This is probably one of the most important sermons I've heard lately. True repentance is hard to maintain because we all want to try and seek some kind of justification for ourselves but God always demands the exact opposite of us. Repentance can never be mere behavior modification. That view just shows our own cowardess in not wanting to confront what is truly in our hearts.
http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/resource_files/audio/200909200900HWC21ASAAA_MattChandler_ThePathPt02-AContinuingEthic.mp3
" Walking in the light means staying in tune with whats going on in your heart; it will always be uglier than you think, and that's good news because the more wicked we see our hearts the more electric and glorious we see His grace. The more electric and glorious we see His grace, the more prone we are to not walk in self-denial and hide."
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Crucified Man
"What befell Christ befalls every man in Him. It is only as one who is sentenced by God that man can live before God. Only the crucified man is at peace with God. It is in the figure of the Crucified that man recognizes and discovers himself. To be taken up by God, to be executed on the cross and reconciled, that is the reality of manhood." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (emphasis added)
I've been thinking about this all morning. Well,... I've been thinking about it longer than that, but this morning it seemed even more pertinant to know that my life is not my own and that it has been offered up. Sometimes I get discouraged...actually a lot of the time I get discouraged, and I think its because I forget that only the crucified man is at peace. He is at peace because he has disregarded himself; he is the man who rests on the promises of God and goes wherever that takes him; he sacrifices himself in order to give Glory to God and to lift up other men; and I think most of all he submits his own will and his own desire for the God he loves. It's about sacrifice. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." That's exactly what Jesus has done for us. Thats what we do for eachother. I forget that. I get selfish. I forget that sacrificial living is what manhood is all about.
PROBLEM:
"Thus from my lips, by yours my sin is purged"
As Cities Burn
well, I've got a will but I want yours
I've got a growing heap of crosses and burdens
I've simply lost heart to shoulder
simply no strength to lift
I've always been a man in need
'cause I keep stepping in and out of the shadow
caught by the drift and pitch of whatever it is
that keeps me coming back
I want out
'cause I'm getting sick
sick from all this swerving
driver, sick from turning on you
someone show me a hole in this cycle
show me the way away and i'm coming back
the way I came
no! I've seen this place before
surely this is no place for the light of this world
oh how sweet the sound
I know it saved but is it changing a wretch like me
oh my God how sweet is the sound
I once was blind but now I just look away
my bride, I don't want to know what I'd be without
forgiveness brushing these adulterous lips
SOLUTION:
Excerpt from "Goodbye, I"
mewithoutYou
"Come, Tortoise, standing still -- go, Hummingbird, my will
Come, Tortoise, stumbling blind -- go, Hummingbird, my eyes
Come Tortoise, empty hands -- go, Hummingbird, my plan
Come Tortoise undefined -- go, Hummingbird, my mind
Come, Tortoise, letting go -- go, Hummingbird, 'I know'
Come, Tortoise, come and die -- go, Hummingbird, my I
Oh... goodbye, I! Goodbye, I! Bye, bye, bye"
The tortoise represents being in a state where we are only moved by the will of God, While the humming bird tries to do it all on its own.
I've been thinking about this all morning. Well,... I've been thinking about it longer than that, but this morning it seemed even more pertinant to know that my life is not my own and that it has been offered up. Sometimes I get discouraged...actually a lot of the time I get discouraged, and I think its because I forget that only the crucified man is at peace. He is at peace because he has disregarded himself; he is the man who rests on the promises of God and goes wherever that takes him; he sacrifices himself in order to give Glory to God and to lift up other men; and I think most of all he submits his own will and his own desire for the God he loves. It's about sacrifice. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." That's exactly what Jesus has done for us. Thats what we do for eachother. I forget that. I get selfish. I forget that sacrificial living is what manhood is all about.
PROBLEM:
"Thus from my lips, by yours my sin is purged"
As Cities Burn
well, I've got a will but I want yours
I've got a growing heap of crosses and burdens
I've simply lost heart to shoulder
simply no strength to lift
I've always been a man in need
'cause I keep stepping in and out of the shadow
caught by the drift and pitch of whatever it is
that keeps me coming back
I want out
'cause I'm getting sick
sick from all this swerving
driver, sick from turning on you
someone show me a hole in this cycle
show me the way away and i'm coming back
the way I came
no! I've seen this place before
surely this is no place for the light of this world
oh how sweet the sound
I know it saved but is it changing a wretch like me
oh my God how sweet is the sound
I once was blind but now I just look away
my bride, I don't want to know what I'd be without
forgiveness brushing these adulterous lips
SOLUTION:
Excerpt from "Goodbye, I"
mewithoutYou
"Come, Tortoise, standing still -- go, Hummingbird, my will
Come, Tortoise, stumbling blind -- go, Hummingbird, my eyes
Come Tortoise, empty hands -- go, Hummingbird, my plan
Come Tortoise undefined -- go, Hummingbird, my mind
Come, Tortoise, letting go -- go, Hummingbird, 'I know'
Come, Tortoise, come and die -- go, Hummingbird, my I
Oh... goodbye, I! Goodbye, I! Bye, bye, bye"
The tortoise represents being in a state where we are only moved by the will of God, While the humming bird tries to do it all on its own.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
