In Matthew 12:38-50, it is recorded of Jesus: “And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.’”

Are you of relation to Christ? If so, what evidence do you have that it is true?

Our church went through this passage of Matthew and discussed this profound statement of our Lord.

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Tags: brother, Matthew, mother, preaching, will of God

Jonathan Edwards points out one of the wonderful effects of true awakening on people in the church – a sense of absolute dependence.

The drift of the Spirit of God in his legal strivings with persons, has seemed most evidently to be, to make way for, and to bring to, a conviction of their absolute dependence on his sovereign power and grace, and universal necessity of a Mediator, by leading them more and more to a sense of their exceeding wickedness and guiltiness in his sight; the pollution and insufficiency of their own righteousness, that they can in no wise help themselves, and that God would be wholly just and righteous in rejecting them, and all that they do, and in casting them off forever: though there be a vast variety as to the manner and distinctness of persons convictions of these things.

(Pg. 70, 71, The Jonathan Edwards Reader, Yale Nota Bene)

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Tags: awakening, Holy Spirit, Jonathan Edwards, reformation

There can be no personal transformation, no holy family life, no sanctified church life or any kind of life without the foundation of the Gospel. In July 1886, Charles Spurgeon began his message with this statement:

The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. They who preach this truth preach the gospel in whatever else they may be mistaken; but they who preach not the atonement, whatever else they declare, have missed the soul and substance of the divine message.” He goes on to say, “I will speak upon THE GREAT DOCTRINE. The great doctrine, the greatest of all, is this, that God, seeing men to be lost by reason of their sin, hath taken that sin of theirs and laid it upon his only begotten Son, making him to be sin for us, even him who knew no sin; and that in consequence of this transference of sin he that believeth in Christ Jesus is made just and righteous, yea, is made to be the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ was made sin that sinners might be made righteousness. That is the doctrine of the substitution of our Lord Jesus Christ on the behalf of guilty men.

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Tags: atonement, Christ, cross, gospel, Holy Spirit, Jesus, redemption, salvation

It always makes for trouble in relationships when there is an expectation of perfection. Here is a clip from a sermon stating the details of how this happens and how to address it:

Half the miseries and disquietudes, half the interruptions of conjugal peace and domestic felicity, arise from desires too ardent, and hopes too sanguine; both parties, at their first entrance into the nuptial state, especially in youth, are apt to form to themselves ideas, very inadequate and disproportioned to the condition of human life; to entertain delusive notions of a romantic and visionary paradise, where the earth is cloathed with perpetual verdure, the flowers never fade, and the fruits are immortal; but when instead of this, they begin, perhaps in a short time, to feel the thorns springing up under their feet, (more…)

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Tags: Bible, child, children, Christ, dating, daughter, family, father, godliness, gospel, love, manhood, marriage, mercy, relationship, sacrifice, speak, speech, Spirit, womanhood, Word

Consider how useful you can be in His hands when you have been waiting on Him in prayer. Here is Charles Spurgeon on what God can do, even with the jawbone of an ass:

Wait upon God much in prayer, and you have the promise that He will do greater things for you than you know of.…That ass’s jawbone lying there upon the earth—what can it do? Nobody knows what it can do. It gets into Samson’s hands—what can it not do? No one knows what it cannot do, now that a Samson wields it! And you, Friend, have often thought yourself to be as contemptible as that bone, and you have said, “What can I do?” Yes, but when Christ, by His Spirit grips you—what can you not do? Truly you may adopt Paul’s language and say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – C.H. Spurgeon

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Tags: beseech, Christ, Holy Spirit, prayer, samson, Word

One of the central themes of our ministry is to appeal to church leaders to engage in the practice of expository preaching so that they bring the voice of God to the church and not their own. This exalts the glory of God in the church and protects it from subjection to a particular man’s hobby horse. It guards and limits men so that they do not emphasize their own favorite subjects and verses and themes and theologies and practices. Our prayer is for the whole counsel of God to fill the Church of Jesus Christ so that it is His words and ways that are exalted. Our desire is to train our men to handle accurately the Word of Truth so that God is glorified. Even though we cling to this safeguard of expository preaching, we are still subject to a danger as we interpret Scripture. As fallen human beings, we often cannot see everything because of our interests, callings, prejudices and spiritual blindnesses. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones offers a very sobering and cautionary note on this problem. He cautions us about approaching the Bible with a theory instead of our theory coming from the Bible. I include his words here, because it is our desire to avoid this error. As we work through Scripture, we must consider the problem that Lloyd Jones reveals: (more…)

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Tags: Bible, God's Word, preaching, reading, study, Word, worship

Here are “Fifteen indispensable pursuits that prepare the next generation for marriage.”

