It.

It isn't about the brand of your notebook.
It is about what you write in it.

It isn't about Husky or Craftsman.
It is about what you build.

It isn't about the make and model of your car.
It is about the car getting you there.

It isn't about what you say you do.
It is about what your doing says about you.

The translation doesn't matter.
Read it!

Mac, Windows, Linux?
Doesn't matter. Just compute something!

Think about how much you take in.
How much do you give out?

Think about what you take in.
Think about what you give out.

Love God, love others.
Don't stop before you get there.

I stop at so many points.
I take pride in the method of it.
I need to stop.
I need to get going.

God Will Provide

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.


Gen 22:7-8

I cannot tell you how often I worry that God will not provide.

But He does. He does!!

Bonds of Brotherhood

What is needed in the church is a kind of familial relationship that is a brotherhood and a sisterhood. It can be learned in part outside of the church in other endeavors, such as the world of sports or even the battlefield. But the deepest knitting together of human beings for a common cause, a common faith, and a common Lord exists in the church of Jesus Christ.

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/bonds-brotherhood/

From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine. Website: www.ligonier.org/tabletalk. Email: tabletalk@ligonier.org. Toll free: 1-800-435-4343.

Is your faith enough?

I started listening (audio book) to The Road, by Cormac McCarthy again.

There isn't much of a plot to the book. There is a man, and a child. And a few other side characters.

You can easily look up the premise online, so I won't cover it in detail here.

Here is the affect the book has on my psyche: it utterly destroys any ideas of earthly treasures. Picture a time or place where you have no earthly joy.

Is your hope or faith in Christ enough to keep you going?

Some Wisdom for Today

Prov. 11:12    Mean-spirited slander is heartless;
quiet discretion accompanies good sense.

  

Prov. 11:17    When you’re kind to others, you help yourself;
when you’re cruel to others, you hurt yourself.

  

Prov. 11:29    Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air;
common sense tells you it’s a stupid way to live.

  

Prov. 12:16    Fools have short fuses and explode all too quickly;
the prudent quietly shrug off insults.

  

Prov. 12:19    Truth lasts;
lies are here today, gone tomorrow.

  

Prov. 12:20    Evil scheming distorts the schemer;
peace-planning brings joy to the planner.

  

Prov. 14:3    Frivolous talk provokes a derisive smile;
wise speech evokes nothing but respect.

  

Prov. 14:17    The hotheaded do things they’ll later regret;
the coldhearted get the cold shoulder.

  

Prov. 15:18    Hot tempers start fights;
a calm, cool spirit keeps the peace.

  

Prov. 15:4    Kind words heal and help;
cutting words wound and maim.

   

Do we know much of love? | BRIC House

I was having a conversation recently with someone and the topic of love came up. We talked about how the world has many meanings for love. But as a Christ follower, what do we know of love? The Bible gives it to us plainly:

[4] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [8] Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. [13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:4-13 ESV)

So there you have it. Love. Explained. Here are a couple of other verses:

[28] And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” [29] Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [30] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ [31] The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” [32] And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. [33] And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” [34] And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34 ESV)

Now look at the introduction to the above versus:

[13:1] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV)

Makes me wonder how much of love do we really know? Love will be the topic of our next few weeks at BRIC House.

 

Another Look: It’s OK…to Just Be a Christian

By Chaplain Mike

I thought this post from last year (4/19/10) was worth another look. I hope you will too. It’s a bit of a riff on the question asked by the prophet Micah: “What does the Lord require of you?” (Micah 6:8) In the light of last week’s discussions on “radical” and other adjectives we apply to Christianity, these words came back to my mind. I’ve made a few minor editorial changes to the original post.

 

I hope this will come as a bit of good news to you today. Maybe it will help you stop beating yourself up unnecessarily. I hope it will help us all to that end.

What I have to tell you is…

It’s OK.

It’s OK to just be a Christian.

It’s OK to just be a person who knows and is thankful that God loves you and gave his Son for you.

