Exchanging the Glory of God

These sermon notes written by John Piper are a very good expository on Homosexualtity..Part 1 and Part 2

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/80_Homosexuality/1053_The_Other_Dark_Exchange__Homosexuality_Part_1/

Help Here…Help Now! - Tom Barnard

“He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds.
He counts the stars and calls them all by name.
How great is our Lord! His power is absolute!
His understanding is beyond comprehension.”
(Psalm 147:3-5)

“Only an Infinite God can be equal to the infinite needs of individual men.
But a limitless love can be a refuge for the least and lowliest.”
(James Reid, in The Springs of Life. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1936)

Someone has said, “When we really think about God, we have our hand on a door which will lead us out into a new world.” If this is true (and I believe it is), why is God the second or third or even fourth source to whom we look in times of trouble? It doesn’t make sense to me. If you knew someone whose understanding was “beyond comprehension,” why wouldn’t you turn to him at the first hint of a problem? If you knew someone who was willing to “heal the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds”—and he was willing to do it now, why wouldn’t you turn to him when you are hurting? If you knew someone who was so infinite that he not only knows how many stars there are in the universe but also calls them by name, why would you read a horoscope to discover what good or bad things might (or might not) happen to you today?

The fact is that we tend to trust our stockbroker more than we trust our future to God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I wonder if the timing might be right to dig out one of Isaac Watts’ old hymns and sing it today. You start, and I’ll join you on the second stanza.

O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home!

Under the shadow of Thy throne, Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone, And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same.

Heavenly Father, I have been listening to news commentators far too much this week. Their “spin” on the events of the day is depressing. They are so persuasive; their views are so reasonable; their reputations are so solid; they are so easy to believe. But they don’t know one galaxy from the next. Their words have never healed anybody. They have no clue about what the future holds. And they don’t care one bit about me. I need help here, and I need it now! Please listen to my heart’s cry, and whisper confidence in my ear. Point me in the right direction, and lead me there. I’m ready to follow you wherever you take me. Amen.

The aim of gospel ministry

“To cut off the sinner from all reliance upon himself, his merits and his powers; and throw him, naked and helpless, into the hands of the Holy Spirit to lead him to Christ in faith; should be the one great aim of the ministry.”

- Ichabod S. Spencer

A new song..can you hear it?

Shine - Shannon Noil

Get up, get up, get up, get up, lift your head
Come on, come on, get up out of bed
Today's the day you hold the world with your song
Go now, go now, go now, help escalate
Angels come down, help with this parade
To hear your voice ring out
Come on and shout it
Let your song be heard

This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world will stop to watch you shine

Hey now, hey now, hey now, hey now sing your hymn
This is the new national anthem
We will all stand on guard to let you be heard
Let go, let go, let go all the cannons
How beautiful this world has become
Now everyone will see what I believe
That these words should be sung

This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world will stop to watch you shine
This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world believes that you will shine

And if you fall
And if you fall
And if you trust and
Yes it will come true

Hey, hey Yeah!

This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
All the world will stop to watch you shine
This is the time
This is the day that we've been waiting for
When all the world will stop to watch you shine

Another good quote:

“God’s clean up operations are very strange.”

“A deep spiritual walk with God does not usually happen immediately after conversion. When the Holy Spirit invades the enemy territory of our lives and sets up Jesus Christ as King in the capital city of our heart, his strategy for conquering the rebel forces of the flesh that keep up their guerrilla warfare is different for each person. It may be fast or slow. God’s clean up operations are very strange.”

- John Piper, “The Danger of Being Merely Human“

The Vision for The Warriors

The vision is Jesus- obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus. The vision is an army of people, intergenerational, all ages all races. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crust on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They are mobile like the wind; they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the Vision? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure. Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is am army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' faithful sons and daughters. Such heroes are as radical on Monday mornings as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again "COME ON!" And this is the sound of the underground. The whisper of history in the making. Foundations shaking. Revolutionaries dreaming once again. Mystery is scheming in whispers. Conspiracy is breathing…

And the army is disciplined. People who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes, Winners, Martyrs. Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them? And the generation PRAYS like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphurous tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Whatever it takes they will give. Breaking the rules. Shaking the mediocrity from its cozy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrings, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries. They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like a costume to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or popularity? They would lay down their very lives- swap seats with the man on death row- guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair. With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses Jesus. (He breathes out, they breathe in). Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make the demons scream in shopping centers. DON"T you hear them coming? Heralds the weirdo's! Summons the losers and the freaks. Here comes the frightened and forgotten with the fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking 'AMEN!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner. Guaranteed!

Date: January 01, 2000 Author: Kim Clement

QUOTE

"Watch out when the music of your nation changes. A new kind of music upsets every department of living—both public and private. The beat of the music changes first and everything else falls in line with the beat—fashions, language, customs and morals."

The character, Fred Fisher, "quoting" Plato in the movie "O You Beautiful Doll" (1949).

Prayer and Providence

“Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence. Believing supplications are forecasts of the future, He who prayeth in faith is like the seer of old, he sees that which is to be: his holy expectancy, like a telescope, brings distant objects near to him.”

- Charles Spurgeon, The Holy Spirit’s Intercession

Henri Nouwen quote

My pastor sent me this from Henri Nouwen...

"A part of you was left behind very early in your life: the part that never felt completely received. It is full of fears. Meanwhile, you grew up with many survival skills. But you want your self to be one. So you have to bring home the part of you that was left behind. That is not easy, because you have become quite a formidable person, and your fearful part does not know if it can safely dwell with you. Your grown-upself has to become very childlike - hospitable, gentle, and caring - so your anxious self can return and feel safe. You complain that it is hard for you to pray, to experience the love of Jesus. But Jesus dwells in your fearful, never fully received self. When you befriend your true self and discover that it is good and beautiful, you will see Jesus there. Where you are most human, most yourself, weakest, there Jesus lives. Bringing your fearful self home is bringing Jesus home."