Jul
21
What a team of friends we have through Jesus
Filed Under Christian Living, Holiness, Prayer, Trinity | Leave a Comment
Here’s some profound insight from Dr. J.I. Packer from a recent interview in Modern Reformation:
J.I. Packer: “I’m a great believer in the importance of Trinitarian thinking in discipling. A lot of what has weakened discipling is the result of thinking of only one person of the godhead at any one time–think about the Holy Spirit and what he does; think about Jesus and his death on the cross for us; think of the Father and of his love and goodwill. But you’re not thinking, you see, of the three together: the divine team which works in the unity of a single program and plan, each person in the team fulfilling his part in our salvation, so that the gospel is much less ‘what a friend we have in Jesus,’ but ‘what a team of friends we have through Jesus’–it’s the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our discipling instruction will be infinitely strengthened if we present it that way. Sometimes people say, ‘I’ve never heard it put like that before.’ People will be deistic unless they are taught the Trinity.”
Jul
18
New website for Warrens in Ethiopia
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Andy and Bev Warren, MTW missionaries to Ethiopia (and dearly beloved by all of us at FPC Kosciusko) have launched a new website to explain and chronicle the Ethiopia AIDS project.
Jul
16
A word from our namesake
Filed Under Christian Living, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Prayer, Puritans | Leave a Comment
The Sweet Dropper is named for English Puritan Richard Sibbes (1577-1635). Read our tribute to Sibbes. These words come from Sibbes’ The Soul’s Conflict, and Victory over Itself by Faith:
It were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties. But to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, this is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have.
The words speak of the depravity of the heart and the deceitfulness of sin. It’s no easy or pleasant task to think rightly about our lives. Many of us may enjoy analyzing our problems, but are we doing so in the light of God’s Word? Perhaps we are analyzing our lives in a self-serving, self-justifying way. We replay the mental DVD of wrongs committed against us. We sooth ourselves with arguments that hide the truth and shift the blame to others. None of us wants to acknowledge things about ourselves that we would rather deny. How do you learn to see straight when something inside is bending in the wrong direction? My old campus minister, Hal Farnsworth, is fond of asking people, “If you were deceiving yourself, would you know it?”
Join me in asking God to overthrow self-righteousness–yours and mine. Ask the Spirit to help you have “other thoughts of yourself” and to see clearly the grace of Christ Jesus coming to you in your sin and misery. Face up, and find mercy.
Jul
14
Ave atque vale: John Brawand
Filed Under Ave atque vale, Bible, Missions | Leave a Comment
Wycliffe Bible Translators informed us today that John Brawand, 84, entered the Savior’s presence on 18 June. FPC Kosciusko has supported John and his wife Alice for many years. The Brawands went to Guatemala in 1961 to translate the Scriptures for the Rabinal Achi people. Before leaving Guatemala in 1973, they reduced the Rabinal Achi language to writing, taught many to read their own language for the first time, and translated a number of the books of the New Testament. Over the next quarter century John served a number of important administrative roles for Wycliffe. Alice anticipates going to Guatemala son to assist the translation team in the final stages of publication of the New Testament.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for those who serve him with faithfulness, zeal and joy, making glad tidings known to “other sheep.”