The eyes I’m born with are no good, I need corrective lens
I need the lens of Jesus Christ, the grace which saves from sin
Lord give me grace to see through Christ the ways in which I’m blessed
And keep me from my selfish greed, to always see Your grace

I get so needy, and so wanting, contentment is not mine
It’s always something somewhere else for which my wanting pines
Lord help me see Your wondrous ways, Your grace in Christ Your Son
Though life is hard, it is not lost, our battle Christ has won

I look on Jesus, and I see, that He is all I need
He’s mighty, powerful to save, He’s greater than my greed
My All in all, He owns my life, I’ve never been my own
My life is for the glory of my God who’s on His Throne

When waves come crashing, smashing down onto the sandy shore
When winds come ripping, slashing in and blow a little more
When homes are thrown and torn in two and some are left to stand
When lives are changed for good or ill, we know we’re in God’s Hands

When little boys get very sick, so that they might soon die
When parents see their children ill, and watch their young ones cry
When tests are done, and bad news comes, with surgeries galore
When hope seems lost, and death seems near, we know we serve our Lord

When dearest friends go through life’s throws and find it hard to stand
When Christian sons and daughters true are weak in God’s strong Hand
When our good God does see it fit to give and take away
The solemn cry “Blessed be His Name” is what our hearts must say

When life goes up and then comes down, when side by side it flies
When all the future once so sure just seems to up and die
When we don’t know what life next holds, when nothing is real sure
When we despair and question God, we see the One Who’s Pure

When God’s Good Will just seems so vague, and it is hard to trust
When we lose faith and hope seems lost, into His arms we’re thrust
For God protects and holds His own, the Children of the Lamb
The Unknown has now been made Known, because God is I AM

We do not need to know what comes today or in the morn
We trust in Christ who loves His sheep, He has His Grace well shown
We do not need to fret the things that in this life seem hard
For all are in our God’s Strong Hands, His Grace He does impart

So when we want to doubt and fret about all things unknown
We must remember that we serve the God Who’s on His Throne
He Rules and Reigns, and knows all things, for He’s our Sovereign Lord
We know the Unknown is made Known, His Grace is on us poured

(set to the tune of “There is a Fountain”)

Lord when it’s hard to live for Christ
And when it’s hard to stand
Help us to fix our Gaze above
To our Eternal Land
To our Eternal Land, to our Eternal Land
Help us to fix our Gaze above
To our Eternal Land

Lord God it’s by Your grace alone
That we are justified
Please give us comfort in Your Blood
The Love in which You died
The Love in which You died, the Love in which You died
Please give us comfort in Your Blood
The Love in which You died

Lord give us grace to know Your Truth
You’ve given us Your Word
By it we know of Jesus Christ
By it we call You Lord!
By it we call You Lord, by it we call You Lord
By it we know of Jesus Christ
By it we call You Lord

Lord give us hope in Who You are
Our Maker and our Friend
Our Sovereign King, and Savior Sweet
Whose Mercy has no end
Whose Mercy has no end, whose mercy has no end
Our Sovereign King, and Savior Sweet
Whose Mercy has no end!

12 July 2009
Preacher: Jarret Downs
Sermon: “The Lampstand”
Text: Revelation 2:1-7

Jesus loves me and He died for me
And He lives that I might live
I was lost and dead, for I loved my sin
I was set against my God
But now I’m saved
Now I live for Him
Now I’m one with Jesus Christ

I shine the light of Jesus’ love for me
I shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with my mouth and with my frame Christ’s glory I proclaim
God give me strength to live for You, to glorify Your Name

Yet I am not saved in a blackened void
I’m saved into a body
A family with Christ as Head
All, sinners, justified
In Christ we’re saved
For the Father’s Name
By the Spirit sanctified

We shine the light of Jesus’ love for us
We shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with our mouths and with our frames Christ’s glory we proclaim
God give us strength to live for You, to glorify Your Name

With tears we come before You, God
We’ve lost our Former Love
Forgive us when we Your Name impugn
We’ve Truth, but haven’t love
Teach us to obey
To each other love
Please forgive your sinners own!

We shine the light of Jesus’ love for us
We shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with our mouths and with our frames Christ’s glory we proclaim
God, give us strength to live for You, to glorify Your Name

Lord we beg to tell Your Name
To a lost and deadened world
With Your Love we long to preach Your Truth
And to love the Lost and Low
Help us shine Your Truth
To proclaim Your Word
So that sinners might be saved!

We shine the light of Jesus’ gracious love
We shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with our mouths and frames Christ’s love we must proclaim
God give us strength to live with You, to glorify Your Name

Jesus come preserve Your Sons
And Your daughters weak and frail
If it’s left to us we’ll surely fail
We need your grace and steadfast love
With Your love we love
To Your Name proclaim
So Your greatness will be known

We shine the light of Jesus’ lasting love
We shine the light of Jesus’ Word
For with our hands and tongues, God’s greatness we proclaim
Christ, give us strength to live for you
To magnify
To amplify
To glorify Your Name

In many ways, the Christian life is full of tension. This is seen most acutely in the internal war between the flesh and the spirit. When presented with sin, sometimes parts of us want to sin and we don’t, but sometimes we do. Most of the time we don’t want to sin, we want to do good, but we still sin anyways ( Romans 7:7-25 ).  We live in this world, but we’re not of this world ( John 15:18-19 ). We fight against multi-cultural pluralism, but we must also ward off arrogant ethno-centrism( 1 John 2:15-17 ). We’re not fatalists, but neither are we emotionalists. God’s in control, but we’re still held responsible for our lives. We must communicate the Gospel well, yet we must never ever lost the message of the Truth of Jesus Christ ( 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 ).  We plead with men to turn to Jesus and be saved, yet we know that we ultimately have not the ability to save them; we must leave the saving up to God ( Ephesians 1-2 ).  We love our spouses, but we don’t love them the most. We care for our families, yet we understand that eternity will be spent with a much bigger, global family ( Luke 20:34-36 ).  We love our unbelieving friends, but we know that we can never have real, brotherly communion so long as they are apart from Christ ( 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 ).  We strive to be sanctified, but we know we do not ultimately have the power ( John 17:18-23 ).  We preach to the lost and trust God to do His work, but we don’t really know what that might look like; some might believe, but some might also be hardened even further (we thus become God’s tool for a worse condemnation) ( Isaiah 6).  We live on this planet, in nations, societies, clans, cultures and families, yet we know in our heart, in our core, that this world is not our home ( 1 Peter 2:11-12 ).

Why the tension?  Why is the Christian pulled into so many different directions?  Is it a perspective thing?  Some might say that the Christian life could be thought of as an attempt to balance on that wire of tension between any number of extremes. Yet, is this the reality? Is life in Christ about balancing between vastly different (and wrong) ideas, or should it be about standing on the Standard? Is the balance dictated by the extremes, or are the extremes defined by the balance? Is right defined by all the wrong in the world, or is the wrong understood to be wrong by what is right? Is holiness defined by sin or is sin defined by holiness?  Is Truth defined as being non-false, or is False thought of as being  non-True?  Are such distinctions even appropriate?

I’m saved by grace through faith in Christ
The Son of God our Lord
It’s not be works I’m justified
But by the love of God
He loves me with a deepest love
I’ve never been alone
My Sovereign King does rule my life
I never am my own

I’m sanctified by grace alone
I grow in Jesus’ Truth
For my small heart which once was dead
Has now been made anew
God give me grace to live for You
And do as You command
Please use me as a useful tool
In Your great Master Plan

When my short life comes to an end
And to my death I come
I know I have a place to dwell
I know I have a home
A place where I will dwell with Christ
Forever and anon
A place of warmth, a place of joy
I’ll dwell e’er in the Son

Excellent stuff:

Download audio file (lecrae-rebel-intro.mp3)

Absolutely great stuff.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ca469PTa1I

“Don’t Waste Your Life” by Lecrae from the new Rebel album, with clips from the “Don’t Waste Your Life” sermon by John Piper.

Download audio file (Dont_Waste_Your_Life_(Piper_Mix).mp3)

We are most fully ourselves when Christ most fully lives in us and through us…

-Andrew Peterson

The final session has completed.  This last session was on Church Discipline and Church Growth, by Dr. Tom Ascol.

Tom spoke on the two forms of Church Discipline, Formative and Corrective, as well as the two forms of Church Growth, Numerical and Spiritual

Formative Church Discipline is something that should happen all the time within the church.  It is that educational, instructional learning that every member of a Church should be experiencing.  Corrective Church Discipline, then, is necessary when when formative discipline is not happening in a member, and when that member remains unrepentent of his/her sin.

He made a very good point about corrective discpline in that it is NOT in response to sin, but rather in response to a lack of and unwillingness to repent of that sin.  It should be done in love and with reverence, never out of hatred or spite.

In talking about Church Growth, Tom made the point that in the current evangelical culture we exist in, where the Church Growth Movement has run totally amock, we sometimes are too reactionary and that we SHOULD seek for numerical growth, but Biblical Numerical Growth.

In addition, Tom spoke of the Spiritual Growth that should be happening in a church, wherebye her members are made more like her Savior.

Finally, Tom made a Biblical and Historical connection between Church Discipline and Church Growth.  If Church Discipline is not happening, then Biblical Church Growth is not happening.  Likewise, if a Church is practicing Biblical Church Discipline, then some form of Biblical Church Growth should be expected.

Overall, very good session and good conclusion to the conference.  I’ll try to put together a summary of my thoughts of the conference maybe later today or tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy the quotes and pictures.

