Parenting

Can there be joy in realizing that I am powerless to complete a task? What if it's a task I desperately want completed?

In this blog post Paul Tripp explains how and why he finds joy in the impossibility of parenting.It was eleven o’clock on a Sunday night, and I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot exhausted and overwhelmed. After we had put our four children to bed, later than we had planned, Luella discovered that we had nothing in the house to pack for lunches the next day. With an attitude that couldn’t be described as joy, I got in the car and did the late-night food run. As I waited for the light to change so I could leave the parking lot and drive home, it all hit me. It seemed like I had been given an impossible job to do; I had been chosen to be the dad of four children.
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Ambassador

2 Corinthians 5:20 - Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us...

That's a pretty incredible and humbling thought - God is appealing to the world through His people.

An ambassador is…

• Ready. An Ambassador is alert for chances to represent Christ and will not back away from a challenge or an opportunity.


• Patient. An Ambassador won’t quarrel, but will listen in order to understand, then with gentleness will seek to respectfully engage those who disagree.


• Reasonable. An Ambassador has informed convictions (not just feelings), gives reasons, asks questions, aggressively seeks answers, and will not be stumped by the same challenge twice.


• Tactical. An Ambassador adapts to each unique person and situation, maneuvering with wisdom to challenge bad thinking, presenting the truth in an understandable and compelling way.


• Clear. An Ambassador is careful with language and will not rely on Christian lingo or gain unfair advantage by resorting to empty rhetoric.


• Fair. An Ambassador is sympathetic and understanding towards others and will acknowledge the merits of contrary views.


• Honest. An Ambassador is careful with the facts and will not misrepresent another’s view, overstate his own case, or understate the demands of the Gospel.


• Humble. An Ambassador is provisional in his claims, knowing that his understanding of truth is fallible. He will not press a point beyond what his evidence allows.


• Attractive. An Ambassador will act with grace, kindness, and good manners. He will not dishonor Christ in his conduct.


• Dependent. An Ambassador knows that effectiveness requires joining his best efforts with God’s power.

Source

Power in Truth

I read a great article this morning titled "How to Deal with the Guilt of Sexual Failure for the Glory of Christ and His Global Cause".

I provided the link at the bottom, but before I give you the link, I want to share a few excerpts that I found exceptionally compelling. I hope they will inspire you to listen and read the entire sermon.

• The great tragedy is not mainly masturbation or fornication or acting like a peeping Tom (or curious Cathy) on the internet. The tragedy is that Satan uses the guilt of these failures to strip you of every radical dream you ever had, or might have, and in its place give you a happy, safe, secure, American life of superficial pleasures until you die in your lakeside rocking chair, wrinkled and useless, leaving a big fat inheritance to your middle-aged children to confirm them in their worldliness. That’s the main tragedy.


• Have you ever wondered what the next verse in Colossians 2:15 means? Right after saying that God nailed the record of our debt to the cross, Paul says, “[God] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” This is a reference to the devil and all his demonic hosts. How are they disarmed? How are they defeated? Don’t they prowl around like a roaring lion today (1 Peter 5:8)?
  
  The answer is: They have many weapons. They can do much damage. But they are disarmed of the one weapon that can damn us. The weapon of unforgiven sin. Be sure you see the connection between Colossians 2:14 and 15. In 2:14, it says God nailed the record of our debt to the cross. It’s punished. It’s finished. And in the next breath he says that God disarmed the rulers and authorities. He triumphed over them. Sure, they can beat us up. They can make us see weird things on the walls of our rooms. They can shake your house and cause lying signs and wonders. They accuse you and call you a loser, but they cannot damn you. That weapon is out of their hands. Only unforgiven sin damns. And that was nailed to the cross for everyone of you who despairs of saving yourself and trusts in Jesus.


• Justification is the act by which God declares us not only forgiven because of the work of Christ, but also righteous because of the work of Christ. God requires two things for our right standing before him: 1) our sins must be punished and 2) our lives must be righteous. But we cannot bear our own punishment (Psalm 49:7-8), and we cannot provide our own righteousness. None is righteous; no, not one (Romans 3:10).
  
  Therefore, God, out of his immeasurable love for us, provided his own Son to do both. Christ bears our punishment and performs our righteousness. And when we receive Christ as the Savior and Lord and Treasure of our lives, all of his punishment and all of his righteousness is counted as ours (Romans 4:4-6; 5:19; 5:1; 8:1; 10:4; Philippians 3:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

I hope those short excerpts inspired you to go read the rest of the sermon (or listen to it). Plus, the article has hot-links to all the scripture. It's powerful stuff, and it applies to much more than just sexual failure. It applies to any and all sin in our lives.

May God be glorified in and through His people.

Excellent TED talk on "How Great Leaders Inspire Action"

I thought this was a great first post of 2011. I'd love to hear my readers thoughts on this guys speech.


For those of you on Facebook who can't see the video, here's the link to my blogpost.