Abortion Hurts Women

Have you been hurt by abortion? Do you need to know what abortion does to women? This powerful video shows the damage done and offers hope.

Mercy

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp.

Isn't this interesting. Rather than appealing to the mercy of the Lord in the face of my sin, what I actually do instead is function as my own defense lawyer and present a list of arguments for my own righteousness.

That paragraph really made me think. I know this is true especially in my human relationships. I try to justify what I did by pointing out the mistakes of the other person. Or maybe I'm afraid to admit my sin because I think it will be used against me: "I plead the fifth!"

What's actually true is that when I come to the Lord after I've blown it, I've only one argument to make. It's not the argument of the difficulty of the environment that I am in. It's not the argument of the difficult people that I'm near. It's not the argument of good intentions that were thwarted in some way. No, I have only one argument. It's right there in the first verse of Psalm 51 , as David confesses his sin with Bathsheba. I come to the Lord with only one appeal, his mercy. I've no other defense. I've no other standing. I've no other hope. I can't escape the reality of my biggest problem-me!

The cool thing is that I don't have to come as a beggar. Jesus died so that I could be forgiven. Mercy was all God's idea. What I need to do is admit the truth: I blow it, I can't fix it and I need mercy. I need to be forgiven and cleansed.

Question:
If you more quickly rested in God's mercy and, because of this, more readily admitted your sin, what practical changes in your life would result?

Less defensiveness for one, I would listen to criticism and look for the truth in it. I would be quicker to admit fault. I would realize that even if another person may use my confession against me, it's God I ultimately confess to and it's His mercy that I need.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 51:1

Philip

Get this book:

Olive Tree – PDA or Smartphone

Amazon - paper

Whiter Than Snow

I am going to re-post this series in 2010. If you haven't read it yet, now is a good time to start.

A couple weeks ago I came across a book called Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp.

Here is what it said on the Olive Tree website that caught my attention:

What do you do when you’ve really blown it? Is sin really as dangerous and is grace really as powerful as the Bible says they are? Is there such a thing as a new beginning?

Sin and grace—these are the two themes of our lives. We all blow it and we all need to start over again. In Psalm 51, David tells his story of moral failure, personal awareness, grief, confession, repentance, commitment, and hope. And because David’s story is every believer’s story, Psalm 51 is every believer’s psalm. It tells how we, as broken sinners, can be brutally honest with God and yet stand before him without fear.

As soon as I read the description of this book I knew I wanted it. I bought it right away and downloaded it to my PDA. I read the first meditation and had to hold myself back to keep from reading on.

There are 52 meditations in the book; perfect for one a week for a year. I decided I would wait for the New Year to begin it. I would read each meditation every day during it's week. I would really think about it and expect that God would use it to change my thoughts and life.

If you are interested in this book, (you should be), here are links to the electronic and paper editions.

Amazon

Olive Tree

Philip

Here is an interview with the author:

Proverbs in 2010

I’m excited by the direction that my morning reading is taking this year. A month or so ago, I felt God directing me to get into Proverbs this year. Do you know that if you read one chapter a day, you can go through the book in a month? When I was a new Christian someone recommended that I read a chapter of Proverbs a day and five Psalms. With 150 Psalms, you can also complete that book in a month. I followed that advice for several years.

Proverbs is a book full of wise advice. Here is what struck me this morning as I read Proverbs 1 in The Message:

Written down so we'll know how to live well and right, to understand what life means and where it's going; A manual for living, for learning what's right and just and fair; To teach the inexperienced the ropes and give our young people a grasp on reality. There's something here also for seasoned men and women, still a thing or two for the experienced to learn-- Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate, the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women. Proverbs 1:2-6

Sounds like there is something in it for all of us.

Philip

Griff’s Challenge

Okay, before all the good resolutions kick in, how about a really good hamburger?

Went with the family last night to one of my favorite burger places called Griff’s. An old friend recalled the giant burgers and said she didn’t know they were still around. So it’s time to share the love.

Maybe you have been to Griff’s or maybe you have never heard of it. Here is a New Years challenge: who will be the first to make a trip to Griff’s and report back here about it? There are two in the Denver area: 724 S Broadway and 5770 Wadsworth Bypass. There are some outside of the Denver area but you are on your own with those.

I’d also like to hear your favorite burger memories.

Philip

Celebrating Redemption

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. The devotional is abbreviated and my thoughts are in red.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Psalm 51:15

We should be the most celebratory community on earth. There should be a deep and abiding joy that's the backbeat of everything we do. Each of us should carry around with us a deep sense of privilege for who we've become and what we've been given in Christ. We'll spend eternity celebrating redemption, but there's something wrong if the rehearsal for destiny's celebration isn't beginning now.

Good reminder to me. Too often I let the junk of life determine my outlook and mood. It shouldn’t be that way. My life is in God’s hands and He causes all things to work for my good.

It should be in our minds, it should flood our hearts, it should be constantly on our lips: we have been redeemed! Chosen out of the mass of humanity, forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus, accepted into God's family, the Holy Spirit now living inside of us, God working to empower us against and to deliver us from sin, the great paradigmatic truths of the biblical narrative now open to us, the mutual-ministry fellowship of the body of Christ our regular experience, and a guaranteed future in God's presence and free from sin and struggle. We've been redeemed! The scope and breadth of it boggles the mind. It's almost too much for our hearts to take in. Given what we couldn't deserve—love in the middle of our rebellion—and given acceptance we could never earn. We've been redeemed! We've been redeemed! We've been redeemed!

