Love in a Time for Swine Flu

I thought you might like to read this article titled "Love in a Time of Swine Flu" from AlbertMohler.com.

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3713

Pro-Life Pastor Chooses Jail

http://takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com/2009/04/pro-life-oakland-pastor-chooses-jail.html

Pray for Gao

Here is the link to the website.

www.freegao.com

Walking by Faith

Blog: Between Two Worlds
Post: Matthew Patrick Brown (2009-2009)
Link: http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/04/matthew-patrick-brown-2009-2009.html

Direct link to story:

http://takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com/2009/04/yesterday-we-lost-member-of-our-church.html

Thanks to Jim and Michelle Axelson

I thank God for Jim and Michelle Axelson and their children, David and Rachel! The Axelsons responded affirmatively to God’s call to pursue full-time cross-cultural missions with Wycliffe when they were in their 40’s. Jim and Michelle shared during gathered worship at Rocky yesterday morning, and Jim’s “sermonic testimony” of how he has been growing in trust for God was moving and challenging for me.

His text was Proverbs 3:5-6, a very commonly known passage:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”

These familiar verses came alive as Jim reflected on how the Lord is teaching him to trust in Him when his kids remain in the U.S., half-way around the world; when health care in PNG is declining in quality and not readily accessible; when he is dependent on God’s people to provide support for his family; and when his ministry has demanded that he step outside his “task orientation” comfort zone to be people oriented.

Have you stopped to seriously consider the faith implications of Proverbs 3:5-6? What does it mean to “trust in the LORD with all your heart”? Are you doing so? Are you willing to do what He calls you to do? Verse 5 says, “Do not lean on your own understanding.” Are you able to abandon self-trust in this way and seek your understanding from the Lord and His Truth? Do you “acknowledge Him” in all your ways? All?

I encourage you to not flinch and lean into these soul-searching questions with this assurance—God is faithful and trustworthy. Psalm 89:1 is the verse that came to me as I led our church in prayer for the Axelsons yesterday morning: “I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.”

Finally, do pray for and with Jim and Michelle. Here are the requests Jim gave us:

• For Bibleless people groups of the world
• For Wycliffe teams in the last stages of their translation programs; often spiritual warfare intensifies as the translation work nears completion
• For the decline of HIV/AIDS in PNG
• For more translation teams
• For more long term and short term workers
• For David Axelson’s future as he graduates from college and pursues grad school in preparation for mission work in Bible translation
• For Rachel Axelson, studying nursing in college
• For safety as Jim and Michelle travel thousands of miles this summer in the U.S.
• For a reliable four wheel drive vehicle when they return to the field in August

Child Abduction and Abortion in China

To see the article, please click on the URL listed below

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3607

Substitution—The Heart of Both Sin and Salvation

 

Here is the quote from Dr. John Stott (in his book, The Cross of Christ) I gave in my sermon on Resurrection Sunday:

“The concept of substitution may be said, then to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.”

Christ, our Substitute! “Amazing love, how can it be? That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”

Listen and Worship to "My King"-- Do you know Him?

Blog: Pure Church
Post: Do You Know Who Did This First?
Link: http://purechurch.blogspot.com/2009/04/do-you-know-who-did-this-first.html

A Funny Follow-up to the Christ and the Recession series-- Perhaps Painfully Funny

Blog: Founders Ministries Blog
Post: How to stay out of debt
Link: http://www.founders.org/blog/2009/04/how-to-stay-out-of-debt.html

An Angel in the Garden

As we move through this Passion Week, preparing for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, let us meditate on Luke 22:39-44—

“And He came out and went, as was His custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. And when He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’ And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

An angel from heaven came to strengthen our Savior as He suffered in the garden—to strengthen Him to suffer unspeakably and carry His cross and die on it. “There was an outstretched hand, His Father’s hand—even in the darkness—and Christ knew it. Initially the presence of the angel must have brought some modicum of comfort to the Sufferer. It came at a moment when unaided human nature could no longer take the strain. It was a critical moment. Christ knew that His sorrow was ‘unto death’ and as Dr. Frederick Godet remarks, this was ‘no figure of rhetoric’. But it was not the Father’s will that the Savior should die in the garden, and just as after the temptation in the wilderness angels ministered to Him (Matthew 4:11), so now He was strengthened by an angel. How strange is the sight! A creature sent to minister to the Creator! But then, as man He ‘for a little while was made lower than the angels’ (Hebrews 2:9). Here the theologians run out of answers. Mercifully so! There is a place for mystery. There is need for ground on which, in a unique sense, one walks by faith and not by sight. Bishop Ryle says well of Christ’s experience in Gethsemane, ‘It is a depth which we have no line to fathom.’ (The Cross He Bore, by Frederick Leahy)

“For one fleeting moment immense joy must have leaped within Christ’s soul as the Father’s hand touched Him. This was a message from home. Heaven was behind Him. He was forsaken, but not disowned. His Father was there, somewhere in the darkness. His loud cries and tears had not been unnoticed.”

(Tim Chailles)