Ambition

I have never noticed this before.  It has never hit me before like it did earlier this week.  We have moved on to James as one of the books we are reading around the table these days as our living food.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? m By his good conduct let him show his works n in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter o jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not p the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, q demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But r the wisdom from above is first pure, then s peaceable, gentle, open to reason, t full of mercy and good fruits, u impartial and v sincere. 18 And w a harvest of righteousness x is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:13-18

What in my life is in disarray because of my own selfish ambition?  Or selfish ambition around me?  People say that brothers are going to bicker.  That's boys.  They are right.  That is just what brothers do.  Unless they have the mustard seed.  The mustard seed frees us from the "just dos".  The ragged old wood, the spring, the blood, the Son of God.  We are free.  The new heart is no longer slave.  But we like the mud?  Why would we prefer a cesspool,

to a sunset in the mountains?

Why prefer death to communing with the Almighty God.  The one whom has chosen us to be his own?

I think on the havoc selfish ambition has worked in my life... the problems I now have because of it...

But this brings to mind what Paul the apostle says about himself and ambition.

 ...and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written,

“Those who have never been told of him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.”

For what am I living? For what am I spending my life?  Lord give us  Holy Ambition, and purge us from the selfish kind. 

Holy Ambition is one of my favorite sermons ever preached by John Piper.  I encourage you to check it out. 

What farmers do when they milk until 23:00

Well, this wasn't supposed to be the next post but I am feeling a little distracted from being sequential so this is what farmers do when they milk cows and don't get done until 23:00. At first they think maybe they aught to go to bed right away, but that thought quickly fades in the light of posting. Well first they realize they aren't ever going to get home and that everyone else is long gone so they listen to some Piper on their iPod, then when they are done with that they see that they still aren't going to be done for an hour or so, so they find some Saweet Awesome Sovereign Grace Music to listen to. I recommendWorship God Live , my personal favorite.
Anyway when this farmer gets home he realizes not only is he still listening to the end of Worship God Live on his iPod, but behold! perhaps his son was a little fussy because his favorite (works WAY better than anything else) music (Worship God Live) is also playing on the computer even though his wife and child are long asleep.
Well, then he gets thinking about something his wife was harassing him about at lunch (see post on hats). So he takes some pictures to ask the opinion of the wonderful people that read his family's blog.

Hmmm I wonder what is for supper?......Most interesting rice with mushrooms, something yellow in it and carrots.... doesn't taste bad...but I am beginning to feel a bit like someone from Thailand where they raise something like 7,000 different kinds of rice (at this time of night that number could be way off, but it is the number that sticks in my head from the young guy from there that I heard speak this past summer at the Foods Resource Bank national meeting). Ok, now for my survey question....

Update!

Hey the sale is on!!! Today is the last day! If you tried the link and it didn't work that is because, I am dumb and then some! Ok, I just didn't check it at 1 o'clock in the morning, and found that I had http twice at the beginning. So try it now, it works! Or just click HERE!

More Exciting than a Dead Monitor Lizard!!!

YES! ITS TRUE! Something is about to happen that really has me excited! More than seeing this lizard! DESIRING GOD IS HAVING A BOOK SALE!!! We are not just talking some trite little sale, this Wednesday and Thursday (June 27,28) they are selling all books for $5!!!!! That is stinking awesome! You have probably heard me make mention of John Piper before, and hopefully you have checked out some of the Don't Waste Your Life videos you can link to here on our blog. However, if you haven't, or even if you have this is an INCREDIBLE opportunity to get some books by John, or his wife Noel!

If you need a place to start let me Recommend the book Desiring God by John Piper. I started reading this book about the same time we went to visit my fish head eating friend Blake in Africa.



He goes to Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis (Piper is the Pastor for Preaching there) and had recommended that I read it. Wow!!!! Let me just say that God has greatly enlarged my view of Himself, and that has greatly increased my passion for Him, and joy too!! Over the last couple of years I keep going back to that book, because it is not just what Piper has to say there, but it is amazing how much the scriptures are opened up through reading his books. One of the kids I work with at youth has made her way through the book and has made the same comments. Suddenly, things that didn't make sense, make sense. And God's Glory EXPLODES onto the scene. For me that is the exciting thing about reading Piper, I just get so excited about living for Christ, and searching the scriptures.
Ok, anyway, another great book, Don't Waste Your Life. Angela and I are going through this with the College age class (along with the sermon) and striving together to struggle through what this looks like in our lives. Very convicting and encouraging at the same time.

Probably number 2 for me is Let the Nations Be Glad. Of all the missions books I have read this one has been absolutely SEMINOLE! You may have noticed that I have been reading it for some time now on our book list. It is because I keep going back and reading the same stuff over and over and over. This books sets out Christ and The Glorification of God for the joy of all peoples as the cornerstone and foundation of missions. My conclusion (and I still haven't finished) is that if more people in the church would read this, there would be a lot more life in the church. Because we would understand How AWESOME our God is and what life and joy there is in forsaking all for the sake of Christ and The Gospel. This book is so good, my heart started racing while reading the forward. It has happened several places in the book. When is the last time you read non-fiction writing about God the made your heart race?
Another great book (I have been trying not to read till I get through Let the Nations) is What Jesus Demands of the World The few chapters I have read have been heart wrenching, and thrilling!

I have heard great things about so many more of the books for sale Check them out!!! Here is the linkDesiring God books for $5

I am really excited about this deal! It should be a great opportunity to pick up a bunch more Piper books for our library and to give away as gifts!!!
If you aren't convinced this is so great, this was basically the look on my brother Aaron's face when he found out about the deal.




