Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Is the Cross More About God or Us?

I ran across this quote from a book called Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris that I am reading. And I thought it might be thought-provoking for others to read too. Harris is describing a sermon he heard from John Piper at a conference in Texas as a young adult:

"I'd never heard anyone speak that way about Jesus's death on the cross. I had always heard it explained in terms of my great worth. I am so valuable that God would send Jesus to die. The question Piper closed his message with deeply challenged me. 'Do you love the Cross because it makes much of you?' he asked. 'Or do you love it because it enables you to enjoy an eternity of making much of God?'
"I left Austin with an unsettling thought that has never left me. If I love the Cross only for what it does for me, I will have reduced it to a monument to myself. But the greatest glory of the Cross is what it ells me about God. A God of justice and mercy. A God who loved helpless sinners like me so much that he came to die so we could be free to know and worship him for eternity. (48)"

Thoughts?

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

What Demons Believe...

I'm teaching on the belief of demons tomorrow night at 620--about how we must do more than believe right facts about Jesus. We must trust Him. Reading tonight, I ran across a quote from my all-time favorite preacher, Charles Spurgeon. I've updated it to more current English:

"Do you believe? 'I believe,' says one, and he begins to repeat what they call the 'Apostle's Creed.' Hold your tongue sir! That doesn't matter; the devil believes that, perhaps more intelligently than you do; he believes and trembles. That kind of believing saves no man. You may believe the most orthodox creed in Christendom, and die. Do you trust--for that is the cream of the word 'believe'--do you trust in Jesus? Do you lean your whole weight on him?...This is the faith that saves--faith that falls back into the arms of Jesus, a faith that drops from its own hanging place into those mighty arms."

Wow....Well said!