The Gospel According to Yeeks

Note the words of our Lord to the Church in Sardis: “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.'" (Revelations 3:1) --- If we say we are in Him, may we humbly put to death our old selves and really embrace Christ in our new life. Have we truly participated in His death, and His resurrection?

Our Young Adults group in church recently started to brainstorm for topics for our Young Adults retreat. One of the topics I proposed was sanctification. There are twofold reasons for this. When people think of the gospel what they have in mind is usually justification alone. But this sadly misses out on another gift of grace that is sanctification. God saves but God also perfects! Without sanctification, all obedience is a reliance on self-effort and hence we are grooming Pharisees rather than disciples. Hebrews 12:2 powerfully captures this idea. Jesus Christ is rightly attributed as both the founder and the PERFECTER of our faith:  " ... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." The other reason is a personal one. There was a time gap between my understanding of justification and my understanding of sanctification. Why t

"The implications of this are profound. It means above all else that we are to glory in the God of grace and not in the grace of God. I hope I am not making an artificial distinction. Of course Christians will love and cherish the doctrines of grace. Of course we will celebrate the inexplicably sovereignty of that grace. But there is always the danger that we isolate the blessings of the gospel from the Person of the Saviour." Full article here

"The rush and bustle of modern life is such that it takes a person with nerves of steel to endure it. Our age is a nervous one. Nervous wrecks abound. How can this be explained but by the mad rush of men after the material things of this transient world?"  - R.B. Kuiper, While the Bridegroom Tarries, 1919, Post World War 1

1. Christian Service is a discovery of how sinful you really are 2. Went to a wake. It was nice to see many gathered together to visit a family who lost a dear one. Ecclesiastes 7:2 continues to ring true: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart." 3. This could be rather selfish but the wake was a good reminder. Life is short. To be able to say that my life was glorifying to God would be a good way to depart. 4. Persecution comes with Evangelism. The Lord Jesus has warned us not to be surprised. "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world will love you as one of its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world., therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18-19)

The song that the string ensemble on board the Titanic was alleged to have continue playing as the ship was sinking:

Today is a reminder that our heart is capable of erecting all sorts of self deception that inhibits the word from doing what it is supposed to do that is to produce in us the righteousness of God.