Christians know where to find renewal. 'Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we being renewed day by day' (2 Corinthians 4:16)."

J.Oswald Sanders - Spiritual Leadership

A Concept Misunderstood

'Submission is not an inferiority in a relationship,' whether of human or divine nature.

Dr. Nelson, talk on Doctrine of the Trinity, Acts Forum 4/17/05

The Inadequacy of "Instant Christianity"

'The American genius for getting things done quickly and easily with little concern for quality or permanence has bred a virus that has infected the whole evangelical church.'

'Instant Christianity came in with the machine age. Men invented machines for two purposes. They wanted to get important work done more quickly and easily than they could do it by hand, and they wanted to get the work over with so they could give their time to pursuits more their liking, such as loafing or enjoying pleasures of the world. Instant Christianity now serves the same purposes in religion. It disposes of the past, guarantees the future and sets the Christian free to follow the more refined lusts of the flesh in all good conscience and with a minimum of restraint.'

'By “instant Christianity” I mean the kind found almost everywhere in gospel circles and which is born of the notion that we may discharge our total obligation to our own souls by one act of faith, or at most by two, and be relieved thereafter or all anxiety about our spiritual condition that we may discharge our total obligation to our own and we are permitted to infer from this that there is no reason to seek to be saints by character. An automatic once-for-all quality is present here that is completely out of mode with the faith of the New Testament.'

'It is true that conversion to Christ may be and often is sudden. When the burden of sin has been heavy the sense of forgiveness is usually clear and joyful. ... The true Christian has met God. But the trouble is that we tend to put our trust in our experiences and as a consequence misread the entire New Testament.'

'There are decisions that can be and should be made once and for all. There are personal matters that can be settled instantaneously by a determined act of will in response to Bible-grounded faith. No one would want to deny this; certainly not I.'

'The question before us is, Just how much can be accomplished in that one act of faith? How much yet remains to be done and how far can a single decision take us?'

'Instant Christianity tends to make the faith act terminal and so smothers the desire for spiritual advance. It fails to understand the true nature of the Christian life, which is not static but dynamic and expanding. It overlooks the fact that a new Christian is a living organism as certainly as a new baby is, and must have nourishment and exercise to assure physical growth.'

'Undue preoccupation with the initial act of believing has created in some a psychology of contentment, or at least non-expectation. To many it has imparted a mood of disappointment with the Christian faith. God seems too far away, the world is too near, and the flesh too powerful to resist. Others are glad to accept the assurance of automatic blessedness. It relieves them of the need to watch and fight and pray, and sets them free to enjoy this world while waiting for the next.'

'Instant Christianity is twentieth-century orthodoxy. I wonder whether the man who wrote Philippians 3:7-16 would recognize it as faith for which he finally died. I am afraid he would not.'

A.W. Tozer - excerpts from "That Incredible Christian"

Mercy and Justice

'The mercy of God moved Him to send the Son of God to bear the wrath of God so as to vindicate the justice of God when He justifies sinners who have faith in Jesus. So we have our very life because of mercy and justice (Romans 3:25-26). They met in the cross.'

J.Piper - Pierced by the Word

To Accept or to Deny Christ

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people say about Him: ‘I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse."

- C.S. Lewis

Is TV Too Big a Part of Life?

'In the end the soul that is made for God has shrunk to fit snugly around triteness.

It seldom inspires great thoughts or great feelings with glimpses of great Truth. God is the great, absolute, all-shaping Reality.'

J.Piper - Pierced by the Word