Laminin

This is part of a message given by Louie Giglio, Director of Passion Conferences, during the How Great is Our God Tour.

Your life is a miracle, and the creator of the universe knows you by name

He’s big enough to breathe out stars, yet intricate enough to fashion together the trillions of cells that make up every facet of who you are. The God who spoke the universe into existence made you, too, and knows everything about you. From the smallest molecule to the situation you find yourself in right now, He’s aware of your circumstances and intimately acquainted with everything you do. And He cares about you and promises to carry you through.

That’s where we find hope in the midst of the darkest places in life. The journey often complicated and painful filled with confusion and chaos. Yet, the cross of Christ reveals God’s promise to preserve and restore you no matter what the circumstance. He will hold onto you and hold you together, giving strength to those who hope in His unfailing love.

He is the everlasting God!

You Know You’re in a Small Town When… more from the Boerne Police Blotter

May 9

1700 block Water St. Comfort, 4:38 p.m. A called worried that sounds of a distressed cow had been coming from the creek. The caller was advised that three heifers were being weaned and although animals had food and water, they were “just not happy.” [MDR: Weaning is a drag, I’ve got to say.]

100 block Glenn Oaks, 6;09 p.m. A resident wanted advice regarding a porcupine that was in a tree. [MDR: My advice: Don’t reach up and try to save it without wearing really thick gloves.]

May 12

200 block of Bluebonnet Drive, 8:21 p.m. A caller reports that an arrow had been shot through his house. [MDR: “Through” his house? Meaning “in one side and out the other”? Or “into his house”? Or ????]

500 block of Main Street, Comfort, 6:23 p.m. A caller with a rat in a shoe box wanted it picked up. [MDR: A gift for the police?]

Johns Road, 7:50 p.m. Two men in the area were acting like they were pulling a rope across the street as cars went by. [MDR: These guys have too much time on their hands.]

1400 block of East Blanco, 12:43 p.m. When the dryer in the laundry facility refused to open at the end of the drying cycle, the man called to report that he was going to break it open in order to get his clothes out so he could go to work. [MDR: Better to tell the police about your vandalism beforehand. It makes the arrest process much smoother.]

May 13

1300 block of South Main Street, 6:06 p.m. A Liberty County Constable reported to have parked in fire zone after driving recklessly. Constable was questioned and said that he had “no excuse.” [MDR: Now that’s something you don’t hear very often!]

May 16

1400 block of East Blanco, 2:14 p.m., A woman was arrested on a Comal County warrant for failure to obey a commitment order. [MDR: Finally, there is such a thing as a commitment order! Now husbands can be ordered to be committed to their wives. Children can be legally compelled to be committed to their schoolwork. The sky’s the limit!]

May 17

900 block of East Blanco, 2:24 p.m., A caller reported a man was lying halfway out of a doorway. Police contacted the man who had been drinking and passed out in his doorway. [MDR: Good rule of thumb. Get all the way into our house before you pass out.]

300 block of Edge Creek, 3:35 p.m., A man reported that his truck had been broken into and an iPod and sunglasses were taken. [MDR: But not his beer or his gun rack.]

1000 block of North Main Street, 7:11 p.m., A caller reported a fuel card was missing. [MDR: Only in Boerne will the police help you locate your lost stuff.]

100 block of W. Hampton Run, 11:37 p.m., A 19-year-old was issued a citation for consumption of alcohol by a minor after the car he was driving ran into a house. [MDR: And they didn’t issue a citation for running a car into a house. Just for the drinking?]

ht: Mark D. Roberts

Paul Tripp, “Whiter Than Snow”

Paul Tripp’s book, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy will be available this month.  The book contains 52 meditations on Psalm 51.

ht: Justin Taylor

Straight Out of the Movies…

This story of rescue and undercover convert stuff, is crazy cool. Do I smell the making of a movie?? I think so…

Here is an excerpt from CNN:

The Colombian government’s bloodless rescue of the hostages Wednesday was the product of a perfectly executed ruse that depended on old-school spy games rather than high-tech gadgetry.

Agents spent months worming their way into the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, an insurgent force that has waged war on the Colombian state for 40 years, Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon told CNN.

The agents gained the rebels’ trust and rose to the top of FARC’s leadership council as well as a team assigned to guard the hostages.

When the time was ripe, the moles used the authority they’d gained within the group to order the 15 hostages moved from three separate locations to one central area, and the game was on.

Read the rest of this awesome story here

ht: Already and Not Yet

Pray for the Persecuted

The song is called, I Will Sing and it was written by the late Rich Mullins.  I believe here it is being performed by The Isaacs

ht: Doug Eaton

How well do you really know the words of Jesus?  Find out by taking this quiz from Trevin Wax at ”Red Letters“ to test your Red Letter knowledge.

         * Beginner Quiz

         * Intermediate Quiz

         * Advanced Quiz

Reformed Theology in One Verse

Great stuff from Joe Holland at Mining Grace!

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.  (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

“…. If you too struggle to understand or explain Reformed Theology, let me offer you one verse to sum up the basics: 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

“He who calls you…”

God initiates relationship with sinners.  This is contrary to every other religion that tells you how to seek God.  The fallacy of seeking God is that sin has made man incapable and unwilling of seeking God.  It is the farthest thing from fallen man’s desire.  That is not to say that fallen men and women do not seek gods.  They seek, find, and make gods–idols–everywhere.  But they want no part of the true God.  He is utterly unlovely and undesirable to the fallen mind.

No, God must and does seek sinners.  The story of the Bible is of a holy God calling sinful men and women into relationship with himself.  His call, made efficacious by the Holy Spirit, changes a man’s nature.  That change, made possible by the atoning death of Jesus Christ, makes God utterly beautiful and worthy of worship.  But make no mistake, relationship with God is initiated by God.

“…is faithful…”

Good relationships die without faithfulness.  Whether friendship, business relationship, marriage, or divine covenant, faithfulness must be present.  Every other religion touts man’s faithfulness to God as the basis of divine relationship.  Man performs; God rewards.

Only this runs contrary to all that we know about ourselves.  Humans live in relational carnage.  The best and deepest of human relationships are scarred by failed expectations.  The experiment of fallen humanity has produced one law: man is unfaithful.

This is the glory of the gospel–of the Reformed variety.  It is God who is faithful for both himself and man.  Jesus Christ took up man’s place in his incarnation and lived an utterly faithful life to God even unto death.  This faithfulness is imputed to Christians by God’s free grace through faith.  Man is made faithful in Christ.  God–unchangeable by nature–roots the promise of redemption in his own faithful character.  True relationship with God is built on God’s faithfulness alone.

“…he will surely do it.”

The “it” of this statement is the completed salvation mentioned in the previous verse.  Many Christians will claim God’s sovereignty in salvation but vacillate when it comes to God’s sovereignty in Christian living.  They end up advocating a “justified by God, sanctified by self” view of Christian life.

What does this look like?  The litmus test is easy.  Self-sanctification is motivated by guilt.  God-sanctification is motivated by grace.

Self-sanctification looks at soul depravity and says, “I’m a failure I must do better.  I need to read my Bible more, pray more, evangelize more, give more, attend church more.  I will surely do it.”

God-sanctification looks at soul depravity and says, “I’m a failure I must find repent of my sins and find Jesus Christ to be my perfect righteousness.  Out of thankfulness for free grace and through God’s power, I want to read my Bible more, pray more, evangelize more, give more, attend church more.  God will surely do it.”

Do you see the difference?

It is God who works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure.  God’s sovereign grace justifies us.  God’s sovereign grace sanctifies us.  Jesus Christ is for us our righteousness and sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Summary

This is the essence of Reformed Theology, “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”  It stands in contrast to man-centered Theology which says, “I who call upon God am faithful; I will surely do it.”

• It is God who initiates through his gracious call.
• It is God who alone is faithful for himself by his nature and for us through Christ.
• It is God who accomplishes our salvation through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

It is for these reasons that Biblical/Reformed theology always exalts one great theme: the glory of God.  What a glorious God who loves us enough to display his sovereing grace in fallen men through the redemption only to be found in Jesus Christ!

This is Reformed Theology.  But more importantly, this is the Bible’s theology.

Inexcusable Hubris

From Tim Challies…

I have recently been reading Bruce Waltke’s (rather large!) Old Testament Theology and came across this quote. It seemed appropriate in light of all of the attention being give to The Shack and its distinctly feminine portrayal of God. Waltke argues here that it really does matter how we think of God and how we address Him.

God, who is over all, represents himself by masculine names and titles, not feminine ones. He identifies himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, not Parent, Child, and Spirit, nor Mother, Daughter, and Spirit. Jesus taught his church to address God as “Father” (Luke 11:2) and to baptize disciples “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). God’s titles are King, not Queen; Lord, not Lady. God, not mortals, has the right to name himself. It is inexcusable hubris and idolatry on the part of mortals to change the images by which the eternal God chooses to represent himself. We cannot change God’s names, titles, or metaphors without committing idolatry, for we will have reimagined him in a way other than the metaphors and the incarnation by which he revealed himself. His representations and incarnation are inseparable from his being.

I Have a Shelter

Love Your Enemies: Vengeance Belongs to God - John Piper