Death Crushes. Jesus Lives.

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Stephen Jones

Death crushes, it sweeps away the ones you love and leaves traces of memories that seem lost in some world long gone. It is never predictable, nor understandable, even when the signs and symptoms are ever so obvious. Emotions are displayed in a variety of ways but always conclude the same. Death consumes.

Jesus redeems, He sweeps away the tears of death and brings promises of new memories in a world soon to be. He is never predictable, nor understandable, even when the signs and miracles are ever so obvious. Emotions are displayed in a variety of ways but always conclude the same. Jesus lives.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:15-20

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a response

He earned it with blood

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Stephen Jones

When Jesus was slaughtered on the cross, God wasn’t looking on as if surprised. No, God had orchestrated it from the beginning of time, He orchestrated your heart from the beginning of time. Trust Him, He earned it with blood.

Posted in Thoughts | Leave a response

The loss of intellectualism within the Church

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Stephen Jones

The question I propose is this, should we just accept that the average American Christian doesn’t have the intellectual ability to read a passage of scripture and understand it and therefore spoon feed them the understanding, whether through a paraphrased Bible or from the pulpit, or should we push them to understand the Bible by teaching them to read a passage of scripture and understand it on their own?

The problems with the former are numerous. Here are three off the top of my head:

1. It gives power to the translator and the pastor and away from the people. Wasn’t that one of the problems of Rome during the reformation?

2. It doesn’t prepare them to defend against heresy, as they could be easily led astray by another.

3. It doesn’t prepare for the future but accepts the present. Someone might struggle to interpret scripture on their own, but to therefore just accept it and not pursue understanding will hurt the next generation as they will not have such a drive to understand scripture either.

Agree? Disagree?

Posted in Thoughts | 1 Response

Our God is not dead, He’s alive, He’s alive!

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Stephen Jones

So I really need to finish reading a few books, especially since I keep finding others I want to read, but since I haven’t finished them and haven’t posted in a while, here are the lyrics to a song that is wrecking my heart.

Christ is Risen by Matt Maher

Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
But fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to Him who showed great love
And bled for us
Freely You’ve bled for us

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with Him again
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave

Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bowed to none but heaven’s will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer’s crown
No burden great can hold You down
In strength You reign
Forever let Your church proclaim

O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light
The glory of God has defeated the night

O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light
Our God is not dead
He’s alive! He’s alive!

Go purchase it on Amazon, it is well worth the $0.99

Posted in Thoughts | Leave a response

“Jesus was a virgin. His Bride wasn’t. He loved us anyway.”

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Stephen Jones

These words are deadly. Simply, they rock your pride to utter defeat, ripping at its very core and forcing you onto your knees in humble submission to our Creator, both in the beginning and at the cross.

Russell D. Moore, the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote these words as a conclusion to a post on sexual sin, particularly in regards to a potential spouse’s sexual past. You can read the full post here.

Moore pours out his wisdom on this subject, accurately asserting the need for forgiveness and the assurance of a changed heart.

If your future husband is repentant, and forgiven, and yet you are “tortured” by the thoughts of his past, then the issue for you is one of personal pride and a refusal to see oneself as a gospel-forgiven sinner.

We are all sinners, we have all sinned gravely, and to look at another in disdain, whether a potential spouse, or just a fellow believer, is to reject your own need for salvation, your own deprevity.

Please read Moore’s response to this issue, it is not just for those who are single, those who are married and dealing with past sins, but for every Christian.

Posted in Forwards | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Response

What I am reading: March 2010

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Stephen Jones

First, I want to apologize for my lack of posting over the past months and I am trying to make it more of a priority to post.

helpinghurtsSecond, I just received a copy of When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and I am really excited to read this book since I plan on doing much ministry outside of the United States. I also just purchased The Masculine Mandate by Richard Phillips, which I am hoping is a resource I can use to help myself and other young men in their journey to manhood, as it seems to be a serious problem in the Church today. When I am done reading these two books I hope to have reviews of them up soon after, but can’t promise a time table.

Kevin DeYoung lists When Helping Hurts as one of his top 10 books of 2009 and writes:

This is an important book. You should read it. A wrong response to a book like this is: “Well, everything I’ve ever tried to do to help the poor is apparently wrong. So why bother.” Another wrong response would be: “See, the poor just need to do it themselves. We shouldn’t be wasting our time on this kind of thing.” No, the poor need our help. But passion and generosity may not, by themselves, be very helpful. Often, they are downright hurtful. We need wisdom, patience, and humility. The poor need our help, and we need their help too. We are all broken. We all have sins we can’t see. We all need reconciliation.

masculineAs for The Masculine Mandate, Tim Challies writes:

He (Phillips) looks at a man’s sacred calling to work, to bear the image of God and to be a “Shepherd-Lord,” one who tends and cares for all the responsibilities God has placed him over. He looks both to calling and to character, showing how a man must live if he wishes to carry out his mandate in each area of life.Well-written and presenting tough truths within such a simple grid of work and keep, this book is a very useful call for men to live out their mandate before God. I feel challenged and equipped for having read it and am glad to recommend it to any man. Read it, apply it, live it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a response

Condemned by their own reason

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Stephen Jones

“It will be one of the curses of the damned to see that they will be condemned by their own reason with which they claimed to condemn the Christian religion.”

