The thoughts and ramblings of Bobby...

Why Supernanny and the Dog-wisperer are so intriguing.

2011-02-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

We all love the story of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas right? The fact that the Grinch was evil and his heart changed and his love was restored for Whos of Whoville. We love stories of redemption.

Recently I have been watching Supernanny because one day, Lord willing, my son will be old enough to rebel and disobey me. I would like some practical advice. But that's not the only reason why I watch the show. I love the story of a parent and a child reconciling and a mediator facilitating that reconciliation.

Hollywood is preaching the gospel and they don't even know it. We are like little children who disobey, rebel and hate God our creator who will refuse to be our father. Is it not until Christ our mediator reconciles us to God and then we will be sons and daughters of our creator.

Even the lost are intrigued by these shows because of the story lines. How about we give them the real story line of a holy, just and loving God who has provided a mediator for his ugly, spiteful evil creation in order for us to be reconciled to him.

The Cross and Criticism

2011-02-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

Who is your judge?

We find much criticism in this world. Some is justly given and it should cause us to think. Other criticism should be left behind, there are better things to do than respond to all criticism. But just because I judge that I am OK and free from criticism doesn't mean that I am right. Read 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." Did you catch it? Even Paul the apostle who wrote Scripture explains that even though he has tested himself and found himself clear, he does not say that he is innocent. The only judgment therefore that we out to care about is God's.

A great trap.

Many people will take this passage and free themselves of the criticisms of others or the need to examine oneself. Both extremes are un-biblical. Matthew 18 is clear that you ought to listen to a brother (or sister) who comes to you with an issue and 2nd Corinthians 13 tells us to examine ourselves. So we are neither free from taking note of criticism from others or the need to examine ourselves. Many of us will despise one or the other or both. But the biblical understanding would be to find what God's judgment is.

2 freedoms.

The great freedom is that we can think rightly now of the criticism of others and our own examination. I usually take the criticism of others very lightly, not because I think I am better than them, but because I know that their judgment is not final, but this freedom comes from knowing Christ. Where I am convicted that a criticism is valid I will examine myself. Within my examination I must find what God's judgment is (not my own) and cling to that. If I held on to the criticism/praise of others I could be rendered impotent and despair. If I held on to the criticism/praise of myself I could deceive myself and therefore truly be damned.

The only boast.

The remedy to a life of false condemnation or false praise is the cross. In Paul's final chapter in Galatians he summarizes his arguments in the statement that we need to boast only in the cross. Why is this? Isn't the cross only used for salvation? No. To often we are trapped with the idea that the gospel is only ONE part of the Christian life, that it is an "invitation" to un-believers which relegates the cross to an entrance into Christianity but not the path of Christianity. The gospel is the foundation of the Christian life not the entrance and is the judgment of God that brings us our truth in criticism.

What the cross has to do with criticism.

The cross frees us from despair in our sin and pride in our righteousness. It is only in the cross that our condemnation "I never knew you; depart from me workers of lawlessness" was received by Christ and our reward "well done good and faithful servant" is gained by Christ. We do not despair in our sin because Christ took the punishment for it on the cross as a substitute which pleased God as evidenced through Christ's resurrection. We do not become prideful because our righteousness is based on Christ's righteous life and obedience even unto death on the cross.

Walking in the Light.

What great freedom there is in the cross for the believer. God's judgment has changed from justified wrath against insubordinate, obstinate enemies to beloved children, heirs and allies. It frees us from walking in darkness. We no longer have to sin because we have died to it in the cross. Christ has taken that from us. We have the freedom finally to confess our sin to him, to love him, to know him, to walk with him. Now we are free to walk in the light as he is in the light and to have fellowship with him and others (1 John 1:5-10).

The final judgment.

Knowing what Christ has done, knowing that this is free, knowing that our chains have been lifted, knowing that the final judgment is "well done" is all the encouragement we need to live a life free from the condemnation of others and ourselves. We are free to live a life fully devoted to the one who freed us on the cross. This ought to lead us to an examination of ourselves, in light of God's judgment in the cross.

These thoughts came after listening to Tim Keller's Sermon "Sickness unto death"

Peanut turns one.

2011-02-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

Reflections on Our Little Peanut.

Last year today we would have already had or expected our first child to come. In God's providence, we lost our baby before we met our baby. The crazy thing is this. If we would have had our little Peanut we would most likely not have our son Gideon. That is an awesome thing to think about.

My dream for our son.

Everyday I find myself crying to God for the salvation of my son. I know that it is only by his Spirit's work that Gideon would ever look at Jesus. I pray that he would love Jesus, trust him, obey him, walk with him. I don't care if he is a photographer, doctor, paper salesman, pastor... It just doesn't matter, as long as his heart is turned toward Christ.

Normal.

Is this what you want from your child? Or would you be happy with your child just being moral. A "good Christian." Would you be just fine if he attends church every week and does not have sex before he is married? Or do you cry out for your child to see and savor Christ? Does it make you uneasy that your child might be radical? I saw a prayer one time that was written out and framed by a famous Minnesotan family. At the end it said "keep me healthy, happy, fun, honest and normal." Is that the extent of our goal for our children, that they are normal? Most of us don't want our children to be radical for Christ.

Radical.

The reality is that it is most likely that our children will not see Christ in the next life if they are not longing to see Christ in this life. We may think that the apostles were radical and we ought not try to emulate them, but why not? Paul says in 1st Corinthians 11:1 "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" which follows the command to do everything for the glory of God. Is this an option? I believe this is a command.

Response.

Fly to him. Love him, treasure him. If need be, sell all you have to obey him. I don't believe that for most of us it would take such a radical step as a career change, or selling all our possessions. But I think it would require more sacrifice, more study, more love than we have. May I commend to you to start by memorizing Scripture. This will keep your focus on Christ and will direct your heart to meditate of the mind of Christ. And I would commend you to pray. Ask Christ to reveal himself to you, his will to you, his love to you. And then the God of whom Paul says "I can do all thing through him to strengthens me" will change your life for the advancement of the gospel.

To be known by him...

2011-02-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Facebook Friends.

You know that feeling when someone you really like, or someone who is really important in your circle comments on a status or writes on your wall? It's one thing to be a friend of someone of facebook and it's another thing for them to actually acknowledge that they know you. I'm friends with the Cold War Kids' Matt Maust and R. W. Glenn from Redeemer Bible Church. Matt Maust has never really acknowledged me much, and Bob Glenn has commented on a status or two of mine, but the only way to know that they are my "friends" is to see them in my friends list. By looking at my wall you wouldn't know that they were my friends.

It is better to be known than to know.

In Galatians 4:9 Paul says "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be KNOWN BY GOD..." He sees that is really doesn't matter if we "know" someone, but to be known by someone is crucial when it comes to relationships. We can say all we want "I know him, I know him" (like Will Ferrel in Elf), but if he doesn't know us, if we are not known by him, there is dire consequence "I never knew you; depart from me" (Matthew 7:23). This is why I do not put to much credit to those who say they know Christ but do not exhibit a lifestyle of being known by God.

Does Christ write on my wall?

Being known by someone is important. You can tell if someone is known by another person by the effect on the life. On facebook, you can tell when people really know each other. They comment on each other's pictures, they write on each other's walls and so on. You can see the effect on the lives of the people involved. Does Christ affect your life? Can people see that you are known by Christ? Are you content with Christ being just a "friend"? If you are ok with Christ being one of the relationships in your life it might be worth evaluating your relationship with him. The best thing to do would be to cry to him, fly to him, plead with him to know you. If you don't think he does know you, don't sleep until he write on the wall of your heart.

For every 1 look at yourself...

2011-02-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

I am a huge proponent of examining yourself. I feel that the command of 2 Cor 13:5 has given way to a false "fence post" assurance of faith. I have expressed my feelings about this elsewhere. However, at the Desiring God Pastors Conference earlier this week that I was blessed to join my church leadership in attending, I believe either Francis Chan or John Piper who commended to us "For every one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ." I have been meditating on 1st John chapter 1 these last two weeks and verse 6 says "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." Therefore it is so crucial that we examine ourselves. But John does not stop there, God has some huge "but"s and 1st John 1:7 is one of them. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another," and here comes the truth that I cling to... "and the BLOOD OF JESUS HIS SON CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN."
So I encourage you, cling to Jesus, love Jesus, trust Jesus. Love him, treasure him, he is all we have. His blood is the only thing that will cleans us, not our deeds. So as you examine yourself, remember that Christ's blood cleanses you, not your performance. And therefore you are free to walk in the light, no longer loving the darkness.

Government funded Sex Trafficking in America

2011-02-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

The first sentence in the "Who are we" section of the Planned Parenthood website says this... "We are a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world." Who trusts them? Who is being educated by them? What are they advocating? And finally, what global partners are they helping?
Not only has Planned Parenthood been involved in the bloody dismemberment and burning of millions of children, they are also involved in the abduction, drugging, and rape of minors. This article and video show the depths of the depravity of some members of the organization. And our nation supports this through their funding. This is another reason why America is not a Christian nation.

It's hard to be a Christian in America

2011-01-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

I would have to say that the place where it is the most difficult to follow Christ is in the United States of America. You might argue and say "there is pornography on the billboards in Europe and a lot of drinking" or "they are killing Christians in Muslim nations and communist nations" or "they have very little in Africa" or "it's really cold in Antarctica" (OK so maybe you wouldn't say that last one). What is my response? Comfort, liberty, freedom, pride, thoughts of superiority, wealth, health, prosperity, leisure, entertainment, plenty of food, education, technology. We have no need to follow Jesus, we do not identify with Peter in John 6 "to whom shall we go?" We don't get it because if we don't have Jesus, we have all the other things I just listed above. We don't need the Spirit, we are not desperate for him (for the reasons I listed above). And when some of these things are alter or adjusted or taken away, we cry and complain and threaten and become bitter. Although I am grateful for the freedom to worship in public and to preach the gospel without danger, even those things threaten my love for Christ. I don't have to risk, sacrifice, bleed, plead. My life looks nothing like my savior or his disciples. I will have trouble in this life my Lord said, what folly it is to think that Christmas is taken out of our schools and I cry "I'm being persecuted." I'm pretty sure the disciples would find that funny. Enough said.

Apparent Priviledge

2010-12-02T15:53:00.001-08:00

My friend gave me the book "Apparent Priveledge" written by Steve Write with Chris Graves. I am enjoying it so far. Here are a few quotes that I have enjoyed.

"Parents should bring more energy, willingness to sacrifice, and inclination for endurance to the task of their children's discipleship than to any other parenting responsibility." p. 10 (This is actualy in the forward written by Randy Stinson)

"If the cross of Christ is the center of history, then it must also be the center of our lives as well as the center of our communication with our children. There simply is no better use of your words to your children than bringing eternal truths to bear in your daily interactions with your child." p.29

"God designed marriage and family to represent and mirror a covenant relationship between God and us... the Gospel is represented in Christian marriage... Christian marriage makes a strong statement about the Gospel to our kids, our spouses, and the world" p.51-52

"Divorce is a tragedy on numerous levels, but the primary heartbreak of divorce is that it doesn't reflect the truth og God's love... Our understanding of the family cannot be separated from our understanding of God and the Gospel." p.52

"Christian marriage is sacred, as it represents Christ's commitment to His Bride." p.56

Thoughts on Luke 13

2010-11-24T04:01:00.000-08:00

I was reading Luke 13:22-30 today. This passage is very familiar to most of us who attend church services. Something struck me, though, this morning as I was reading verse 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." How is this possible? First, if you seek to know Jesus doesn't that automatically make you "in"? If you attend church and hope to do lots of good things as a christian and have even helped heal people, isn't that automatic heaven? Isn't that a striving to "enter through the narrow door"?