1. The Clearest understanding of the Gospel, Col. 1:14
2. The Gladdest embrace of God, Ps. 100
3. The Thirstiest passion for the Word of God, Ps. 119
4.  The Keenest inclination for repentance, Ps. 51
5. The Hottest desire for holiness,1 Pet. 1:16
6. The Sweetest harmony in marriage, Eph. 5:22-33
7. The Quickest pursuit of reconciliation, Eph. 4:26
8. The Highest investment in the church, Eph. 1:23; 5:32
9. The Biggest vision for life, 1 Cor. 10:31
10. The Liveliest, zippiest daily life, Deut. 6:1-9
11. The Sharpest conception of marriage, Eph. 5:22-33
12. The Tightest embrace of biblical manhood and womanhood, Tit. 2
13. The Strongest sense of the sovereignty of God, Dan. 4
14. The Hungriest desire to worship the one true God, John 4:23
15. The Humblest acts of service toward the needy, Prov. 19:7

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Tags: Bible, child, children, Christ, courtship, dating, daughter, discipleship, family, father, feminism, fret, godliness, gospel, happy, hate, joy, love, manhood, marriage, relationship, sacrifice, speech, talk, womanhood, worry

Hollywood does not like to talk about her dead. She wants to look so sunny on the outside, but really, the dead are there. The evidence of this is everywhere. Here are 25 signs American Women are Being Destroyed by the Sexual Revolution that appeared at The American Dream:

Has the sexual revolution been good for American women?  Not at all.  In fact, when you look at the facts it becomes clear that the sexual revolution has been an absolute disaster for American women.  In the United States today, men have been trained to primarily view women as sex objects, and our culture has become exceedingly promiscuous.  As a result, the United States leads the world in teen pregnancy, there are 19 million new STD infections every single year, more than half of all children born to women under the age of 30 are being born out of wedlock and we are witnessing the systematic breakdown of the family unit in America.  And yet anyone that tries to teach our young women that they should dress modestly and keep themselves pure for marriage is severely criticized.  Well, if all Americans actually did keep themselves pure until marriage, we wouldn’t have nearly the problems with STDs, teen pregnancy and abortion that we do today.  The consequences of teaching our young women that they should be “free” to run around and sleep with a whole bunch of different men have been dramatic.  The following are 25 signs that American women are being destroyed by the sexual revolution and our promiscuous culture… (more…)

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Tags: abortion, baby, feminism, women

Then there is nothing else that so sweetens the home-life. True family worship is a fountain that brings streams of holy influences into every part of the household. It is a vase of perfume that sheds fragrance over all. It softens asperities. It quells anger. It quiets impatience. It settles differences. It subdues evil passions. Hearts that are drawn together at God’s feet every day—cannot get very far apart. The frictions of the day are forgotten, when all voices mingle in the same heavenly song. As the tender words of inspiration fall with their gracious counsels—all feeling of unkindness melts away.

The altar in the midst, wondrously hallows and sweetens the home relationships. Besides, it puts new strength into every heart. It comforts sorrow. It is a shield against temptation. It smooths out the wrinkles of care. It inspires strength for burden-bearing. It quickens every pious sentiment, and keeps the fires burning on every heart’s altar.

– from Weekday Religion by J. R. Miller, posted by Grace Gems

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Tags: daughter, family worship, father, Hymn, mother, prayer, psalm, sing, son

Celebrating my father’s birthday several days ago reminded me again of how important it is for Christians to build Christian counter culture in the world we live in. I was struck by the beauty of the moment. My father had built a culture of honor and happiness; a culture where the old and the young live life together and are not segregated; a culture where the generations gather to celebrate the gospel. It is so critical that we do not bring people into the church so that they can experience more of their preferences, their personal cultures, or to be a reflection of their lives, but rather so that they will experience something massively different – the kingdom of God – which is so discordant to the kingdoms created by the surrounding cultures of the world.