However, beware, if you start reading these books, your view of God, your view of yourself, and your passion for Christ will Lord willingly NEVER BE THE SAME!!!

Don't waste your life...

I just wanted to once again point you to the video feeds in the Don't waste your life section on the right side of our blog. If you have I Tunes you can just subscribe to them, otherwise I would REALLY! encourage you to check them out. They are fairly short clips (from 45 seconds to 3.5 minutes) and they are really thought provoking! You can either click on the independent video to down load them, or click on the title and it will take you to the Web page!!! Go for it!!! I can't say enough times CHECK IT OUT!!!!

Victory Even from Inside the Tomb

It will often look as though Christ is defeated. That's the way it looked on Good Friday. He let himself be libeled and harassed and scorned and shoved around and killed. But in it all he was in control. "No one takes [my life] from me" (John 10:18). So it will always be. If China was closed for forty years to the Western missionaries, it was not as though Jesus accidentally slipped and fell into the tomb. He stepped in. And when it was sealed over, he saved fifty million Chinese from inside-without Western missionaries. And when it was time, he pushed the stone away so we could see what he had done.
When it looks as though he is buried for good, Jesus is doing something awesome in the dark. "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how" (Mark 4:26-27). The world thinks Jesus is done for-out of the way. They think his Word is buried and his plans have failed.
But Jesus is at work in the dark places: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). He lets himself be buried, and he comes out in power when and where he pleases. And his hands are full of fruit made in the dark. "God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it" (Acts 2:24). Jesus goes about his invincible missionary plan "by the power of an indestructible life" (Heb. 7:16).
For twenty centuries, the world has given it their best shot to hold him in. They can't bury him. They can't hold him in, they can't silence him or limit him. Jesus is alive and utterly free to go and come wherever he pleases. All authority in heaven is his. "All things were made though him and for him, and he is absolutely supreme over all other powers" (Col. 1:16-17). "He upholds the universe by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). And the preaching of his Word is the work of missions that cannot fail.

Let the Nations Be Glad!, John Piper

Christians and Prayer

"We must fight to cherish the kingdom above all "other things"- that is our first and most constant battle.... We are a "third soil century." In the parable of the soils, Jesus says that the seed is the Word. He sows his urgent Word of kingdom power. But instead of taking it up as our sword (or bearing fruit), we "are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful" (Mark 4:18-19)... The crying need of the hour is to put the churches on a wartime footing. Mission leaders are crying out, "Where is the church's concept of militancy, of a mighty army willing to suffer, moving ahead with exultant determination to take the world by storm? Where is the risk-taking, the launching out on God alone?"(-James Reapsome Evangelical Missions Quarterly) The answer is that it has been swallowed up in a peacetime mentality... We will never know what prayer is for until we know that life is war."

-Let The Nations Be Glad, John Piper

.......

As many of you know, and my wife has stated before, I love books, actually we both do. Well, some books I read b/c I don't want to get sucked into a cyclone of movie watching. Some books I read in 2-3 days and don't get any sleep, or as much work done as I probably should, (When Crickets Cry is a great example) They are the type of book I read while eating instead of talking with my lovely wife;) (even though she tries). Then there are the books that I read because they were suggested to me, or I would like to read them and they trudge along and take forever, even though they are decent, and informative (for me this was The Prince-Francine Rivers, (on the life of Prince Jonathan) a good book I just couldn't get into it). Then there are my favourite books, and the VERY RARE exception. They are the books that make your heart leap and break at the same time, the books that you only read parts of chapters because you can't take anymore. The ones that make me come alive and WONDER! They are very few, less than a hand full that I have read. They make you just want to stop and stare out the window at the snow falling and marvel at the intricacies of the design of the snow flakes falling and marvel that our All Supreme God knows each one, or at the marvellous design of the pine tree next to the window that is still fully awake, not dormant because it was DESIGNED to do very slow respiration so it would be able to be alive all year round and survive through the months of drought each winter. They are the books that bring GOD to the forefront. And by doing so all is righted. If you have experienced this you know what I mean! Your mind is a swirl of emotion and thought, you can't hardly concentrate on the task at hand because you are carried away to thinking about the Supremacy of God, the wonders of HIM and HIS ...... Grace, mercy, love, a myriad of things!!! Sometimes these books take a long time to read. Not because you struggle through them, but because they require it! You are continually stopping to think over what you read, to contemplate the magnitude of what was just read and what that means for my worldview, for how I think about God in relation to God, and Him glorified through me.
I think I am starting one of those books right now. I have only just begun, and am already ............ I just don't know how to explain it, hmm. I will end with this quote of another quote: "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!....Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth" (Pss. 67:3-4; 47:6-7)

Who is this hopeful BAD man?

Check out this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhLCus0tsmw

This is too funny to me!! I love it. John Piper is one of the pastors of the church my friend Blake attends. I found this video while listening to a podcast from Louie Giglio on the upcoming Passion '07 conference.

It has been my experience that the greater the understanding of the fact that I am sinful, the greater the Glory of God has been revealed in my life. If only we could understand as Paul the apostle said "I am the greatest of sinners", oh how we could rest in the arms of Christ, and begin to understand the compassion of Christ and the matchless love He has for us. It is in the times of greatest understanding of this that I have had the greatest times with Christ, and have begun to feel/see just how all sufficient God really is!........


Ecclesiastes 7:20- Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Luke 18:19- And Jesus said to him "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone."

Isaiah 64:6 -...our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment...

Romans 3:10-12,23- as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one... For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

1 John 1:8 "If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."