CP Talk

Please pray for JT on Thursday morning as he speaks for a church planters gathering for 30-40 planter guys who are scattered around the US.

The Value Of Meditating On The Person Of Christ

This quote provides even more incentive to continue enjoying our Grace Group journey with Owen who is helping us to consider Christ.


Taken from The John Owen Centre For Theological Study.

For We Cannot Stop Speaking What We Have Seen And Heard

Recently, two counties in NC have banned officials from invoking "Jesus' Name" in their prayers. Councilman D.J. Haire had the following response:

"I am a child of God first," he said. "I like being an elected official, but I'm not going to manipulate the Word of God to satisfy them."

His response sounds a lot like two other guys I've read about.

Although Haire's life is not at stake for his stand, he even sounds a bit like the guy in this picture: Anyone have a guess as to who the one depicted as the speaker in this picture is? And where he is at?).

October, 21 - Worship Preparation

Meditate on Hebrews 12.

Bad news: "God is a consuming fire!"
Good news: "Our God is a consuming fire!"

John 17 - Effects Of Christ's Obedience On His Own

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Notice the effect (Highlighted in gold) that the obedience of Christ to the Father has on those who are His own.

Is Christ's obedience having this effect in your life?

John 17 - Christ's Obedience To The Father

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Throughout His prayer, Christ acknowledges that He has obediently accomplished "all that the Father has given Him to do."

The highlights in this image show specifically what Christ obediently accomplished.

"...even so through the obedience of One the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:19)

John 17 - The Father's Love for Christ, And For Those Whom He has given to Christ

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It is because of statements like the ones highlighted in this image that the Bible is an inexhaustible storehouse of God's rich blessing to us His Son.

Heaven itself will not suffice to unfold to us the depth of the blessings contained in these few highlighted statements!

Loved by the Father JUST AS He loves His only begotten Son--Jesus Christ!?!!!?

(Appropriate response = profound humility, and gospel-inspired, glad-hearted praise!)

John 17 - Christ's Emphasis on Knowing Him as The One "Sent" by the Father

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Multiple Choice:

Eternal life is...

A: Knowing the only true God

B: Knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ

C: Knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

John 17 - Gifts To Christ From The Father

This image shows the various blessings that Christ acknowledged in John 17 as being gifts to Him from the Father. Worship!

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John 17 - Christ's Ten Specific Requests

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* Note: I have updated this image. After looking at it again (and again), I see ten specific requests made by Christ. The former image showed only eight.

This image shows the ten specific requests for which Christ prayed in John 17. Staggering!

Repetitions In John 17 - Worship Preparation

This image shows some of the major repeated phrases in John 17 (ESV). I highlighted these repetitions about a year ago, and have been looking at them again this week in preparation for Sunday's sermon.

For Grace-goers, I commend this document to you as a means of preparing your heart for worship this weekend.

The petitions Christ makes in this chapter are utterly Amazing!

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Dealing Responsibly With Anxious Souls-#7

Letter to a soul seeking Jesus – No. VI

Go up, leaning on Jesus

Dear friend,

I have heard of you from ______, and have been praying for you, that your eye may rest on Jesus, and that your soul may lie in perfect peace under His blood shed for the sins of many. I have been thanking my Father, too, for dealing so bountifully with you. “He is the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts.”

I will give you a sweet verse to meditate upon: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon the beloved?’” (Song viii. 5). Do you think this is your position? Truly this world is a wilderness if you have seen it rightly. It is a place of guilt and shame. Every natural heart is a wilderness—a dead place without a drop of living water; and then all natural hearts put together make up a wilderness world. The whole world lieth in wickedness.

There are few that know and love Jesus, and these few are panting to get more of the living water. But if you have truly fled to Jesus, you are coming up from the wilderness. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.”

Have you found Jesus truly? Do you feel willing to be all vile, all hell-deserving in yourself, and to let God’s dear Son be all your shield and righteousness? Oh, make sure of this.

Never mind what man thinks of you. I would not give a straw for the opinions of men, as to whether I was safe of no. It is not what man thinks of us that will cover us on the judgment day. Oh no! You must be in Jesus, sitting at His feet, allowing Him to wash your stains away, allowing Him to enwrap your guilty soul in divine righteousness.

If you were lying at the bottom of the sea, no eye could see your deformities; so when the infinite ocean of Immanuel’s righteousness flows over the soul, you are swallowed up as it were in Christ. Your blackness is never seen, only His fairness; and thus a God of truth can say, “Behold thou art fair; behold thou art fair, My love. Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee” (Song iv. 1-7).