Pascal

Posted in Quotes | Leave a response

“For God is good”

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Stephen Jones

I haven’t posted since Uganda and I plan to post very soon about what the Lord did there and in me but because of school I haven’t had much time to formulate blog posts.

But I figured I could throw out a quote from something I am reading for homework.

Athanasius’ On the Incarnation of the Word

3. For God is good, or rather is essentially the source of goodness: nor could one that is good be niggardly of anything: whence, grudging existence to none, He has made all things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. And among these, having taken especial pity, above all things on earth, upon the race of men, and having perceived its inability, by virtue of the condition of its origin, to continue in one stay, He gave them a further gift, and He did not barely create man, as He did all the irrational creatures on the earth, but made them after His own image, giving them a portion even of the power of His own Word; so that having as it were a kind of reflection of the Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide ever in blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise.

4. But knowing once more how the will of man could sway to either side, in anticipation He secured the grace given them by a law and by the spot where He placed them. For He brought them into His own garden, and gave them a law: so that, if they kept the grace and remained good, they might still keep the life in paradise without sorrow or pain or care besides having the promise of incorruption in heaven; but that if they transgressed and turned back, and became evil, they might know that they were incurring that corruption in death which was theirs by nature: no longer to live in paradise, but cast out of it from that time forth to die and to abide in death and in corruption. 5. Now this is that of which Holy Writ also gives warning, saying in the Person of God: “Of every tree that is in the garden, eating thou shalt eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall not eat of it, but on the day that ye eat, dying ye shall die.” But by “dying ye shall die,” what else could be meant than not dying merely, but also abiding ever in the corruption of death?

Posted in Quotes | Leave a response

Whose glory do you live for?

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Stephen Jones

The more I live, and the more I battle with sin, the more I am convinced that it is a battle of glory. It is a battle between my glory and Christ’s glory, between pride and humility. As I reflect on my emotions, my thoughts and actions, and my desires and purposes behind them, I always find this battle. I find myself acting in ways to further my glory, speaking in ways to further my glory, and dressing in ways to further my glory. Yet all it ever leads to is insecurity and hopelessness, because I mess up, I fail, and thus, I am nothing without Christ. There is no glory to be furthered if that glory is mine.

And so I wrote 12 resolutions to help me fight this battle in the Lord’s favor, so that Christ might be glorified rather than me.

    1. Resolved, to live and act for God’s glory in all aspects of life rather than my own.

    2. Resolved, in light of resolution one, to desire a wife and act in pursuit of a wife for God’s glory rather than my own.

    3. Resolved, to not act in order to gain acceptance of others, but act in order to maximize the glorification of God.

    4. Resolved, to not be ruled by sarcasm, joking, mocking, but that my speech, tone and mannerisms might be pleasing to God and glorifying to His Son.

    5. Resolved, to not speak pridefully or arrogantly of myself, but of Christ and Christ alone.

    6. Resolved, to lead others to glorify God.

    7. Resolved, to have an ever-striving pursuit of maximizing God’s glory in every aspect of my life, from my actions, to my speech and my appearance.

    8. Resolved, to not dress in order to gain glory for myself.

    9. Resolved, to not find my identity, or confidence, in myself but rather in Christ, who died for me, and the Father, who sent him.

    10. Resolved, to never be satisfied with my holiness, but to continually resolve myself to fight for holiness.

    11. Resolved, to follow Christ to the death of myself.

    12. Resolved, to trust God knowing that His will is perfect.

Whose glory do you live for? Are you living to further your own glory, are your actions and thoughts for your glory, or are you living to further Christ’s glory in thought and deed?

Posted in Resolutions | Leave a response

Striving for Christ, for holiness

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Stephen Jones

Are you satisfied with your life? Or do you hunger for holiness? Do you think you have already reached your goal? Or are you pressing onward? Is your life defined by Christ, by an ever striving passion for holiness? Or are you defined by the world, by your own glorification? Fight for holiness. Learn from the mature, run from the immature. Stand firm, do not be like those who are destined for destruction, deceived into thinking they have obtained salvation, but live in the context of heaven, your true home, in expectation of Christ’s return, and our transformation by his power.

Philippians 3:12-4:1 (ESV)

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

Posted in Biblical Insight | Leave a response

Next Page »

YC on Twitter

Join the movement on Facebook.