Aaron Schock

The Today Show interviewed Aaron Schock and highlighted some of his accomplishments.

We should pray for him that his world view could stay firmly grounded on the Word of God. I can only imagine the temptations that must come with his office.

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Mercy

Bill Schick made a comment during the closing thoughts this past Sunday morning that really struck me. He said "The older I get, the more I find myself justing praying 'Lord have mercy on me.'"

I believe there is power in that spot, and it shows how strongly the Spirit is at work in his life. It gives evidence to his internalizing the powerful understanding of our wretchedness in light of our creator's holiness.

Lord have mercy on us all.

Romans 9:15-16
15. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy , and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of God that sheweth mercy.

Praise be to God that His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23

Sold out?

I get a weekly prayer newsletter in my inbox. This week two parts of it struck me as extremely relevant not only to me, but to our era.
First was the - Quote for the week:
"You turned your back on the homeless and the ones that don't fit in your plans. Quit playing religion games...there's blood on your hands. Instead let there be a flood of justice and endless procession of righteousness...I hate all your shows." - Jon Foreman.

The second was - Other News:
There are too many times during a week that I realize I am using prayer as a show-- a performance for others, myself and God. My attitude subtly becomes one of a display--I must pray because God wants to see me pray. It couldn't be any more opposite! Of course God wants me to pray, but is it not reiterated over and over again in Scripture that it is all about the heart?! Prayer is anything but a show. Matthew 6 says that we ought to pray in our closet! There's no exhibition in that. Maybe I can even pray from the heart, but decorate my prayers with little frills -- routinely closing my eyes, folding my hands, not even peaking once at my neighbor to see if he's really praying! Great things...but they all add up to a big fat zero if your heart is far from God..not recognizing Him for His greatness or realizing the power that is available in coming before His throne. Let's cancel the show this week and get our hands dirty in prayer! Praise God!
May God renew our hearts by Grace to truly worship Him - in spirit and in truth.

Is God's Love Unconditional?

I'd like to hear thoughts on this. How do my readers interpret Ephesians 1:4-5 and Acts 13:48? Do you agree with Piper on his interpretation of these verses? Are there other ways that God loves us unconditionally?

Peace & Love:


(Author: John Piper)
There is such a thing as unconditional love in God, but it's not what most people mean by it.
It's not a saving love that he has for everybody. Else everybody would be saved, since they would not have to meet any conditions, not even faith. But Jesus said everybody is not saved (Matthew 25:46).
It's not the love that justifies sinners since the Bible says we are justified by faith, and faith is a condition (Romans 5:1).
It's not the love of working all things together for our good because Paul says that happens "to those who love God" (Romans 8:28).
It's not the love of the most intimate fellowship with the Father because Jesus said, "He who loves me will be loved by my Father" (John 14:21). And James said, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:8).
It's not the love that will admit us into heaven when we die because John says, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10). And faithfulness is a condition.
How then does God love unconditionally? Two ways (at least):
He loves us with electing love unconditionally. "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:4-5).

He does not base this election on foreseeing our faith. On the contrary, our faith is the result of being chosen and appointed to believe, as Acts 13:48 says, "As many as were appointed to eternal life believed."

He loves us with regenerating love before we meet any condition. The new birth is not God's response to our meeting the condition of faith. On the contrary, the new birth enables us to believe.

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been [already!] born of God," (1John 5:1). "[We] were born, not . . . of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13).
Let us pray that thousands of people who speak of the unconditional love of God would discover the biblical meaning of what they say. If that happened many would find their feet on solid ground.

CO Valentines

Heidi & I had quite the Valentines weekend. :-) We woke up Saturday morning to the smell of Propane in our house. I took a look at our furnace and it definitely wasn't burning correctly. The burners only had flame over about half of their surface. I called Paul to see if he had time to come and check it out and he said he'd be there about 1:30.

Ok, sounds good. Heidi made some breakfast, and as we were eating an alarm goes off. Smoke? Nope. Carbon Monoxide (CO) - "The silent killer". Ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic, but it's an oderless and colorless gas that slowly suffocates you in your sleep. It's a good thing we weren't sleeping.