Two passages come to mind when I read this section of Scripture. In Luke 18 Jesus gives a parable of a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee sought to enter the kingdom by denying his sin issue and boasting in his works. The tax collector recognized the sin and depravity in his own life and boasted only in God, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I think that the striving that Jesus is talking about is not a self-righteous "get yourself fixed before you come" or a "pretend like you love Jesus and it might happen eventually." The kind of striving that Jesus wants is a complete reliance on his power to forgive sinners and destroy you by grace. Those who want to enter later in the parable and cannot actually find the right door! How is it possible that they cannot enter? Hebrews twice in chapter 3 (vs. 7-8 and 15) and once also in 4:7 quotes Psalm 95:7-8 and it says "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." We must take every opportunity to enter through that narrow door. If we reject even one opportunity that door may be shut to us. If we hear his voice, if we hear of his gospel, if we are pulled towards him today, we must take that opportunity, lest the door be shut and we had our opportunity. We will be guilty forever of rejecting him just once.

We can never make the mistake of rejecting his Spirit. If we have been offered the narrow door, we must take it right away. There is no "I'll repent on my death bed" because Christ may close that door before you die. You may only get one opportunity to come to him.

However, there is another passage in Scripture that gives hope. Joel 2:32 says, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." This gives us hope, because if the Spirit is, at this moment, tugging on your heart, if the Spirit is revealing to you that there are no amount of works to be done, but only repentance of those works (Pharisee) and repentance of your sin (tax collector) and instead fall on Christ with full devotion and love, you will be delivered. But nothing less than a full reliance on Christ and his substitution and his satisfaction will do. There is no "well, I'll 'believe' in him, but I don't want him telling me what to do," that is not a full reliance on his satisfaction. That is showing that you don't believe that he is all satisfactory. There is no "well just let me start going to church and start serving and see if I am able to do this" this is faith in your own ability and not in his substitution, it is a searching for the door not a striving to enter it. The gospel requires nothing from you, but everything of you. There is nothing you are able to do to get it, but once you have it, Christ is so lovely to you that you will give up EVERYTHING for him, and you will wonder how you ever lived without him.

The gospel presentation and the alter-call

2010-11-23T07:41:00.001-08:00

The alter-call after the gospel presentations have been used for the past 100 years or so in order to make disciples of Christ. The Spirit has used this form of disciple making in the lives of many believers in order to make alive the dead heart and bring many into the fold of God. However, God has also used the death of a child to call some into fellowship with him and the Spirit has used even the preaching of Joel Osteen, but this doesn’t mean that we ought to hope for and use a death of a child (or the preaching of Joel Osteen) as a means of making disciples.

The faultiness of the gospel presentation... To relegate the gospel to a presentation in which one believes once and is then done with it leads many to become self-righteous, by trying to do good apart from the gospel, or continually depraved, by not continually being renewed by the gospel. A gospel presentation is usually a cleverly devised speech or presentation used in order to illicit a response, through the alter-call, in order for people to make a decision to believe in Christ. However, Paul thought that “the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” through such means (see 1st Corinthians 1:17, and also 2:1-5). Belief is usually never defined in this presentation and when it is defined it rarely includes the admonition of complete submission to Christ and the life long journey to know and love him and his gospel (the meaning of following him). The gospel should not be thought of as something that we “present” but rather it should be something that is continually permeating our teaching and preaching. As Paul said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1st Corinthians 2:2). Further in his letter Paul reminds his readers that it is because of the gospel that he writes to them and that it is because of the gospel that they ought to grow in the love and knowledge of Christ and therefore bear fruit.

The faultiness of the alter-call... The alter-call has changed the result of the preaching of the gospel from a changed heart, changed life and a new creation (Ezekiel 36:37, Ephesians 2:1-10 and 1st Corinthians 5:17) to a one time decision made. We neglect the call to the working out of our salvation (Philippians 2:12) and the fact that Christ will sanctify us (Philippians 1:6). We do not call people to an examination of their faith (2nd Corinthians 13:5) because that might show that our work in preaching the gospel didn’t result in a new birth.

So, if we change the way we preach the gospel so that it is a nice, neat little package and we change the response to it, we can be very successful in the “preaching of the gospel.”

Transformed (or Destroyed)

2010-11-20T17:28:00.001-08:00

I heard it once in a sermon that meeting God is like getting hit by a truck. If you were late for work and someone asked you "why are you late?." And you responded by saying "oh, I got a flat tire on the side of the freeway and when I went out to change the tire a semi-truck hit me going 80." The people would have a hard time believing you because if that DID happen, you would be destroyed.

On the other hand when someone who lives the same way they did before they "met" Christ they can say "I'm a Christian" and we don't doubt that person. We need to start doubting people because if you say you know the most infinitely powerful force ever and are unchanged, then you probably never met him. If you know him, you will be transformed by him.

You have to know him to deny him

2010-11-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Should you really have to make a point to say "I believe in Jesus?" Does someone have to ask you if you are alive? Do you have to say "I am alive"? Wouldn't the mere fact that you are dead and decaying, or that you are alive and breathing be an indicator of life and death? Shouldn't we live such lives that constantly show our love and reliance and trust and obedience and our treasuring of Christ? I'm pretty sure that many are afraid to "deny" Christ with their words but are not afraid to deny Christ with their life. The reason why they are denying them with their lives is because they don't know him. If they totally knew him they would also deny them with their words.

Clinging to Jesus

2010-10-31T19:15:00.001-07:00

In light of the gospel and what Jesus has done, can you both cling to Christ and keep something else as a high priority. Tonight we talked a bit about the movie Saw, but I would contend that Sport Center could be just as evil of entertainment and just as damning to some as Saw is to others. I'm not trying to make light of Saw or condemn Sport Center, but what is the purpose of one and the other?

If we have not made the gospel the center of our priority, from which all motivation to do something and all end goals lead, we are idolizing that thing. So ask the question "will this help me cling to Jesus and his gospel?"

Prove you are alive

2010-10-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

What would you say if someone asked you to prove you are alive? Would you point back to your birth certificate? Would you have them talk with your mom and she will talk about your birth? Or would you point to the fact that you are talking, walking, feeling, breathing, etc.?

