Happy Reformation Day!

Please enjoy this partial post from the Desiring God blog...the whole thing can be linked from HERE.

From John Piper-

Dear Friends,

Today is Reformation Day. Martin Luther posted his explosive 95 theses October 31, 1517. In the wake of Luther’s life, an army of Reformers soon emerged. Foremost among them was John Calvin. Together they recovered for the church the supreme authority and clarity of the Scriptures. Grace-erasing tradition had buried the glory of the gospel. But now light was breaking out. So the Reformers took up a Latin phrase to describe the wonder: “Post Tenebras Lux”—“After Darkness... Light.”

In honor of Calvin’s ministry and, even more, in celebration of the God who restored the gospel to his church, we are making this video available today. My prayer is that it would stir in your heart a fresh passion for the majesty of the word of God.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Something Dies

“¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13, ESV)

John Owen wrote a classic book in the 17th Century titled On The Mortification of Sin and he describes how we will either be actively killing sin in our life or sin will be killing us.  The apostle Paul made this clear in Romans 8 as cited above.

I have been enjoying a read of the following book that is easier to read and adapts John Owen's teaching into a shorter book...

Available at Amazon for Kindle or paperback

Another good option is this pdf that summarizes John Owens book and it contains a link to an even more detailed outline that is also very good if you want to get deeper into the topic...

Resurgence posting of Mortification of Sin outline HERE

Or go to the original...

Available at Amazon for Kindle or paperback

Soli Deo Gloria!

The New Plan!

So here is the new plan for this blog.  As you have noticed I stopped posting a couple months ago due to a ministry project that was taking my morning time and this has since left and returned in a couple variations but this time off has given me opportunity to evaluate my heart and what I was doing with the blog.  Here are my thoughts below...

Positives-

• Blog is valuable ministry tool for communication and encouragement of the saints
• Blog is valuable tool for making other resources easily available to folks in my men's group and such
• Blog is encouragement to those who want to see that Jeff is still fired up if that gives them hope of sustained joy or zeal as well

Negatives-

• Blog is a strain on my morning time and can be a distraction from God
• Blog is a source of spiritual pride or frustration as I am more or less successful in posting something "worthwhile"
• Blog too easily becomes my goal each morning rather than connecting with God

Conclusion-

I have decided that I will post once a week, probably on the weekend, to summarize what God is hitting me with through personal study, fellowship, looking at other resources, etc.  The posts will not really be an effort at expository reflection or anything fancy but rather sort of a weekly wrap-up that might include links to favorite blog posts or sermons or other messages or books or whatever.  

So there it is...once a week.  Let's go with that and see what happens.  

Soli Deo Gloria!