“Really” sons – thinking deeply about adoption

My buddy Gunner frequently talks about the pictures of our adoption in Christ that he and his wife are blessed to see through the adoption of their son Judah. This article by Russel Moore is along those lines (I found it through Justin Taylor’s blog). It is excellent and well worth reading:

The Brotherhood of Sons

~ Donovan

John Piper on the State of the Pulpit

After listening to these thoughts from Piper, I ask you to pray for all Bethel Grace teachers and preachers in these two ways:

1 – that we will have unyielding confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture;
2 – that we will be continuously re-awakened to the majesty of God through the study of doctrine. 

~Jeff

A sweet moment savoring grace…

My dear friends Gunner and Cindi recently adopted a little boy from Uganda. It has been such a blessing to follow the lengthy, often difficult adoption process, seeing God’s faithfulness to work this out, to grow his children, and to magnify himself in and through them… I hope to post more on their story soon. For now, be encouraged by this sweet moment Gunner enjoyed savoring God’s grace…

~ Donovan

Grace, Grace, Grace

These are the priorities of a local church, according to John Piper.  Think carefully about the grace of God:

1 – We exist to reflect the grace back to God in worship.
2 – We exist to apply the grace to one another in service and fellowship.
3 – We exist to extend the grace to unbelievers in outreach.

God has saved us by His amazing grace!  Let us be graceful people!

~Jeff

Just Post It Already!

Over the past two weeks, my good friend Donovan has done a great job formatting this blog.  Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking and waiting and searching for that perfect introductory blog.  Well, it’s been elusive!  So I thought to myself, “Jeff, just post something already!”  So here it is.

Blog is short for “weblog” in case you are wondering.  Lots of online bite-size musings, pieces of information, reading summaries, etc. for you to read and comment on.  I look forward to sharing my heart with you on so many things.  I hope it will be encouraging and helpful. 

Have a Christocentric Thanksgiving holiday! 
~ Jeff

Thankful??

I wrote this 2 years ago and posted it on my MySpace. Since Thanksgiving is here again, I figured I’d post it again: 

I realized a while back that there is a huge difference between being glad that something is the way it is, and being thankful for it being the way it is… I was very glad that my college education was being paid for, saving me from 50 million lifetimes of paying off debt (The Master’s College is HIDEOUSLY expensive), but I was not actually being thankful until I went to my Dad and expressed my gratitude… Being thankful requires acknowledging the source of what you are happy for; it means appreciating the giver, not just the gift…

Pretty simple perhaps, but if you really think about it, it has profound implications for every-day life…. A simple example: It is a beautiful sunny day where I am today – I recognize the beauty of the day, but am I going to move beyond that and acknowledge the goodness and love of God in gifting me with a beautiful day, and beyond that even- with the sun and its warmth (whenever I am blessed to enjoy it), with the beauty of a blue, blue sky, and with the senses to actually take it all in… Examples in all of life are endless…

Post #1

Everything I would want to write in a first post is on our “About this blog” page. You can see it by clicking on the link above.

I’m excited to get this blog started! May God use it to exalt Himself and bless His people…

~ Donovan