If you are passionate about “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation” like the King Jesus is then you will absolutely love this video. Please watch.

It gives me goosebumps each time I watch.

This week I was watching a video of some wedding vows.

Something the groom said really caught my attention. He said, “I vow to lay down my life everyday for you.”

Wow! That is something strong. But it is so true. So accurate. So marriage-proper. So Biblical. And so Jesus.

Every husband needs to make that vow to his bride and then stick to it.

Jesus already has. For that I am redeemed. For that I worship.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us…”

In the evenings, I have been slowly reading Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar. Proverbs 11:30b (KJV) says “he that winneth souls is wise.”

Here is an excerpt: (he is addressing the minister’s life, but it certainly speaks to the life of every believer)

“Our position is such that we cannot remain neutral. Our life cannot be one of harmless obscurity. We must either repel or attract- save or ruin souls! How loud, then, the call how strong the motive, to spirituality of soul and circumspectness of life! How solemn the warning against worldly-mindedness and vanity, against levity and frivolity, against negligence, sloth and cold formality!
Of all men, a minister of Christ is especially called to walk with God. Everything depends on this; his own peace and joy, his own future reward at the coming of the Lord. But especially does God point to this as the true and sure way of securing the blessing. This is the grand secret of ministerial success. One who walks with God reflects the light of His countenance upon a benighted world; and the closer he walks, the more of this light does he reflect. One who walks with God carries in his very air and countenance a sweet serenity and holy joy that diffuses tranquility around. One who walks with God receives and imparts life whithersoever he goes; as it is written, out of him “shall flow rivers of living water” (john 7:38). He is not merely the world’s light but the world’s fountain, dispensing the water of life on every side and making the barren waste to blossom as the rose. He waters the world’s wilderness as he moves along his peaceful course. His life is blessed; his example is blessed; his intercourse is blessed; his words are blessed; his ministry is blessed! Souls are saved, sinners are converted, and many are turned from their iniquity.”

Oh Father God, make us like that!

When I was a boy, I played baseball and loved it. I pitched. I was never really that great. Often times, I was unable to throw strikes. This would really really upset me. I have memories of me leaving the field furious. I recall even crying sometimes because I was playing so poorly.

No matter how bad I was playing, there was always my dad or a coach to yell at me “boy, keep your head up.” In other words, don’t let it get me down, don’t let it ruin me, don’t let it get the best of me, make me give up, stop trying or quit.

I didn’t. Thank God!

Now that I am 30 and baseball days are long gone (sadly), I am learning that life is like this too.  There are so many times when “things” attempt to get the best of us. We shouldn’t let it.

The Bible teaches that Satan wants to deceive, discourage, distract and destroy us.  So often times there are good godly people who get discouraged in all their faithful efforts.

Hear Galatians 6:9 “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

God’s Word calls all of us “to keep our heads up”… up at Him. He cares for us and He carries us.

If you are give out today, worn out, tired, discouraged, ready to give up, seeing all your efforts as useless, meaningless, unfruitful, or hard. DO NOT GIVE UP! Paul says that to them and to us.

By God’s grace, lets stay faithful.

Eli had a birthday party on Saturday. Valeria’s brother, Andres, was in town. He took several good pictures. They are on his website. Click the link below to check them out.
Notice how much Eli destroyed the cake!

Eli’s birthday party!

Today we celebrated Eli’s first birthday. His actual birthday is not until April 30th.

Valeria and I are so blessed to have Eli as our son and JJ his brother.  Many friends came out to enjoy this occasion with us.

We believe that children are a gift from the Lord, and we pray for grace in raising them up to honor and follow Christ with their lives.

This morning in our Men’s Bible Study we began a new focus.

We looked at Matthew 7 where Jesus is saying that when we are judged it will not depend on what we have done so much, but rather on whether we knew God, or better were known by Him.

Our study of the “Fundamentals of the Faith” is to lead us to know God in a deeper way.

check this out! if you like it, there are many more on youtube.

Jesus as our substitute is such a heavy doctrine.

We must believe in it.

There is absolutely nothing good in us. Jesus took our sins and was slaughtered by God for them. We deserved it. Jesus took it. He is our substitute. In exchange, we got His righteousness.

Do you believe this? If you don’t, you are not saved. There is no way. Your sins havent been dealth with.

Trip Lee says “he doesn’t love me because of me, no He loves me because of Him.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”

Do you ever use the word “substitute” when speaking of your Lord or your faith?  Please begin to. Be a light to the world that you do not count your life as having any value except in Christ.

The doctrine of substitution places all of the emphasis on Jesus and NONE of it on you. Thats glorious!

Bob Kauflin  Shai Linne

Revelation 5 describes an amazing picture of everything (creation & the church) falling down and singing “a new song” to the slain worthy Lamb of God, namely Jesus.

Some people may read that text and wonder what “the song” was like. We have the lyrics in that text. They are all about Christ’s redeeming work for His people . But some may wonder about the style.

They shouldn’t. We shouldn’t.

Wednesday night while at a worship service, I heard Bob Kauflin (40 or 50 something year old gray headed man on a piano) lead a large congregation in worship singing some old hymns. The very next song (Kauflin didn’t even leave the stage or the piano), Shai Linne (20 something year old long haired man with a microphone in hand) comes up and leads the congregation in worship with two rap songs.

Both mens’ songs had the lyrics on the screens. Both mens songs were all about the redeeming work of Jesus.

Both mens’ songs did the exact same thing for me… lead me to worship Jesus.

I’m 30 years old, and I sincerely loved both. Either one is fine with me… its the subject not the style.