Watch the Lamb

I came across this song for the first time today.  The text in the video is in Spanish (I think) but the song is sung in English.  Very moving...

The Hour Has Come

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee."  John 17:1

These were the words that began Jesus prayer as He was getting ready to go to the cross.  The time with the disciples in the upper room had just ended.  The evening began with a footwashing, then there was the final meal during which He revealed that Judas would betray Him and Peter would deny Him.  He also told them He was going to be leaving them.  The disciples were understandably dismayed by all of this.   Jesus had served them during the evening.  He had instructed them during the evening.  He also comforted them during the evening.  During the evening He promised them He would return, He promised them His peace, He promised them His joy, He promised them His strength, He promised them His provision, He promised them answered prayer, He promised them power through the Holy Spirit, and He promised them intimate fellowship with Him and the Father.  His final promise before He began His prayer was that the disciples would triumph over the world because He had overcome it for them.  He has overcome it for you and me too and all the promises are ours as well.

And now the hour had come where His earthly ministry would be consummated.  His Father's plans made in eternity past would find their culmination in time.  The hour had come in which Jesus would offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sin.  The shadows of the Old Testament sacrifices given over and over and over again, would give way to the glorious reality of the final sacrifice.  Jesus, who knew no sin, would become sin for us.  All throughout His ministry Jesus was continually seeking the glory of His Father.  In absolutely everything He had submitted to the Father's will, flawlessly, joyfully, with His whole heart.  As He came to this hour, though He knew He faced the full fury of His Father's anger and wrath for our sin - something that was absolutely foreign to Him, He would joyfully continue in submission to the Father's will.  He would not yield to Satan's temptation to do otherwise.  He and the Father would be glorified as Jesus completed His earthly ministry during this hour.  And what a precious hour it is for us.  It's the most precious hour for us because Jesus death, burial, and resurrection justifies us, and the Father looks on us as if we've always perfectly submitted to His will, that we've always loved Him with our whole hearts, bringing Him glory in everything, when we so desperately fall short so often.

May we rejoice in and live for our Perfect Righteousness, today, remembering that this hour guarantees our living, serving, and praising Him in the presence and beauty of His love and glory, for all eternity.

Blog Post by Joel Rosenberg

Because of all the unrest going on in the Middle East, I think this blog post by Joel Rosenberg that would be a good one for you to read.

"Last night, I returned from a week in Europe where I had the opportunity to brief several dozen Iranian, Arab, Israeli, European and American pastors and Christian ministry leaders about the new feature-length documentary film produced by the Iranian government and its religious allies called, The Coming Is Near. As I will explain in more detail below, I believe now is the time for pastors and ministry leaders around the world to use the occasion of the release of this film to accelerate and intensify their own teaching about the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and to answer the questions being asked by millions of people throughout the Middle East and elsewhere about who the Messiah is and when/how/why He will return.

The film, The Coming Is Near, was brought to the attention of the West by Reza Khalili, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps member who became a double agent for the CIA working against Iran in the 1980s. It explains how the current wars and revolutions in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere throughout the Middle East and North Africa are signs consistent with Shia Islamic End Times teaching that the Twelfth Imam (or Mahdi) and Jesus will soon appear on earth to usher in the destruction of Israel, the establishment of an Islamic caliphate (kingdom), and the end of days. As I write about in The Twelfth Imam and Inside The Revolution, Shia Muslims are convinced that Jesus will come as a deputy to the Mahdi and force all Jews and Christians to either convert to Islam or die."

Why is this new film significant? I see several reasons:

Click here for the rest of the article.

Favorite...

Quote from the day...

The love of the scriptures reveals life in the soul.  The unregenerate soul "loves darkness rather than light."  The believer says, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God."  And the satisfaction comes most readily through the written word.  Dwight Kennedy

Favorite picture from the day...

My Charlie, another one of my loves!

Praise According to His Excellent Greatness

Psalm 150:2 instructs us to Praise the LORD according to His excellent greatness...  


The LORD's greatness is unlimited because He is infinite.  Correspondingly, our praise then should never cease, but always be overflowing.  And because His excellent greatness never ceases, we can praise Him even during the hardest trials, until we see Him face to face - and then our praise will just continue, for an eternity!

Testimony to Encourage You...

Below is a testimony I came across in the discussion room at Fulfilled Prophecy, a website that I visit often.  (I tried to post a link to it but for some reason it wouldn't work.)  I asked permission from GodsStudent (her screen name) if I could post it here, to my blog.  The topic being discussed was of the evil around us and of the disasters that are occurring.  Here is a child of God who lives with an eternal perspective, who has her mind set on things above.  May GodsStudent's words encourage you...

There are many more disasters ahead.  The evil around me is not as pervasive as the Gospel Message.  There is no hope for the one who hopes on himself, or the government, or man's way of life. In that case, the hope is diminished every time something hits close to home for that person. In Christ, the rock I stand on is solid. In truth, which is the Word of God, I am told that when I see these things, I am not to disintegrate into a heap on the floor, I am not to be afraid....I am to look up. The Lord is there. He always has been, and He still is. In the midst of everything seemingly hopeless in this world, the Lord is still moving heaven and earth to ensure His children are taken care of. What, truly, do I have to fear? Death? No...it has no sting. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Whatever tragedies bestow themselves, near or far in my life, one thing remains.....the faith I have in the Lord transgresses from everyday to the end of days, be them mine, or the entire world's. He is Faithful.  

Louie Giglio on Philippians 1:21

"If you let me live, you get more of Christ.  If you kill me, I get more of Christ."