Premillennial Timeline from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.
Dispensational Premillennial Timeline from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.
Postmillennial Timeline from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.
Amillennial Timeline from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.
4 Views On The Millennial Reign Of Christ
If you've ever wanted a brief summary of what the four major eschatological views are concerning the 1000 year reign of Christ, then these videos break it down for simple folk like me.
The Cross-Centered Prayer Life
“Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24)
“A most powerful incentive to prayer is found in a close and realizing view of the atoning blood. What encouragement does it present to this blessed and holy life of communion with God! The atoning blood! The mercy seat sprinkled over! The High Priest before the throne! The cloud of incense constantly ascending! The Father well pleased! What can more freely invite the soul that pants for close and holy communion with God? And when the atoning blood is realized upon the conscience, when pardon and acceptance are sealed upon the heart by the Eternal Spirit, oh, then what a persuasion to draw near the throne of grace has the believer in Christ! Then, there is no consciousness of guilt to keep the believer back; no dread of God; no trembling apprehensions of a repulse. God is viewed through the cross as reconciled, and as standing in the endeared relationship, and wearing the inviting smile of a Father. With such an altar, such a High Priest, such atoning blood, and such a reconciled God, what an element should prayer be to a believer in Christ! Let the soul, depressed, burdened, tried, tempted, as it may be, draw near the mercy seat: God delights to hear, delights to answer. Taking in the hand the atoning blood, pleading the infinite merit of Christ – reminding the Father of what His Son has accomplished, of His own gracious promise to receive and favorably answer the petition endorsed with the name and presented in behalf of that Son – the feeblest child of God, the most disconsolate, the most burdened, may approach and open all the heart to a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. Let the atoning blood be strenuously pleaded, let the precious and infinite merit of Christ be fully urged, and the blessing petitioned for will be obtained.”
“May not this be assigned as a reason why so few of our petitions are answered, why so little blessing is obtained: The faint pleading of the atoning blood? There is so feeble a recognition of the blessed way of access, so little wrestling with the precious blood, so little looking by faith to the cross, the dear name of Immanuel so seldom urged, and when urged so coldly mentioned – oh, is it any marvel that our prayers return to us unanswered, the petition ungranted, the draft on the full treasury of His love unhonored? The Father loves to be reminded of His beloved Son; the very breathing of the name to Him is music; the very waving of the censer of infinite merits to Him is fragrant. He delights to be pressed with this plea; it is a plea at all times prevalent; it is a plea He cannot reject; it glorifies Himself, honors His Son, while it enriches him who urges it. And, oh, in the absence of all other pleas, what a mercy to come with a plea like this! Who can fully estimate it? No plea has the poor believer springing from himself: he searches, but nothing can he find on which to rest a claim; all within is vile, all without is marred by sin; unfaithfulness, ingratitude, departure do but make up the history of the day. But in Christ he sees that which he can urge, and in urging which God will hear and answer.”
- Octavius Winslow (1808-1878), Daily Walking With God, June 12th.
photo credit: carissa gallo
Congratulations Jenny!
Talian Jenny Murphy [J MO] just got married!
We love you Jenny & we are excited that you get to proclaim the Gospel through your marriage with Ryan.
it is all of grace.
Do not keep record or an account of your work. Give up being book-keepers. In the Christian life we must desire nothing but His glory, nothing but to please Him. So do not keep your eye on the clock, but keep it on Him and His work. Do not keep on recording your work and labour, keep your eye on Him and His glory, on His love and His honour and the extension of His Kingdom.
...There is no need to waste time keeping the accounts, He is keeping them. And what wonderful accounts they are. May I say it with reverence, there is nothing I know of that is so romantic as God's method of accountancy. Be prepared for suprises in this Kingdom. You never know what is going to happen. The last shall be first. What a complete reversal of our materialistic outlook, the last first, the first last, everything upside down. The whole world is turned upside down by grace. It is not of man, it is of God, it is the Kingdom of God. How excellent this is....Our ledgers are out of date; they are of no value. We are in the Kingdom of God and it is God's accountancy. It is all of grace.
...The secret of a happy Christian life is to realize that it is all of grace and to rejoice in that fact. 'So likewise ye,' says our Lord in another place, 'when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say, "We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which is our duty to do."'
