Curtis' Blog

Point to the Light at Home for the Holidays

2010-12-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I mentioned a sermon that I found very helpful from Charles Spurgeon about going home for the holidays and how to strategically seek to share the gospel.

You can check it out on C.J. Mahaney's blog.

I hope that you will find it helpful as well and that God will use you to point to Christ, the true light, this holiday season.

Let Us Read in 2011

2010-12-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

Have you ever set out to begin new habit or discipline in your life and failed? And then you tried again and then failed again? I know I have done that more times than I care to remember. That cycle is certainly difficult and disappointing but it doesn't mean that we must always fail. I can also look at some areas in my life where after failing numerous times I finally made real progress. I have found that it is helpful to remember that just because I haven't done something doesn't mean that it's impossible, it simply means that I haven't done it yet.

The discipline that I would encourage all of us to think about today is the discipline of consistently reading the Bible. I mentioned this in the sermon on Sunday and I challenged all of us to consider how we might seek to be more disciplined in our intake of the Scriptures in 2011 in order that this would be a means for us to grow in the knowledge of Christ as well as growing in His grace.

Here are few questions to consider:
What would it look like if I set aside a regular daily time to read the Scriptures? Where? When?
How much time should I try to carve out at the beginning? If you aren't reading at all right now don't try to set a goal of one hour a day. Start where you are and then seek to expand upon that.
Should I consider challenging myself to try to read through the entire Bible in 2011? Believe it or not, it takes less time each day than you might think.
Who could I invite into my life to bring some encouragement and accountability in this area?

If you would like to consider reading through the Bible in 2011, here are some links to some reading plans:

http://www.esv.org/resources/reading-plans-devotions/
http://www.bibleplan.org/mcheyne.htm
http://www.bibleplan.org/

Let's struggle with all the strength that God gives us to take in more of the Scriptures in 2011!

Quotes on Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves

2010-06-07T14:02:00.001-07:00

Here are some quotes that I mentioned on Sunday. These have been encouraging and challenging to me and I hope they will be to you as well.

C.J. Mahaney- “if there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first important to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.”

Milton Vincent, “God did not give us the gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness. The wise believer learns this truth early and becomes proficient in extracting valuable benefits from the gospel each day. We extract those benefits by being absorbed in the gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.”

Milton Vincent: “My God is immense beyond imagination. He measured the entire universe with merely the span of His hand. He is unimaginably awesome in all His perfections, absolutely righteous, holy and just in all His ways. He has also been unbelievably good and merciful to me as the Creator and Sustainer of my life. Every breath, every heartbeat, every function of every organ in my body is a gift from Him. Every legitimate pleasure I experience is a gift from His loving hand to me. All that I am and all that I have I owe to Him and to His goodness. My life in every way is, and will continue to be, utterly dependent upon Him in whom I live and move and have my being. This wonderful God is the most supremely worthy Object of admiration, honor and delight in all of the universe; and He has created me with the intention that I might glorify Him by finding my soul’s delight in Him and by living in joyful obedience to Him in all of my ways.”

Caring for the Most Vulnerable

2010-06-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post some helpful resources as we think about how some ways we may engage in caring for the most vulnerable. Here are some links that I mentioned in the sermon or that we recommend.

Ryan Keith, Forgotten Voices Ten Together
Laura Blank, World Vision
Daybreak Pregnancy Resource Center
A Woman's Concern Pregnancy Health Services

Books to Help Us Engage Our Neighbors

2010-05-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

In the sermon on Sunday we looked at John 4. You can listen to the sermon at the church website on the Sermons page.

I mentioned a few helpful books and wanted to pass those on to you.

Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People by Will Metzger

Speaking of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles

Marks of a Messenger by J. Mack Stiles

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever

Contentment

2009-12-07T12:21:00.001-08:00

I wanted to pass on some links to the book that I mentioned in the sermon on Sunday.

You can read a free version of Jeremiah Burrough's book "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment" here.

You can also purchase a copy of the book here.

Some Additional Questions for Exploring Our Hearts

2009-09-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Some helpful questions from David Powlison:

What do you love? What do you Hate?

What do you want, desire, crave, lust and wish for? Whose desires do you obey?

What do you seek, aim for, pursue? What are your goals and expectations?

Where do you bank your hopes?

What do you fear? What do you not want? What do you tend to worry about?

Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort, escape, pleasure, security?

Whom must you please? Whose opinion of you counts? From whom do you desire approval
and fear rejection?

Understanding and Examining our Idol Making Hearts

2009-09-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

Do we know our own hearts or are we ignorant of them?

Kris Lundgaard, “Many people live in darkness and ignorance about their own hearts. They keep careful track of how their investments are doing on Wall Street and get frequent checkups at the doctor; they watch what they eat and work out at the gym three or four times a week to keep their bodies finely tuned. But how many people give the least thought to their souls? If it is important to watch over and care for our bodies and investments, which will soon die and rot, how much more important is it for us to guard our immortal souls?

David Powlison, "Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart’s trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight?"

Our Idol Making Hearts

2009-09-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

The next few posts will be related to the two week series that we are doing on idols.

Here are some quotes on the topic of idols that have been helpful to me.

