...of the goal of God's grace...

Appreciation for God’s amazing grace in salvation will never terminate in simple gratitude alone, nor lead to either idleness or complacency.

 

...of delight in holiness & disgust with sin...

I can neither affirm nor aspire to the beauty of Christ’s holiness without also rejecting…being disgusted by…the heinousness of my own sin…

 

We can work it out...

We can work it out...
But, only because the Lord has begun it...He continues to work in us...and He has promised to bring it to completion...

...love covers all offenses...

To overlook an offense I have suffered is to give expression to the Christ-like love I have been graciously blessed to experience.

 

Withholding Forgiveness is both Dangerous and Sinful...

It is both dangerous, and sinful, to ever consider withholding forgiveness because I am skeptical about the prospects for reconciliation.

Confusing God's Sanctifying Grace with Innate Personal Holiness

We live with a constant danger of getting used to…becoming accustomed to…even taking for granted…the presence of God's sanctifying grace, and so, potentially, confusing the effects of His grace with some innate personal holiness.

As a result, I might find myself surprised by my own sin...

...powerlessness...in times of impending peril...

Our Lord's prescription for powerless people in times of impending peril is a God-ward focus in prayer and praise...

"Unbelief" is not a sin that is unique to the "Unbeliever"...

...of self-less love and gracious deliverance...

The pursuit of soul-satisfying pleasure...

The pursuit of truly soul satisfying pleasure…apart from engagement in, and devotion to, Divinely designed relationship,

is frustratingly futile…

…lessons from Peter, the fisherman...

…of faithful obedience…a fearful focus...frantic cries…and failures…

 

...future hope equips us for present endurance...

Divinely promised hope is not provided as

an anesthetizing distraction from present trials,

but as an equipping power to endure.

Biblical Hope...

Advent Reflections...thoughts along the way...beyond empathy...

I cannot worship the Lord Jesus Christ for His incarnation if I will not follow the Him in selfless commitment to identify with others...serving them in their need.

To claim to understand and appreciate the worth of what He has done requires that I also recognize His call on my life to empathize with the life experiences of those who are different from me, so that I can serve them and intercede on their behalf, that they too might know His blessing, and that His glory might be made manifest.

COMING SOON! "...entering His rest..." A New PODCAST with Dr. James Long, Jr. and Victor J. Maglio

Over the course of many years now, my good friend, and dear brother in the Lord, James Long, Jr. and I have taught Scripture together and preached a number of sermon series together.  Beyond that however, we have also simply met together periodically over lunch to talk about the things of God. We find ourselves sharing together both gratitude and amazement as we reflect on the truth that, through the finished work accomplished at the cross of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God has graciously provided us with a sure hope of entering into His rest, not only at some point in the distant future, but also, today…and every day...day by day.

Both James and I have come to truly appreciate, and look forward to, those lunch-time opportunities Our Lord provides for us to come apart from the daily demands of life and simply sit together across a table and talk about these eternal truths which are, after all, “of first importance.”  Although we often struggle to schedule those times, we always seem to come away mutually encouraged…challenged…and checking our calendars to evaluate possibilities for our next meeting.

This past summer, as we shared over one of those lunches, we began to consider the possibility of producing a podcast together.  We considered how we might record something like one of our informal lunch-time discussions of these truths “of first importance” in a manner that would provide an experience for listeners that would allow them to feel as if they were sitting at a table near ours, simply overhearing our conversation about the things of God in the comfort of a relaxed and natural setting.  And so, “…entering His rest…” was conceived.

For the past several months, James and I have prayerfully considered potential initial discussion topics as well as the logistics involved in getting such a podcast up-and-running. The Lord has provided in both areas. So, Lord willing, we are now anticipating that our first series might be on-line sometime in December, or early January.  Our plan is to post two podcasts per month, each being about 20 minutes in length.

So, we would like to invite you to pull up a table nearby and listen in on our conversations.  If you find that you have a question or comment regarding something you might “overhear,” we will try to provide you with a means of letting us know…and we certainly won’t consider you rude or impolite for listening in...!

                      PLEASE WATCH FOR FUTURE UPDATES…!

 By the way…for those you who know me, but might not know James; James is currently serving as part of the Pastoral Team at "The Chapel,” a Christian fellowship meeting in the Washington/Phillipsburg area of Warren County, NJ.  To learn more about James, please feel free to check-out his on-line biographical information at http://www.thechapelnj.org/meet-our-pastoral-team or on his blog at http://www.jameslongjr.com/about.html , or on Twitter ( @drjameslongjr ).

...of weak and drooping hands...of weak and feeble knees...

Our prayers ought always to be offered up in humble confidence…

...snap shots can be extremely misleading...

"...charge that to my account..."

...entering God's rest...not merely an opiton He has offered...