Morning Prayer- 4/28/13

Good morning men,

Great God and king of our souls-
Help us this week to consider the truth of our own hearts that are bent on being your enemy and teach us the be in awe and wonder that you have brought us to reconciliation and you have removed the separation by canceling the sin.

Help us to consider the truth of the cross and how you have not wiped away your wrath, but you have diverted it to your Son.  Let us see His beauty and your amazing grace and let us be transformed and motivated.

Help us to see the truth of the access that we have to you in Jesus.  Teach us to trust only in Him as our means of access to you in prayer and may we come joyfully into your presence as the returned prodigal son whom you are eager to dress in a fine robe and to throw a party for.  For the sake of your name and the joy of our hearts I pray- Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!
(If you are reading on email- click the link below to go to the blog for other content)

The Great Discovery

This Thursday we will be looking at salvation and particularly at the fact that, by birth, we are separated from God by our sin nature and that we need to be reconciled to God.  We will examine the Old Testament concept of atonement and relate it to what Christ accomplished for us in His life and death.

A Puritan Prayer for us as we ponder the great salvation that comes From God, is accomplished Through God, and is purposed primarily To the glory of God.

Glorious God, 

I bless thee and I know thee.
I once lived in the world, but was ignorant
of its Creator,
was a partaker of thy providences, but knew not
  the Provider,
was blind while enjoying the sunlight,
was deaf to all things spiritual, with voices
  all around me,
understood many things, but had no knowledge
  of thy ways,
saw the world, but did not see Jesus only.
O happy day, when in thy love's sovereignty
  thou didst look upon me, and call me by grace.
Then did the dead heart begin to beat,
  the darkened eye glimmer with light,
  the dull ear catch they echo,
  and I turned to thee and found thee,
  a God ready to hear, willing to save.
The did I find my heart at enmity to thee,
  vexing thy Spirit;
Then did I fall at thy feet and hear thee thunder,
  "The soul that sinneth, it must die!",
But when grace made me to know thee,
  and admire a God who hated sin,
  thy terrible justice held my will submissive.
My thoughts were then as knives cutting my head.
Then didst thou come to me in silken robes of love,
  and I saw thy Son dying that I might live,
  and in that death I found my all.
My soul doth sing at the remembrance of
  that peace;
The gospel cornet brought a sound unknown
  to me before that reached my heart - and I lived -
  never to lose my hold on Christ or his hold on me.
Grant that I may always weep to the praise of
  mercy found,
  and tell to others as long as I live,
  that thou art a sin-pardoning God,
  taking up the blasphemer and the ungodly,
  and washing them from their deepest stain.

"The Great Discovery"- Retyped From The Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions (p.112-113)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Draft Lessons

Men-

I will be putting draft lessons up on the left side where you can preview the summary, key quotes, and the objectives for the lesson as you read and consider the chapters.

I will then post the final lesson with the Doctrine and Use sections complete the evening before the meeting so you can print it and bring it with you (saves me lots of ink).

If you come up with thoughts or questions you can shoot a comment to one of these posts and we can have dialogue.  You can also post prayer requests at the Prayer Request tab on the top of the screen.

I have put up some blogs that I enjoy to the right...

Soli Deo Gloria

Off and Running!

Good morning men-

We had a great start on our study last night and I am excited about the next 13 weeks together.  As time goes on I may add some features to this blog that may be of use to you but the main point is an easy way for me to communicate with you and for us to drop comments in order to have discussion and reflect on what we are discussing in the meetings.

You should see to the left that the overview and the lesson are available to view or download in pdf.  Each week I will add the lesson there hopefully a day or so prior to the meeting.

On the right you will see other blog content and various links I will provide to excellent resources.

At the top you will see a bar with any different pages that I add- prayer requests are up there.

Morning Prayer:

Lord God in heaven- I thank you for loving us so much and for caring so deeply about the display of your glory that you stopped at nothing to catch us up in your wonderful story.  I pray that today you would guide our hearts and cause us to think on the love of Jesus and that you would change us.  Change our thinking that we might not be stuck on what we see and touch, but let us meditate on you and let us slow down to look at Jesus.  Show us how to do this today God and fill us with your Spirit.  For your glory and our joy I ask in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

First Meeting Tonight!

Howdy men.   

Tonight is the first in a 14-week series we are doing on John Piper's 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die. 

This is just a test post and what we would expect to find here from now on would be thoughts or reflections or updates or messages from me for the group.

The lessons can be downloaded from the links on the right.

Prayer requests can be submitted for view by all.