Archive for August, 2007
At the retreat, we gave everyone a free copy of John Piper’s When I Don’t Desire God. I highly recommend this book as fuel for your passion for God. It is a go-to resource if your devotion to the Savior has grown cold, stale, or lifeless. And if your devotion is currently hot towards the Lord, reading this book will be excellent preparation for the dry times.
I read this quote from page 18, Piper quoting C.S. Lewis:
“Pleasures are shafts of glory… The sweetness [of earthly pleasures] is still a beam from the glory… I have tried since to make every pleasure in to a channel of adoration. I don’t mean simply by giving thanks for it. one must of course give thanks, but I meant something different… Gratitude exclaims very properly, “How good of God to give me this.” Adoration says, “What must be the quality of that Being who far-off and momentary coruscations [=sparkling, gleaming, or flashing of light] are like this!” One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.”
Categories: Retreat07, five15 blog
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We didn’t have any quotes for session 5, so I’ll just give you the quotations that I read to prepare us for meditation together:
“Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditation, my heart might be brought into experimental, communion with the Lord.” George Mueller
“Now what is the food for the inner man; not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts…” George Mueller
“By slowing down and prompting us to think more deeply about God, journaling helps us feel more deeply (and biblically) about God.” Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, p. 210
And one other that I had on hand but didn’t get around to:
“…journaling blends biblical doctrine and daily living, like the confluence of two great rivers, into one. The journal can be a mirror in the hands of the Holy Spirit in which He reveals His perspective on our attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. A journal is a place where we can give expression to the foundation of our heart, where we can unreservedly pour out our passion before the Lord.” Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, pp. 205, 208-209
Categories: Retreat07, five15 blog
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You may have noticed one small change and one big change in the last 24 hours.
First, the small change is that the five15 blog has moved very slightly to http://blogs.sovgracefairfax.org/five15. See the difference? You’ll want to replace the ‘www’ with ‘blogs’ in your bookmark or RSS feed.
The big change is that the Sovereign Grace Church website has received a significant facelift. This is a remarkable improvement. Check it out:
Categories: Announcements, five15 blog
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Vince Hinders
Isaiah 55:1-7—Now I See What To Do
1. God’s gracious invitation
2. Our response
Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.” Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology
- Consider
- Confess
- Commit
- Change
Categories: Retreat07, five15 blog
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