Through prayer we can ask God to give us that kind of grace and strength to trust He will bring us out of the valley of the shadow of death, stronger and in better shape to reflect His glory and assure our place in Heaven with Him than we were before. Don’t be afraid to pray to God for relief of your burdens. If relief is not in sight, ask Him for the graces you need to endure in these troubled times. Remember as well to keep your eyes on the prize: heaven, where “God will wipe way every tear…and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Rev 21:4). 

Even though I am confident God has already chosen our next Pastor, we covet your prayers. 



Amy Goodman is one of the most popular radio hosts on alternate radio today. She is the host of Democracy Now. I heard her say in an interview today that the "media" (which is a tough noun to define by the way) is the most powerful force on earth, more than any bullet or bomb.

I hear what she's saying. The news media (which I assume she was speaking of) is incredibly powerful in influencing hearts and minds. But at the end of the day, I fundamentally disagree. The media is not, can not, and will not ever be the most powerful force for one massive reason: the heart of the world's population is beyond the reach of the media.

What did Jesus say? Mark 7:15 "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him."

Meaning, there's nothing that we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell that can fundamentally change our hearts. Our hearts are desperately wicked, and everything we see and hear (media included) serves only to bring out of and/or shape what is already in our hearts.

Conversely, there is one power (and only one) in the world that has the power to radically alter hearts: the Gospel. Last I checked, the media didn't wield the ability to so change a person that it was as if they were "born again".

Don't worry folks, the Gospel isn't going anywhere!

1. Training Your Child to Love God Depends on You
2. Training Your Child Means Watching Over Their Soul
3. Training Your Child to Know the Bible
4. Training Your child to Have a Habit of Prayer
5. Training Your Child to Love the Church and the Lord's Supper

Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite:

“And all this is one of God’s merciful arrangements. He gives your children a mind that will receive impressions like moist clay. He gives them a disposition at the starting-point of life to believe what you tell them, and to take for granted what you advise them, and to trust your word rather than a stranger’s. He gives you, in short, a golden opportunity of doing them good. See that you do not neglect such an opportunity. Once you let it slip, it is gone forever."

“Parents, if you love your children, do all that lies within your power to train them to have a habit of prayer. Show them how to begin. Tell them what to say. Encourage them to persevere. Remind them that if they become careless and slack about it. Let it not be your fault, if they never call on the name of the Lord."

“Oh, dear friend, if you love your children, I charge you, do not let the early impression of a habit of prayer slip by. If you train your children to do anything, train them, at least, to have a habit of prayer.”

In sum, hell glorifies God because

• it shows that he keeps his word;
• it shows his infinite worth, lasting forever;
• it demonstrates his power to subdue all who rebel against him;
• it shows how unspeakably merciful he is to those who trust him;
• it upholds the reality of love by visiting justice against those who reject God, who is love;
• it vindicates all who suffered to hear or proclaim the truth of God’s word;
• and it shows the enormity of what Jesus accomplished when he died to save all who would trust him from the hell they deserved. If there were no hell, there would be no need for the cross.

Check out the complete article here.

Here is a wonderful paraphrase of that prayer by Matthew Henry. It gets at the sense of the prayer while framing it in different words.

Our Father in heaven, we come to thee as children to a Father able and ready to help us.

We beseech thee, let thy name be sanctified; enable us and others to glorify thee in all that whereby thou hast made thyself known, and dispose of all things to thine own glory.

Let thy kingdom come; let Satan’s kingdom be destroyed, and let the kingdom of thy grace be advanced; let us and others be brought into it, and kept in it, and let the kingdom of thy glory be hastened.

Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven; make us by thy grace able and willing to know, obey, and submit to thy will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread; of thy free gift let us receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and let us enjoy thy blessing with them.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. We pray that for Christ’s sake thou wouldst freely pardon all our sins, and that by thy grace thou wouldst enable us from the heart to forgive others.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Either keep us, O Lord, from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Lord, we take our encouragement in prayer from thyself only and desire in our prayers to praise thee, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to thee: And in testimony of our desires and assurance to be heard through Jesus Christ, we say Amen.

HT: Challies

Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time. the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people. (2 Chronicles 16:10)

Most of us will grow old.  Only some of us will do it gracefully.

2 Chronicles 16:10-14 record the last stubborn days of a great king.  Asa was a grumpy old man.  His major offense?  He got a disease in his feet and didn’t ask the Lord for help.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with going to doctors.  God wants us to be wise.  But he also wants us to trust him–more than counselors, therapists, doctors, and pills–and trust him to the end.

There are two types of old Christians.  There are those who fret and fuss about how bad things have gotten and how rotten kids are these days.  These cantankerous old rascals don’t like the church’s music, people, or pastor.

But then there are Christians who, like fine wine, get better with age.  They pray more.  They get wiser and kinder.  They understand what really matters.  They love the Lord and everyday they read their big print Bibles with the devotional tucked in as a book mark.  They pray for their kids and grandkids without ceasing.  They’re a pastor’s best friend and they long to be with Jesus.  These are the un-Asa-like believers the church desperately needs.

So for all those out there heading into life’s last lap, what type of senior saint will you be–crotchety or Christlike?

HT:Justin Buzzard

If God has already willed to send rain, then why pray for it? Or if God has chosen to save you, then why fight so hard against temptation?

Edwards gives his answer to questions like these in Miscellanies #29 (reformatted for readability):

God decrees all things harmoniously and in excellent order; one decree harmonizes with another, and there is such a relation between all the decrees as makes the most excellent order. Thus God decrees rain in drought because he decrees the earnest prayers of his people; or thus, he decrees the prayers of his people because he decrees rain.

I acknowledge, to say God decrees a thing "because," is an improper way of speaking, but not more improper than all our other ways of speaking about God. God decrees the latter event because of the former, no more than he decrees the former because of the latter.

But this is what we [mean]: when God decrees to give the blessing of rain, he decrees the prayers of his people; and when he decrees the prayers of his people, he very commonly decrees rain; and thereby there is an harmony between these two decrees, of rain and the prayers of God's people.

Thus also,

• when he decrees diligence and industry, he decrees riches and prosperity;
• when he decrees prudence, he often decrees success;
• when he decrees striving, then often he decrees the obtaining of the kingdom of heaven;
• when he decrees the preaching of the gospel, then he decrees the bringing home of souls to Christ;
• when he decrees good natural faculties, diligence and good advantages, then he decrees learning;
• when he decrees summer, then he decrees the growing of plants.

Thus, when he decrees conformity to his Son, he decrees calling; and when he decrees calling, he decrees justification; and when he decrees justification, he decrees everlasting glory.

Thus all the decrees of God are harmonious; and this is all that can be said for or against absolute or conditional decrees. But this I say, it's improper to make one decree a condition of another, any more than the other a condition of that; but there is a harmony between both.

"If the church is central to God's purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the center?"

-John Stott

HT: Justin Buzzard