-
I Belong to You and You Belong to Me (And thus, we genuinely care for one another!)
I am truly enjoying Jerry Bridges’ new book: True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia Here is a quote from the final pages to give you just a taste of its wisdom: “The foundation of daily experiential fellowship among believers is found in Paul’s statement that “in Christ … each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5). I belong to you and you belong to me, and we each belong to and have “ownership” in every other believer in the world. This mutual belonging to one another is the thread that ties together all the seemingly diverse elements of fellowship. As we recognize and apply the fact that we…
-
The Very People We Are Called to Serve Will Break our Hearts
“If our ultimate motivation for service to God is simply because we love people, we will never be able to sustain the call to service that God has given to us because the very people we are called to serve will break our hearts. It is only the grace of Christ that enables us to persevere.” J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, Women’s Ministry in the Local Church
-
The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart.
[image_frame style=”framed_shadow” align=”left”]http://tarabarthel.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dragon-aslan1.jpg[/image_frame]I’m assuming that most of you are familiar with C.S. Lewsis’ masterpiece, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. If not, I hope you go out today and read it! Well. Actually read the entire Chronicles of Narnia because that’s the way to really understand the depth of everything that happens. For the past four days as I was blessed to be learning and growing at the The Gospel Coalition’s National Women’s Conference, I was also feeling a little bit like Eustace the dragon, right as he was on his back, and Aslan’s great and powerful claws were tearing off his scaly skin from head to toe. I believe the…
-
Church is a Band of Natural Enemies
Just a few scratchings from one of my many listenings of Pastor Tim Keller’s sermon, The Community of Jesus (taken from Luke 6:12-36). This is a sermon that is worth listening to more than once … Why do we have the law of God? To find law and be saved? NO. Exodus shows that is impossible. God does not give them the law and then save them from slavery. He saves them and then gives them the law. So, if God has already saved them from slavery, why did he give them the law? Because He is going to make us into a people; a true human community. A new human community.…
-
Don Carson: Home at Last – The Spectacular God at the Center (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)
To read the near-transcription from Dr. Carson’s plenary (including worship with the Gettys, the Scripture passages, helpful links, etc.), just click “Replay” below: Here is a picture of Dr. Carson as he was teaching: The actual LiveBlog replay above has around 7,200 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry: One reason God uses so much symbolism is because we are so dead to God, so blind, so unable to understand, so without category, without vocabulary; that when someone like Paul is…
-
Kathleen B. Nielson: Through the Open Door – The Transcendent and Redeeming God (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)
To read the near-transcription from Dr. Nielson’s plenary (including worship with the Gettys, the Scripture passages, helpful links, etc.), just click “Replay” below: Here is a picture of Dr. Nielson from the conference: The actual LiveBlog replay above has around 5,700 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry: The book of Revelation is meant to light up our whole lives to the end. The culmination of all of Scripture; the big vision. Maybe one reason why Revelation is such a hard…
-
Jenny Salt: In the Third Heaven – The God Who Can’t Be Talked About (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)
To read the near-transcription from Jenny Salt’s plenary (including worship with the Gettys, the Scripture passages, helpful links, etc.), just click “Replay” below: The actual LiveBlog replay above has around 5,000 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry: The term “boasting” is featured throughout 2 Corinthians. The world says: boast about the things that are impressive about you. Tell them the good stuff about yourself. But the gospel, the great work of God in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,…
-
One Indispensable Rule for Everything and Anything Online
Kevin DeYoung is right yet again: The One Indispensable Rule for Using Social Media (“Oh, be careful little fingers what you type …”)
-
Remnants of Shame Still Cling to Us—But They are Losing Their Grip
The number one question I am asked about at my women’s events has to do with shame–that pervasive sense of non-good-enough-ness that keeps us always feeling on the “out”—not safe, not accepted, not wanted, not … loved. Rich, poor; urban, rural; formal education, no formal education—many Christian women struggle with feeling not-good-enough–at work, in the home, with their extended families, in the quietness of their own hearts. They feel like they don’t fit in. There is no safe place for them. If they were ever vulnerable enough to let someone see their “real selves,” women who struggle with shame feel that they would be evaluated and judged with a resounding: Not.…
-
Nancy Leigh DeMoss: On Another Mountain – The God Who Points to His Son (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)
To read the near-transcription from Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s plenary, just click “Replay” below: The actual LiveBlog replay above has around 5,700 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry: It’s possible to have heads that are full and hearts that are empty. Sound theology should always lead us to doxology and transformation. Theology of suffering: suffering and humiliation, weakness, are means by which God’s Kingdom and glory are advanced. In the mystery of God, death brings life. This is counsel that we as…
