Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Hope By God Through The Holy Spirit

1Pet. 1:3 ¶ gBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,


Not only did our LORD make it possible for us to be born again, he caused it. His resurrection had a specific cause for a specific people. I am saved because God caused me to be saved. Peter says we are born again to a living hope. The lost of our world have hope, but it's a dead hope. Hope only lives as long as it's source, and our source never dies! When a person's hope is in something that perishes like money, and they lose their money, they also lose their hope. What happened through the resurrection, and how does living hope tie into the resurrection? What do we have because of the resurrection? The holy spirit. So God caused us to be born again to a living hope by the spirit. All because of the Mercy of God.
Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 7:31 AM :: 2 comments

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Friday, February 17, 2006

Sexuality

"This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God."
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

"My conviction is that one of the main reasons the world and the church are awash in lust and pornography . . . is that our lives are intellectually and emotionally disconnected from infinite, soul-staggering grandeur for which we were made. Inside and outside the church western culture is drowning in a sea of triviality, pettiness, banality, and silliness. Television is trivial. Radio is trivial. Conversation is trivial. Education is trivial. Christian books are trivial. Worship styles are trivial. It is inevitable that the human heart, which was made to be staggered with the supremacy of Christ, but instead is drowning in a sea of banal entertainment, will reach for the best natural buzz that life can give: sex."

John Piper, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Part 2

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 11:22 PM :: 2 comments

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Monday, February 13, 2006

Matthew Twenty Five - Aaron Turner

I am not much of a note taker...



vs. 14
Q: Who is this man
A: Jesus Christ

He has traveled to a far country and is coming back. *We ourselves belong to Christ. We are called servants. Too many times we act like we belong to ourselves! We have NO right to pursue our own agenda! God send trials into our life to mess up our agenda in order that we might get on his agenda. Because we belong to him, we are his concern and his property, and he takes good care of what he owns.

vs 14
"who called his own servants"^

*What we have belongs to Him.

"delivered unto them his goods."

We have no business taking his goods, and pursuing our agenda. Our relationships are his. Every relationship God gives us has something to do with something God wants to do in our lives.

*He gives what he gives us because in his wisdom he knows what we have the ability and the capacity to take care of what we can handle.

The Lord wants us to use and invest what He gives us. To be in the will of God, you have to take risks. vs. 25 The issue is not what you have, but what you do with it.

*My concept of God has much to do with how I manage what he gives us. Two invested, and one was slothful.

"I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine."

*What we do with what we've been given will effect our eternity.
Matt. 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 12:16 AM :: 1 comments

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Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Our Leaders Are Highly Important

Click here to watch a video of C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries speak on the importance of the Leadership within their local churches. (I think this attitude should be seen in all churches)

Cultivating Biblical Relationships in Difficult Times (Sermon notes from Aaron Turner) 1 Th. 5

Four types of People:
1. Spiritual Leaders vs. 12
Spiritual Leaders labor (work hard to the point of exhaustion). They oversee & watch out for your souls. Spiritual Leaders are supposed to watch the lives of the flock. This kind of oversight is impossible without structure. It's almost unheard of in our day. There is such rugged individualism in our culture that it's "no one's business" what goes on in our life. It is a labor to over see the flock. The fear of man has to constantly be fought. This is, in essence, a biblical or "reforming" church. Spiritual leaders encourage the flock, when they are going in the right direction, and admonish when the are going in the wrong direction. Admonish means to put knowledge into one's mind.
How do we treat our Spiritual Leaders? We are to know or consider them. We are to respect and perceive them. We are to appreciate and esteem them. We are to esteem them because they labor to oversee us. This results in peace among the flock (quietness, unity, and prosperity). Unity is submission to leadership.

2. Unruly People (out of order-out of place.)
When people get out of line and are warned, and we buddy up to them, while looking over or excusing their fault, we are being ungodly. Warn means to alert someone in advance of something that's going to happen. Good warning begins with confession. We need to receive warning, because it's a sign of love.

3. Feeble-minded People
Comfort the feeble minded, those who are of low spirit, or faint hearted.

4. Weak People
Support the weak. This can be mental, emotional, or physical.

Side notes:
One size does not fit all:
Do not warn the weak
Do not comfort the unruly

Be patient with all of these people. Have control in dealing with things. Do not act out of the emotions.

Seek the good of those who seek to do us harm.

We can only do any of this with the Holy Spirit.

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 10:27 AM :: 1 comments

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Super Tank Christianity

If Christians fought spiritual battles within a video game, thousands would flock to a huge, indestructible tank called "Eternal Security", and glide through the battle with little thought to what's going on outside, only to be put to death by poisonous gases inside the tank.