Same with your spiritual life. If someone asked you to prove you are spiritually alive would you point back to a prayer? Would you point back to a moment that you "sincerely" asked Jesus to "come in" to your "heart"? Or do you point to the evidences of grace in your life. The fact that you love, trust, rely on, obey, etc. Jesus for everything in life.

John says in his first epistle "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands." Is that your proof of life?

Quotes as bones.

2010-10-19T14:05:00.001-07:00

After a few discussions concerning some quotes that I had posted on facebook I had this mental picture come to my mind. Quotes are like bones. If you see some dry bones, you can generally tell weather the bones belong to a human or not. A quote is similar, you can generally tell the ideas of the author from just the quote. However, if you came across the dried bones of a recognizable person, you wouldn't be able to tell who is was just from the dry bones. But if there is live flesh attached, the skin intact, and the person living, you will be able to know who it is. So it is with the context of a quote. When you see the context makes the quote alive and recognizable for its true self.

A few years ago I had a friend go through a difficult work situation in which he was quoted correctly, however the context was removed. Alone, the quote seemed quite irresponsible. But when the flesh was added to the bones, the quote could be recognized. I find this to be an epidemic in politics. However, I believe it to be more dangerous when it comes to the christian life.

When a christian takes a few lines of Scripture and misuses them by ignoring the context, they cause their faith to be dry bones. Many times the few lines of Scripture are misquoted by changing a few words even inside those few lines, or leaving off some words altogether, where by crushing these dry bones. It is very important to know what you are saying, especially in the life of the christian when it comes to Scripture. The even more dangerous thing is for a pastor to misuse Scripture in this manner while he is held to an even greater standard for teaching.

He's better than you.

2010-10-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

Anytime I hear a pastor, or cultural architect, present the gospel as if it is an opportunity to live life a different way I get sick. I especially am sickened when they strip God of his glorious work in redemption. I just listened to a few sermons by a particular pseudo Christian speaker spend an hour trying to deconstruct the sovereignty of God in relation to regeneration and then explain that we are sinners, which means that we are not living life with the intention that we were created for, and the gospel is about living life with intention. He even quoted romans 3:23 as "for all have sinned and fallen short of the 'intention' of God".

This is what I got out of it. This man is better than you. Why can't you live with intention? Can't you see that HE has been able to do that? He has chosen to live life with intention, why can't you?

Here are a few reasons why he is able to speak this way.

1. He does not believe that people are dead and need to be made alive (Eph. 2:1-10).

2. He doesn't believe that people are enemies of Christ and need to be made allies (Rom. 5:10)

3. He doesn't believe that we have hearts of stone that need to be made into flesh (Ezekiel 36:26)

4. He does not believe that we need to be born again (John 3:1-15)

Therefore all that needs to happen is YOU need to DO something.

This is contrary to the gospel of the bible. The bible paints a picture of sin in a different manner. Just peak at the verses above. Sin makes us dead, enemies of Christ, stone hearted, un-born. Does this sound as simple as something that can be overcome with simple "intention"?

In fact can these things be overcome? A dead man cannot make himself alive. An unrighteous enemy cannot become a righteous ally. A man cannot perform heart surgery on himself. One cannot give birth to oneself.

So what hope is there? Since this man does not believe or understand God's sovereignty in salvation he must adjust the problem and therefore change the gospel. After he does this, you are the hope now. But clearly, we are hopeless.

Obviously this man's problems are greater than just what he believes about God's work in salvation, but many evangelicals are not too far off from this man.

Sin is a generic problem that needs to be solved. We all agree that Jesus solved it for us, but WE must ACCEPT it. WE must BELIEVE. God is presenting the opportunity and WE must GRAB it.

I often hear this analogy. "When you receive a present you have to open it up." What if you don't have arms to reach out for the present? What if you don't have hands to grip the present? What if you don't have fingers to tear the wrapping paper? What if you are more like a dead man when being offered the present? Next time you see road kill, offer it some food, see how it reacts? That's pretty much you with the offer of the gospel.

We don't just "get" the gospel, and people who reject it do so because it is repulsive to them. Those who love and cherish the gospel do so because it has been revealed to them.

Jesus explains this in Matthew 11:27 (and Luke 10:22) "...no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." and in Matthew 16:17 "...flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." When talking about the rich young ruler Jesus makes an "astonishing" statement about salvation to which the disciples ask "'Who then can be saved?' But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" (Matthew 19:25) I know we want to use that verse as an inspiring "God will raise the money for us" or "God will heal" or "God can do it" but we neglect the context when we refuse to apply this phrase to salvation. John 3:8 Jesus explains the Spirit's role in salvation "The wind (Spirit) blows where is wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Paul reiterates this point in Ephesians 2:4&5 "But God... made us alive" and also in Colossians 1:22 "He has now reconciled..." and many, many other places.

"But" you say, "we have to...." Yes, certainly we have much to do, but all of it STARTS with GOD. God does not just offer something. That would be as cruel as offering chewing gum to a man with no teeth, a flashlight to a blind man, an ipod to a deaf man, a super bowl to the Vikings, they just won't see the need for it.

What does a dead man need? To be made alive. What does the bible say about God and dead men? He makes them alive. But also in that passage we have faith and we also have works that we do (Eph. 2:8-10), but those come after God has made us alive.

What happens to an enemy? He is either killed or reconciled. Well God did reconcile us to himself in order to enlist us into his army (2 Timothy 2:4) so that we will stand firm in the battle (Eph 6:10-20).

What does a man with a heart of stone need? Obviously he needs a heart of flesh, which only God can provide (Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26) that beats life sustaining blood into us so we can love God and love others (Luke 10:27).

What does an un-born baby need? To be born, and to cry to God, but a baby doesn't cry until it's born.

What is my point to all this? I am not better than you. Christians are not better than non-Christians. Pastors are not better than lay persons. People going to church are not better than people not going to church. There is only one difference between these people and it God's work. When you make salvation about yourself, you make yourself better than others. When you adjust the gospel to make it "easier" you are making it harder. You are making it about you.

