Brian's Thoughts

Marriage

2009-04-25T18:34:00.001-07:00

A quote from This Momentary Marriage by John Piper:

“…how much more will the magnificence of marriage in the mind of God seem unintelligible in a modern Western culture, where the main idol is self; and its main doctrine is autonomy; and its central act of worship is being entertained; and its three main shrines are the television, the Internet, and the cinema; and its most sacred genuflection is the uninhibited act of sexual intercourse. Such a culture will find the glory of marriage in the mind of Jesus virtually incomprehensible. Jesus would probably say to us today, when he had finished opening the mystery for us, the same thing he said in his own day: “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. . . . Let the one who is able to receive this receive it” (Matt. 19:11–12).”

How striking these words are to me. Even in marriage I see this as true in my own life. TV, the internet, and Cinema are a large part of what I find myself being entertained with. Marriage with Christ, and my momentary marriage with my bride here on Earth suffer as a result of these idols.

Questions About Jesus

2009-04-18T13:48:00.001-07:00

When was Jesus first prophesied about?
What does it mean to follow and abide in Jesus?
Will Jesus come back again, and if so do we know exactly when?
Can we know Jesus and not be in His flock?
Can anyone come to know Christ?
Why did Jesus come to this Earth?
If Jesus had not come to Earth could we know God?
Was Jesus Lucifer's brother like the mormons claim him to be?
How can I know Jesus?
What role does faith have in a relationship with Jesus?
How do we know for sure that Jesus is God?
Why did God choose the time period that He did to send His son Jesus to Earth?
What is the significance of the resurrection of Christ?

Can you think of any others for me? Or, can you point me to the answers to these in scripture?

Because He Lives

2009-04-11T20:04:00.001-07:00

I am free. I am alive. I can ask: “Death, where is your sting?” I can look to Him and know that I am His and He is mine.

I will praise you Jesus because you first loved me. I will praise you because you rose from the grave, you defeated death. You finished the work that God the Father gave you to do. –THANK YOU!

Married Life

2009-04-09T11:05:00.001-07:00

Married life has been excellent! I thank God for my beautiful wife. I wonder if anyone will ever read this?

D-Day

2009-03-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

So here it is...D-Day, I praise God that I get to marry such a beautiful woman today!

Music

2009-03-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

The Great Romance – SPENT. A band I play drums for. Watch it, tell me what you think :)

Let's play catchup

2009-02-19T07:41:00.001-08:00

So I haven't written in months, is that sooooo bad? --Probably

I get married in exactly 30 days...scary! But very exciting!

I'm getting some $$$ back on my tax returns...yay

I'm playing drums with The Great Romance...check em out: www.thegreatromance.com

ps: it's also nice to see that i have 0 followers!!!! woo hoo

Did we choose God or did He choose us?

2008-11-12T07:49:00.001-08:00

''God commands us to believe in Christ. He is pleased by those who choose Christ. If unregenerate people could choose Christ, then they could be subject to at least one of God's commands and they could at least do something that is pleasing to God. If that is so, then the apostle has erred here in insisting that those who are in the flesh can neither be subject to God nor please him.
We conclude that fallen man is still free to choose what he desires, but because his desires are only wicked he lacks the moral ability to come to Christ. As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerate, he will never choose Christ. He cannot choose Christ precisely because he cannot act against his own will. He has no desire for Christ. He cannot choose what he does not desire. His fall is great. It is so great that only the effectual grace of God working in his heart can bring him to faith.'' -------R.C. Sproul, Chosen By God

I've heard many different viewpoints on how we come to Christ. I've heard a lot about freedom of choice for us, and I've heard about the sovereignty of God in choosing us before the creation of the world. My question is this: Are we able to choose Christ as our savior and king? I believe in our minds we are, but in our hearts at the core of our being we are not. I see in myself nothing but wickedness, I can 'choose' to not sin today, but inevitably I will. That is one thing that will always come to pass, sin and our wicked nature. Outside of Christ and Him choosing me and drawing me to Himself I am nothing, nothing more than a depraved sinner. See this video for more info on God's sovereignty.

Home sweet Home?

2008-11-07T08:44:00.001-08:00

So, I'm getting married soon and this is the house that my fiance Breanne is CRAZY about. It's a nice house as you can see. I just don't know if i can see myself in it yet. What do you think?

Voting

2008-10-23T20:22:00.001-07:00

I know i post alot of Piper stuff but I found this article to be too intriguing not to mention. It deals with the Christian perspective on voting, and the upcoming election.

James ch. 3 A short film by Desiring God Ministries

2008-10-15T13:46:00.001-07:00

Check out this video written and produced by Desiring God Ministries. It was written for their National Conference coming up in a few days. It really caught my attention and makes me wonder how many families are like this. Give it a play:

How BIG are our "small" sins?

2008-10-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

Harmless Petty Sins?

by J.M. Njoroge

A familiar fable tells of the hunter who lost his life to the leopard he himself had saved as a pet for his children when the leopard was just a cub. The moral of the story can be deduced easily from the title, Little Leopards Become Big Leopards, meaning that sin is easier to deal with before it becomes a habitual practice that eventually defines our lives.(1) Though the story as it stands is a beautiful illustration of a profound truth, there is a deeper lesson regarding the nature of sin that is easily concealed by this line of thinking and which, I believe, lies at the very essence of our call to Christ-likeness. The problem is that the parallel between little harmless leopard cubs and little harmless sins can be dangerously deceptive.

