The Believer's Notebook

Deceptions of the Heart and Mind

Paul Crews — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:30:48 +0000

…we must understand how our sinful human hearts and minds work. One profound biblical insight we need to embrace is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires looks right…Thus truth is sacrificed on the altar of self-justification….truth has been sacrificed to desire, and the mind has been shrewdly employed by the darkened heart to shroud it’s passions. This is the point of Romans 1:18, “They suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Truth is held hostage by the unrighteous commitments of the heart. The unrighteous heart then employs the mind to distract and deceive. Doing the evil we love makes us hostile to the light of truth which will expose the evil and rob us of it’s fleeing pleasures. In this condition the mind becomes a factory of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions, and lies- anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction. We are all given to this. Our only hope is the transforming work of God in our hearts to free us from the bondage of a hardened heart that produces a futile mind. The root cause is a heart cause, not a head cause. The mind is darkened and made futile by rebellion in the heart. This does not mean that lovers of truth should stop speaking truth and explaining truth and defending truth. But is does mean that we should pray for God to change hearts so that they can see the beauty of truth and love it…”

John Piper, Taste and See

Wonder and Awe

Paul Crews — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:10:43 +0000

For many, Christianity has become the grinding out of general doctrinal laws from collections of biblical facts. But childlike wonder and awe have died. The scenery and poetry and music of the majesty of God have dried up like a … Continue reading →

Tozer on the “Epidemic of Entertainment” in our lives

Paul Crews — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:47:44 +0000

The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old has no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow loves, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

A. W. Tozer

Preachers gotta preach!

Paul Crews — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:21:44 +0000

“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 16:31) As preachers of the Word, this is what we are called to do. We will give an account to God Himself one day of what we preach and what we don’t. We must not minimize the holiness of God, nor must we minimize the grace of God. Johnathan Edwards said, “A true love of God must begin with a delight in his holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this.”

The “American God”

Paul Crews — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:12:55 +0000

He wants you to be happy.
He wants you to be rich.
He wants you to live like you want.
He is fuzzy on sin…or maybe evolving.
He doesn’t judge.
He doesn’t want us to call anything wrong because that would be judgmental.
He doesn’t mean what He said about sin.
He doesn’t mean what He said about Hell.
He doesn’t mean what He says about a lot of other things in His Word (or He means some of it, but not all of it).
He is fine with you interpreting His Word in the way that is most comfortable to you.
He wasn’t able to effectively communicate His Word to those He chose to write through.
He isn’t able to protect and preserve what He inspired those writers to write.
He is fine with you defining your relationship with Him in whatever way makes you feel comfortable.
He lets you earn your way into Heaven by being a “good person” and you get to define what “good” means.
His Son is not the only way to Heaven but just “a way” even though Jesus said He was “the way.”

The wickedness of fretting

Paul Crews — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:56:34 +0000

Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God. Have you been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God? Put all “supposing” on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.

Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest, 1935, Devotion for July 4.

Tragedies of the Modern Church

Paul Crews — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:50:08 +0000

1. The unattended church
2. The unbowed knee
3. The unread book
4. The unconfessed sin
5. The unexpressed love

submitted by Dr. Carl Garner

Consequences of Sin in a Believer’s Life (Psalm 51)

Paul Crews — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:20:48 +0000

1. Sin dirties the soul (v.2) 2. Sin dominates the mind (v.3) 3. Sin disgraces the Lord (v.4) 4. Sin depresses the heart (v.8) 5. Sin diseases the body (v.8) 6. Sin defiles the Spirit (vs. 9-13) 7. Sin destroys … Continue reading →

Why don’t we respect God?

Paul Crews — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:59:56 +0000

We don’t walk in holiness in our lives because we don’t respect the purity of God.
We don’t desire brokeness in our lives because we don’t respect the perspective of God.
We don’t surrender our lives to God because we don’t respect the purposes of God.
We don’t depend on God in our lives because we don’t respect the provision of God.
We don’t walk in holiness in our lives because we don’t respect the person of God.

Book Recommendation

Paul Crews — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:41:43 +0000

This book opens with the following clarification: “What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.”

“The Harbinger” is a fictional story that points to biblical truth concerning the judgment of America.

It is important to note that the author, Johnathan Cahn, does not argue that the prophecies cited are for America only, but that America is following in the same pattern Israel has in terms of disregarding and disobeying God and His subsequent discipline and judgment.

I’m about a third of the way through this book and it is quite an eye-opener. I admit to being very skeptical about books such as this. They tend to be sensationalistic and play fast and loose with the scripture. However, I have to say that I am impressed with it so far and the parallels Cahn draws between ancient Israel and the United States are clear and sobering.

Cahn is a Messianic Jew who leads “Hope of the World Ministries” and the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel.

I have viewed the DVD’s associated with this book and they are very good too. I recommend this book.