The gospel is the fact that you are utterly incapable of achieving any standing or grace with God. You are not righteous and you do not want righteousness (and you are not neutral either). This should free you to fall only on the grace of God which is in his Son by admitting that you suck, all attempts to not suck actually just shows how much you suck, and that you only have worth in the cross. Then what happens? Well, Lord willing, you start to change, your desires change, your words change, your actions change (not all at once, but you would be surprised). Ephesians 2:1-10 is such a great explanation of the gospel. Verses 1-3 talk about how much you suck and how you do not want to change. Verses 4-9 talk about God making you alive by his grace. Verse 10 explains the result.

So don't let pastors and "cultural architects" down play God and up play you.

Richard Wurmbrand on Christian Revolutionism.

2010-09-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

We utterly oppose Communist dictatorship and terror. We
abhor Communist atheism. But, as a Christian must be "a Jew
to the Jews and a Greek to the Greeks", so, in dealing with
Communists, in the same sense we must be Communists, if
we wish to win them for Christ. It is just as impossible to
win them if we adopt an anti-Communist approach as it would
be impossible to win Jews by adopting anti-Semitism.Though
we are opposed to Communism, we must show sympathy for
the individual Communist, just as St. Paul, who detested
Greek idolatry, would use words of praise for the Greeks in
order to convert them.

The writings of Socialism always offered us a great many
Christian arguments. Whenever I meet a Communist who
makes fun of the Bible as a reactionary book, I counter him
with a quotation from Marx: "When Luther translated the
Bible, he placed in the people's hands a powerful weapon
against princes, nobility and clergy."

Whenever a Communist calls the Bible absurd, I quote from
Engels' work Bruno Bauer and Primitive Christianity: "A
religion which conquered the Roman world empire, and which
has reigned for eighteen hundred years over the majority of
civilised mankind, cannot be rejected merely by declaring that
it consists of a series of absurdities, created by deceivers."
In The Revelation he praises primitive Christianity as "a great
revolutionary movement". It was, incidentally, Engels who
wrote: "We live in God. One can understand that better when
one travels on the sea."

Even the apostles took it for granted that the multitude
would have to go away from Jesus to look for food; but Jesus
showed that they could have food in plenty if they remained
with Him.

No one need abandon Jesus in order to be a revolutionary.
He can be a much better revolutionary by remaining with
Him. Without Jesus, revolutions are destructive, and costly
in blood. A revolution with Jesus is constructive, changing
social conditions peacefully, after sanctifying hearts.

Christ on the Jewish Road Pp. 207-208

Entertainment

2010-04-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Chicago is a beautiful city and it is producing some of my favorite Christ centered entertainment.

Jon Guerra and others at the Line Church in Chicago are producing some of the most beautiful Bible centered Christ centered music out there. You can download some of their music here for free.

Doctor Bryan Litfin is a professor at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He is coming out with a series of Christ centered fantasy novels. You can download the prologue and the first chapter of the first book in the series here for free.

"Our Little Peanut"

2010-02-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

We only call our baby "our little peanut" because we never got to know the gender. How could we name our child when we don't know if he was a Bobby or if She was a Bobbie, if he was a Chris(topher) or if she was a Kris(tine), if he was a Pat(rick) or if she was a Pat(ricia).

Christ saw fit for us to know our baby only as "our little peanut" because in the ultrasound picture our baby looks like a peanut (simple enough right?).

We never got to see it's heart beat, but our little peanut made ours beat faster.

We never got to hear it's cries, but our little peanut produced in us many tears.

We never got to feel it's touch, but our little peanut caused us to hold each other tighter.

We never got to teach it the Word, but our little peanut allowed us to live it out.

Not our little peanut but our great God did all these things for His own glory and our joy.

This is in no way does our little peanut any justice and what he/she means to us, but I needed to say something because today is our due date for our little peanut. I didn't mean it to rhyme, but sometimes it did, but I wanted to share some thoughts with anyone who wanted to listen.

If you don't know know our little peanut lived for 13 weeks in the summer of 2009 and then Christ took our baby home.

But he relates to us as a father to his children

2010-02-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

I have heard it said that we can understand God as well as an ant can understand a human. While I agree with the concept that God's infinitude is so beyond our finiteness that the relation of human to God is similar to that of an ant to human, I do not agree that our level of relation is the same.

God does not relate to humans in the same manner as humans relate to ants. God relates to humans the way a father relates to his children. God provides for his children. God teaches his children. God disciplines his children. God died for his children. (side note: some people focus too much on the first of these "provision" and neglect the discipline as if it is separate from his provision).

Perhaps this is why fatherhood is so difficult, full of challenges and under constant attack. Perhaps this is why pornography, adultery, and sexual immorality are so prevelent in our evil societies; to cause the father to falter. If the enemy can cause a father to fail then the view of God as a father becomes a hindrance instead of a model. Because of of the failure of our fathers we should always look to God as the model of fatherhood and never to our fathers as a model of God.

Anyway, next time you see an ant and have the urge to grab a magnifying glass, don't think that your relation to this ant is anyway similar to the way that God relates to you... Unless you are unregenerate. That's when God grabs the magnifying glass. (what an ending eh?)

Heaven would not be fun for the atheist.

2010-01-29T07:29:00.000-08:00

Heaven is not going to be a place where all we just a sit around and enjoy the petty little things that we enjoy on earth. Mike, Leon and I will not be shooting the breeze in heaven playing "Starcraft" all day and all night long. That might get a wee bit boring. But we will have a bigger and better thing to do.

So what will we be doing in heaven? We will be getting to know our God.

God is eternal and it will take an eternity to get to know him. I find it funny that people will read John 3:16 and think that they know everything about God. They stop with their own salvation and then say "I don't need anymore 'church' or bible, I'm saved." What's interesting is that they are probably not saved because eternity, for the believer, starts at the moment of conversion.