Os Guiness, “Idolatry is the most discussed problem in the Bible and one of the most powerful spiritual and intellectual concepts in the believer’s arsenal. Yet for Christians today it is one of the least meaningful notions and is surrounded with ironies. Perhaps this is why many evangelicals are ignorant of the idols in their lives. Contemporary evangelicals are little better at recognizing and resisting idols than modern secular people are. There can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols.”

Ken Sande “An idol is not simply a statue of wood, stone, or metal; it is anything we love and pursue in place of God, and can also be referred to as a ‘false god’ or a ‘functional god.’ In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that we set our hearts on, that motivates us, that masters or rules us, or that we serve.”

Richard Keyes “ An idol is something within creation that is inflated to function as God. All sorts of things are potential idols, depending only on our attitudes and actions toward them...Idolatry may not involve explicit denials of God’s existence or character. It may well come in the form of an over-attachment to something that is, in itself, perfectly good...An idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero - anything that can substitute for God.”

John Calvin, “The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.”

Applying the Gospel to the Hearts of Parents and Children

2009-08-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

What does it look like for a parent to apply to the gospel to our own heart in relationship to our parenting? How in the world do we practically apply the gospel as we discipline our children.

Here are some helpful audio clips from C.J. Mahaney on this topic:

Gospel-centered Parenting and Young Children

The Gospel and Parental Sin

The Gospel and Discipline

Teaching Children to Love the Church

Gospel-centered Parenting Resources

2009-08-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning a new series of posts this week as I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday where I will attempt to point out some helpful resources for parents.

As I mentioned on Sunday, bringing our children up in the instruction of the Lord and seeking to instill in our children a knowledge of God in the hopes that they will put their Hope in God is a tremendous responsibility. Our families are busy and the demands of life are great. However, the truth is we have no excuse. We must fight and consistently struggle to invest our time well in creating an environment in our homes where our children are exposed to the gospel.

The first resource that I would like to bring to your attention is a booklet by Donald Whitney called Family Worship: In the Bible, In History and In Your Home. I have copies available for people in our church so please ask for a free copy of this book. I read this book for the first time several years ago and it was very helpful to me.

In the book, Whitney quotes the great English Baptist preacher from the 1800s Charles Spurgeon, "If we want to bring up a godly family, who shall be seed to serve God when our heads are under the clods of the valley, let us seek to train them up in the fear of God by meeting together as a family for worship."

Here is a link to an interview with Dr. Whitney on this topic.

Parents of Hope Fellowship Church- I'm praying for you this week.

Death is Not Dying

2009-05-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

I mentioned during the sermon from John 11 on Sunday a link that I would encourage everyone to check out.

Rachel Barkley is a wife and mother who lives in Vancouver, BC and is dying of cancer. In this video, she speaks about life, her impending death and the gospel that gives her hope as she faces death.

I highly recommend taking the time to watch the video.

Discipline Yourself For the Purpose of Godliness...For Free...If You Hurry!

2009-03-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

March is one of my favorite months of the year because of March Madness- the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I really enjoy watching the games, trying to figure out who will win and hoping for upsets. It is really impressive to watch disciplined athletes performing at the highest level. How did they get to that level? Did it all just come to them naturally? No. It comes through (in my best Allen Iverson imitation) practice. It takes discipline and practice to reach that level.

How should one think about the concept of discipline as it relates to the Christian life? Is discipline somehow in opposition to grace? Or could the Spiritual Disciplines actually be one of the channels that God uses to transform his people?

The pursuit of growth in godliness for those who are followers of Jesus is of great importance and at the same time it can be an incredibly daunting topic. Where should one start? What practices or habits should I seek to develop? How does the grace of God interact with the concept of discipline.

One of the books that has been most helpful to me over the years and that I often still consult and recommend to others is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. I highly recommend it to you whether you are you have been a Christian for decades or you have just recently come to faith in Christ. Dr. Whitney tackles the topic of spiritual disciplines in a very biblical, helpful and practical way.

If you prefer to listen as well as to read, you can download a free audio version for the rest of the month of March here.

Listen to the Gospel of John- It's Free!

2009-03-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of ways for us to engage the Scriptures in our lives. We can read, meditate, study, listen and more. As we continue our series on the Gospel of John, I'd encourage you to consider listening to this great book as well as reading it. Here is a link where you can download the entire Gospel of John in the ESV (the translation we use on Sunday) for free. I think you may find the practice of listening to the Scriptures to be quite helpful to you.

"He must increase but I must decrease."

2009-03-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

I have decided to try blogging on a variety of topics somewhat regularly. The posts may be in order to elaborate on a sermon, point to some helpful resources, or for me to just aimlessly ramble.

On Sunday, we looked at John 3.22-36. John the Baptist faced the great temptation to be jealous of the growing ministry of Jesus and the lessening of his own ministry. In the face of that temptation, John made this profound statement, "He must increase, but I must decrease." I wonder how often our thoughts are closer to this, "Jesus, help ME to increase."

It's one thing to talk of growing in our allegiance to Christ and cultivating a heart of humility and it's another thing to do that. I would like to recommend a couple of resources to you in this area. One book that I have found to be quite helpful is Humility by C.J. Mahaney.

In the book, Mahaney quotes John Stott as saying, "At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend." As Mahaney says we all need to set ourselves on the course of mortifying pride and cultivating humility by the power and grace of God.

If you would like to listen to two sermons by Mahaney on this topic you can download them here.

May God grow us by his grace and empower by His Spirit that we, too, might be able to say, "He must increase but I must decrease."