Looking Back - Guard the Truth

"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."

~ John Calvin

A Quest for More

After reading a book review here about the book "A Quest for More" by Paul Tripp, I really want to get it and read it. Below is a quote from the book and a video about it from the author. Be sure to also read the book review here.

“Sin Causes fundamental changes in the ‘molecules’ of my heart. No longer is my heart driven by a deep-seated love for God. No longer is my heart motivated by a genuine care for others. No longer do I carry around a sense of responsibility for the surrounding created world. No longer is every decision I make shaped by a clear sense of what is morally right and morally wrong. No longer is everything I do shaped by joyful and thankful worship. The DNA of sin is selfishness, and it shrinks the size of my universe to the size of one. Sin creates the ultimate shrink dynamic. It causes all of us in some way to shrink the size of our lives to the size of our lives. Sin shrinks my motivation, zeal, desire, care, and concern to the contours of my life. In the shrunken kingdom of self, there is no functional room for God or others. It is humbling, but spiritually essential, to admit that sin has shrink-wrapped us all.”

Looking Back - David F. Wells

"Our generation is rapidly growing deaf to the summons of the external God. He has been so internalized, so tamed by the needs of religious commerce, so submerged beneath the traffic of modern psychological need that he has almost completely disappeared. All too often, he now leans weakly upon the church, a passive bystander, a co-conspirator in the effort to dismantle two thousand years of Christian thought about God and what he has declared himself to be. That is to say, God has become weightless. The church continues its business of satisfying the needs of the self--needs defined by the individual--and God, who is himself viewed and marketed as a product, becomes powerless to change the definition of that need or to prescribe the means by which it might be satisfied. When the consumer is sovereign, the product (in this case God himself) must be subservient."

~ David Wells, God in the Wasteland

Ron Paul Progress

We can be such hypocrites

We want God to give us mercy yet we want to give everyone else justice.
We want God to give us grace yet we want everyone else to earn everything they get.
We want God to give us forgiveness yet we want everyone else to learn their lesson.
We want God to give us a wink yet we want to give everyone else a wakeup call.
We want God to give us imputed righteousness we want everyone else to be righteous.
We want God to shield us while we shoot others
We want God to defend us while we attack others
We want God to love us while we hate others
We want God to bless us while we dish out curses to others
We want God to be compassionate while we are angry at others

Noah's Smiles

Looking Back - Matthew Henry

I reckon him a Christian indeed who is not ashamed of the Gospel or a shame to it."

~ Matthew Henry

Looking Back - Fishers of Men

"The early disciples were fishers of men - while modern disciples are often little more than aquarium keepers."

~ Unknown

Holy Ground

When Moses approached the burning bush God spoke to Him saying, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." (Ex 3:5) In the Old Covenant the ground was cursed. God told Adam "cursed is the ground because of you" (Gen 3:17). God also, because He had made Adam from the ground, told him that part of the curse was that he would return to the dust (Gen 3:19). The ground is cursed with death. In the Old Testament, they wore shoes or sandals because the ground was cursed. This was also the reason for all the foot-washing. Anything that got dirt on it was seen as having the curse of death on it. Only God's presence could reverse the curse and make the ground holy. This is why the priests were always barefoot in the temple.

James Jordan expounds on this idea: "Only the serpent travels with his belly or flesh in the cursed soil. Clean land animals wear shoes (hooves). Men only take their shoes off on “holy ground” (Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15). Entering someone’s house, you washed your feet, to avoid bringing contamination into the house (Gen. 18:4; 19:2; 43:24; Jud. 19:21; Luke 7:44). In the death and resurrection of Christ, the curse has been removed from the soil."

Just as being dirty represented death, in the Old Covenant, when you touched a dead body you would be considered dirty or unclean. Dirty represented death and death represented dirty. Anything, in the Bible resembling death is considered dirty or unclean. One who was unclean had to go through various ritual washings, by which ceremonial defilements were removed (Num 19). Interestingly, Hebrews 9 refers to those "various washings," which could also be accurately translated "various baptisms," and they always involved sprinkling or pouring. Jesus reversed the curse of Adam. Through baptism we are washed and made clean and we stand, as the body of Christ, on holy ground.

Looking Back - D. L. Moody

"The only way to keep a broken vessel full is to keep it always under the tap."

~ D. L. Moody

More Pictures From Hawaii

Noah did a lot of smiling on this trip.

Another waterfall

I found some bananas but no Taco Bell

God's beautiful creation everywhere you go.

Getting ready for the helicopter ride.

View inside the helicopter

Noah's Tux

Strolling through a park

Napali cliffs, Kauai

This is what we saw the last day when we, and little Noah, got
off the ark (ship).

Turbulence and Prayer

I'm at the airport in Hawaii and we have a bit of a wait before the plane takes off. So I thought I would expound on some things I was thinking on our flight over here. We went through some really bad turbulence and the plane was dropping fast. It felt like a long drop on a roller coaster. People were screaming, Liisa had a death-grip on my arm, the stewardess was sitting on the floor in the isle, the plane was rattling and many people were praying hard. I got to thinking after it was over how intense everyone's prayers probably were.

