The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Very nice.

Will Put A Smile On Your Mouth

By Josh:

Where have the musicians who are this happy in their music gone? God's glory was evident in the timeless joy written on the smiles and crazy-happy songs of Slim's era.

You can't help but find yourself smiling while watching. But when and if you like it, watch out, because words strung like these tend to wake up and run round and round inside you in the most unlikely moments.

THE Mighty Fortress

Confidence in God facing anything preserved in Luther's famous hymn...


"And though this world, with devils filled
Should threaten to undo us
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us
The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him."

Find your rest in wonder

by Joshua

This is what it looked like to have your mind blown away 1600 years ago. It still happens...

(Augustine here contemplates the unsearchable mysteries of God in predestination)

"You a man expect an answer from me: I also am a man. Wherefore, let us both listen to Him who says, 'O man, who are you?' Believing igorance is better than presumptuous knowledge. Seek merits; you will find naught but punishment.
O the height!
Peter denies,
a thief believes.
O the height!
Do you ask the reason?
I will tremble at the height; I cannot sound the depth. Paul found rest because he found wonder, He calls the judgements of God 'unsearchable;' and have you come to search them? He says that his ways are 'past finding out,' and do you seek to find them out?"
Augustine

Book Plan, Year Twenty-Ten

2010 Book Pile as it appears thus far

As promised several weeks back, here is my reading plan for the year. I am in all these books now except for Finally Alive which I finished about a month ago. s for the rest of these books, I plan to take them in slow and easy. Especially the Greek textbooks.

Finally Alive - John Piper

In this book Piper unpacks the resplendence of the new birth in a God exalting manner.

Valley of Vision

The valley of vision is a collection of prayers from the Puritans. It's so good, I could write a meaningful post on it every time I pick it up. There's a prayer for almost every season of the soul. Here's a few excerpts.

"Help me to see how good Your will is in all. And even when it crosses mine, teach me to be pleased with it. . ."

"... let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley."

Communion With God - John Owen

Like Calvin before him, Owen is also known as the Theologian of the Holy Spirit. And he has a remarkable gift to the church in this book. In my life I have not came across many if any who point us towards fellowship with each person of the Trinity on the level Owen does. I intend to post a deal more on this later.

Lectures To My Students - CH Spurgeon>

Packed full of wisdom and instruction in ministry from the life of the prince of preachers Charles Haddon Spurgeon, this book is more than worth its weight in gold. The book starts out with a sturdy smack in the face and is fast moving. The first sentence is a direct quote from 1 Timothy 4:16. Right in there with the main tenants of this blog.

"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine"

New Testament Greek For Beginners - J. Gresham Machen

Since I wrote a little about the Author of this book in my Greek Fire post a few weeks back, I will spare you any more details on it, for now.

Basics of Biblical Greek - William D. Mounce

William (Bill) Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek is the standard for beginning Biblical Greek in our time. He really wants to take every difficulty and hindrance out of learning Biblical Greek that he can. Who knows, in a few decades he may even reach legendary status.

I am also in a few other books,

Newton's The Meaning of the Jewish Tabernacle
and CJ Mahaney and Robin Boisvert's This Great Salvation


Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

Ministry to Orphans (Part 1)

This video clip has been a long time in the works. In God's providence everything came together today, and I was able to finish up the work on it, and upload it.

In this video, my friend Shalem Raju answers two questions.

1.) What is life like for Indian pastor's children?

2.) Why would an Indian pastor's child need special care?



I added a few extra video clips, pictures, and best of all, subtitles for your convenience.



Soli Deo Gloria,



Josh

what is your portion?

By: Kwame

Can Christians be sick? Or should I say, are Christians supposed to be sick? Should Christians ever suffer, or is their "portion" the prosperity and the high life of "heaven on earth"? Is sickness a sign of you having little faith? Must we receive "it" more and more to move that mountain by our faith? Is your situation a result of your faith, your words of faith?

John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
John 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
John 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Please note: "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him"

Can God, through sickness glorify Himself or is he limited to using what pleases us to glorify Himself? Does man know all of God's ways...does the Omniscient God need instructions on what He is to do?

Joh 11:3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Joh 11:4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Jesus loved Lazarus but he tarried for two days (John 11:6), Lazarus died and ultimately God was glorified in the end! Is God's glory of utmost importance? Is God able to choose different paths for His children with the goal of glorifying His name?

Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Jas 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Please note: "For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

Do we have power to say let there be light and for light to appear? Are we self-sufficient and all-knowing like God? Isn't God the Almighty one who has no beginning and reigns for ever more?

