His Voice Global Blog

Hey Everyone!

Please celebrate in the Lord with us! Today we have sent off the last wire that will provide for all three orphanages to be completely self-sustained!!

This has been a 7 year journey that we have learned so much on. We look forward to seeing everything else the Lord has for us.

Currently we are raising funds for a fourth orphanage. If the Lord leads you to give towards this project, please click here.

In the fundraising for the fourth orphanage we are raising one lump sum of money and then will not have ANY ongoing costs!

Please continue to pray for us!!

Love Truth
Vernon

In our Small Group last night we were talking about sin. One of the topics we got to was when we have been personally sinned against.

A great friend, Greg Vest, brought up a point that I have not thought much about. He asked the question, “When someone sins against you do you MAINLY confront them when their offense to you or are you truly more concerned with their sin against God?”

David puts it this way when he had an affair with Bathsheba and then killed Uriah, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in You sight.” (Ps. 51:4a)

So here are some questions to think through (also in this line of questioning I am assuming the person is a Christian, although I know many confronting discussions happen with people who are not Christians)…

1. When someone sins against you and you realize that it is going to require a dialogue that confronts the sin, are you more hurt that the person has sinned against God MAINLY or you?

2. If we would hurt more that the person sinned against God, how would this practically change the conversation we will have? (i.e. how would you ask questions differently? What questions would you ask? etc.)

3. If we are mainly about restoration in our discussions (2 Cor. 7:10), does this change how you normally confront a fellow Christian?

Love Truth
Vernon

I am preparing to preach on Mt. 5:4 in a couple of weeks.

One of the books I have been reading through is The Sermon On The Mount by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. In his chapter on Mt. 5:4 several thoughts have jumped out at me. Here are a couple insights that he gives.

The failure of the Church to have a greater impact upon the life of men and women in the world today is due entirely to the fact that her own life is not in order. To me there is nothing more tragic or shortsighted or lacking in insight than the assumption, made by so many, that the Church herself is all right and all she has to do is to evangelize the world outside. Every revival proves clearly that men who are outside the Church always become attracted when the Church herself begins to function truly as the Christian Church…

I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the Church today is the defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin. Coupled with that, of course, is a failure to understand the true nature of Christian joy. There is the double failure.

Do you think Lloyd-Jones is right?

If you agree with him, what do you think are some practical ways we can implement a better understand of our “double failure”?

Love Truth
Vernon

I am reading an incredible book by D.A. Carson, The God Who Is There.

I will be blogging a bit on the book as I go through it. Here is a a great quote to spend some time thinking about…

You cannot make sense of the Bible until you come to agreement with what the Bible says our problem is. If you do not see what the Bible’s analysis of the problem is, you cannot come to grips with the Bible’s analysis of the solution. The ultimate problem is our alienation from God, our attempt to identify ourselves merely with reference to ourselves, this idolatry that de-gods God; and what we must have is reconciliation back to this God, or we have nothing.

Love Truth
Vernon

So at the risk of sounding “behind the times” I wanted to throw out a site that I recently ran across called StumbleUpon.  (To be fair it was actually a couple of months ago I just haven’t gotten around to writing this particular post until today)  StumbleUpon allows you to find websites and articles that you are interested in by creating an account and establishing your interests and preferences.  You can fine tune the process by adding sites and articles to your favorites as well as follow other stumblers.

If you are interested here is a link to their “about us” page.  They also recently came out with an ap for the iPhone and Droid phones.  If you take the time to check out StumbleUpon or are already a current user let me know your thoughts and/or how and why you use it.

Have a great week.

Justin

Here is yet some mo’ Harvey brilliance via John Piper…

The real danger most of us face today is not persecution but distraction. As John Piper said, “There is a great gulf between the Christianity that wrestles with whether to worship at the cost of imprisonment and death, and the Christianity that wrestles with whether the kids should play soccer on Sunday morning.”

Do you really view distraction as a danger?

What distractions are in your life now?

Love Truth
Vernon

Here is some mo’ Dave Harvey…

The Christian life calls us to pick up the cross, not a recliner.

I think we as Westerners could use a big dose of faith that comes from the risk of dangerous Gospel assignments. But in looking for the big risk, we can also overlook the little risks, and the faith that comes from accepting them. Sometimes the ministry we walk right past each Sunday or the neighbors we wave at a distance are the very risks where Gospel ambition lays clam to us.

So, how are you doing with the “neighbor risk”?

Love Truth
Vernon

I am still reading through Rescuing Ambition. The dude is blowin’ my world up. Here is some more goodness on praise.

Where does your heart go when praise comes our way? Does it make more humble or hungry for more praise?

But when we crave our own glory, we keep praise to ourselves. We don’t pass it along. Like a gluttonous prince, we feast on every morsel, then demand a larger portion.

How do you react with praise? Does gratitude toward God well up when others praise you? If you immediately move to reject praise from others, this is not humility. It is pride.

Take time to praise others today.

Love Truth
Vernon

I have been reading a great book by Dave Harvey called Rescuing Ambition.

One thing he talks about is how unpopular it is to wait. One of the reasons that God calls us to wait is to redefine our definition of productivity.

We live in a world where time is money, so speed is essential. We define our success by how “productive” we are, and productivity is wrapped up in activity. We develop daily lists that would take months to accomplish and strive to achieve what no man or woman ever could. We lay our heads on our pillows at night, discouraged about failure and driven to try harder tomorrow.

Waiting takes our definition of productivity to school. It tutors us to connect our agenda not to personal achievement but to God’s glory.

Love Truth
Vernon

Justin and I were talking on the phone and he was telling me about how easy it is for people to serve the god called “Problem Solving”.

He is an idol.

Do you find your self MAINLY feeling “relief” from solving problems and then going from problem to problem?  Before you know it, your life not only becomes a matter of problems, but it also puts you in the false reality that you are the “problem solver”.

I am not saying we shouldn’t work through things, but if you are anything like me, you can get so worked up about problems that the only form of relief comes when you have “solved your problem.”

Notice, God is not in any of this talk.  Well, maybe He is some of the time, but only as a servant to the god called “Problem Solving”.  It’s idolatry (putting anything in the place of God as the ultimate pursuit in life).

What do you say we make a resolution.  Quit bowing down to the god called “Problem Solving”.

Now, how do you think we do this?

Love Truth
Vernon