So anyway,I turned off the alarm, shut off the furnace, opened a window, and turned on the bathroom vent fan. All good right? Nope. About 10 minutes later it goes off again. I turned off the alarm. About 10 minutes later it goes off again. Well, I knew, without the furnace on, there was no new CO getting in, so I just pulled the battery out and we went about our business.

About an hour later, both Heidi and I both noticed we were getting headaches and our stomach's felt weird. We decided to get out of the house for awhile. We went to the gym for about an hour and Paul showed up shortly after we got back.

Turns out we were really low on LP in our tank, so the burner couldn't keep enough volume burning. That was resulting in an incomplete burn which produces CO. Our house had sat empty for a year before we moved in and my Uncle-in-law had told the LP company that they would call them when it needed filled, rather than the LP company just checking periodically. Well, no one told Heidi or I that, so we assumed that the LP company was taking care of. Turns out you can't get Hicks to come out at 3:30 on a Saturday, so we were without heat for a couple days.

But hey, we thought, no big deal. We'll just go out for V-Day like we planned and pile on extra covers Sat. night. If our furnace is off, our CO problem should go away. Well, we get home at 11:00pm Sat. night and our CO detector is going off again. We pack up our Sunday clothes and go over to Heidi's parents' house and sleep on the floor with a couple of sleeping bags. That's where my Valentines day ended...on the floor at my in-laws. :-) Memorable for sure.

By Sunday after church our CO levels were back to normal, and it was a balmy 53 degrees at 5:15 when I woke up this morning to go to the gym. Hopefully when I get home tonight we'll be all back to normal.

Funny Friday

A little more light-hearted comic:













click to enlarge

Calvin's Clairvoyance

Click the comic to enlarge.

What did I do?

In Romans 9, when Paul is speaking very clearly of God's unconditional election of some, and not others, to eternal salvation, a hypothetical objector to this doctrine raises that very question: “If it is as you say, Paul, and God loved Jacob and hated Esau before they were born, or had done anything good or bad, just so that his own purposes might stand in election, does that not mean he is arbitrary and unjust?” (see Rom. 9:14). Paul's response to this is a resounding, “Of course not! May it never be!” God is not arbitrary or unjust – but he does elect individuals to mercy and hardens others as he sees fit, and for no good will or exertion that he sees in anyone (Rom. 9:15-16). He hardened Pharaoh according to his purpose of displaying his glory in all the earth, and he sovereignly chooses to have mercy on whomever he will, to display the glory of his grace (Rom. 9:17; cf. Rom. 9:22-24). In sum, “Therefore, he has mercy on whom he will and he hardens whom he will” (Rom. 9:18).

We would do well to heed Christ's parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16): just because God chooses to have mercy upon some does not make him unjust or arbitrary for giving to others their just deserts. It is his free, undeserved mercy and grace that he holds forth in salvation, and he may do with it as he will. We may not fathom the deep and mysterious ways of God (Rom. 11:33-36); but woe to that one who foolishly says, “I see no reason for why God chooses some and not others, so he must be arbitrary and unjust”. On the contrary, O foolish man, you would do well to say with Job, “Behold, I am of little worth; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand upon my mouth” (Job 40:4).

PRAISE GOD!

We are joyfully praising God this morning! Heidi got her results back for her nursing boards and she passed!!! This event is especially joyous in light of Heidi thinking she surely failed. Heidi had absolutely no confidence that she answered enough questions right to pass. God had other plans. We know that God would've proved faithful and good regardless of her grade, but we are so thankful that He gave us this blessing.

Grandma's with Jesus

At 6:15pm yesterday, Feb 3rd, my Grandma Knoblock went home to the loving embrace of Jesus. She went willingly and peacefully. She's was ready to be done running. To live was Christ and to die was gain. She spoke of a vision of flying up just moments before she died, which was inspiring. I think the visitation is Friday evening and the funeral is Saturday morning.