Reblogged from KINGDOMVIEW:

1. Fear that the abuse will will get worse.
2. Fear that their friends or family would turn against them and not believe them.
3. A desire for the children to grow up with both parents.
4. Worry about being able to support oneself and their children financially.
5. They erroneously believe that they are to blame.
6. They are ashamed to admit that they are being abused.
7. They hope the situation will improve.

Why are some men violent with women and/or children?

1. They feel sincerely sorry and think that this is enough to change.
2. They have seen violence in their home growing up.
3. They were victims of violence and abuse
4. They refuse to get help and think they can handle the problem on their own.

I suggest church members come to their Sunday gathering at least 15 minutes early. I would make it more than a suggestion for church leaders (pastor-elders and deacons/deaconesses). There are several reasons why one should be enthusiastic and resolved to come to the Sunday gathering early.

1. You have considered how to stir some others to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25) and you are so excited you can’t wait to get started. This is the text on why we gather weekly as a church, “And let us be consider one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” You come to encourage each other as the judgment/deliverance day of Jesus Christ’s second coming gets closer. The verse commands us to “consider one another.” So if you’ve been praying, thinking, and considering who God is telling you promote love and good works in and who to encourage, and you’re thinking about how you will do it, then you will be excited to accomplish what you’ve considered. So come early, eager and enthusiastic to engage people God has prepared you to engage!

2. The beginning of the gathering, namely the greeting, announcements, call to worship, and prayer of praise are not useless components of the gathering. God speaks through his Word. The call to worship is God speaking to us. The verse we read that morning sets our hearts to seek him and if you don’t hear it you lose out on that word from God calling you with the rest of the congregation to enjoy him. The prayer of praise is our response to that Word and sets our hearts to celebrate the greatness of who he is in a unique prayer each week. The announcements are for your benefit, not the announcers benefit.

3. Visitors who come on time may feel isolated or awkward. But if you’re there you can help them feel welcomed and engaged. You can set them at ease, point to Jesus, initiate a friendship, and bring someone along the path of gospel growth whether they need to convert, commit, grow, or go as a disciple-maker.

4. You won’t have to scramble for a seat in the middle or front when all the back row seats are taken. At CrossView there are many who sit in the back in the beginning and must be exhorted to move closer to the front to care for their neighbors who come later. If you come later and CrossViewers and other attendees don’t move to make room for you in the back, you have to find a seat nearer to the front or middle which may draw uncomfortable attention.

5. It encourages the leaders. Not only the pastor-elders, but the song leader, the gathering leader, and the others who are there on time and feel a significant ownership and investment in their local church. I’m not saying come on time only for them, but it does encourage them and isn’t that one of the reasons for the Sunday gathering as the day of Christ’s coming draws near (Hebrews 10:25)?

6. You won’t be frazzled and your heart can be more in tune with what God is going to be saying to you when you’re not feeling rushed. I hate coming in late and having my mind in 3 different places as verses are read, prayers are prayed, and songs are sung. I can’t maximally receive what God is communicating to me through the gathering and I want to receive it all! Coming early leaving time to pray and repent in the car (for impatience and other sins on the way to the gathering) prepares me and my family to receive all God wants us to receive that morning. It also disciples my kids in a healthy direction.

Reblogged from CrossView Church LA:

Christian Living

• Alistair Begg, The Hand of God ($4.99)
• Alistair Begg, Made For His Pleasure ($4.99)
• Anonymous, Embracing Obscurity ($2.99)
• Tim Challies, The Next Story ($3.79)
• Tim Challies & R.W. Glenn, Modest ($2.99)
• Mitchell Chase, Behold Our Sovereign God ($2.99)
• Mitchell Chase, The Gospel Is For Christians ($2.99)
• Joe Coffee & Bob Bevington, Red Like Blood ($1.99)
• Sam Crabtree, Practicing Affirmation ($3.03)
• John Crotts, Loving the Church ($1.99)
• Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something ($4.99) (A Favorite)
• J.D. Greear, Gospel ($3.49)
• J.D. Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart ($4.39)
• Collin Hansen & John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision ($3.99)
• Brian Hedges, Christ Formed In You ($3.99)
• Charles Hodges, Good Mood, Bad Mood ($3.99)
• Michael Horton, A Place for Weakness ($3.99)
• Mary Kassian, Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild ($1.99)
• Trip Lee, The Good Life ($3.99)
• Crawford Loritts, A Passionate Commitment ($4.99)
• Crawford Loritts, For a Time We Cannot See ($4.99)
• Al Mohler, He Is Not Silent ($4.99)
• Al Mohler, Words from Fire ($4.99)
• J.I. Packer, Grounded in the Gospel ($1.99)
• John Piper, Think ($4.61)
• Phil Ryken, Loving the Way Jesus Loves ($4.99)
• Anthony Selvaggio, A Proverbs Driven Life ($3.99)
• Joni Eareckson Tada, The God I Love ($2.99)
• Paul Tripp, Broken-Down House ($1.99)
• Paul Tripp, Lost in the Middle ($3.99)