It’s OK to just be a person of the cross, to know that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for the world’s salvation.

Really, it’s OK.

 

It’s OK to be someone who only really cares about trying to love God and love your neighbor.

It’s OK to think that the Apostles’ Creed is a comprehensive enough statement of faith for you, and that you are willing to have fellowship with other people who think the same.

You don’t have to be a certain kind of Christian. Adjectives like “reformed” or “conservative” or “emerging” or “missional” or “radical” or “passionate” or any number of denominational or theologically constricting labels are not necessary.

It’s OK just to love Jesus and be thankful for what he’s done for you.

You don’t have to go to a “cool” church with a name like “Revolution” or “The Rock” or “Journey” or “The River,” though it’s certainly OK if you do. Your plain ol’ First Presbyterian or First Baptist or First United Methodist will work just fine too. It’s also OK if you attend St. Peter’s and your pastor waves incense around, or St. Basil’s, where intriguing icons invite your contemplation.

It’s OK if you don’t listen to Christian music, shop in Christian stores, wear Christian t-shirts, go to Christian conventions, become a Christian homeschooler or send your kids to Christian schools, patronize Christian businesses, participate in Christian causes, read Christian books, or identify yourself with Christian organizations. You can be a Christian without all that, it’s OK.

It’s OK if you don’t have a big library of theological books or Bible commentaries. It’s OK if you struggle reading through the Bible, because you can’t even make it past Genesis 5—you can’t pronounce that long list of funny names. A great multitude of believers over the centuries never even saw a Bible, except maybe up front in a church somewhere, and even then they couldn’t read it. Guess what? God knew them and they knew him anyway. How about that?

It’s OK if you have no idea what it means to “engage the culture,” or “have an impact in the world.” You may not really understand what “social justice” is all about. If you’ve never been in a small group or taken a missions trip, never had your spiritual gifts inventoried, never tweeted the pastor during a message and wouldn’t know a PowerPoint sermon if it bit you, it’s OK.

I don’t think it really matters if you know John Piper from Piper Laurie, N.T. Wright from the Wright Brothers, YEC from NAACP, or Willow Creek from Nickel Creek.

You are OK if you stay out of the culture wars. Culture wars? You’re too busy visiting your neighbor who’s in the hospital, taking some food to the family, coaching that little kid who doesn’t have a dad, writing a note to a friend who’s discouraged, making coffee for the congregation on Sunday morning, volunteering at the school, mowing the lawn of a shut-in. Fact is, you’re smack dab in the midst of the real battle, the one those who do all the talking often avoid like the plague.

Oh, by the way, it’s OK if you say, “I don’t know” when people ask you about the burning issues of the day. It’s OK if you don’t have a strong opinion on gay marriage or stem cell research or global warming.

And it’s even OK if you are a bit fuzzy on your theology. If you can’t give a precise formulation of the doctrine of justification by faith or distinguish between the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed teachings on sanctification, you’re still gonna be OK. If you think “rapture” is what you felt on your wedding day, and have no idea of its theological meaning, that’s OK.

It’s OK to say, “I don’t know.” Doesn’t make you less of a Christian.

Baptized as an infant? OK. Dunked in the creek as a young teen? OK.

Love to receive communion because you meet Jesus there, but have no idea how to explain it? In my opinion, that’s OK.

Because you trust in Jesus.

You know in your heart that you’re broken and need fixing.

It’s clear to you that he is the only one who can forgive your past, enliven your present, and guarantee your future.

And in response you have found simple ways to worship the One who means everything to you, with others who feel the same.

That’s what you know, and that’s who you are.

You’re just a Christian.

And that’s OK.

By the way, if you know someone like this, you might want read this post to them, because I have an idea they have no clue what the “Christian blogosphere” is, and they will probably never find my words.

That is perfectly OK with me.

This was taken from the Internet Monk's website: http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/another-look-its-ok-to-just-be-a-christian

Is it OK?

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