Jesus in the Gospels

I have been reading a bunch about original sin lately. Recently, my readings have taken me to a five part sermon series by John Piper called, Adam, Christ, and Justification. One line that really stuck out to me as I was reading was this:

"When you read the gospels and you see your Lord living out a perfect life
of righteousness, rejoice that he not only is giving you an example of how
to live, but he is also laying the foundation for your acceptance with God
by grace through faith alone."

I had never thought of it that way. As we read the life of Christ, it is not only an example of what we should be striving towards that we see, it is the living out of the righteousness that we, as Christians, are seen in by God.

I think this will change the way I read the gospels, as I can now treasure Christ even more as I ponder the righteousness that I have through him alone.

No protection for turning back

I have been reading a Christian classic called, The Pilgrim's Progress. It is about a guy named Christian who is on a journey from the city of destruction, to the City of Zion. The story is about the various things and people he meets along his way. I just finished a chapter called "Apollyon". In this chapter Christian meets a character named Apollyon, who represents Satan.

In the previous chapter , Christian had just been given the armour of God. The armour of God consists of:

Belt of TRUTH - God
Breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS - The Righteousness of Jesus in you
Sandals of PEACE - Inner peace and readiness
Shield of FAITH - Living by faith
Helmet of SALVATION - Salvation through Christ today and forever
Sword of the spirit - GOD'S WORD - God's Word countering spiritual deception and accusations

John Bunyan, the books author, goes on to write:

Christian began to be afraid, and wondered whether to go back or to stand his ground. But he remembered that he had no armour on his back and thought that by turning his back he might give the fiend the advantage since then Apollyon could easily pierce him with his darts so Christian resolved to go out and stand his ground. "For", he thought "if all I wanted to do was to save my own life, that would still be the best way to stand."

The key point here is that there is no protection for the back in the armour that God has given us as Christians. Our fight has to be one that is always moving forward. If we look back, that is when Satan has the power to defeat us. However, if we press on, even during tough times, and continue forward, we can be sure that we have a tool from God to win the battle.

I thought this was a profound thought from the pen of Bunyan. For anyone interested in reading a deep, but easy to read book, full of Christian truth, I recommend the Pilgrim's Progress. It is a classic.

Matt bonner, my hero

Just want to take a quick opportunity to say that matt bonner is awesome! For those of you unfamiliar with the "red rocket", he is a player on the Toronto raptors. This guy plays tough d, hits his shots (especially 3's) and plays his heart out every game. Not only that, but he plays in the NBA, and doesn't even have a car. He walks to the ACC for games and practices.

Apparently he has a grandparent who is Canadian, so Leo rautins (Canada's national basketball head coach) says he is going to see if there is some loophole that could allow him to play for Canada. That would be sweet.

we have lost enough Canadians to other countries (rusedski in tennis, Lennox Lewis in boxing, Owen hargreaves in soccer), it would be nice to get some love back!