The Gospel According to Yeeks

"But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

"Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us" (Romans 8:34) Intercession in Zechariah 3  Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, ...

The Bible of the Sacred Self Sums it all up really.

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,     nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail     and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold     and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;     I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength;     he makes my feet like the deer's;     he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:17-19

Google's doodle has very kindly informed us that today would have been Rembrandt's Birthday.  While checking out his Wikipedia entry , I found this rather stunning: A letter published in 2004 by Margaret S. Livingstone and Bevil R. Conway, of Harvard Medical School, suggests that Rembrandt's eyes failed to align correctly, and that consequently he suffered from stereo blindness. This conclusion was made after studying 36 of Rembrandt's self-portraits. Because he could not achieve normal binocular vision, his brain automatically switched to one eye for many visual tasks. This disability could have helped him to flatten images he saw, and then put it onto the two-dimensional canvas. Livingstone theorized that this was an advantage for the painter: "Art teachers often instruct students to close one eye in order to flatten what they see. Therefore, stereo blindness might not be a handicap—and might even be an asset—for some artists." Rembrandt has a...

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,     “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,     but of hearing the words of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea,     and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,     but they shall not find it. Amos 8:11-12

"A difficult decision now faced me. I can to this day recall the strain and stress of it. I needed to put certain things out of my life. I needed to put God first. But what would my friends say? Would they not scoff at me? Here, I do not hesitate to say, was the crucial moment in life. It was a time of agony and of decision. The issues of that decision-time were of eternal importance. The pull of the world and of worldly people was very strong. I think as I look back now that this was the most crucial hour in my life. Whom would I serve: God or Mammon? Which course would I take: to heaven or to hell? Those who have experienced a Christian conversion know the struggle which I refer to. I was eighteen at the time and I had no knowledge of how others before me had gone through the same critical experience. The heart is pulled in two opposite directions. The emotions are placed under strain. Tears, fears and uncertainties all tear at the soul of one who is under conviction of s...

A familiar passage spoke to me in with a strong sense of freshness this week. I thought it would be wise to document this down so that I may refer to this again one day. ---- And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matthew 19: 16-22 When the ...

“Who gets to define what truth is? Is it Plato? Is it Nietzsche? Or, is it Christ? You must decide.”  Cornelius Van Til

"This is sin's trade. It is constantly raising up in the heart and proposing to the mind and affections that which is evil. It is trying out as it were, whether the soul would accept its suggestions, or how far it can take them, if it does not wholly prevail."  - John Owen, Indwelling Sin in Believers

We sung this song during the YA Retreat. I love the very contemplative mood that it creates. Praise God for a beautiful melody and even more beautiful words.

I was given the opportunity to speak at my church's Young Adults Retreat on the topic of idolatry. A transcript of the sermon is posted below. It is based on 1 Samuel 23. The Problem with Jesus + Idols A sermon on 1 Samuel 23 To be delivered on 5 th July 2013, Grace Baptist Church Young Adults Retreat This story of Saul and David may be familiar to some of you. The context of today’s passage lies in the awkward “in-between” reign of Saul, the current king and David, the king-elect. We enjoy this passage a lot because a lot of things about David fascinate us. For example, in 1 Samuel 16 we read about how the prophet Samuel went to the house of Jesse to look for the king-elect after Saul’s kingdom had been rejected because he disobeyed God and one by one, David’s brothers passed by but God said “No, not this one.” until David, the youngest one was brought back from the fields where he had been shepherding and God said to Samuel, “ Arise, anoint him, this is he. ” Then ...

I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. (Jeremiah 24:7)