Vance Havner spoke clearly of this necessity in a sermon he called, “A New Kind of Segregation”: (more…)

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Tags: birthday, church, father, grandchildren, grandparent, husband, patriarch, segregation

This month, the Eagle Forum’s Education Report named IndoctriNation their Book of the Month. The book, edited by Charles LaVerdiere, is a companion reader to the award-winning documentary film by the same name, directed by Joaquin Fernandez and Colin Gunn. Joaquin and Charles are members at Hope Baptist Church, where I am an elder. Both the book and the film are designed to persuade Christian parents to remove their children from the public schools and bring them home to diligently teach them and care for their souls day by day.

The IndoctriNation book includes 23 essays written by many of my friends, including Doug Phillips, R.C. Sproul, Jr., Kevin Swanson, Voddie Baucham, Ken Ham, and others. Here is an excerpt from my own contribution to this important book:

In order to rescue this lost generation of children in Christian homes from hell, we must first help fathers understand what God has commanded and exhort them to embrace their responsibilities before the Lord. We must speak clearly of what God has mandated so that fathers do not miss the opportunity to touch the hearts of their sons and daughters with the message of the gospel.

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Tags: Bible, child, children, Christ, daughter, duty, education, encourage, family, father, godliness, homeschool, manhood, public school, relationship

Fighting with sloth? Should we fight sloth or go with the flow? Is it worth the fight? What’s wrong with relaxation anyway? Don’t I deserve a break? Don’t I need some “space”? Don’t I need some “me time”? Isn’t it all grace?

As we are engaging a new year, we will face that same old person we faced in 2012 – Sloth. He is very gregarious – loves to speak to everyone. He makes some good points, and he has some serious arguments for his ways – most of them “psychological” and many of them “theological.” Here John Piper reads Pilgrim’s Conflict with Sloth. In it, you will find help to understand the challenges in dealing with this thief, and the answers to all the questions above.

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Tags: ant, diligence, laziness, proverbs, sloth, sluggard, work

I was nineteen-years-old when abortion was legalized. I was one of those young people who had a front row seat at the collapsing moral stage. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was as if the forces of Hell were suddenly let loose on America. The perfect storm of destruction was howling all around and the scaffolding went down. It was a witches’ brew that was blown out everywhere by those winds: the sexual revolution, the rock-and-roll generation, the drug revolution, and the “Age of Aquarius.” This was the beginning of the lawless generation who said, “If it feels good, do it.” This was the beginning of the end of the America of our founding fathers. After only forty years, we have killed millions. We have the most radically pro-abortion President in the past 40 years. There is no remorse for the killing. There is little consciousness of innocent blood on our hands. The Bible says there is “a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Yesterday, January 22, 2013, was a day to mourn – the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade.

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Tags: abortion, Bible, child, children, choice, clnic, daughter, duty, family, father, feminism, fetus, friend, godliness, gospel, great commission, heaven, hell, life, marriage, mother, murder, pastor, preach, roe v wade, sacrifice, son, Spirit, Supreme Court, womanhood, Word, worry

In America, we have killed off 56 million through abortion since January 22, 1973. That’s roughly the size of the population of California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington State combined. We have wiped out a generation of workers, consumers, and tax payers. We have wiped out the younger generation, and now there are too few loved ones to take care of the old. Worldwide, we have killed 1.2 billion children through the hands of abortionists – a huge percentage considering the world population is now around 6.8 billion today. As a result, industrialized economies are faltering under the weight of the genocide. Everyday, we are destroying economic growth and plunging the world into a prolonged economic winter. This is the judgment of God, because you can’t break the sixth commandment (or any other commandment) without inviting harm.

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Tags: abortion, Bible, child, children, choice, clnic, daughter, duty, family, father, feminism, fetus, friend, godliness, gospel, great commission, heaven, hell, life, marriage, mother, murder, pastor, preach, roe v wade, sacrifice, son, Spirit, Supreme Court, womanhood, Word, worry

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Tags: abortion, Bible, child, children, choice, clnic, daughter, duty, family, father, feminism, fetus, friend, godliness, gospel, great commission, heaven, hell, life, marriage, mother, murder, pastor, preach, roe v wade, sacrifice, son, Spirit, Supreme Court, womanhood, Word, worry