Family & Parenting

• Alistair Begg, Lasting Love ($4.99)
• Dave Harvey, When Sinners Say I Do ($1.99)
• Rick Horne, Get Offa My Case ($1.99)
• Ginger Plowman, Don’t Make Me Count to Three ($1.99)
• Tedd Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart ($1.99)
• Tedd Tripp, Instructing a Child’s Heart ($1.99)
• Jay Younts, Everyday Talk ($1.99)
• Ruth Younts, Get Wisdom ($1.99)
• Steve Zollos, Time for the Talk ($1.99)

Theology

• Greg Allison, Historical Theology ($5.99) (Amazing Value)
• Andreas Kostenberger, God, Marriage and Family ($4.61)
• D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church ($3.79)
• D.A. Carson, Jesus the Son of God ($3.99)
• D.A. Carson, Scandalous ($4.99)
• D.A. Carson editor, Entrusted with the Gospel ($4.99)
• D.A. Carson editor, The Gospel as Center ($5.99)
• D.A. Carson editor, Worship by the Book ($3.79)
• Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts ($4.99)
• Kevin DeYoung editor, Don’t Call It a Comeback ($4.99)
• Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot ($4.99)
• Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck, Why We’re Not Emergent ($4.99)
• Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church ($4.99)
• Wayne Grudem, Christian Beliefs ($3.79)
• Wayne Grudem, Politics – According to the Bible ($4.99)
• Nancy Guthrie, The Lamb of God ($5.99)
• Michael Horton, For Calvinism ($3.79) (also consider the companion volume by Roger Olson, Against Calvinism)
• Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology ($7.59) (New Book)
• R.C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross (free)
• Owen Strachan & Doug Sweeney, The Essential Edwards Collection ($9.99)
• Trevin Wax, Counterfeit Gospels ($4.99)
• Michael Williams, How to Read the Bible Through the Jesus Lens ($3.79)(Carson Recommends It)

Ministry

• Alistair Begg & Derek Prime, On Being a Pastor ($4.99)
• Matt Chandler, Creature of the Word ($3.49)
• Bryan Chapell, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach ($3.79)
• Tim Keller, Center Church ($5.69) (New Book)
• Jonathan Leeman, Reverberation ($4.99)
• Crawford Loritts, Leadership as an Identity ($4.99)
• Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers (40th Anniversary Edition), ($3.99)
• John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals ($4.39)
• Paul Tripp, Dangerous Calling ($5.99)
• Various, Is Hell for Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven? ($3.79)

Commentary

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• Nancy Ganz, Genesis ($1.99)
• Nancy Ganz, Deuteronomy ($1.99)

Misc

• Nancy Leigh DeMoss, The Quiet Place ($1.99)
• Christine Hoover, The Church Planting Wife ($4.99)
• Tim Kerr, Take Words With You ($2.99)
• Colin Smith, Unlocking the Bible Story ($4.99)
• Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni: An Unforgettable Story ($2.99)
• Joni & Ken Tada, Joni & Ken ($4.74)

From the Sprint commercial claiming that because we’re unlimited we have the right to unlimited data on our phones. The commercial says, “The miraculous is everywhere, in our homes, in our minds. We can share every second in data dressed as pixels. A billion roaming photo journalists uploading the human experience and it is spectacular. So why would you cap that?” My iPhone 5 can see every point of view. Every panorama. The entire gallery of humanity. I need to upload all of it. I need… no I have the right to be unlimited. Only Sprint offers truly unlimited data for iPhone 5.”

Whether it’s Kobe vowing to return to the NBA playing at an elite level, battles over the acceptance of homosexuality in our culture, or the racist’s justification for seeing his ethnicity superior to another’s, the human idea is older than the first humans born to Adam and Eve. It’s the idea that I have no limits and can do whatever I want. I have the right to whatever I want. I have no limits.

But this isn’t true. Limits exist. Kobe’s achilles has torn and will take at least 6 months to recover. Homosexuality disagrees and disobeys the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the Bible (I’m not saying it will not be accepted in our culture but that it cannot erase the limitation the bible declares it to have). All humans from all ethnicities are just as human as any other human from a particular ethnicity. These are realities. Thus, they are limits. We can declare otherwise, we can even insist on our right to our declaration, but it doesn’t always change reality. It doesn’t change at least some limits.

Besides, limits can be good, can’t they? I’m glad my wife is morally limited to be faithful to me and I to her. I’m glad God limits me to teach and serve my children, not bully or exasperate them. I’m glad God tells me to obey the law and I’m glad everyone driving around me follows some limits like driving on the correct side of the road, obeying the limits placed on them by traffic lights, honoring lines on the road, and keeping within some proximity to the speed limit. I’m glad there are limits on people stealing and murdering. I’m glad there are some limits. The point is, we’re not unlimited. We don’t have the right to whatever we want and we don’t have the right to be unlimited!

Only God is unlimited and it is good that he is. It is also good that we are not. For in finding out where the true and false limits really are is the key to real freedom and happiness. Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

From Justin Taylor:

The Gospel of Paul and the Gospel of the Kingdom

Two Comments on History and Christianity:

1. Christianity has some historical elements built into it structure
so that we cannot deny historical interest, we cannot reduce
Christianity to some merely coherent theological/philosophical/moral
system.

2. History and historical awareness must be part of a preacher’s agenda.

The relevance of historical theology to preaching:

1. HT is a discipline that informs us of exegesis and especially the systematic theology of previous ages. And therefore some knowledge of
it expands our horizons.

2. HT teaches how certain issues become central in different ages.
Gnosticism, authority, epistemology, etc.

3. HT teaches that God still has more light to break from his holy word.

4. HT teaches us that some heresies and errors recur with modifications.

5. HT shows us what doctrines are paradigm independent. What doctrine
show up under every paradigm.

6.  HT provides moving and useful illustrations for expositions that
draw hearers into a bigger world.

7. HT helps us see how believers lost the gospel either by addition or by subtraction.

Everything that takes place from Luke 9:51 on is that all that takes place takes place under the looming shadow of the cross. That’s what the structure means. It’s a hint on how to read the book.

A couple of important lessons from reading this book in light of the cross

Read Luk 9:18-56

TWO MAIN COMMENTS

COMMENT 1: In his own time, Jesus is the misunderstood Messiah. But his readers see what Jesus’ contemporaries could not see. Jesus is resolved to go to Jerusalem to die and rise again. (We’ll see how that’s worked out in 5 sections of this chapter before going to the second comment.

1. Jesus is God’s Messiah who will die and rise again. This meant he was the fulfillment of Jewish expectation. He’s the promised Davidic anointed one. When Peter made his confession, he didn’t mean what we meant because we include the cross as central in that confession. What Peter meant was the truth and is blessed by it with genuine insight, but it isn’t full Christian truth (pointed out in v. 21). Why would Jesus tell Peter here not to announce it? Because the crowds understanding of messiahship is triumphalistic and earthly-kingdom oriented. V. 22 tells Jesus purpose, but they don’t get it. When Jesus is crucified, they’re shattered, not hopeful. They didn’t have a category for it. Jesus doesn’t let it rest there. He says, not only am I going to the cross, you’re going to if you’re going to follow me (vv. 23-27). Jesus uses this extreme language because death to self-centeredness is always painful, why they’re still think of triumphalism. Jesus is God’s Messiah, but this Messiah will suffer, die, and rise again.
2. Jesus stands in line with Israel’s greatest God-endowed prophets, but he utterly outstrips them (vv. 28-36). Jesus is talking to them about his departure, his “exodus” (v. 31). Peter speaks not knowing what he said. God interrupts and calls Jesus his Son. Not Moses. Not Elijah. Jesus. He is God’s Son. Sonship has many different threads in the OT. Sonship can be bound up likeness – David’s son will be God’s son. Later on it is also bound up with the doctrine of the Trinity.
3. Jesus is the misunderstood Messiah. He has total control over the sick and demonic, but he is about to depart (vv. 37-43a). Scan it quickly but leave out v. 41. What Luke throws in in verse 41 is fascinating. This text suggests that Jesus had a really hard time being with us. Jesus was looking forward to going home. Reading v. 41 in light of v. 55 is insightful.
4. Jesus announces his impending betrayal but makes it clear why self-absorbed people cannot follow him (vv. 43b-50). The deepest reason they couldn’t get it is because they are thinking in terms of worldly greatness (v. 46). Look at the twist in Jesus’ words here: whoever welcomes this child welcomes Jesus. They want to be close to Jesus because they esteem him great. But Jesus wants to see how they welcome a child since there is no benefit there.
5. Jesus heads toward Jerusalem to be killed but he forbids killing the Samaritans who are not welcoming him (vv. 51-56). In some ways for him this is a relief. So why are the Samaritans mentioned here? They don’t want to support him because he’s going to Jerusalem and to one of the feasts. Should Jesus kill the Samaritans? If so, then should he kill his disciples? Or the crowd that shouted crucify him? Or should he kill us since our sin held him there? In what sense, yes. Jesus won’t let it happen because he is resolved to go to Jerusalem where he is going to die for sinners.