Isn't it interesting how religious everyone gets when their lives are being threatened. When we are faced with the possibility of death we pray with such intensity and passion. Where is that intensity when we are praying for lost souls? Where is that intensity when we are praying for our church? Where is that intensity when we are praying for more discipline and self-control? Where is that intensity when we are praying for forgiveness? Where is that intensity when we are praying for His Kingdom to come? God is not a spare tire that we leave in the trunk of our car and only use in emergencies. He must be our intense passion and our sustaining life on a daily basis.

Isa 55:6 says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near..." Now is the time to seek Him. Now is the time to call upon Him. Don't wait for your plane to go down. Don't wait for your life to be filled with turbulence. Pray without ceasing and pray with passion! We must seek His face not just His protection. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." (Ps 62:8)

Looking Back - J. C. Ryle

Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing that you would not like God to hear. Write nothing that you would not like God to read. Go no place where you would not like God to find you. Read no book of which you would not like God to say, “Show it to Me.” Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like to have God say, “What are you doing?”

~ J. C. Ryle

I'm serious!

Why won't anyone take me serious? (This was at the Dole pineapple plantation)

Akaka Falls

Yesterday we went to Akaka Falls (which is fun to pronounce). We had to hike for hours to reach it (well just about 20 minutes). It was awesome! This morning we arrived in Maui. We will be here for two days.

In Hawaii

We made it to Hawaii! We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki last night and today we are going to see Pearl Harbor. After that we get on the cruise ship. If I can I will get a Mai Tai and post an update later. I had some thoughts I want to share later that I had while we were flying here and going through some of the worst turbulence I ever experienced. Many thought our plane was going down. See ya!

Looking Back - Martin Luther

"Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not."

~ Martin Luther

Looking Back - History

“History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or grey hairs; privileging him with the experience of age, without either the infirmities or inconveniences thereof. Yea, it not onely maketh things past present, but inableth one to make a rationall conjecture of things to come. For this world affordeth no new accidents, but in the same sense wherein we call it a new Moon, which is the old one in another shape, and yet no other then what hath been formerly. Old actions return again, furbished over with some new and different circumstances.”

~ Thomas Fuller

Looking Back - Oswald Chambers

"Beware of worshiping Jesus as the Son of God and professing your faith in Him as the Saviour of the world, while you blaspheme Him by the com­plete evidence in your daily life that He is powerless to do anything through you."

~ Oswald Chambers

Free Will & The Bondage of the Will

Anyone who has debated the free-will issue or just had questions about it should watch these videos. This is really good! I realize none of you have 30 minutes (10 minutes each) to watch something like this (the amount of time it takes to watch one sitcom). Maybe you can try skipping just one rerun of "Friends" or "Seinfeld" and watching this.

Who Am I?

I have no respect for justice. I maim without killing. I break hearts and ruin lives. I am cunning and malicious and gather strength with age. The more I am quoted the more I am believed. I flourish at every level of society. My victims are helpless; they cannot protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face. To track me down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive I become. I am nobody's friend.

Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same. I topple governments and ruin marriages. I ruin careers and cause sleepless nights, heartache and indigestion. I spawn suspicion and generate grief. I make headlines, headaches and heartaches I make innocent people cry in their pillows. Even my name hisses.

WHO AM I? ... I AM CALLED GOSSIP. I come in many forms: Church gossip, Office gossip, Shop gossip, Party gossip Telephone gossip and Online gossip. I make headlines and headaches. Before you repeat a story, ask yourself, is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary? If not, SHUT UP.

Ten Commandments and Honor

In the 1st Commandment we see how to honor God as God

• “You shall have no other gods before me”

In the 2nd Commandment we see how to honor God’s image

• “You shall not make for yourself a carved image”

In the 3rd Commandment we see how to honor God’s name

• “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”

In the 4th Commandment we see how to honor God’s day

• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”

In the 5th Commandment we see how to honor God’s representative authority

• “Honor your father and your mother”

In the 6th Commandment we see how to honor God’s image-bearers

• “You shall not murder”

In the 7th Commandment we see how to honor God's purity

• "You shall not commit adultery"

In the 8th Commandment we see how to honor God's property

• "You shall not steal"

In the 9th Commandment we see how to honor God's truth

• "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor"

In the 10th Commandment we see how to honor God's provision

• "You shall not covet"

Looking Back - Charles Spurgeon

"The knowledge of God is the great hope of sinners. Oh, if you knew Him better, you would fly to Him! If you understood how gracious He is, you would seek Him. If you could have any idea of His holiness, you would loathe your self-righteousness. If you knew anything of His power, you would not venture to contend with Him. If you knew anything of His grace, you would not hesitate to yield yourself to Him."

~ Charles Spurgeon

Lyre Bird - Imitating Sounds