Keep this always in memory; and when guilt comes on the conscience, as it will, lie down again beneath the righteousness of Jesus. Never lose sight of this. Jesus must be seen by the Father instead of our guilty soul. It is not change in our black soul that is to be our covering. You must leave self, and stand in your Elder Brother. Hide behind Him. Let the Father’s eye fall on Him, not on you. This is what Jesus wants. He died to be a shelter for such as you. This is what the Father wants; for He is not willing that any should perish. If you are seen by the Father a naked, guilty sinner, you must die; there is no help for it. But if Jesus appear for you—if you hide in His wounds like the dove in the clefts of the rock, and under His snowy raiment—then the Father Himself loveth you, and how you are coming up from the wilderness.

Every hour that strikes, that is an hour less between you and glory. Oh, do not grieve to part with the world if you are in Christ! And hour with Christ will make up for all your griefs and pains. Half and hour in the presence of our God will make us forget a lifetime of agony.

“Leaning on her beloved!” Is this the position of your soul? Do you feel empty, weak, and helpless? And do you see Him mighty to save, able to save to the uttermost? “His legs are like pillars of marble.” This is Christ’s glory, that He justifies sinners who have no righteousness, and sanctifies souls that have no inborn holiness. Let Jesus bear your whole weight.

Remember, He loves to be the only support of the soul. He is a jealous Saviour. He wants to be entirely trusted. There is nothing that you can possibly need but you will find it in Him. “All my springs are in Thee.” Do you want righteousness? He has the spirit of a weaned child to give you (Ps. cxxxi.). Do you want love? He is the fountain of love: all the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen.

I am sure, if you get a glimpse of Him, you would lay your head in His breast and die there. May the Spirit anoint your eyes to see Him more and more, and soften your heart to lean on Him. Those that have leaned on Him through the wilderness shall sit with Him on the throne (Rev. iii. 21).

Farewell, dear soul! The Lord feed you sweetly, as He feeds the flowers, by silent drops of dew.—Ever yours, etc.

Memoir and Remains, pp. 303-4.

Does The US Really Need More New Churches?

Decide as you watch this video. Then, pray.

(HT: Missional Thoughts)
Planting in Cooper/Young; Memphis

Dealing Responsibly With Anxious Souls-#6

Letters to a soul seeking Jesus – No. V

Be found in Christ

December 8, 1841

Dear friend,

I send you another line to tell you of Him who is altogether lovely. I have a very dear boy in my parish who is dying just now. He said to me the other day, “I have just been feeding for some days upon the words you gave me: ‘His legs are like pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold’ (Song v. 15); for (said he) I am sure He is able to carry me and all my sins.”

You may say the same, if your eyes have been opened to see the beauty, fulness, freeness, and compassion of the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the hand of God can open your eyes to see your lost condition as it truly is. Flesh and blood cannot reveal Him unto you, but my Father.

Oh, call upon Him to do this for you! A spiritual discovery of yourself and of Jesus is better than a million of worlds to you, and to me also. Remember, you cannot be fair in yourself before God. Song i. 6 must be all your prayer: “Look not upon me.” Take yourself at your best moments, you are but a vile worm in Jehovah’s sight, and so am I. Remember you may be “perfect in Christ Jesus.” Allow yourself to be found in Christ.

Oh, what will come of you if you are found in yourself? Where will you appear? You will shrink back, and call on rocks and mountains to fall upon you and cover you. But if you are hiding in Jesus—if your eye and heart are fixed upon His wounds made by our sins—if you are willing to be righteous in His righteousness, to lie down under the stream of His blood, and to be clothed upon with the snowy fleece of the Lamb of God—then God will love you with His whole soul exceedingly.

The pure, full love of God streams through the blood and obedience of Jesus to every soul that is lying under them, however vile and wretched in themselves. Have you tried—have you tasted the holy love of a holy God? Thy love is better than wine. It is better than all creature love or creature enjoyments.

Oh, do not love—oh, do not die, out of this sweet, sweet, sin-pardoning, soul-comforting love of God! Remember, Jesus is quite willing to gather you under His wings (Matt. xxiii. 37). Put that beyond all doubt. Remember, also, the present is your only time to be saved (Eccles. ix. 10). There is no believing, no repenting, no conversion in the grave—no minister will speak you there. This is the time of conversion. We must either gain you now, or lose you for ever. Oh that you would use this little time! Every moment of it is worth a world.

Your soul is very dear to me—dearer far to Jesus. Look to Him and you will be saved.—Ever yours, etc.

Memoir and Remains, pp. 301-2.

T4G '08

Early bird registration ends October 31!