...'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus'. You see what that means. He did not look at Himself, He did not consider Himself and His own interests only; He made Himself of no reputation, He laid aside the insignia of His eternal glory. He did not regard His equality with God as something to hold on to and say: 'Come what may I will not let it go'. Not at all, He laid it aside, He humbled Himself, He forgot Himself, and He went through and endured and did all He did, looking only to the glory of God. Nothing else mattered to Him but that the Father should be glorified and that men and women should come to the Father. That is the secret. Not watching the clock, not assessing the amount of work, not keeping a record in a book, but forgetting everything except the glory of God, the privilege of being called to work for Him at all, the privilege of being a Christian, remembering only the grace that has ever looked upon us and removed us from darkness to light.
It is grace at the beginning, grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us at the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace, wondrous grace. 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' 'Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.'
_m.lloyd-jones
My Incomplete Joy
One of the more comforting things God has pointed me to in the past year is the joy in knowing that I do not need to rely on my joy. As believers, our chief end in being created beings (in simply existing) is to glory in our God, to joy in our Savior, to enjoy God and His holy glory.
In practice, however, I find that my joy wavers over time. I have days when my joy in God is full and overflowing, but I also see times when I know and agree with the idea of having joy in God yet my heart is not fully exercising it or expressive in it. That can be quite saddening when we think of how much God has loved us and to then see how little I am joyful for it. It's why I was created: to worship God. And as a believer that worship springs higher by our enjoying of God.
But what is abundantly comforting is that our joy will not ultimately come from us. To that I am thankful, because my heart is naturally wicked and un-joyful in God. My joy is weak and has a very limited scope of knowledge with which to gain a greater foundation to be joyful in and about. My joy is tainted and effected wrongly by my fleshly emotions and feelings. My joy seeks it's own rather than seeking it's true deserved recipient: God. My joy can be strong or weak rather than full.... which is where my friend Jesus changes all of that.
In John 15:1-11 Jesus says something. The passage is familiar. Jesus is speaking about Himself as the vine, the Father as the vinedresser, and we as the branches. He ends the paragraph as so:
"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." (John 15:11)
I so very often walk past many things in scripture, but thanks be to God who enlightened my ears to hear what a dear pastor spoke from this passage last year. Jesus said "that My joy may be in you." That is greatly comforting to a sinner who, although saved by grace, has an incomplete and weak joy.
I know that in my present walk with my Lord, as well as the coming walk face to face, I need not rely on my joy to muster up its strength to be enough for God. I can't do that. It's impossible. I need only see and rely on the joy that my Christ has given and is giving me. It's similar to His righteousness: I can't produce, yet I so need it. I need to joy in my God, but my own joy isn't enough to satisfy. That's when this verse causes my heart to lift above the limits I have ever past experienced! To know that I need not rely on my joy. Christ has a sufficient joy for me. Joy that will be full.
Thanks be to our amazing God!
In practice, however, I find that my joy wavers over time. I have days when my joy in God is full and overflowing, but I also see times when I know and agree with the idea of having joy in God yet my heart is not fully exercising it or expressive in it. That can be quite saddening when we think of how much God has loved us and to then see how little I am joyful for it. It's why I was created: to worship God. And as a believer that worship springs higher by our enjoying of God.
But what is abundantly comforting is that our joy will not ultimately come from us. To that I am thankful, because my heart is naturally wicked and un-joyful in God. My joy is weak and has a very limited scope of knowledge with which to gain a greater foundation to be joyful in and about. My joy is tainted and effected wrongly by my fleshly emotions and feelings. My joy seeks it's own rather than seeking it's true deserved recipient: God. My joy can be strong or weak rather than full.... which is where my friend Jesus changes all of that.
In John 15:1-11 Jesus says something. The passage is familiar. Jesus is speaking about Himself as the vine, the Father as the vinedresser, and we as the branches. He ends the paragraph as so:
"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." (John 15:11)
I so very often walk past many things in scripture, but thanks be to God who enlightened my ears to hear what a dear pastor spoke from this passage last year. Jesus said "that My joy may be in you." That is greatly comforting to a sinner who, although saved by grace, has an incomplete and weak joy.
I know that in my present walk with my Lord, as well as the coming walk face to face, I need not rely on my joy to muster up its strength to be enough for God. I can't do that. It's impossible. I need only see and rely on the joy that my Christ has given and is giving me. It's similar to His righteousness: I can't produce, yet I so need it. I need to joy in my God, but my own joy isn't enough to satisfy. That's when this verse causes my heart to lift above the limits I have ever past experienced! To know that I need not rely on my joy. Christ has a sufficient joy for me. Joy that will be full.
Thanks be to our amazing God!