Why is God to be worshiped? Are we worshiping God because He is able to make "this year our year of promotion" ? our year of health? our year of heaven on earth? No, Jehovah is to be worshiped because He commands it and it glorifies Him.

I believe with all my heart that health and prosperity are gifts of God, however I ask these questions even as I think of what may/should be of first importance. Could we be neglecting the thing of first importance as we focus entirely on physical comforts? These comforts are very very important (as we all know) but is there still something which is/should be of first importance?

Mat 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.

Of first importance is that God may be glorified. After one has a relationship with the God who is in heaven (which in of itself is a hallowing of His name), we are to pray that His name may be hallowed...that His name may be venerated and that He may be worshiped by all whom He foreknew.

The propagation of His kingdom follows because this furthers glorifies Him...we are to share the gospel with ourselves and with others. In all this, praying and desiring that His will be done, not ours so that His name may be glorified. To be able to continue in these things, God lovingly meets our needs day in day out: He gives us bread, forgives us, allows us to love others, enables us to fight indwelling sin, keeps us safe....all for His glory and honor.

Are we not free to ask "anything" of God, to reason with Him (Isaiah 1:18)? He calls us to come boldly to the throne. Is God able to decide what comes our way? Are we to order God around? Can we expect much tribulation (Acts 14:22) in this pilgrimage, for His glory? Please let's ask for bread and clothes and peace and many more that we need and want but let's pray most importantly that His will may be done in our lives because He is El-Shaddai!! Through His providence, all things work together for the good of those who love Him.

Speak it and Receive it tries to put the power in man's hands. Yet we can see that all that happens, is by His Grace, and for His Glory. Power belongs only to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Let's not be like the folks who followed Jesus because of the bread and fish.

John 6:25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

Fellowship with God (not promotion, mercedes benz, children, education, houses etc) should be the ultimate source of our joy.

1John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1John 1:4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

Let's rejoice in Jesus and when other things are added, we will also rejoice gladly because our Lord and our God bestowed them upon us.

Having Jesus' righteousness imputed to us and being physically poor and sick and weak and seemingly insignificant and lowly is a joy because we have Jesus, and this is certainly better than the promotions of this world. Being justified before God because Jesus' work on the cross paid the price on our behalf and satisfied the wrath of God, and having many riches in this world is also a joy and this is certainly a gracious blessing that is due to the grace of our Lord and not because of the amount of faith we have. Man-centered thinking removes Jesus from the center.

I pray for grace and the diligence to know Him more this year. This year, like any other should be our year of more and more of Jesus. He is all that we need to seek like we would silver and gold, and all other things, by His grace, may be added unto us, for His glory.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Kwame

All Things are Better in Koine

Okay now, at the risk of going overboard and making too much of Greek, here is a video made by four year Bible Greek students on why we should learn Koine Greek. It's way better done, and far more funny than one would expect. Watch it and enjoy!

Thanks to my fellow Greek students Mike for the link!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

First Week of Greek

Good times in Greek Class

Okay, here's the low-down on Saturdays' Greek class:

We gathered at the kitchen table around seven-thirty am, prayed, covered chapter one of Machen's New Testament Greek For Beginners, and got a slight head start on verbs in chapter 3. Great discussion, as well as helpful q&a.

I am hoping to get the audio of the session on-line. If anyone has an idea of how to upload 2+ hours of mp3 to the web and link to it for free please let me know. Gcast is no longer allowing uploads, and it will be missed.

Homework for the next Greek class gathering is as follows,

For Session 2:

1. Write at least two rows of each letter
2. Learn the Alphabet in order and be able to say the sounds.
3. Be able to say all the sounds.
4. Learn vocabulary on page 20 very, very well.

Greek On Fire

John Gresham Machen (1881 – 1937)

This is just a quick post. Tomorrow is a pretty big day, a kind of landmark for me. At long last, I am starting Machen's New Testament Greek for Beginners.

I'd like to save face and say that this was my first attempt, but it isn't..

I previously made about a quarter semester's worth of progress in this book. So now I am rallying. and resolved to try to make a serious effort in the quest for mastery (or basic grasp) of New Testament Greek for the glory of God.

Week1:

I spent some time this week reading the first few chapters of Machens' book. I discovered that while Koine (Common) Greek was spoken through practically the whole Roman empire, Biblical Greek brought the Koine up to a whole new level. The amazing thing was that it used the Greek language people in ever nation knew and spoke to explain things (spiritual mysteries, things of God) people had never heard of, and in a big way it also brought the language to new heights, while still remaining understandable to everyone who spoke Greek.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text