COMMENT 2: There’s a second crucial point established by Jesus’ resolve to go to Jerusalem: In his own time, Jesus is the misunderstood Messiah, but his readers see as his contemporaries did not how everything that takes places in Jesus’ life is clarified because it falls under the shadow of the impending cross.

9:57-62 – read the cost of discipleship as that cost of following the one who is set on going to the cross.

10:1-20. In v. 17 they rejoice. Jesus’ response in vv.18-20. Your identity is not bound up with your ministry but with your election. MLJ was perfectly content as he was sidelined on the shelf. Many of us spend our lives with a green envy giant. Rejoice our names are written in heaven, not the fruitfulness of your ministry. Jesus said this on the way to Jerusalem. In light of his knowledge of the coming cross, he tells them to rejoice in heaven because Jesus would secure them on the cross. Their names in heaven are tied to Jesus’ resolution to die for them. (thought of the honor of being in the hall of fame or having your jersey retired).

Parable of good samaritan (vv. 25-37) – The expert asks a question. Jesus asks back. The lawyer answers correctly. But the man knows he’s been got out. But he does ask, “who is my neighbor?” So Jesus doesn’t answer his question, but asks his own question, but uses the parable to set up his question. Once he set up his question, he asks the question which one was his neighbor. Jesus is the Samaritan and Luke shows it by his structure.

What did Jesus mean by “do this and you will live?” Some say a way to get to heaven. But the man didn’t take it that way. And Jesus quoted this text in Mark 12:30ff and uses it in a different way. There he tells us the 2 greatest questions. This man asks a different question, what must I do to get in, to get eternal life and the inheritance? Jesus says, do the great commands and you’ll get in, no problem. Does anyone in this room love God with all their being and love their neighbors as themselves? If these are the standards we’re all damned. Jesus says, go ahead, try it. The man knows he’s not ok yet. Self-justification is a theme in Luke. Justification is God declaring sinners to be just. Self-justification is when sinners declare themselves to be just. For example, Luke 16:14ff. They were justifying themselves by their money. What Jesus says is that you justify yourselves but God knows your heart. See also the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14. One man justified himself, the other is justified by God himself. (I dozed off here and didn’t get his connection to Luke’s passion pursuit)

Conclusion:

1. Away with driving a wedge between Jesus teaching and his actions and cross.
2. Away with saying Luke is not interested that much in the atonement because there is no parallel to Mark 10:45/Matt 20:28.
3. We can’t reflect long on Luke’s gospel without focusing on the cross. If you try to pick and choose Jesus’ teaching then you will end up in self-justification unless you go to the cross and empty tomb. Or do you think in therapeutic terms, Jesus is a very nice man. When you break down Jesus comes and fixes you. But Jesus dies for you and insists you take up your cross and follow him. Or do you read the Bible in bitty ways? This resolve of Jesus shows what the Bible points to: the cross, resurrection, and ascension. We need to see it and take it in.

“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” (2 other song lines quoted)

Jesus’ resolve to go to Jerusalem.