Thought For the Week

Dear Friends, Today’s “thought” has to do with your view of God. Or I could add in question form, what moves you to serve God? Is it fear? Is it a sense of responsibility, duty, or obligation to him considering all that he has done for you through Christ? Or is it his worth and beauty and unmatchable glory? Do you serve him because you feel you should or must, or because he has captivated and ravished your heart with the knowledge of how great he is? This selection is from the book, “God Shines Forth” by Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves. And the subtitle speaks of the book’s overall theme – “How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church.” I found their words convicting—since I unwittingly fell into a couple of the traps he speaks of—and can therefore speak of their truth. Enjoy. “Those Who look to Him are Radiant…” Psalm 34:5 What we truly worship and cherish will, for good or ill, be revealed in our miss...

Dear Friends, Today’s “thought” has to do with the Christians responsibility to the poor. Not our option to do so if we feel so led, but our responsibility. As Paul says he was told by Peter, James and John, in Gal. 2:10, when being given the right hand of fellowship into his standing as an apostle, “All they asked was that we continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” Our thought is taken from Alex DiPrima’s book “Spurgeon and the Poor – How the Gospel Compels Christian Social Concern.” I just picked it up so I’m not all the way through it, but I would highly recommend it on the basis of what I have read so far. This selection comes from chapter 4, “Gospel Proclamation and Social Ministry.” It is very wise, balanced, biblical and helpful instruction. Enjoy. “Spurgeon said in an 1862 sermon, ‘I would like if we who have a purer faith, could remember a little more the intimate connection between the body and the soul. Go to the poor man and tell him...

Dear Friends, One of the most interesting things about the Bible is God’s choice of the people He calls and uses! If most of us were going to write a book encouraging people to be holy, I think we would have started with more morally-stellar people of character! But not God. He chooses people like unschooled wandering nomads (Abraham), an unfaithful hypocrite (Judah), an adulterous murderer (David), a prostitute (Rahab), etc., whereas we likely would have selected more "worthy" people for such exalted roles in redemptive history. Paul summarizes this odd way God does things in I Cor. 1:26: “Brethren, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things – the things that are not – to nulli...