Doesn’t the religious cloud block these amazing things from our mind? Yeah, we’ve heard it before, I know all that… But really, if this is true, everyday and every thought should be colored by it.

Unlike the rest of creation, human beings are good at celebration. Last night I sat looking out an eighth-floor window over the Philadelphia Art Museum and watched the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. It was a fittingly celebratory end to a two-week celebration of our nation's birth that Philadelphia calls, "Welcome America." Welcome indeed! Welcome to remember the beginnings of the freedoms you now enjoy. Welcome to remember the patriots who gave their hearts, minds, and lives to secure this freedom. Welcome to walk the streets and enter the buildings where American freedom took its shape. And welcome to days of celebration with others who are reflecting, remembering, and recognizing the freedom that now shapes their daily lives. National freedom is a thing worth celebrating, as is another year of life, or the end of the harvest season, or twenty-five years of successful work. But all of these appropriate celebrations pale in comparison to the meaning and majesty of the reality of redemption that should flood the mind of every believer every day.

It’s the same at Christmas. I have to admit that I really look forward to the gifts and goodies I will receive. I can be “spiritual” with the best of them and can say the right words but am I really amazed by what the Christ child means? To be honest, my thoughts are more toward the commercial Christmas than the baby born in the manger.

What will you celebrate today? That raise you have been working toward? That new car you dreamed of for two years? The local team that finally won a championship? An anniversary? A birthday? The first steps of that toddler? The lack of traffic on the way to work? The deli sandwich that was better than ever? The new shoes that you thought you would never find? Your new iPhone? If you're a human being, you're a celebrator. The question is, in all of your celebrations, do you turn again and again to celebrate the most amazing, the most magnificent, the most mind-bending thing that a human being could be chosen to experience—redemption?

You have been redeemed! You have been redeemed! You have been redeemed! Now, go out and celebrate.

A question from the meditation:

Reflect on what you celebrated this year, this month, this week, today. Who is at the center of your life of celebration?

Today I celebrated the two orders I was able to make at Luckyscent. Two gift cards and some tip money equals some very good smelling perfumes that are on the way. I celebrated a yummy Mexican food breakfast this morning. This month I celebrated that my work was so much busier than last year. I also celebrate that I am a child of God. As messed up as my life can be, I know it is radically different than it would be if Jesus wasn’t at the center. Thank you Lord for being my redeemer and for the family and friends you have given to me.

Philip

PS So this post brings this devotional to a close. I have done one chapter a week this year and I think I am better for it. I have learned many things and have had my thoughts challenged and changed. Check it out yourself.


Get this book and join the journey:

Olive Tree – PDA or Smartphone

Amazon - paper

My Adoption - Thoughts at Christmas

I spent the first few months of my life in an orphanage. I was adopted when I was about three months old. My birth name was William Paul Bibelhausen.

I have a brother who is two years older and a sister who is three years younger. They were adopted also. I remember going to the orphanage when we were picking out my sister. I remember being in a courtroom, before a judge related to her adoption. I have a picture in my mind of my mom and dad in the front seat of the car with my sister between them. She turned around and gave my brother and me a huge smile. She was now part of our family and we were all very happy.

One of the first clues I had of being adopted was a time when a neighbor lady was breastfeeding her baby. Later my mom told us that we were bottle babies. There might have been more said that I don't remember but somehow I knew I was adopted although I may not have understood all it meant at that time. I was probably around five years old then.

I have never had any bad feelings about being adopted and have never felt abandoned by my birth mother. I do have a friend who was raised in an orphanage who was angry with his birth mother when he met her. He wondered why she gave him up. That may be the difference. I felt like I was raised in a good home by good parents. I have never had a desire to meet my birth mother although I am very happy that I wasn't aborted.

In a Bible study recently someone made a comment that we can't choose our relatives. While that is true in most cases, I thought back that my parents chose me. When I was about eighteen, I was at a Bill Gothard seminar and one of the things he said was that God placed adopted children in special homes. I agree with that and am thankful.

As I said, I was raised in a good home by good parents. It wasn't always easy though. From what I hear, I was an especially difficult child. I also know that my mother desperately loved me. She wanted so much to be a mother. She was devastated years before when due to a hemorrhage, she had surgery and could never bear children.

From childhood, my mom was sick. She had rheumatic fever that led to future problems and many other illnesses all through her life. I have many memories when I was a child of her being sick and in the hospital. She died when I was sixteen from a heart condition related to the rheumatic fever.

After that, my dad did his best to raise us well. There were friends and relatives who came into our home to help as they had at times when my mom was in the hospital.

That must have been a very difficult and frightening time for my dad. I had already begun my decent into drugs and my sister became pregnant a couple years later. He used to say, "Things would have been different if Ida (my mom) had been there." I'm sure that would have been true.

I am thankful that I was adopted. I’m sad to think of all the kids now days who don’t get that chance because of abortion.

As I ponder the meaning of Christmas, I am thankful that Jesus made it possible for me to be an adopted child of God.

Philip