I think I screwed up the video for this session, so you’ll have to content yourself with the mp3 when it is made available.  Rath Dé ort!

Church Discipline is absolutely necessary for Church Health.

Church Discipline is the process of maintaining and training the principles and practices of Jesus Christ in the Church.

Church growth is that which happens in the life of the congregation when the Lord manifests his blessings.

The Faithful practice of Church Discipline…has often been followed with wonderful seasons of Church Growth.

Our modern forgetfulness of Church Discipline practically screams out a ‘Practical Atheism’

When a Church takes the name of Jesus Christ and yet refuses to obey the simple, clear teachings of Christ that church is at best clouding over the glory of God in Christ.

We should never expect Revival to come without Reformation.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Today’s “Music Wednesday” features Trip Lee and his song “Dig In” from 13 Letters.

The more I hear these guys‘ music, the more I love it.  Musically, are there anything better than songs about Christ and His Word?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9OUyqNPepQ]

LYRICS:

Yes sir, everyday got to jump in the text
‘Cause He’s the better way, yeah, the Son is the best
That trash: I’ll pass on the pump and the vest
Got the sword of the Spirit, I run to the text
I run to the best answer for every question
It’s got every teaching, every lesson,
That we could ever need for reppin’
Jesus, yes sir, He’s a blessing
We got to read His Holy Word
To deny this bible’s so absurd
I deny my pride, and God is first
So I got to dive inside His Word
What other way could we know how to live this thing?
It’s inspired by the Spirit, man
So listen man, the very Word of God is in the scriptures, man
We got to see its God breathed, and it’s His will for all creeds,
All races, all nations, Genesis to Revelation
So get up in it if you want to know
His will revealed through the Son and more
It’s real, but you’ll feel dumb to go
Without it as a Saint it will stunt your growth
But bro you supposed to grow much closer
To Jehovah bro He wrote you
All we need to grow as soldiers
And show other folks, we ‘posed to
So grab your pen, pencil, highlighter, and your commentary
And dig deep in the scriptures, Jesus with us He can carry

Hook:
Bible, check; spiral, check, highlighter check
Now dig (dig in it), dig (dig in it)
You want to know Him? Got to dig (dig) dig (in)
You want to know Him? Got to dig (dig) dig (in)

Verse 2:
Where all my cats who know the bible’s solid?
Grinding off in bible college, getting it in with Psalms and Prophets
Becoming urban bible scholars
Yearning, learning all the knowledge
Then putting it to use now that you got it
We need it, must read it, Jesus He is pleased with solid doctrine
Where all my cats who get up in the Word and love it?
Not just when they be up in the church in public
But in private they dive in, it be on they mind, they be thinking of it
We need that, read that, see that Jesus gets the glory He deserves
And the only way we can know His ways is if we stay up in His Word
He inspired it through writers they was carried along
The Spirit inspired the bible so all its merit is strong
Yes sir He breathed it Theopneustos
So if you trying to move close
Then get it, live it, give it to some faithful men that you know
Hope your passion is real passionate
Everybody in the faith got to master this
He ain’t just write the Bible for the Pastor kid
So how we all gon’ slack with it?
We got to get up in it heavy and be ready to live it out
This is for my Christians in it trying to figure scripture out

Verse 3:
It may seem hard to understand at times
But depend on the Lord He handed down
Scriptures pointing to Himself don’t just try to stack knowledge to cram in your mind
It ain’t about knowledge you stack or all the doctrine you pack
Inside your mind man God’s design was not just for you to find the facts
Don’t be like them Pharisees, man they knew the scripture good
But from the looks of things apparently they ain’t know all that they should
The Jews was searching the scriptures looking for life, the eternal kind
But for certain they was missing Christ John 5, verse 39
But don’t get twisted man they intentions was great
But they was missing the faith, they had it twisted mistake
So get up in them right, they a witness of the Christ
Search it learn it then stick it in your life
Listen to the Christ’s works and person
And perfect is a description of Him right?
Then pass it along to some faithful dudes
So cats will get strong and convey the truth
To others we love to discover truth and pass to our other brothers
Did I st-stutter? We got to follow Christ and His Father and the Spirit inside us guides us in the Word that’s the model

The Desiring God Blog announced a very interesting evening of lectures by D.A. Carson and John Piper on what it means to be a Pastor-Theologian.

More info can be found here.

This week’s song is “Give Me Your Eyes” by Brandon Heath.

I made the video this past weekend.  In the video, the first song is Bi Thusa Mo Shúile (Be Thou My Vision) by Máire Ní Bhraonáin, and then it is followed by Give Me Your Eyes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAmW4CgPDp0]

The lyrics are below.

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
Theres a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
To ashamed to tell his wife
He’s out of work
He’s buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

I’ve been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone