Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Promises of God, without the Presence of God...Would you take it?

Be careful how you answer! Many professing Christians today want things from God, but do not want God Himself!
In Exodus Ch.32, the children of Israel had sinned against God with the "golden calf", & then Moses interceded on their behalf
In Exodus Ch.33, to shorten & paraphrase, God tells Moses to go up with the people into the land of Canaan, & said He would drive out the inhabitants as he had promised,
however, He told Moses in vs. 3 "But I will not go up among you..."
Moses said in vs.15 to the LORD, "if Your presence will not go up with me, do not bring us up from here.
Then in vs.18, "Moses said, Please show me your Glory"

Oh,let that be our heart!
(I plan to write more on this when I get time--please add comments if you like)

Click the link below for the sermon on this subject by David Platt that stirred my heart. Get ready to be blessed!
Click on Feb 21 Chapter 6: Where Glory Dwells
A Chronicle Of Redemption - Part 1: Redemption Promised To A Covenant People video: CHRONICLE-PART1-6_VID

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him"

The following is a facebook post from December 25, 2009 that I wrote about 11pm that night.

Happy Birthday Jesus! Pondering how the Lord has blessed me with Salvation, & such a great wife & children on this Christmas Day! What a blessing it has been to spend last night & today with family, extended family, & watch my kids have such a good time with grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc... & Heaven is going to be even better, when we see Jesus, our Saviour, Lord, & King!

Even as Christmas 2009 will soon begin to fade and come to a close, Eternity with Jesus will never fade, and never come to a close, and will never lose it's excitement, Glory, and newness....

And even as I've sat around watching my children enjoy the gifts we and others gave them, how much more does our Heavenly Father enjoy seeing us find pleasure in Him! Numerous times Derek, Elyse, & Lydia have expressed to us such total satisfaction in their gifts this Christmas, and so, as John Piper says, "God is most Glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him"

Much more on my mind as I reflect tonight, but that's enough for facebook for now.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

“A coincidence is really a small miracle where God prefers to remain anonymous.”

The following may seem small to you, but to me, I see God's hand all over it.

I was about to leave work this afternoon, and I read a newspaper for the first time in 6 months or so...
A colleague at work passed it on to me, and I quickly scanned it for anything worthwhile reading. I had my personal newspaper discontinued last year after deciding I was wasting time that could be better spent in the Bible.
I saw in the obituaries where my dad's first cousin's husband died, and the vistation was tonight. My dad & mom are out of town traveling back from Oregon visting my brother, and didn't know he had passed away. Dad asked me if I could go represent the family and offer our condolences, which I was already enroute to do when I called him. The family member who died was very close to our family, and the visit was a wonderful time of family fellowship and Christian encouragement.

Coincidence? I don't think so...
My dad taught us since we were children that our God is Sovereign in All Things, and to give Him Glory, and this is just another example.

How many times do we miss recognizing God's hand in what we consider "coincidences"?

And how many times do we miss giving Him the Glory due His name?

The following is an excerpt from Pastor Stephen Davey's sermon I heard today!
(Coincidence that I heard this TODAY, of all times?) I don't think so!

A Widow and a Would-be King
Elisha: Living the Impossible Life – Part VIII
II Kings 8

To those who wait upon the Lord, there is no such thing as a coincidence...
When God does move, there are no coincidences...
Pastor Davey continues...I have read it put this way, “A coincidence is really a small miracle where God prefers to remain
anonymous.”
We should be praying for the perception and insight to see God in the small miracles. The timing of a letter; a phone call; a conversation; something that happened; something that worked and something that did not; some interruption – these are God’s hands at work.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Excellent Alistair Begg sermon excerpt on prayer

taken word for word from Alistair's Nehemiah sermon series: Jan.27, 2010, Truth for Life itunes download
http://www.truthforlife.org/

"...if prayer is not manipulating God to give us something He doesn't want to give, it is actually recognizing that God is very willing to give us stuff.  It is a means, said Luther, of obtaining blessings God is already willing to bestow, not of manipulating him to do things he doesn't really want to do. It is not overcoming God's reluctance, it is laying hold of God's willingness.  And Nehemiah understood that. He knew that nothing could happen unless God did it..."

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Swans Are Not Silent

According to one of John Piper's excellent biographical book series "The Swans are not Silent",
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTopic/42/
Augustine of Hippo retired in 430, and handed over his duties to his humble successor, Eraclius.
Eraclius stood to preach with the aged Augustine behind him.  Overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy in his presence, Eraclius said:
"The cricket chirps, the swan is silent."
The reference to swans appeared again a thousand years later.

"John Hus (whose name in Czech means "goose") was burned at the stake for criticizing the Roman Catholic sale of indulgences on July 6, 1415. Just before his death, he is said to have written:
"Today, you are burning a goose; however, a hundred years from now, you will be able to hear a swan sing; you will not burn it, you will have to listen to him."
" Martin Luther was that "swan"

Here's the full excerpt from Piper's book "The Hidden Smile of God"...short bios of John Bunyan, William Cowper, & David Brainerd.

I call them swans because they are great voices for Christian truth that death has not silenced.
When the unrivaled Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, retired in A.D. 430, he handed over his duties to his humble successor, Eraclius. At the ceremony, Eraclius stood to preach as the aged Augustine sat on his bishop’s throne behind him. Overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy in Augustine’s presence, Eraclius said, “The cricket chirps, the swan is silent.” This story is the origin of the title for this series of books called The Swans Are Not Silent. You are now reading Book Two. The first was called The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in
the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. The reference to swans appeared again a thousand years later.
On July 6, 1415, John Hus (whose name in Czech means “goose”) was burned at the stake for criticizing the Roman Catholic sale of indulgences. Just before his death, he is said to have written,
“Today, you are burning a goose; however, a hundred years from now, you will be able to hear a swan sing; you will not burn it, you will have to listen to him.”2 And so the line of “swans” has continued down to our own day—faithful witnesses to the gospel of the glory of Christ whose death does not silence their song.

Monday, March 1, 2010

My First Blog, please pardon my "blogging inaptitude"!

I'm not a genuine blogger (yet! lol). Just getting set up in case I decide to start blogging later. I usually run a few years behind on the "tech savvy" stuff. Just wanted to follow my Pastor Dr. Bill Dye's, and former Pastor Dr. Collin Wimberly's blogs, and this page kind of "came along with it", while getting signed up to follow and learn from these scholarly men of God.
If anyone reads this and has advice to offer on how to manage my blog, I'm all ears!  I tried doing a google search for my own blog, and tons of other "Don Dozier" blogs came up, but not mine.  Any pointers and/or words of wisdom on getting started would be appreciated.
Soli Deo Gloria! For the Glory of God Alone