Here are the links…

• Why we don’t do evangelism
• Eric Liddle — A Christian for the Ages
• Books for Families & Children
• Teaching Children to Love the Church
• The heartbreak of sin
• The Logical and Emotional Problems of Evil
• Too Busy Not to Evangelize?
• Interview with John Frame on the Problem of Evil
• Sermon Series on Worldliness
• Breaking pornography addiction
• The Two Es of Parenting
• Not more, nor less
• Sam Storms on Adoption
• Backtrack - A Few Things I’m Working on in my Preaching
• How to Mark a Book
• 7 Reasons to Say ‘God Willing…’
• Why Membership Matters
• Preaching Notes: C.J. Mahaney
• Keller on Hell
• Interview with Sam Storms on Colossians
• Multi-site the Low-tech Way
• Top 5 Commentaries on the Book of Romans
• Why are you doing that?
• BestCommentaries.com
• No Cheering For Christ
• Q&A with Al Mohler
• The Work of the Holy Spirit

“Here we are able to watch noble souls struggling with their problems and with themselves.  They talk to themselves and to their souls, baring their hearts, analysing their problems, chiding and encouraging themselves.  Sometimes they are elated, at other times depressed, but they are always honest with themselves.  That is why they are of such real value to us if we also are honest with ourselves.”

(Martin Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Depression)

“The Psalms have always been favorites of God’s people because they express honest human experience and emotion in the context of faith. In the Psalms you meet God where you are.”

(David Powlison)

“When you cannot trace God’s hand, you must trust God’s heart.”

(Charles Spurgeon)

On one particular occasion when he [Martin Luther] was greatly discouraged-which was not unusual for Luther-he was forcefully reminded of this by his wife, Katharine. Seeing him unresponsive to any word of encouragement, one morning she appeared dressed in black mourning clothes. No word of explanation was forthcoming, and so Luther, who had heard nothing of a bereavement, asked her, “Katharine, why are you dressed in mourning black?”

“Someone has died,” she replied.

“Died?” said Luther. “I have not heard of anyone dying. Whoever can have died?”

“It seems,” his wife replied, “that God must have died.”

(Sinclair Ferguson, Deserted By God?)

Links from the last seven days…

• Church in a Nutshell
• Invite John Piper to Your Small Group
• Todd Bentley - What’s all the fuss about?
• Top 5 Commentaries on the Books of 1 & 2 Kings
• How To Pray For Persecuted Saints
• Restoring the Disqualified
• Test Revival with Doctrine
• Bedtime Prayers with our Children
• Preaching Notes: Mike Bullmore
• A Few Things I’m Working On In My Preaching
• 3 reasons it’s sometimes smart to state the obvious
• Discipling Christian Children
• Don Carson: Why Preaching IS Required
• Messages for wives and mothers
• Introducing the ESV Study Bible
• The Devil’s Condemnation vs The Spirit’s Conviction
• Preaching Notes: Mark Dever
• Messages for husbands and fathers
• Killing the Sin in Your Life

Some interesting quotes from the Transformers movie…

“No sacrifice, no victory”

(The Witwicky family motto)

“I will sacrifice myself to save you”

(Optimus Prime to Sam Witwicky)

In 1 Corinthians 5:9 Paul writes about a previous letter he wrote to the church in Corinth. If this letter was found, would it become the 67th book in the Bible?

No! If God had wanted this letter to be included in His Word, we can be sure that He would have made sure it was included. Unlike the two letters Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we have, this letter was never intended by God to be part of the Bible.

So if the letter was discovered today it won’t become book number 67!

Mark Driscoll’s new book on the cross comes out at the end of September.  You can read a chapter online now HERE, download artwork HERE, and purchase the book HERE.

In Esther 6 we see a reversal of fortunes.  In Esther 6:11 we read: “So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour.”“

Mordecai as a Jew was facing death because of the king’s edict.  But now in Esther 6 his fortunes are reversed as God in his sovereignty works to remind the king of how Mordecai exposed an assassination attempt on the king resulting in him now being honoured. 

This isn’t the only reversal of fortunes we read about in the Bible.  Several hundred years later, the Lord Jesus Christ didn’t just face death he experienced death as He took upon Himself the sins of the world.  But God demonstrated his sovereignty again by raising Jesus from the grave and exalted him to the highest place, the throne of heaven, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!  

Because of Jesus we can know a reversal of fortunes in our own life.  Through repentance and faith in Jesus we who were dead in our transgressions and sins; who were by nature objects of God’s wrath have been made alive in Christ and become a child of God.