When God turns a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, that begins a hunger to know God and so we start on earth trying to get to know God better. We do this through reading and studying the bible (sitting at the feet of the apostles and prophets) and getting together with one another in fellowship.

Now since the atheist does not want these things he/she does not want to go to heaven. The atheist would HATE heaven. If you forced me, who, by God's grace, loves to read about God and learn about God, to study only humanistic pursuits I would go mad. So it is with the atheist.

So, by God sending the atheist to hell he is giving them what they WANT not only what they deserve. This makes God not only just but also loving.

Believing the "Gospel" and still going to hell

2010-01-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

Paul Washer explains the error that most people (and I) have made as a result of a faulty Gospel invitation by our churches. This is a section taken from his sermon "Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church"

Transcript and Video HERE

Audio Download HERE

PLEASE READ!!!! I fear many of us have been fooled.

Fifth indictment: An unbiblical gospel invitation.

We have touched on it a bit. I want to go further. Look how we do it today. I mean, now listen to me. The more… I have seen this everywhere. The Calvinist, the Arminian, a lot of them share something in common. It is this, the same superficial invitation. They talk a lot of talk about a lot of things and then they come to the invitation and it is almost as though everyone loses their mind.

Walk up to someone and say, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”

Can you imagine telling that to an American?

“Sir, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”

“What? God loves me? Well, that’s great because I love me, too. Oh, this is wonderful. And God’s got a wonderful plan? I got a wonderful plan for my life, too. And if I accept him into my life I’ll have my best life now. This is absolutely wonderful.”

That is not biblical evangelism.

Let me give you something in its place. God comes to Moses and he says this. The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

The reaction of Moses: “Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.”

Evangelism begins with the nature of God. Who is God? Can a man recognize anything about his sin if he hath not a standard with which to compare himself? If we tell him nothing but trivial things about God that tickle the carnal mind, will he ever be brought to genuine repentance and faith?

We do not begin with, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan.” We begin with a discourse of the full counsel of who God is. And we tell him from the start it may cost him his life.

After that we have exploratory questions. “Hey, you know you are a sinner, don’t you?”

That’s like years ago my mother died of cancer. It is like the doctor walking in and saying, “Hey, Barb, you know you got cancer, don’t you?”

We treat it so superficially. No weight, nothing solemn.

“Sir, there is a terrible malady upon you and a judgment coming.”

Because if you just tell a man, “Sir, you know, you are a sinner?” Go ask the devil if he knows he is a sinner.

He will say, “Well, yes, I am. A mighty good one at that… Or a mighty bad one depending on how you look at it. But, yes. I know I am a sinner.”

The question is not do you know you are a sinner. The question is: Is the Holy Spirit so at work in your heart through the preaching of the gospel that a change has been wrought so that the sin you once loved you now hate and the sin you once desired to embrace, you are wanting to run from it as though you were running from a dragon?

And then the question: Do you want to go to heaven?

This is the reason I would not let my children go to 98% of the Sunday schools and vacation Bible schools in evangelical churches because some well meaning person stands up and says, “Isn’t Jesus wonderful,” after showing the Jesus film.

“Yes.”

“How many of you little children love Jesus?”

“Oh, I do.”

“Who wants to accept Jesus into their little heart.”

“Oh, I do.”

And they get baptized. And they may walk a little bit because they have been…. They are being raised in a Christian culture, sort of, a church culture anyway. And then when they turn 15, 16, when they have the strength of will they begin to break the bonds. They begin to live in wickedness and then we go after them saying, “You are Christians. You are just not living like it. Stop your backsliding,” instead of going to them biblically and saying this. “You made a confession of faith in Christ. You professed him even in baptism, but now it seems as though you have turned away from him. Examine yourself. Test yourself. There is little evidence of any true conversion in you.”

And then when they are 24, 25, after college, maybe 30, they come back to church and they rededicate their life and they join right in with that pseudo Christian morality that encompasses churchianity in America and in the end they hear this: “Depart from me you worker of iniquity. I never knew you.”

You say, “Brother Paul, you are so angry.”

Have I not right to be? Somebody must be. Crying out for revival, but we haven’t even got the foundations straight.

Oh, that revival would come and straighten our foundations. But would we, while we have open eyes and open ears and have Scripture in front of us, should we not correct these things?

Would you like to go to heaven?

My dear friend, everybody wants to go to heaven. They just don’t want God to be there when they get there. The question is not do you want to go to heaven. The question is this. Do you want God? Have you stopped being a hater of God? Has Christ become precious to you? Do you desire him?

That is what political theory is all about, my dear friend. Everybody wants to go to heaven. But men are haters of God. So the question is not do you want to go to a special place where you will no longer hurt and you will get everything you want. The question is: Do you want him? Has Christ become precious to you?

Often as a person prays they are told after that, “Would you like to go to heaven?”

“Well, yes.”

“Well, then, would you like to pray and ask Jesus into your heart?” Now, my dear friend, let me say this. There are people who get saved using that methodology, but it is not because of it. It is in spite of it.

“Sir, do you desire Christ? Do you see your sin?”

“Oh, yes, yes, I do.”

“Sir, let’s look at a few Scriptures here that lay out for us what repentance looks like, the Spirit bearing witness that this is happening in your life. Do you see brokenness? Do you see the disintegration of everything you fought and now your mind is filled with new thoughts about God and new desires and new hope?”

“Yes, I see that.

“Sir, that may be the first fruits of repentance. Now, throw yourself upon Christ. Trust in him. Trust in him.”

And then listen to me. You have the authority to tell men the gospel. You have authority to tell men how to be saved and you have authority to teach men biblical principles of assurance. But you have no authority to tell men they are saved. That is the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

But when you take them through that little thing, “Did you ask Jesus into your heart?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you were sincere?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think he saved you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Of course he saved you because you were sincere and he promised that if you asked him to come in, he would come in. So you are saved.”

And they walk out of the church after five minutes of counseling and the evangelist goes to Denny’s to eat, and the man is lost. The man is lost.

