I'd rather be...

Best quote of the week!

I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world. — George Washington

The quote, "I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world," was said to be George Washington's response to newspaper criticism of his presidency. But it may well have resonated with Washington in other ways. With a debt crisis, a war (on the northwestern frontier) and upheaval in Europe to deal with, plus a growing partisanship within his own administration, probably nothing sounded better to the president than the rolling acres and pastoral views of the Potomac he enjoyed on his Mount Vernon estate.

A great musical piece as well! 

NPR report "I had rather be on my Farm" with Vocal Composition.

What if Satan took over a city?

That question was brought up over half a century ago and answered by a Presbyterian Minister by the name of Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Speculating that "if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The Children would say, "Yes sir" and "No ma'am," and the churches would be full every Sunday... where Christ is not preached."

This illustrates to me, that it is only when we see our humanity and ultimately our sin (our very own sins) as God sees it, that we can understand what God has done in the Cross of Christ. When we don't see it for what it is, and we do not understand our own condition... then the message of the Cross, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to our human mind. And how can we be grateful for something that we think we don't really need? If we hold "sin" as not really relevant, then neither will the Life, Words, and Work of the cross of Jesus seem relevant to us. And this is exactly why we need to hear God's Word, for there He tells me all about my sin and my true condition, and knowing who God is as He has revealed Himself to us in history, and in His Word. God is Holy. Perfect. And He is Love. Perfect love. Then... Everything changes. We can then, from that place of repentance, and acknowledgement of our sin, truly see the Cross, and the work of Christ with our hearts lifted up, praising the one, who in Love, saved us. 

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  – 1 John 3:1

"Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" - Isaiah 53:1

The only two options available

So there are really only two religions in the world: a religion of human striving to ascend to God through pious works, feelings, attitudes, and experiences and the Good News of God’s merciful descent to us in his Son. 

The religions, philosophies, ideologies, and spiritualities of the world only differ on the details. Whether we are talking about the Dalai Lama or Dr. Phil, Islam or Oprah, liberals or conservatives, the most intuitive conviction is that we are good people who need good advice, not helpless sinners who need the Good News. 

- Michael Horton 


So the law reveals the righteousness that God is, by which we are judged (and therefore condemned); the gospel reveals the righteousness that God freely gives to sinners through faith in Jesus Christ… Salvation, from start to finish, is his work for us, not a matter of saving ourselves or even of cooperating with him. It is a divine rescue operation. Even our sanctification is grounded in God’s act of justifying us and uniting us, by his Spirit, to Christ’s death and life.  (Romans 6)

My life is not the Good News.

Talking about some of our modern Christian churches who focus their teaching towards living better lives, and more piety, community, giving, and seeing Christ as our "example" of how we should live, so we can 'have out best life now'... Author Michael Horton in his book "Christless Christianity" says this... "In every generation, our natural tendency to put the focus back on ourselves - our inner life, piety, community, and actions - withers the very root of faith that yields love and service."

And later says this " That my life, is not the gospel is good news both for me and for my neighbors. Because Christ is the Good News, Christians as well as non-Christians can be saved after all. ...the Good News is not only enough to create faith but to get us back on our feet, assured of our standing in Christ, ready for another day of successes and failures in our discipleship."

A heart transformer

“Jesus Christ did not come into this world to make bad people good, he came to make dead people
live. The good can be as lost as the bad, it is the heart that needs to be transformed. ” – Ravi Zacharias

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 ESV
http://bible.com/59/rom.12.2.ESV

Slice of Infinity

I subscribe to "A Slice of Infinity" daily email from the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. And I thought today's was one worth sharing. Really there are many worth sharing. My favorites are when Ravi himsself writes, also when Jill Carattini writes, She has a gift! This one was written by Ravi Zacharias.

Christianity Without Christ?

Paul Tillich, the noted existentialist theologian, traveled to Asia to hold conferences with various Buddhist thinkers. He was studying the significance of religious leaders to the movements they had engendered. Tillich asked a simple question. “What if by some fluke, the Buddha had never lived and turned out to be some sort of fabrication? What would be the implications for Buddhism?” Mind you, Tillich was concerned with the indispensability of the Buddha—not his authenticity. The scholars did not hesitate to answer. If the Buddha was a myth, they said, it did not matter at all. Why? Because Buddhism should be judged as an abstract philosophy—as a system of living. Whether its concepts originated with the Buddha is irrelevant. As an aside, I think the Buddha himself would have concurred. Knowing that his death was imminent, he beseeched his followers not to focus on him but to remember his teachings. Not his life but his way of life was to be attended to and propagated. So, what of other world religions? Hinduism, as a conglomeration of thinkers and philosophies and gods, can certainly do without many of its deities. Some other major religions face the same predicament. Is Christianity similar? Could God the Father have sent another instead of Jesus? May I say to you, and please hear me, that the answer is most categorically No. Jesus did not merely claim to be a prophet in a continuum of prophets. He is the unique and human Son of God, part of the very godhead that Christianity calls the Trinity. The apostle Paul says it this way: “[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible… He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”(1) Moreover, Jesus himself prayed, “[Father] you have given [me] authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given [me]. And this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”(2) As many have observed before me, Christianity is Christ. Indeed, Englishman John Stott writes, “If Jesus was not God in human flesh, Christianity is exploded. We are left with just another religion with some beautiful ideas and noble ethics; its unique distinction has gone.”(3) At the very heart of Christianity, Jesus is the word and the incarnation. And it changes everything. Ravi Zacharias is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.   (1) Colossians 1:15-20. (2) John 17:2-3 (3) John Stott, Basic Christianity (London: Intervarsity Press, 1971), 8.

The Christian Difference

"...Christianity is not just pious talk. It is neither a collection of religious ideas nor a catalogue of rules. It is a ‘gospel’ (i.e. good news) – in the apostle Paul’s words ‘the gospel of God…regarding his Son…Jesus Christ our Lord’. It is not primarily an invitation for us to do anything; it is supremely a declaration of what God has done"

~John Stott~