You Are What You Worship
Worship is a as common to humans as breathing because it is part of who we are. Worship is not a religious thing it is a human thing. But the unique thing that I am starting to discover about worship is that you resemble most what you treasure deepest. That is to say you reflect in emotion, thought, and action what you worship with emotion, thought, and action. Psalm 115: 4-8 is the text I am drawing my understanding of this principle from. The Psalmist is giving a description of how idols are made (v. 4), the qualities they possess (v. 5-7), and the effect they have on those who worship them (v. 8). These idols are made by human hands (v. 4), yet do not even hold the attributes of a human because they cannot speak, walk, or talk (v. 5-7), and as a result those who worship them lack spiritually what the idols lack physically (v. 8). The error in understanding idolatry and its effect on those who participate in it is to assume that this was a cultural point and does not affect us presently. But because the Bible is timeless and worship is woven into the fabric of our being this principle is very timely.
To illustrate how timely the idea of you are what you worship let me give two present cultural examples:
The Second Largest American Religion: Sports
Any discerning person taking a trip to a Sports stadium during a game who understands historical pagan religion will see the connection. Pagan worshippers dressed up in weird gimmicks, painted their faces and bodies, and chanted unintelligible songs in order to influence their tribal deity. Compare that to a football game where people dress up in the most ridiculous costumes, paint their entire bodies in their teams colors in subzero temperatures, and sing fight songs to support their teams efforts. People get so wrapped up in the worship of a sports team that they start to refer to their team as “we” when referencing anything done by them. Also, a person who worships a sports team will also have his emotions determined by that sports team. When they win their happy and stable and when they lose they are depressed and unpredictable. Or if you are a Minnesota sports fan you are emotionless because you have been taking anti-depressants for so long that you have forgotten how to feel.
The Largest American Religion: Sex
I think this one is pretty obvious seeing as the Porn industry last year brought in more money than the NBA, MLB, and NFL combined. People who worship Sex are marked by the same passion that sex offers. They are people driven by passion and controlled by it so much so that they are willing to sacrifice anything to indulge it. Examples, would be husbands sacrificing their marriage and families to indulge a passion with a woman who is not his wife. A kid willing to sacrifice his purity and parents trust to view pornography. A man willing to sacrifice his freedom and risk going to jail to indulge a passion for someone underage. People resemble (are passionate indulgers of pleasure) what they worship (Sex: a passionate pleasure).
So the question is not do you worship but what do you worship. Sadly for most people they are idolaters who have worshipped themselves into sin by substituting the worship of the creator for the worship of created things (like sex and sports) (Rom 1:18-32). Jesus came to save us from our idolatry by paying for our false worship so that we could be restored to true worship (1 Peter 3:18). You worship your way into sin and you must worship Jesus to save yourself from sin (2 Cor 3:18).
To illustrate how timely the idea of you are what you worship let me give two present cultural examples:
The Second Largest American Religion: Sports
Any discerning person taking a trip to a Sports stadium during a game who understands historical pagan religion will see the connection. Pagan worshippers dressed up in weird gimmicks, painted their faces and bodies, and chanted unintelligible songs in order to influence their tribal deity. Compare that to a football game where people dress up in the most ridiculous costumes, paint their entire bodies in their teams colors in subzero temperatures, and sing fight songs to support their teams efforts. People get so wrapped up in the worship of a sports team that they start to refer to their team as “we” when referencing anything done by them. Also, a person who worships a sports team will also have his emotions determined by that sports team. When they win their happy and stable and when they lose they are depressed and unpredictable. Or if you are a Minnesota sports fan you are emotionless because you have been taking anti-depressants for so long that you have forgotten how to feel.
The Largest American Religion: Sex
I think this one is pretty obvious seeing as the Porn industry last year brought in more money than the NBA, MLB, and NFL combined. People who worship Sex are marked by the same passion that sex offers. They are people driven by passion and controlled by it so much so that they are willing to sacrifice anything to indulge it. Examples, would be husbands sacrificing their marriage and families to indulge a passion with a woman who is not his wife. A kid willing to sacrifice his purity and parents trust to view pornography. A man willing to sacrifice his freedom and risk going to jail to indulge a passion for someone underage. People resemble (are passionate indulgers of pleasure) what they worship (Sex: a passionate pleasure).
So the question is not do you worship but what do you worship. Sadly for most people they are idolaters who have worshipped themselves into sin by substituting the worship of the creator for the worship of created things (like sex and sports) (Rom 1:18-32). Jesus came to save us from our idolatry by paying for our false worship so that we could be restored to true worship (1 Peter 3:18). You worship your way into sin and you must worship Jesus to save yourself from sin (2 Cor 3:18).