An unbiblical invitation. If they ever doubt, if they ever doubt their salvation again, here we go again. If they ever doubt their salvation, “Let’s go back to a point in time. Was there ever a point in time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come in?”

“Yes.”

“Were you sincere?”

“I think so.”

“That’s the devil bothering you.”

And if they live without growth even in the context of a church without growth in continued carnality, no fear. We blame it on the lack of personal discipleship and we write it off as the doctrine of the carnal Christian.

The doctrine of the carnal Christian has destroyed more lives and sent more people to hell.

Do Christians struggle with sin? Yes. Can a Christian fall into sin? Absolutely. Can a Christian live in a continuous state of carnality all the days of his life not bearing fruit and truly be Christian? Absolutely not or every promise in the Old Testament regarding the New Testament covenant has failed and everything God said about discipline in Hebrews is a lie.

A tree is known by its fruit.

When we work with men in conversion… I have seen preachers who understood much about the things of God, but when they come down ever after an exemplary gospel presentation they will enter, once again, into this methodology.

Let me give you a story and then we will go on to the next indictment, but a story that is one of the most precious moments in my life as a Christian.

I was preaching in Canada just… Actually they told me it was like 30 kilometers from Alaska. There were more grizzly bears in the town than there were people, really. It was a little church of about 15, 20 people and I was preaching. And right when I got up in the pulpit this mountain of a man walked in in his 60s, early 70s, but just a mountain of a man. He could have whipped every one of us in this building.

And as I preached, as I saw his face, I just threw everything away and started preaching the gospel. He was the saddest human being I have ever seen. Just gospel, gospel and when I got done I walked right from the pulpit to him.

I said, “Sir, what is wrong. What is troubling your soul? I have never seen a man so sad and down hearted in all my life?”

And he pulled out a manila envelope and it had some x-rays which I couldn’t understand, but he said this. “I just came from the doctor. I am going to die in three weeks.” That is what he told me. “Now I have lived all my life on a working cattle ranch. You can only get there by float plane or riding horses across the mountains and all this stuff.” He said, “I have never been to church. I have never read a Bible. I believe there is a God and one time I heard somebody talking about some guy named Jesus.” He said, “I have never been afraid of anything in my life and I am terrified.”

I said, “Sir, did you understand the message, the gospel?”

He said, “Yes.”

Now what would have a great majority of preachers done at that moment?

“Well, would you like to ask Jesus to come into your heart?”

That is what they would have done.

I said, “Sir, you understood it.”

He said, “I understood it, but is that it? Is that just…” He said, “A child could have understood that. Anybody. Is that all it is that I understand it and I pray or…?”

I said, “Sir, you are going to die in three weeks. I have to leave tomorrow. I will cancel my plane ticket and we will stay here over the Scriptures wrestling and crying out to God until you are either converted or you die and go to hell.”

And so we began. I began in the Old Testament, the New Testament, every verse of Scripture dealing with the promises of God regarding redemption and salvation, over and over, time after time, reading John 3:16, praying for a while, crying out to God, questioning the man regarding repentance, regarding faith, regarding assurance, working till Christ be formed in him.

And then, finally, just exhausted that evening there was no breakthrough, there was nothing. And I said, “Sir, let’s pray.” And we prayed.

I said, “Sir, read John 3:16 again.”

He said, “We have read this a million times.”

I said, “I know, but it is one of the greatest promises of salvation. Read that text again.”

And I will never forget. He had my Bible on his lap in those big mountainous hands of his and he said, “Ok.” He said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave… I’m saved. I’m saved. Brother Paul, all my sins are gone. I have eternal… I’m saved. I mean…”

I said, “How do you know?”

He said, “Haven’t you ever read this verse before?”

What was going on? A working of the Spirit of God instead of those little tricks you try. What you want to go eat. What you think preaching is the spectacle and after that you go back to the hotel? No, after the preaching is when the work begins. Dealing with souls. People come forward in meetings they’re counseled by someone who shouldn’t be counseling. Five minutes, they are given the… Quick, give the card to the pastor and the pastor says, “I would like to present to you a new child of God. Welcome him into the family of God.”

How dare you?

If you are going to present him, say this. “This man tonight has made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And because of our fear of God and our love for the souls of men we will now be working with him to make sure that Christ has truly been formed in him, that he truly has a biblical understanding of repentance and faith and great assurance and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is what we are going to do.”

Look what we have done. I plead with you. Look what we are doing. And this is not some cult. This is us. Stop it. Stop it.

I've seen a multitude of miracles... just today

2010-01-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

What is a miracle? What are the most common miracles today? Here is my shot at an answer.

How does a believer become a believer? Jesus says that it is the Spirit that gives birth to spirit (John 3:6). You see the fact that you and I or anyone for that matter believe in Jesus is because of a miracle of the Holy Spirit, and it is the greatest miracle ever. When you are brought from death to life (Ephesians 2:1-5) that is the greatest miracle ever.

The miracles that I see every day are not often the miracle of new birth. C.H. Spurgeon helped me see in a sermon on Ephesians 4:30 that a multitude of miracles happen in my life every day "The perseverance of a single saint for a single day is a multitude of miracles of mercy." The Spirit performs thousands of miracles in my life everyday by restraining my sin.

Now there are some crazy unbiblical "miraculous" stuff out there. But the truth is that you can experience a physical "miracle" and still be going to hell. In fact you can PERFORM a "miracle" and still be going to hell (Matthew 7:21-23).

I believe the truest, greatest and most common miracles are done by the Spirit in the new birth and the perseverance of the saints.

