Loving Each Other...

Below is an excerpt from a talk given by John Piper to his staff. It actually is good for us all. It is part of a longer article by Piper.

I hope you do as I did, read and learn.


Six Biblical Guidelines for Loving Each Other Amid Differences

1. Let’s avoid gossiping.

2. Let’s identify evidences of grace in each other and speak them to each other and about each other.

3. Let’s speak criticism directly to each other if we feel the need to speak to
others about it.

4. Let’s look for, and assume, the best motive in the other’s viewpoint, especially when we disagree.

5. Think often of the magnificent things we hold in common.

6. Let’s be more amazed that we are forgiven than that we are right. And in that way, let’s shape our relationships by the gospel.

The entire article can be read here.


Gripped By Grace,
Hal

A Good Friday Thought...

John Piper at Desiring God blog had the following quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is very applicable to this Easter Season, and is appropriate, as Piper points out, that sixty-four years ago today Bonhoeffer was hanged for his part in and assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler.

"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death.

Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. "
(The Cost of Discipleship, 99)

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Great Thought at EASTER...

Work through the old English and you will say "Wow!" when you read this quote, concerning a believer and not returning to sin.

"Now go on reader, and according to the order of Paul's writing, even so do though...Remember that Christ made not this atonement that thou shouldst anger God again; neither died he for thy sins, that thou shouldst live still in them; neither cleansed he thee, that thou shouldst return, as a swine, unto thine old puddle again; but that thou shouldst be a new creature, and live a new life after the will of God, and not of the flesh." William Tyndale


Gripped by Grace,
Hal

As You Go...Watch and Pray

I received news yesterday that someone I attended college with took his own life. I saw him a short time ago in a store in Birmingham and we talked and exchanged some pleasantries. But I went no further than that.

Now I wonder, did I miss something? Should I have been more attentive not just to his words but to facial expressions, etc?

We see people everyday, we talk with them but we have our own agendas and our own lists of thing-to-do so we hurry along.

On the other side we let small things and even large things separate us from friends and even family members that really, we love.

Why not, today and everyday, look into the eyes of those you see and pray for them, and love them with the love of Jesus?

The next time you come up on someone you know, slow down and listen. You never know what another person is experiencing right then.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Thinking about the Beatitudes

I have spent the previous weeks preaching from the Beatitudes.

These have been very meaningful to me in my personal walk with the Lord. I have expressed to the congregation at Calera Baptist that the testings and Satanic attacks have been very strong during this series of messages.

I will finish the series this Sunday with Jesus' word's on persecution. These words are convicting and very sobering as we consider whether we have seen persecution, yet the apostle Paul says, "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, will be persecuted."
2 Tim. 3:12.

I must ask myself the question, "Am I truly living a godly life? Or do I even desire to live a godly life?" Yet, at the same time I am not suffering persecution.


I read the following on the Beatitudes written by J.C. Ryle in 1856. His words are convicting:

"Let us learn how entirely contrary are the principles of Christ to the principles of the world. It is vain to deny it. They are almost diametrically opposed. The very characters which the Lord Jesus praises, the world despises. The very pride, and thoughtlessness, and high tempers, and worldliness, and selfishness, and formality, and unlovingness, which abound everywhere, the Lord Jesus condemns.

Let us learn how unhappily different is the teaching of Christ from the practice of many professing Christians. Where shall we find men and women among those who go to churches and chapels, who are striving to live up to the pattern we have read of today? Alas! there is much reason to fear, that many baptized people are utterly ignorant of what the New Testament contains.

Above all let us learn how holy and spiritual-minded all believers should be. They should never aim at any standard lower than that of the sermon on the mount. Christianity is eminently a practical religion. Sound doctrine is its root and foundation, but holy living should always be its fruit. And if we would know what holy living is, let us often bethink ourselves who they are that Jesus calls 'blessed.' "

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Agreeing in Prayer

It is a wonderful thing to see our church family grow in our prayer life together. I have watched the last two weeks as we have gathered around "family members" and prayed for them. The love we see at those times is amazing and heart touching.

I said Sunday we are going to make this something that Calera Baptist is known for. It will not be the exception but the norm.

People are hurting and need our prayers. Most of the things that bother us are minor by comparison to the hurts and pains that some are suffering. So when an annoyance comes - measure it by what you know some of our brothers and sisters are experiencing and let then it pass.


Let's follow scripture and "Bear one another's burdens," and not let the small stuff get our eyes off of each other or the Lord.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Stopping by the Church - on a Snowy Morning

Inspite of snow on the ground - many met today at CBC to study the scriptures and worship the Lord. And, O, what a special time it was.

The time of music blessed my heart and took us to the cross, where we should be always. (Thank you Bro. Sam, Praise Team and Praise Band and also Shannon Vines).

Seeing the family of the Lord come around Michelle Clarke, Hilda LeSeuer and Mary Bishop to pray for a work of the Lord in their bodies was a close loving time when the family functioned as it should.

To see some of our young men and youth and children throw snowballs, like a family playing, was refreshing also.

The snow was a reminder of much that we see in the Word:

Job 37:6 "For to the snow he says, 'Fall on the
earth, likewise to the downpour, his mighty
downpour."

Psalms 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:though your sins are like scarlet,they shall be as white as snow;though they are red like crimson,they shall become like wool."

Daniel 7:9 [ The Ancient of Days Reigns ] "As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire."

Matthew 28:3 "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow."

Revelation 1:13-15 "and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters."

These are only a few.

Did you know snow was in the scriptures this much?

Praise the Lord for the pictures he gives us of Himself and His work in our world around us daily.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal