1 Peter 2:11-12  (NIV) 11  Dear friends,  I urge you, as foreigners and exiles,  to abstain from sinful desires,  which wage war against your soul.   12  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds  and glorify God  on the day he visits us. Peter wants Christian pilgrims to remember their heavenly citizenship. Calling his hearers ‘transients’ or ‘pilgrims’, Peter returns to a description he used at the beginning of his letter (1:1). He has now shown why they must regard themselves as pilgrims: they are the people of God, a holy nation, and they dare not conform to the wicked conduct of their neighbours. Instead, they must bear witness by their deeds to the kingdom of light. ... Because they are God’s children and pilgrims in this world, Christians are also warriors, repulsing the attacks of fleshly lusts that war against the soul. Peter clearly states the oppositi...

1 Peter 2:11-12 New International Version (NIV) 11  Dear friends,  I urge you, as foreigners and exiles,  to abstain from sinful desires,  which wage war against your soul.   12  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds  and glorify God  on the day he visits us . Do you see how imperative it is that we live godly lives? We want unbelievers to examine us. They come initially to criticize, but if our behavior is excellent, the criticism of some might turn to curiosity. And if that curiosity turns to conversion, they’ll glorify God because of their salvation. Thus we’ve done our part in bringing God glory. You lead people to the credibility of Christianity and ultimately to conversion by the virtue of your life. So stay away from fleshly lusts and maintain excellent behavior. ... When those around us see us helping rather than exploiting, hear us talking with purity inst...

The main problem our heart has is not so much desires for bad things, but our over-desires for good things. When a good thing becomes our “god”, it creates “over-desires” (see Ephesians 2:3; 1 Peter 2:11; 1 John 2:16). Paul says that sinful desires become deep things that drive and control us. Sin creates in us the feeling that we must have this, or that, or the other. David Powlison has a very helpful insight on this:   “If ‘idolatry’ is the characteristic and summary Old Testament word for our drift from God, then ‘desires’ (epithumia) is the characteristic and summary New Testament word for that same drift … The New Testament merges the concept of idolatry and the concept of inordinate, life-ruling desires … for lust, craving, yearning and greedy demand (Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5).” (The Journal of Biblical Counseling, page 36) Keller, T. (2013). Galatians for You (p. 146). Purcellville, VA: The Good Book Company.

Peter says that sinful desires that remain in our hearts “wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11)—the military language correctly translates Peter’s expression and conveys the imagery that sinful desires within us are like soldiers in a battle and their target is our spiritual well-being. To give in to such sinful desires , to nurture and cherish them in our hearts, is to give food, shelter, and welcome to the enemy’s troops. If we yield to the desires that “wage war” against our souls, we will inevitably feel some loss of spiritual strength, some diminution of spiritual power, some loss of effectiveness in the work of God’s kingdom. Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 506). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

The Bible says: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims . . .” (1 Peter 2:9–11). Aliens are rarely shown the “welcome mat.” They are often accepted only with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Being aliens, with our citizenship not in the world but in heaven, we as Christ’s followers will frequently be treated as “peculiar people” and as strangers. Our life is not of this world. “Our conversation is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Our interests, primarily, are not in this world. Jesus said: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:20–21). Our hope is not in this world. The Bible...

A message of grace will attract people, but a culture of grace will keep them. — @ JaredCWilson

We must recognize that the fallen sinner hates the true God and fatally loves himself. Of course he wants a god who will give him what he wants! The gospel, however, assaults the sinner’s self-worship, self-assurance, self-esteem, and smugness, shattering his confidence in his religion and his spirituality. It crushes him under the full weight of God’s law with a verdict of guilty. The only way he can be set free is if he comes to loathe himself and all his ambitions, repent of his sins, and love the one true God, whom Holy Scripture reveals to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the message under which God awakens the sinner and leads him to repentance and faith. Never appeal to that which enslaves the sinner—materialism, sex, pleasure, personal ambition, a better life, success, or whatever—in an effort to convince the sinner of his need to be rescued from the very enslavement you’re appealing to. Instead, call the sinner to flee from all that is natural, all ...

The impotence of human beings with regard to spiritual reality is communicated in a variety of ways by Paul. The natural person—that is, the person without the Spirit —does not welcome the truths of the Spirit and indeed has no capacity for such understanding (1 Cor. 2:14). The unregenerate push the truth of the gospel away from themselves, for they find their pleasure in evil rather than in embracing the truth (2 Thess. 2:10–12).  Unbeknownst to them, Satan is their god, and he has spun a veil over the minds of unbelievers so that they fail to see the beauty of Christ (2 Cor. 4:3–4; cf. 3:14). They have been snared by the devil, and he holds them as prisoners, so they invariably do his will (2 Tim. 2:26) even as they trumpet their own freedom.  The state of unbelievers is spiritual death, and the consequence of that death is sin (Eph. 2:1, 5; cf. Rom. 5:12). Unbelievers live under the thrall of the world, the devil, and the flesh (Eph. 2:1–3). We could say that the cap...

Phil Ryken draws the close parallel between our response to God and how it will reveals itself toward God's people. 

Bruce Waltke makes the following observation about the perceived failure of Moses and Aaron's first attempt before Pharaoh in Exodus 5. 

Jared C. Wilson  ‏ @ jaredcwilson     7h 7 hours ago A gospel-centered church is more grieved and preoccupied with her own sins than the sins of outsiders.

Want to see what it looks like to obey Jesus and go public with your faith? These are some friends of mine back in North Carolina. My heart rejoiced watching the Gospel through this video. Praise God!! Outdoor Baptisms – 2015 from Providence on Vimeo .

On Moses coming near death for not having already circumcised his son in Exodus 4, Bentley writes,  "If we fail to obey, he will deal with us. Sometimes he takes blessing away from us which should have been ours. If we are slow to follow his leading, sometimes he sends someone else to do the work, and we miss the joy of being caught up with a wholehearted obedience to his voice. And sometimes he strikes us down, as he did Moses on this occasion. We must not say, ‘God is a God of love; he would never do something like that.’ Our God is sovereign. He is powerful and he will carry out his purposes in this world—even if he has to pull one of his servants up short." Bentley, M. (1999). Travelling Homeward: Exodus Simply Explained (pp. 79–80). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.

Jesus as the new Moses... The Pharaoh of Moses’ day and Herod the Great in Jesus’ time attempted to kill children—Pharaoh every male Hebrew infant, and Herod all male children aged two and under (Exod. 1:15–16; Matt. 2:16–18). Moses fled Egypt because Pharaoh desired to kill him (Exod. 2:15), and Jesus escaped from Israel because Herod intended to put him to death (Matt. 2:13–14). God instructed Moses to return to Egypt when those attempting to kill him had died (Exod. 4:19), and Joseph receives similar instructions about bringing Jesus back to Israel (Matt. 2:19–20). Jesus’ birth, however, stands in contrast to Moses. Only Jesus is conceived by a virgin, and unlike Moses, he is “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). Jesus is portrayed as a new and better Moses because all of God’s promises are fulfilled in him. The prophet predicted by Moses (Deut. 18:15) is none other than Jesus. The law and the prophets point to Jesus. God’s final and definitive word to his people is found not in the Mos...

The reason why Jesus reflects both the OT figures of Adam and Israel is, as we observed earlier, that Israel and its patriarchs were given the same commission as was Adam in Gen. 1:26–28. Consequently, it is not an overstatement to understand Israel as a corporate Adam who had failed in its “garden of Eden,” in much the same way as its primal father had failed in the first garden. (Note again OT texts where Israel’s promised land is called the “garden of Eden” (Gen. 13:10; Isa. 51:3; Ezek. 36:35; Joel 2:3). For these reasons, we recall once again that one of the reasons why Jesus is called “Son of God” is that this was a name for the first Adam (Luke 3:38; cf. Gen. 5:1–3) and for Israel (Exod. 4:22; Hos. 11:1). Recall yet again also that the divine image that Adam was to reflect was expressed more in functional than in ontological terms: Adam was to reflect God’s actions in Gen. 1 of subduing and ruling over creation, creating, and filling the world with his creation. Accordingly, ...

5 Ways to Spot the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing http://t.co/ksBsO8PZxD via @WardrobeDoor — GarrettConner (@GarrettConner) August 22, 2015

Matt Smethurst ‏ @ MattSmethurst The gospel is not that God accepts you as you are. The gospel is that God accepts you as Christ is.

Signs of unhealthy spiritual development: 1. Defensiveness 2. Cutting people off in conversation 3. A need to be noticed — Derwin L. Gray (@DerwinLGray) September 2, 2015

Carson comments on Exodus 3 v13-15   13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”   14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”   15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ ” Exodus 3:13–15 In other words God does give himself a name (“I AM WHO I AM.… I AM has sent me to you”), but it is not a name that puts himself in a box. He is what he is. “I AM WHO I AM.” He then further defines himself, as it were; he further reveals himself, for people like Moses, for people like us, as he progressively discloses himself across the centuries. He is the eternal subject. He is not somebody else’s object that can be categorized and defined. He i...

Lloyd-Jones while teaching on the holiness of God said this- But I suppose if you were to be asked to say where the Bible teaches the holiness of God most powerfully of all you have to go to Calvary.  God is so holy, so utterly holy, that nothing but that awful death could make it possible for Him to forgive us. The cross is the supreme and the sublimest declaration and revelation of the holiness of God. Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1996). God the Father, God the Son (p. 71). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Self-Sufficient When we realize that God is the only truly self-sufficient One, we begin to understand why the Bible has so much to say about the need for faith in God alone and why unbelief in God is such sin. Tozer writes: “ Among all created beings, not one dare trust in itself. God alone trusts in himself; all other beings must trust in him. Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust not in the living God but in dying men. ” If we refuse to trust God, what we are actually saying is that either we or some other person or thing is more trustworthy. That is a slander against the character of God, and it is folly. Nothing else is all-sufficient. On the other hand, if we begin by trusting God (by believing in him), we have a solid foundation for all life. God is sufficient, and his Word to his creatures can be trusted. Because God is sufficient , we may begin by resting in that sufficiency and so work effectively for him. God does not need us. But the joy of comi...

Self-Existent Since the Bible is a unity, we could answer these questions by starting at any point in the biblical revelation. We could begin with Revelation 22:21 as well as with Genesis 1:1. But there is no better starting point than God’s revelation of himself to Moses at the burning bush. Moses, the great leader of Israel, had long been aware of the true God, for he had been born into a godly family. Still, when God said that he would send him to Egypt and through him deliver the people of Israel, Moses responded, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” We are told that God then answered Moses by saying, “I AM WHO I AM.… Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Ex. 3:13–14). “I AM WHO I AM.” The name is linked with the ancient name for God, Jehovah. But it is more than a name. It is a descriptive name, pointing to all that God is in h...

SELF-DISCLOSURE “THIS IS MY NAME” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” EXODUS 3:15 In the modern world, a person’s name is merely an identifying label, like a number, which could be changed without loss. Bible names, however, have their background in the widespread tradition that personal names give information, describing in some way who people are. The Old Testament constantly celebrates the fact that God has made his name known to Israel, and the psalms direct praise to God’s name over and over (Pss. 8:1; 113:1–3, 145:1–2, 148:5, 13). “Name” here means God himself as he has revealed himself by word and deed. At the heart of this self-revelation is the name by which he authorized Israel to invoke him—Yahweh as modern scholars write it, Jehovah as it use...

A Sample Statement on Regular Church Attendance Article 09.01.2015 Editor’s note: The following is a statement from the elders at Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA. Recently, they began releasing “Shepherd Studies” to help their congregation think well about important Biblical topics that affect the life of their church. This first statement was crafted to help set an expectation of what it means to regularly attend the weekly worship service. This is not a binding document, but rather a study that seeks to help their church understand how they intend to live together. ***** The New Testament pattern of church life is that believers come together on the first day of the week to worship and serve the Lord, and that they regularly sit together at the Lord’s Table to remember His death on their behalf (1 Corinthians 11; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Hebrews 10:24-26). Consistent with that established pattern, the members of the Del Ray Baptist Church (DRBC)...

If less than 20% of Americans attend church & over 70% call themselves Christians, MOST Americans will not like discussing church membership — Mark Dever (@MarkDever) September 3, 2015

This generation is quick with the deadly thrust but slow with the ointment of healing. The harsh criticism of others and unfair appraisals of those about us may hurt them, but it hurts us more. The unjust condemnation of others has a boomerang effect. I hurl my vindictive indictments with the hope of crippling others, but, alas, I discover that I am hurt more than they are. Many a person is lonely today because he has driven away by his own bitterness and harsh words the very friends he needs. Many a wife has discovered that scolding and nagging will never win a husband but often result in a divorce situation. Some people go through their entire lives with a “chip on their shoulder,” carrying hurts and resentments over things that were said or done decades ago. Like a poison, their bitterness has made not only their own lives miserable but the lives of those around them. They have never learned the secret of forgiveness and forbearance. The Bible warns us to be on guard “lest any ...

Should I Tithe When I Have Debt (or Other Financial Pressures)? 5 Things to Consider Before You Abandon Your Giving When faced with financial difficulties, the question of whether or not to tithe or give often arises. And the reason is simple. There is a desire to use every last penny to help get themselves out of the situation. If you have or are facing financial challenges, you have probably considered not giving. It may seem to be the most logical option for you. But before you decide to abandon your giving, consider the following five points: God tells us to give.  The Bible tells us to give and to do it joyfully. The concept of proportional giving (giving based on percentage of income rather than specific amount) is woven throughout the Bible. Personally, I think 10% of gross (before taxes) income is a great place to start and by no means a limit. Where should you give? Start with your local church.  ... Read the rest here- http://www.artrainer.com/sho...