Whereas leopard cubs are indeed harmless, there is no stage of development at which sin can be said to be harmless, for individual acts of sin are merely the symptoms of the true condition of our hearts. It is not accidental that the call to Christian growth in the Scriptures repeatedly zeros-in on such seemingly benign “human shortcomings” as bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and malicious behavior (Ephesians 4:31). In his watershed address, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus placed a great deal of emphasis on lust, anger, and contempt; behaviors and attitudes that would probably not rank high on our lists of problems in need of urgent resolution. Armed with firm and sometimes unconscious categories of serious versus tolerable sins, we gloss over lists of vices in the Scriptures because they seem to be of little consequence to life as we experience it.

But when we fail to grasp the subtleties of sin, we run the risk of rendering much of biblical wisdom irrelevant to our daily life and practice. While we appreciate the uniqueness and necessity of the sacrificial death of Jesus on our behalf, his specific teachings can at times appear to be farfetched and the emphasis misplaced. Does it not seem incredible that the God who made this world would visit it in its brokenness, dwell among us for over thirty years, and then leave behind the command that we must be nice to each other? Can the problems of the world really be solved by having people “turn the other cheek” and “get rid of anger and malice”? To quote a close friend, “Hello!”

Unfortunately, those “little” sins are not only the mere symptoms of a much bigger problem; they are also effective means of alienating us from God and other human beings. How many careers have been ruined only because of jealousy? How many people have been deprived of genuine help as a result of the seemingly side-comment of someone who secretly despised them? How many relationships have been destroyed by bitterness? How many churches have split up because of selfish ambitions couched in pietistic terms? How much evil has resulted from misinformation, a little coloring around the edges of truth? And have you noticed how much we can control other people just through our body language? From the political arena to the basic family unit, the worst enemy of human harmony is not spectacular wickedness but those seemingly harmless petty sins routinely assumed to be part of what it means to be human.

According to a NASA scientist, a two-degree miscalculation when launching a spacecraft to the moon would send the spacecraft 11,121 miles away from the moon: all one has to do is take time and distance into account.(2) How perceptive then was George MacDonald when he uttered these chilling words, “A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter, and thinking himself a good Christian”!(3) Similarly, C.S. Lewis warned that cards are a welcome substitute for murder if the former will set the believer on a path away from God. “Indeed,” he wrote, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”(4)

Now the decisive path out of this quandary is not just a greater resolve to be obedient to God. Such a response is usually motivated by guilt, and the duration of our effort will be directly proportional to the amount of guilt we feel: we will be right back where we started from when the guilt is no longer as strong. The appropriate response must begin with a greater appreciation of the holiness of God and a clear vision of life in Him. It is only along the path of Christ-likeness that the true nature of sin is revealed and its appeal blunted. Yes, brazen sinfulness is appallingly evil and destructive, but it only makes a louder growl in a forest populated by stealthier, deadly hunters masquerading as little leopards. It is no idle, perfunctory pastime to pray with King David:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
And lead me along the path of everlasting life (Psalm 139:23-24).

J.M. Njoroge is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) For example, Paul White’s, Little Leopards Become Big Leopards, published by African Christian Press.
(2) John Trent, Heartshift: The Two Degree Difference That Will Change Your Heart, Your Home, and Your Health (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2004), 17.
(3)George MacDonald, in George MacDonald: An Anthology by C. S. Lewis (New York: Dolphin Books, 1962), 118.
(4) C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, in A C.S. Lewis Treasury: Three Classics in One Volume (New York: Harcourt & Company, 1988), 250.

source: http://www.rzim.org/GlobalElements/GFV/tabid/449/ArticleID/10116/CBModuleId/1133/Default.aspx

Job: A new book by John Piper

2008-10-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

"What we have lost God will restore--That, and Himself, forevermore."

http://www.jobthebook.com

Check out the video below:

Good News!

2008-10-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

God created the heavens and the earth, He created you and I. His plan, all along was to glorify Himself not only through creation, but also through our redemption. You see, though it seems like a horrible thing to allow sin into His portrait of creation, He will ultimately, through the cross bring infinite glory unto Himself. His Son, who was and is and always has been and always will be, was there in the beginning.

He spoke, and we became. We by God's providence and foreknowledge sinned and continue to sin. The almighty furious wrath of God can ONLY be settled by a perfect sacrifice. This perfect sacrifice was His son, Christ Jesus. Upon the cross Jesus not only took upon the full wrath of His father, he also purchased for us, by defeating death, a way unto the Father. Praise God for creating me, praise God for dieing for me, praise God for choosing to call me one of His own, through His perfect plan of redemption....may I praise Him through all of eternity for WHO He is not just WHAT He has done!

Col 1:21-23: "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven..."

Genuine Love Romans 12:9

2008-10-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good."

What is genuine love? Do we ever ponder the meaning of genuine love, and how to let the love that we show to others be genuine? How does one"abhor what is evil" and "hold fast to what is good?"

Hello World

2008-10-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

As one who studied computer science in college, I just HAD to do the old "Hello World" post.
This will be a blogspot devoted to anything really. I am typically not one to write out thoughts, or feelings, but the older I get the more I feel inclined to do so. Plus I see all of my friends doing the same.

So here it is, my first post. Enjoy!!!!
More to come...