Accepted in the Beloved by Spurgeon

"Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:4-6

What a state of privilege! It includes our justification before God, but the term "acceptance" in the Greek means more than that. It signifies that we are the objects of divine complacency, nay, even of divine delight. How marvelous that we, worms, mortals, sinners, should be the objects of divine love! But it is only "in the beloved." Some Christians seem to be accepted in their own experience, at least, that is their apprehension. When their spirit is lively, and their hopes bright, they think God accepts them, for they feel so high, so heavenlyminded, so drawn above the earth! But when their souls cleave to the dust, they are the victims of the fear that they are no longer accepted. If they could but see that all their high joys do not exalt them, and all their low despondencies do not really depress them in their Father's sight, but that they stand accepted in One who never alters, in One who is always the beloved of God, always perfect, always without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, how much happier they would be, and how much more they would honor the Savior! Rejoice then, believer, in this: thou art accepted "in the beloved." Thou lookest within, and thou sayest, "There is nothing acceptable here!" But look at Christ, and see if there is not everything acceptable there. Thy sins trouble thee; but God has cast thy sins behind his back, and thou art accepted in the Righteous One. Thou hast to fight with corruption, and to wrestle with temptation, but thou art already accepted in him who has overcome the powers of evil. The devil tempts thee; be of good cheer, he cannot destroy thee, for thou art accepted in him who has broken Satan's head. Know by full assurance thy glorious standing. Even glorified souls are not more accepted than thou art. They are only accepted in heaven "in the beloved," and thou art even now accepted in Christ after the same manner.
~Charles Spurgeon, September 23, Morning by Morning

We have (finally) come to the place where we have a manuscript that can have some outside editing done before we publish! Praise God! It has been quite a process. I am sure it would have gone smoother if we already had some "practice" in writing a book. Please keep praying! We could possibly have it done and published by late August or September depending on how things go. Thanks to all for your prayers!

Pray for our Manuscript

Please pray for us! Kerri & I have been working on a transcript for a book for several months now. (Since April 2013) We have been plugging away at it for these past 10 months now on a fairly regular basis. We are nearing the end. We hope to finally be done within the next week or two with each of the individual chapters. We will do one last full edit of the manuscript as a whole. We may also pick some "outside" eyes to look at it and make any suggestions. We hope to get it published and use it as a tool for ministry. Please pray for the book to be published and for us to get back to doing things on our website and blog in a diligent fashion. I still can remember back to the initial years when I first started our former websites beginning with: A True and Faithful Witness. Those initial articles about Rick Warren's teachings as well as articles on Richard Foster's teachings (and a few others) brought in over 100,000 page views. It was obvious there was a need but it also took quite a bit of time and energy and it was very intense warfare. Back then I knew that there was tremendous need - so we launched out. As we look at the current "Christian" landscape we now see multitudes of false teachings and writings disguised as if they were Biblical. And it is getting worse. And much of the church is asleep or too busy with "life" to consider what is happening. So pray for us! We wish to launch out into more intense ministry once again. Thanks, David Sheldon

Fighting for the Faith: Piper / Warren Debrief With Phil Johnson Part 1

As many of you know, the growing apostasy of Rick Warren is being given an audience and, believe it or not, is being justified by John Piper! "Fighting for the Faith" has provided a debriefing of an interview that Piper had with Warren. A listen to this is well worth the time:

Fighting for the Faith: Piper / Warren Debrief With Phil Johnson Part 1

Real Passion versus Artificial Enthusiasm

There is a great post today over at Pyromaniacs:
Real Passion versus Artificial Enthusiasm by Phil Johnson
Well worth the read and so true.

Passivity at the Hands of Antichrist

American Evangelicalism is losing ground due to the passiveness of leaders and attendees. Important Biblical matters are being swept under the rug for another time. God terms these people a "carefree multitude" (Ezekiel 23:42)
Read full article Passivity at the Hands of Antichrist

The Knowledge of the Self-Revealing God: Starting Point for the Christian Worldview

"Christian thinking is not reducible to mere theism—belief in the existence of a personal God. To the contrary, authentic Christian thinking begins with the knowledge that the only true God is the God who has revealed himself to us in the Bible."

Read Albert Mohler's full article