'Betrayal'

For various reasons, the two Stanley's, Charles and Andy, parted ways.... However, the Lord had other plans.

From CNN...

He (Andy) realized that the battle wasn't just with his father -- it was with himself.

"I saw the dark side of myself, and I realized that I'm no better than anyone else."

A turning point came during an individual counseling. He told his counselor that he felt like he bent again and again, but his dad wasn't changing.

"When can I give up on my relationship with my dad?" he asked his counselor.

The counselor's reply:

"When your heavenly father gives up on his relationship with you."

Read the entire article.Two preaching giants and the 'betrayal' that tore them apart - CNN.com

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

A History of the Work of Redemption

A History of the Work of Redemption is what Edwards called 'a great work.' This seems to be out of character. For he was known to be a very humble man. He probably meant that this was to be the sum of all his work, or that the topic of his work was great. He wrote it just before he died. And this work was used greatly of God.... In a world that is loosing it's foundations, we should be building foundations from the entirety of the scripture and also the glorious gospel of our Lord.

Here is what Edwards say about his History.

"But beside these, I have had on my mind and heart (which I long ago began, not with any view to publication) a great work, which I call a History of the Work of Redemption, a body of divinity in an entire new method, being thrown into a form of a history, considering the affair of Christian Theology, as the whole of it, in each part, stands in reference to the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ; which I suppose to be, of all others, the grand design of God, and the summum and ultimum of all the divine operations and decrees; particularly considering all parts of the grand scheme, in their historical order.- The order of their existence, or their being brought forth to view, in the course of divine dispensations or the wonderful series of successive acts and events; beginning from eternity, and descending from thence to the great work and successive dispensations of the infinitely wise God, in time, considering the chief events coming to pass in the church of God, and the revolutions of mankind, affecting the state of the church and the affair of redemption, with we have an account of in history or prophecy; till at last, we come to the general resurrection, last judgement, and consummation of all things; when it shall be said, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.-"

Jonathan Edwards

Please read it. A History of the Work of Redemption

'And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.' Luke 24:25-27

Charlie

Charlie, our vicious guard dog.

 On duty in front of the Abundant Life Church

When I found out I had cancer...

"When I found out I had cancer, I didn't know the answers to my most immediate questions. But God reminded me, as he wants to remind all of us, that he is not a God far away, but a God who has come near to us and dwelt within the very circumstances of our lives. He wants   us to trust him with eyes of faith, believing that he reveals himself redemptively in our darkest hours and deepest longings. His ways remain hidden to those without faith, but those with faith see the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. When you see Jesus, you see the invisible God made visible. So look to Jesus." Bobby Grow

"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6 

Read more: God Behind the Veil | Christianity Today

So beautiful

 “Who can I turn to who is so beautiful that he will enable me to escape all counterfeit gods?” Tim Keller

Keller then quotes the poet George Herbert, “Thou are my loveliness, my life, my light, Beauty alone to me.”

"He (Jesus our Messiah) had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." Isaiah 53:2-4

In His humility we see His beauty.

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, Timothy Keller, Amazon.com: Books

Picnic...

May 3rd we went on a drive to Tateshina- 

up in the mountains about 1 hour from here. 

Shane likes his guns

Joshua and Hoshana in the go-cart

‘We will act as if we are free at all costs’

“For many years dissidents in Eastern Europe met in secret, used code words, avoided public telephones and published pseudonymous essays in underground papers. In the mid-1970’s however, these dissidents began to realize that their double lives had cost them dearly. By working in secret, always with a nervous glance over the shoulder, they had succumbed to fear, the goal of their Communist opponents all along. They made a conscious decision to change tactics. ‘We will act as if we are free at all costs,’ Polish and Czech dissidents decided. They began holding public meetings, often in church buildings, despite the presence of known informers. They signed articles, sometimes adding an address and phone number, distributed newspapers openly in the street corners.

In effect, the dissidents started acting in the say they thought society should act. If you want freedom of speech, speak freely. If you love the truth, tell the truth. The authorities did not know how to respond. Sometimes they cracked down- nearly all the dissidents spent time in prison- and sometimes they watched with a frustration bordering on rage. Meanwhile the dissidents’ brazen tactics made it for easier for them to connect with one another and the West, and a kind of ‘freedom archipelago’ took shape, a bright counterpart to the darkling ‘Gulag archipelago.’

Remarkably, we have lived to see these dissidents triumph. An alternative kingdom of ragged subjects, of prisoners, poets, and priests, who conveyed their words in the scrawl of hand-copied samizdat, toppled what seemed an impregnable fortress. In each nation the church operated as a counterforce, sometimes quietly and sometimes loudly insisting on a truth that transcended, and often contradicted, official propaganda. In Poland the Catholics marched past government buildings shouting, ‘We forgive you!’ In East Germany, Christians lit candles, prayed, and marched in the streets until one night the Berlin Wall collapsed like a rotten dam.” 

Philip Yancey

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1 

Slaying Porn Through Christ

"Thankfully, when the Lord brings gospel renewal, he doesn't just show us how bad we are- he shows us how incredible he is. His mercies, his attributes, and his gospel became to me far sweeter than I'd ever imagined." Dan Hays

Read more: Slaying Porn Through Christ: A Testimony of Hope – The Gospel Coalition Blog

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:12-14

Shinshu University

Even as I serve mainly with the Abundant Life Church, I also teach about 210 students in 7 different classes at Shinshu University on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Mainly Writing. My desire is that my students would 'flourish' in every way.