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 8:32 PM :: 1 comments

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Question For Meditation

In my thought life do I find myself more focused on my disobedience as a result of giving in to the enemy, or on my obedience as a result of the work of Christ? Let's give glory to God in our thoughts today!

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 12:35 PM :: 0 comments

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Thankfulness Is Peace

Phil. 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Phil. 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.


There are 5 million things in my life that, if given some thought, would quickly drive me to anxiety. Life will always be full of things that try to cause me to stress. God doesn't give people His peace just by making their circumstances better for them. After all, if it took a problem solved for me to have peace, you would have to wonder what is really giving me peace, Christ or the circumstance. I think the key word in these two verses is thankfulness. Thankfulness and anxiety are like fighting roommates; they don't get along. One will not be in my heart for very long at all, before the other is making other arrangements. To have thankfulness in my heart, would require that I meditate on all God has done for me. When I am down about something, it is quite a discipline to make my mind meditate on anything besides what is causing my anxiety. When I do meditate on all the good God has brought about, and feel thankfulness rise up inside of me, it becomes hard to be stressed out. There is also something to praying with a thankful heart. If I am still sulking, it's doubtful that my prayers are going to be motivated righteously. When I pray with thankfulness, I pray contented prayers, and tend to be more focused on God's will rather than mine.

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 6:59 AM :: 2 comments

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Monday, February 06, 2006

When The Word Of The Cross Becomes Trite

Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

Gal. 6:14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which* the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

I must confess that I struggle in my exultation of the cross. I want the cross of Christ to shape my thinking, I want to have genuine gratitude for it, I want the pain and suffering that took place there vivid in my mind, I want the word of the cross to be fresh, not trite. Why then is the cross so hard to get my mind around? Why do I struggle with seeing it for more than just something that took place 2000 years ago? We have nothing more worthy of our boasting than Christ and his death for us, but why do those words become so dry and lifeless to us? John Piper said this about Paul's boasting:

Boasting in the cross happens when you are on the cross.

I believe this is true. The more I obey Christ and sacrifice my earthly desires for his sake, the more clear the gospel becomes to me! As I become more obedient, I become more thankful for the cross, because I am taking part in the cross by crucifying my flesh. The cross was so vivid to paul, because he suffered greatly for it's cause. People who are being tortured for the Lord in Sudan have no problem boasting in the cross. Why? Not because of their knowledge of it, not because they've psyched themselves up, not because their pastor is cross centered. They love the cross because they are on it! They love the cross because their life is characterized by sacrifice for the cause of Christ. If we never sacrifice our desires, even the morally neutral ones in order that we might take part in his cross, it will remain something that we say we're thankful for, but really have no affection for. So in conclusion, those who are thankful for the cross are those who are willingly experiencing it by the crucifixion of their flesh.

Rom. 12:1 ¶ zI appeal to you therefore, brothers,* by the mercies of God, ato present your bodies bas a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.*

I can already think of ways that I can take part in crucifying my flesh today. May Christ make the cross my boast!

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 9:17 AM :: 1 comments

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Thursday, February 02, 2006

How Majestic Is Your Name!

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 5:09 PM :: 2 comments

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Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Purity Meditations & Television Rantings

Matt. 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The greek word behind pure in this verse is katharos, which means clean and clear. To see God in all things, my heart must be clear of deceit, malice, envy, lust, pride, and everything else that isn't holy. How practically can I go about purifying my heart?

Matt. 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

I believe this with all of my heart. The most effective tool of satan in american culture, and the greatest enemy of spiritual growth is television. Many people who profess Christ spend more time filling their minds with the garbage that comes from television than they do in the word; then they wonder why they do not have any hunger and desire for God. People simply can't imagine life without T.V. Satan can use what appears to be an innocent commercial to plant covetousness and all sorts of other types of evil in our hearts. It's scary to me how caught up people are in the media, and how naive those who profess Christ are. I believe the American church would experience a revival larger than anything we've ever seen if Christians would turn off the Television. Why? Because, if the eye is clear, the whole body is full of light. Since when do we use the world's rating system with the movies we watch? We hear, "well, it hardly had any language in it, and didn't have any sex scenes", but then we overlook the fact that whether or not the details were shown, Johnny and Suzy are in the sack after the first date, or some woman is having an affair with a man she isn't married to. This is what entertains us? This is what we find pleasure in? This is what we spend two hour period after two hour period putting into our minds? Many have the attitude that they are above being effected, after all they know what's right. That way of thinking is simply not biblical. What goes into my mind shapes my life "period".

Prov. 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

If my desire is to become pure, I must guard what comes into my mind. May my single passion, my single vision be the God who created me.

Posted by Jeremy Turner :: 8:54 AM :: 2 comments

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