The Decade I Really Lived

2010-01-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

First things that happened to me in the first decade of the 2000s

1. Started college (2000)

2. Moved away from MN (2001)

3. Moved to Cali (2001)

4. Moved back to MN (2001)

5. Started working in ministry (2002)

6. Met my wife (Danielle) (2003)

7. Full-time ministry (2003)

8. Baptized (2003)

9. Traveled to Europe (2003)

10. Moved to Chicago (2004)

11. Preached at The River (2005)

12. Got engaged (2005)

13. Traveled on a bus all night for $1.50 and surprised Danielle (2006)

14. Got married (2006)

15. Visited Hawaii (2006)

16. Read Tozer and fell in love with Jesus (2007)

17. Read Desiring God by John Piper and became a Christian Hedonist (2007)

18. Moved to another country (2008)

19. Learned another language (2008)

20. Got deported (2009)

21. Introduced to Stephen Charnock (2009)

22. Became a father (2009)

23. Lost a child (2009)

24. Became a "pastor" (2009)

25. Became an official missionary to Austria (2009)

First things I anticipate happening in the next decade

1. Finishing college

2. Being the best man in a wedding

3. Having children

4. Getting a visa in another country

5. Becoming proficient in another language

Hope you enjoyed.

Obeying your parents and still going to hell.

2009-12-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to preach the Word to the high school group at our home church this past Sunday night. During the sermon an unprepared statement came out of my mouth.

"My application to this passage (Luke 2:51) is not 'go home and obey your parents' because you can have a great relationship with your parents and still be going to hell"

Christ is not honored with mere obedience to his words. Hebrews 4:6 explains that we cannot please God if we do not have faith in him. Why is this? Because our obedience is self-initiated, self-sustained and self-promoting. If we do not believe and are not sealed by the Holy Spirit, our works are our own. Ephesians 2 explains that Jesus prepared those he has made alive for good works. These works are initiated and upheld by his will and power (Philippians 2:12-13).

So seek to be made alive by God (Ephesians 2:4) and confess with you mouth and believe in your heart (Romans 10:9-10) so that Jesus does not say to us, like those in Matthew 7:22-23, "I never knew you."

Which marriage is worse?

2009-12-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

If Ephesians 5:22-33 is our standard for marriage and marriage is a living parable of Christ and the Church than what is a worse defamation of this parable.

1. Divorce

2. Non believer married to a believer

3. Homosexual marriage

4. Two believers married yet the husband is not acting as Christ and the wife the Church

It seems that the Evangelical community is so concerned about #s 1-3 but as long as you tithe and attend every Sunday they will look past #4. To me they all seem to defame the portrait that marriage is supposed to display.

Yes it is true that we cannot put forth the perfect image of Christ and the Church with any marriage since we are a depraved people and not free from sin. But there is a difference in seeking to be holy in our marriage relationships and not seeking after holiness.

Thank you John Piper for pointing this out...

2009-12-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far to easily pleased." C.S. Lewis (found in "Desiring God" p. 20)

The biggest blight on America since slavery.

2009-10-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

I grew up hating abortion. As a young boy my mother would bring us kids to the Capital in St. Paul every year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In 1990 we even drove the family station wagon for a big pro-life rally in Washington D.C.

Since I graduated from High School I haven't thought too much about the abortion issue, but, for some reason, I have had a renewed interest in exposing what Abortion is all about. I believe that this era in human history will be seen as one of the darkest times in the history of man. It is amazing how many babies have been sacrificed to the idol of Choice.

Here are some websites that clearly explain the issue at hand.

Case for life

Abort73

A focus on how abortion has decimated the black community

What pursuits?

2009-04-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

"No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." 2 Timothy 2:4 ESV.
As believers...
1. We are soldiers in a war.
2. We do not have the same pursuits as those who are not soldiers (unbelievers).
3. We pursue what pleases God.
4. God enlisted us.

Jude

2009-03-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

The beginning
I had never really studied the letter of Jude before. It really caught my interest as I listened to a few sermons by John Piper on my way to California. This prompted me to search deeper in the letter and here is what I found.
The middle.
In the first verse of Jude he explains that we are called and kept for Jesus Christ. These things are done by God. So God is sovereign. Then in verse 3 Jude says to "contend for the faith" as if it was up to us. Didn't he just say that we were already kept for Christ? So what is this whole us having to contend for the faith thing? Well Jude knows that there are some out there who would love to take the opportunity to use God's sovereignty as an excuse to be lazy and sin and call God out as the one doing this. So Jude explains that we do have a responsibility to actually work on our faith. Again in verse 20 Jude says"keep yourself in the love of God." So here again we must work. At the end of his letter he ties it all together in verse 24 "Now to him who is able to KEEP you from stumbling..."
The end.
This is what I am seeing... God is in sovereign control therefore we can have the confidence to contend for the faith. This is not just an idea in the letter of Jude, look at the "Great Commission" in Matthew 28:18-19 "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go...'" Jesus builds our actions on the foundation of His sovereignty. So with the knowledge that God is the one who keeps you from stumbling fight for faith!

Who is the History Maker?

2008-12-06T00:16:00.001-08:00

It is my contention that we as Christians have become desensitized to the self-centeredness prevalent in "worship" these days. The words "I" "me" "my" "we" etc.... in "worship" songs don't phase us. The song "History Maker" by Delirious? is a prime example of this self centeredness in "worship." This song is actually about me. To prove my point I replaced all the personal pronouns with my name and also when it talks about humans (i.e. people) I placed myself there as well. Kinda brings the truth of the song to light.

Is it true today that when Bobby prays
Cloudless skies will break
Kings and queens will shake
Yes it's true and Bobby believes it
Bobby's living for you

Is it true today that when Bobby prays
Bobby'll see dead men rise
And the blind set free
Yes it's true and Bobby believes it
Bobby's living for you

Bobby's gonna be a history maker in this land
Bobby's gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
Bobby's gonna stand, Bobby's gonna run
Into your arms, into your arms again
Into your arms, into your arms again

Well it's true today that when Bobby stands
With the fire of God, and the truth in hand
Bobby'll see miracles, Bobby'll see angels sing
Bobby'll see broken hearts making history
Yes it's true and Bobby believes it
Bobby's living for you

Sounds like I'm the history maker eh? Forget the fact that God had already prepared beforehand my good works like praying, having the truth in hand, and living for him so that I would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). Forget the fact that the only reason why I know God is because HE chose ME (Ephesians 1:4-5).

This song sounds just a bit off now doesn't it?