In a conversation with my mom recently she mentioned the following Spurgeon quote on casting even the smallest of our cares on our heavenly Father.

To suppose that temporal things are too little for our condescending God is to forget that He observes the flight of sparrows and counts the hairs of His people’s heads. Besides, everything is so little to Him, that, if He does not care for the little, He cares for nothing.

A couple of days ago Justin Buzzard at Buzzardblog posted the following quote from C.J. Mahaney in Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry.

…all day long, at the moment you become aware of burdensome cares, cast them upon the Lord, who cares for you. Where there is worry and anxiety; there is the pride of self-reliance. The humble man, though he may be responsible for many things, is free of care–he is care-free. His life is characterized by joy and peace, for it is impossible to be worried while trusting the Sovereign One.

What are you doing with your cares?

A while back I came across an article by Tim Keller entitled, “All of Life is Repentance.”  At just over a page it is a powerful summary of what repentance should look like and the ways we often distort it.

Below are the first two paragraphs of the article- but don’t stop there- go read the rest of it.  It is well worth the time!

Martin Luther opened the Reformation by nailing “The Ninety-Five Theses” to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral.  The very first of the theses was: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ…willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” On the surface this looks a little bleak!  Luther seems to be saying Christians will never be making much progress.  But of course that wasn’t Luther’s point at all.  He was saying that repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life.  Indeed, pervasive, all-of-life-repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus.

It is important co consider how the gospel affects and transforms the act of repentance.  In ‘religion’ the purpose of the repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers.  This means that ‘religious repentance’ is a) selfish, b) self-righteous, c) and bitter all the way to the bottom.  But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God’s heart.

The following is a post by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds. As people who either do art, think about art, or at the very least take in various forms of art it is a helpful summary of how to view art biblically.

In his downloadable PDF, Andy Farmer (pastor of discipleship and counseling at Covenant Fellowship Church), expresses important values to be affirmed by Christian artists. Read the whole document, which contains supporting quotes from people like Francis Schaeffer, Leland Ryken, Charlie Peacock, Harold Best, and others.

1. Christian artists should view their talent as a gift from God and see its use ultimately as worship to God.
2. A Christian artist should have a sober assessment of his gift and neither over-estimate the opportunities it should given him or undervalue the contribution he can make with it.
3. The most authentic Christian art results from our joy in Christ overflowing into Christian art, not our strategies to do art that is Christian.
4. Creating art is an expression of faith and obedience, not of compulsion or identity.
5. The Christian artist should see his art as a way to love God, his people, and the world.
6. The Christian Artist sees the sovereign hand of God in both his opportunities and his obstacles.
7. The Christian artist is committed to truth in the way he lives and what he creates.
8. While the Christian artist is under no burden to make all of his art explicitly Christian, it would be an unbiblical use of his gift to intentionally create a body of work without reference to Christ.
9. The Christian artist rejects the worldly concept of artist as an outsider and embraces his place among God’s people in the local church as essential to his life and gifting.
10. The Christian artist should not ignore his personal responsibility to evaluate the theological soundness of his work.
11. Because the Christian artist trusts God, he will battle selfish ambition, competition, and any pretense of entitlement in regard to his art.
12. The Christian artist will see the evaluation of others as an essential help in both growing in their art and assessing its fruitfulness.
13. The Christian artist will resist elitism and care about the accessibility of his art to the average Christian in the congregation
14. The Christian artist must never confuse the joy of creativity with the joy of knowing and pleasing God.

Stephen Altrogge recently posted some material on how to listen to a sermon.  This kind of thing has been done by others before but I thought it would be a good reminder to follow up the post on Praying for the Preacher from last week.  Enjoy!

Have you ever had this happen to you? It’s 11:20 A.M. on a Sunday morning, and you’re listening to a sermon in church. Suddenly, your pastor says, “You know what I mean?” and you realize that you have no idea what he’s talking about, and that you’ve been thinking about college basketball for the last fifteen minutes, and that drool is leaking from the corner of your mouth. In fact, you have absolutely no idea what the sermon is about. Your pastor could be talking about the political and theological ramifications of the television show “Lassie” for all you know. I confess, I’ve had this happen to me.

Scripture places a high emphasis on preaching. In 2 Timothy 2:1-2 Paul commanded Timothy:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Through the preaching of God’s word we hear God speak to us in a unique way that is different from when we read the Bible in private. Because of this it’s crucial that we hear the word of God preached and apply it to our lives. So how do we get the most out of a sermon? Here are four practical suggestions:

Remember Who Is Speaking

A pastor is someone who has been appointed by God to preach God’s word to God’s people. 1 Corinthians 12:28 says, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.” When we hear our pastor preach God’s word, we’re not just listening to a nicely dressed man giving an Amway prep talk. We’re listening to one that has been appointed by God to proclaim the message of God. I don’t want to mess around with words from God. I want to pay close attention.

Listen Intently

Don’t let your pastor spoon feed you. Listen intently to what he is saying, and measure his words against the words of scripture. Be like the Bereans, who, along with having a sweet name, are described in Acts 17:11 as follows: “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Notice the attitude of the Bereans. They were eager to receive the word of God. They desperately wanted to hear God’s word preached to them. But they also examined the scriptures daily to ensure that what they were hearing was really from the Bible. Let’s be like the Bereans.

Listen With Humility

It’s true, we must test the preached word. But it’s just as crucial that we listen to sermons with a spirit of humility. God himself has assigned my pastor (who also happens to be my dad) the job of instructing me in God’s word. It’s my job to listen to and learn from my pastor. This truth should instill a spirit of humility into me. I don’t want to approach listening to a sermon like a spiritual boxing match, ready for a theological fight. I want to listen with humility.

Apply The Word

Throughout the course of a sermon, we should be constantly asking the question, “How does this apply to me?” God intends us not just to hear sermons, but to be transformed by sermons. For this to happen, we must diligently seek to apply the truths we hear. During the sermon, ask yourself, How does this truth apply to:

• My job
• My marriage
• My parenting
• My Bible reading
• My hobbies
• My friendships, etc

A final word. Always pray before you listen to a sermon. Apart from the power of God, all our sermon-listening will be pointless. But the good news is, God is eager to meet us on Sunday mornings.