It's All a Gift

“No one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” - Luke 10:22

 "You should always look at yourself and think, 'I can't believe I'm a Christian.' If you're a Christian, it's a miracle." - Tim Keller

"Belief in the Gospel is not in our DNA. Belief in the Gospel is a miracle God is constantly performing." - Ray Ortlund

"Your faith will not fail while God sustains it. You are not strong enough to fall away while God is resolved to hold you." - J.I. Packer

500 posts.  That's a lot of time, thought and effort...and guess what?  Every single one of them was a gift.  Many were directly inspired by topics that I was wrestling with or by things the Holy Spirit was showing me.  But every post was only done because I was given the ability, opportunity and insight by the God of the universe.

We like to think we are in control of so many things.  But as I read today..."proximity does not equal control."  I did not control my last breath or heartbeat.  I don't control the saving work of the Spirit in my life.  I didn't go out and seek faith in Jesus and call it my own.  It's all a gift.

God has taken it upon Himself to hold on to me.  My assurance of salvation does not lie in myself.  It lies with a covenant-keeping God.




http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-incalculable-wonder-of-being-a-christian

Confessing Our Sins

http://www.desiringgod.org//blog/posts/confessing-our-sins-together

http://feedingonchrist.com/confess-sins-one-another/

Evidence for the Eternal?

"I don't think God lets anyone peek around the curtain of eternity if they are not going to stay." - Tim Keller

Bottom line...start and end with the inspired Word of God.

From Hank Hanegraaff...

Popular interest in near-death experiences (NDEs) is at a fever pitch. From Raymond Moody's Life after Life to Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven, to Mary Neal's To Heaven and Back, to Todd Burpo's Heaven Is for Real—and, of course, now the movie—NDEs have titillated the masses for the better part of a generation. New revelations ranging from the physical characteristics of the devil (three heads, earless, a nasty nose, and moldy teeth) and demons (green, long fingernails, hair made of fire), to descriptions of God the Father (blue eyes, yellow hair, and huge wings), God the Son (sea green-bluish eyes and a rainbow-colored horse), and God the Holy Spirit (bluish but hard to see), are captivating the minds of millions of evangelicals. The problem is there are significant liabilities associated with NDEs.

First, we should note that the substance of an NDE is inevitably informed by the worldview of the celestial traveler. And that is precisely the problem. The objective reference point of sacred Scripture has been supplanted by the subjective experiences of those who have allegedly had a foretaste of heaven. Thus, while Scripture knows nothing of human preexistence, Betty Eadie—in concert with her Mormon presuppositions—alleges that while being embraced by the light, she recognized the very Jesus that she had previously encountered in her preexistence. In like fashion, Raymond Moody and Eben Alexander—in accord with their presuppositions—view life after life as devoid of the judgment of an altogether holy God. As such, what I said in yesterday's Daily e-Truth bears repeating: the subjective recollections of near-death experiencers are wildly divergent and mutually contradictory; and thus, logically, they can all be wrong, but they cannot all be right.

What we have in Heaven Is for Real is something not even the biblical writers had the temerity to do. Among the biblical writers who "spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21), not one dared say that like his Lord he spoke authoritatively about heaven from firsthand knowledge. Think about the apostle Paul. In the Bible we are told that he was "caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell" (2 Corinthians 12:4). Unlike Colton Burpo, Paul was not permitted to speak about his "surpassingly great revelations" (v. 7). Nor did any one of the biblical writers dare prophesy the century of Christ's return—one of Colton's revelations was that his father Todd would be alive to fight in the battle of Armageddon.





https://soundcloud.com/askpastorjohn/how-real-is-the-book-heaven-is

http://blogs.lcms.org/2014/review-heaven-is-for-real

http://www.challies.com/articles/what-the-bible-says-about-the-heaven-books

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2015/01/trust-peoples-near-death-experiences

Holy Week 2014

“Only through weakness and suffering could sin be atoned - it was the only way to end evil without ending us.” - Tim Keller

"Loving like Jesus loved means one thing - sacrifice."

"Our sins have to be Christ's sins or we shall perish forever." ~ Martin Luther

“If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.” — Jaroslav Pelikan

"Through Christ, death has lost her sting. Christ is the Death of death." ~Martin Luther

"How can we remember his death w/o sorrowing over the sin which made that death necessary?" - C.H. Spurgeon

"'Why do bad things happen to good people?' That only happened once and He volunteered." - Sproul, JR.

"The issue on which everything stands is not whether or not you like Christianity, but whether or not He rose from the dead." - Tim Keller









http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-problem-of-palm-sunday

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2014/04/17/maundy-thursday-4/

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2014/04/17/when-jesus-said-farewell/

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-greatest-prayer-in-the-world-maundy-thursday

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2014/04/18/how-can-this-be-a-good-friday-meditation/

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/it-is-finished-good-friday

http://www.rzim.org/blog/new-testament-studies/loves-unveiling-day-12-loves-extremity/

http://glennpackiam.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/04/n-t-wright-on-the-atonement.html

http://www.bloggingtheologically.com/2013/03/22/did-jesus-really-have-to-rise-again/

http://www.bloggingtheologically.com/2014/04/20/sent-one-sends/

https://www.unlockingthebible.org/meaning-significance-resurrection-jesus-christ/

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/have-you-found-what-you-re-looking-for-easter-sunday

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2014/04/19/holy-week-day-8-sunday/

http://www.rzim.org/blog/worship-and-spirituality/ravis-easter-meditation/

http://www.rzim.org/blog/new-testament-studies/four-gardens/

http://patriotpost.us/pages/309