Selfishness, the source of sin

James 1:13-15
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Sin begins with selfishness. It results from asking "what do I want?" regardless of any one or any thing else. This attitude is the polar opposite of the mind of Christ (Phil 2:1-8) which was made obvious through His life and death. Emmanuel, "who for the joy set before Him, [a relationship with me] endured the cross" (Heb 12:2) to die and redeem me "from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for" me (Gal 3:13).

Jude 1:25
To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

More on True Worship

I watched a video of a John MacArthur sermon titled "The Critical Elements of True Worship" while I was exercising this afternoon. I've found that preaching is an important part of my exercise routine for a number of reasons. For one, it seems a good idea to exercise the heart and stretch the mind while doing the same to my muscles.

From the text of Romans 12:1-2 he presents 3 key ideas surrounding the concept of Biblical worship.

1. The motivation for true worship
2. The mandate of true worship
   
3. The manner of true worship

You can watch the video here.
Or read the transcripts here.

UPS is thinking outside the box

I recently read a post entitled "'Right' turns only" on Dan Miller's 48daysblog. He is the author of 48 Days To The Work You Love and No More Mondays. In it he explains that UPS expects 90% of the turns their drivers make to be right turns. "By turning right whenever possible they saved over 28 million miles of driving and three million gallons of fuel."

He goes on to ask "What if you could find the “right” turns in your own life, avoiding the ones that wasted time, money and energy?" Is that possible? Is there any chance of me avoiding the left/wrong turns? If only I could be convinced that planning ahead and making decisions with a definite purpose would lead to greater success, spiritually and occupationally.

Colossians 1:9-12
[I do] not cease to pray . . . and to ask that [I] may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that [I] will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified [me] to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

The foundation for thankfulness

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Horatio Spafford

Happy Thanksgiving!

An inconvenient quote

I was flipping through An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck and read this quote.

"When you don't perform, you get nothing. The phrase is 'To the victor go the spoils' not 'spoil those who aren't the victor'."

How descriptive or our culture in this day. We praise the failures while punishing the successful. We take from those who work to give to those who don't. It won't be long before the pendulum swings back and we have to start worrying about the self-esteem of the winners.

And then the dam broke.

We sang "Lord, Bless Our Home" in the morning service. Everything was going fine until I tried to sing along. At that moment discouraged faces began to fill my mind and I felt a little bit of the hurt of those who are living at ground zero. And then the dam broke.

Families all around us are crumbling every day.
Yielding to the enemy and throwing life away.
Bind our lives together, guard us with your truth;
When the struggle seems too great, Lord, keep our eyes on You.

Chorus:
Lord, bless our home, protect our home:
Let it be a refuge in this world of sin.
Lord, reign within, keep us strong and true:
And when we need You most,
Lord, draw us close, committed to each other.
Lord, bless our home: we give our home to You.

Thank You for Your goodness; our love was in Your plan.
Help us face the future always trusting in Your hand.
Keep us warm and tender; Keep us clean and pure.
Drive us to each other's arms, and make our love endure.

words and music by Ron Hamilton

The most wonderful time of the year!

Emma is excited that Duke's basketball season has begun . . .


. . . but wants to know why you're not excited, too.

Ransom

I enjoyed listening to a song today that used "Ransom from Heaven" as a name for Christ and it provoked a number of thoughts in my head.

It is quite common for us to think of a ransom as a payment made by a parent to buy back their stolen child. But that's not quite how our salvation was won. God the Father used His Son as the ransom payment to buy back me, one of the "children of wrath" who was "dead in trespasses and sins". He used His only Son, Jesus, to buy me, who was not His son, to make me His son and joint heir with Jesus (Rom 8:14-17). Jesus Christ is truly my Ransom from Heaven

Here's a personalized version of Ephesians 2 that teaches this truth. This passage has already been shaping my thinking over the last couple of weeks and I was excited to see the Lord bring these two thoughts together as an encouragement to my heart when I needed it.

And [I was] dead in [my] trespasses and sins, in which [I] formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them [I] formerly lived in the lusts of [my] flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and [was] by nature [a child] of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me], even when [I was] dead in [my] transgressions, made [me] alive together with Christ (by grace [I] have been saved), and raised [me] up with Him, and seated [me] with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward [me] in Christ Jesus.

"Autobiography in Five Short Chapters"

This poem, by Portia Nelson, was given to me at a men's prayer fellowship. I needed the blatant reminder of what my life often looks like.

I.
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost . . . I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find my way out.

II.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in . . . it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

IV.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

V.
I walk down another street.

Would you like a voluntary tax system?

That's really what the FairTax is, voluntary. Here are a few easy to understand details to think about. If you want more information and proof that it can work and is possible to enact, click on the picture or on the links at the bottom of the post.

• It is a federal retail sales tax of 23% (Sounds awful, I know, but keep reading!). It is designed to replace every single business and personal tax the federal government imposes. It includes the dreaded income tax which means that the stupid phrase "take home pay" will become obsolete because we'll keep it all!
  
• The price you and I pay for an item at the retail level already has the tax burden of every business involved in that product's existence included in it. They legitimately pass their tax burden onto us.
• The price we will pay after the FairTax is enacted will be the prices we pay now.
  
• The difference is . . . we "take home" every bit of our paycheck!!!

How will it help and how will it be successful, you ask?

• The federal government will have an equal if not greater amount of revenue.
• More money will come home, more money will be spent.
• Those who do not work, but consume our goods and services will help bear the burden.
• The welfare recipients will help when they buy non-welfare items (which they couldn't afford if they paid for their own food).
• Illegal aliens will share the burden, too.
• Legal foreign visitors will help when they buy their souvenirs and necessities while enjoying our beautiful country.
  
• In other words, every one pays their fair share!
• Also, included in the plan is a "prebate". Each month, every household will be pre-reimbursed for the taxes they would typically pay on the basic necessities.
• Business owners will move their companies back to America to enjoy the lessened tax burden, meaning more jobs here in the States.
  

Here's a "Thumbnail Sketch of the FairTax"
A detailed plan of how the prebate would work
A list of FAQs that answers more questions than I can think of