This article was published about six years ago by a professor at Trinity seminary and now at Pheonix Seminary. Great words of wisdom about how even one who knows all about the Bible requires an act of God to know the scriptures in their heart.
May we all learn the scriptures not just for knowledge but deep in our hearts in a life changing, life sustaining way.
Wayne Grudem's Article on Marriage
dave m
Posted by Dave Miller at 4:41 PM 2 comments
This is an excellent review of the book The Secret that has been flying of the shelves following an episode of Oprah where she heralded the power found in its pages.
Without stating the obvious, it is worth knowing a little about because a lot of people are talking about it. And I do mean a lot.
http://www.baptistpress.net/bpcolumn.asp?ID=2554
Posted by Dave Miller at 5:52 PM 1 comments
God gave me the privilege tonight to lead a young lady to Christ. No matter how hard life gets, or how busy it becomes, there is nothing that will bring joy instantly in the midst of it all, more than sharing with a soul the glorious truth of forgiveness and new life in Christ Jesus, only to see God snatch them from the fire into life eternal.
What a great moment, for it has selfishly been the highlight of the week and refocused my energies on what truly matters.
Posted by Dave Miller at 9:33 PM 0 comments
Have you ever thought about how much time we spend worrying about tomorrow? When the fact of the matter is that we cannot change one thing about it? I in no way am insinuating that what you do today does not effect tomorrow, quite the contrary. What I am suggesting is that you cannot control what you will encounter tomorrow, you can only deal with what you encounter today.
The more I walk the Christian life the more I understand this principle. Jesus said to not concern yourself with the next day for this day has enough troubles of its own, instead seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and leave the rest to Him. I am getting close to the end of my seminary training and will soon be looking to find a church that is gracious enough to accept me as their pastor. Yet I have no idea where I am going to go. I have already seen some doors closed that I considered real possibilities. But does that really matter? Should it concern me that I do not know where I will go? The spiritual answer is of course no, but the real answer is the same, no!
My responsibility is to encounter every situation today and wisely make decisions according to the biblical principles that I know, trusting that the Lord will lead me in the path that He desires. I can search for the "secret will" of God all day and all I will have is a missed opportunity of life here and now.
God has been faithful my entire Christian life to prevent me from paths that I thought were good, yet were not what He desired. I have been required to make some faith based decisions that did not make much sense but were what seemed best at the time and looking back were better than I even expected.
Does this exclude God's vision and direction for your life? Certainly not! There have been many occasion where the Lord has given me directions concerning months or even a year in advance, but that is rare in comparison to the numerous opportunities presented to me every day to follow what I know is his will in the small, ordinary decisions of life.
The moral of the story, don't take for granted the will of God in the small of life and the will of God in the unknown will be obvious one step at a time.
Posted by Dave Miller at 8:10 PM 1 comments
If you are a member of Cedar Creek and missed the reconciliation service last night, you missed an amazing service. I have been praying for God to work among our congregation, to renew our love to him, and to heal wounds that are in the body. Last night God began that process in an awesome way.
For two and a half hours we sought God, asking forgiveness for our sins and admitting our shortcomings before Him. Healing began in many hearts and many turned back to him in what I hope to be zealous, passionate pursuit of His heartbeat for their lives and our church.
I have never been in a 2 hour service in a Baptist church, but this was worth every minute. Having written sins that the Holy Spirit revealed to us on sheets of paper the congregation then laid those sins symbolically at the foot of the cross on stage and took the Lord's Supper together, knowing that our sins, as ugly and heinous as they are, have been done away with on the cross. PK and I then nailed those sheets of paper to a cross as we sang It Is Well. This was a powerful reminder of the reality found in the words of our ancient lifeline, God's Holy Word.
For thousands of years, God's people have confessed their sins and been forgiven by a merciful and unbelievably gracious God. It was no different last night as we gathered in a long history of repentance and redemption.
Praise be to God for His mercy and Grace! Praise be to God for his unfailing love! Praise be to God for His patience at Cedar Creek! Praise be to God for his love endures forever! Praise be to God for what he has in store for this body of believers!
Posted by Dave Miller at 11:27 AM 2 comments
