Psalm 112:1-7

1 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
7 He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. (ESV)

I read this Psalm this morning. It brought back memories of a song by James Ward entitled “No Bad News” based on this Psalm (Ward wrote that in the mid 80’s I believe). That tune will be running through my head all day, I’m sure.

Do you fear bad news? I do. Especially with a new driver in the house. Whenever our 16 year old takes the car out I wrestle as parents have for generations with the fear of a car accident. Not that he’s a bad or reckless driver- it’s just a dangerous world. What phone calls or news do you dread hearing or receiving? “The test came back and it IS cancer.” “We’re sorry, but we can no longer afford your position.” “Your son is struggling in school and we’re at a loss to help him.”

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Yesterday at HLPC we considered this diagram in relation to Romans 8:1-17 as we looked at a “life of repentance.” [Check out the Martin Luther quote below]  If you found this a bit confusing, let me elaborate a bit more. This perspective on the Christian life is in contrast to the view that sees the gospel as the first step- and little else. I’ll call this the “ticket gospel”. It sees the gospel as your “ticket to heaven.” Once you have claimed by faith God’s forgiveness through Christ and His free gift of eternal life, you need to move on. You need to get busy as a committed Christian, busy earning God’s pleasure and living the “abundant Christian life.” The ticket gospel sees the gospel as only that which non-Christians need.

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Wow- great video of Tim Keller in a roundtable discussion at Westminster Theological Seminary discussing apologetics and his new book The Reason for God can be accessed here.

(HT: Tullian Tchividjian)

Last night our church youth had a “Bigger and Better” scavenger hunt. Two teams were given a penny each and had to go door to door asking, “Do you have anything bigger and better than this?” Items continually get traded up. It’s always entertaining to see what groups bring back. Back in the 90’s when we were in campus ministry at Tennessee-Martin we had a group bring back a satellite dish- the big as six golf umbrellas sized dish. It helped that many of our students, largely from west Tennessee, all had pick-ups.

The winning team last night brought back a working, color, 27 inch TV (and an oar). The second place team (remember, only two teams total) brought back a lawnmower and a powered scooter- both items need a touch of repair but look great.

The good news is that these items left with the youth director and are not adding to my collection of junk in the garage.

Food for thought for this Lord’s Day at Houston Lake Pres:

“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matt. 4:17), He willed that the whole life of believers should be one of repentance.”

-The first of Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses nailed to the Wittenberg church door in 1517.

this blog hasn’t been up for long and it’s already being quoted and referenced in other places! Actually, the plug I made for the new ESV Study Bible made it to the ESV blog you can access here. See if you can find it on the list!

I thought it was cool. It made my Friday.

I’ve been whining to Connie this week that I wished I could have attended the “Together for the Gospel” conference (that goes by the cool abbreviation “T4G”) being held in Louisville, KY. Speakers include Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, R.C. Sproul, John Macarthur, John Piper, Thabiti Anyabwile, and C.J. Mahaney. This conference includes some great book giveaways and is geared toward those in ministry.

I was thrilled to discover that you can download free mp3’s of the conference messages here. Looks like some really good stuff.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

I was in 2 Corinthians 10 this morning and read: 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (ESV)

Then I read from Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning these words that give insight into how this works:

There is no motive for holiness so great as that which streams from the veins of Jesus. And “precious,” unspeakably precious, is this blood, because it has an overcoming power. It is written, “They overcame through the blood of the Lamb.” How could they do otherwise? He who fights with the precious blood of Jesus, fights with a weapon which cannot know defeat. The blood of Jesus! sin dies at its presence, death ceases to be death: heaven’s gates are opened. The blood of Jesus! we shall march on, conquering and to conquer, so long as we can trust its power!

If you’ve been attending HLPC for some time you’ll notice that we use the English Standard Version published by Crossway.  It’s a relatively new translation on the scene.  Why do we use it?  We appreciate and affirm the translation philosophy of the ESV that’s given in this quote taken from the ESV website :

There are two main kinds of Bible translations. The first is commonly referred to as (1) “word-for-word” (or “formal equivalence”) translation, the second as (2) “thought-for-thought” (or “dynamic equivalence”) translation. The main difference between these two translation philosophies is that the first one places the primary emphasis on what the words of the original say and mean (in their context), while the second one places the primary emphasis on the main thought or idea in the phrases of the original.

As an “essentially literal” translation, the ESV is committed to the principle of “word-for-word” translation, as the translation philosophy that most accurately conveys the Bible’s own understanding that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16), or as Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Other translations, such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB) follow this similar philosophy.  Translations such as the New International Version (NIV) would follow the “thought for thought” philosophy.  While both are excellent translations, we are excited about the ESV and want to encourage its use!

Also, the new ESV Study Bible is soon to hit the shelves and looks to be an excellent resource to go with the Reformation Study Bible and the Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible.