As many of you know, last Sunday, at around 5 AM, after hours of vomiting and fervently praying to feel better soon, I called Ron Giese to tell him that I was too sick to preach and I needed to hand the sermon off to him. Despite the fact that it was an extremely late notice, he filled in happily and wonderfully.

If for some reason you missed Pastor Ron’s message, you really should listen to it. The audio is available here and detailed notes are also available here.

This Sunday we’ll take another run at the message that was intended for last week from Luke 9: “Crash Course Discipleship for Knuckleheads.”

Last night, at our Lord’s Supper service, I preached from Heb. 12:1-4 and emphasized our need to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and “consider him.” I quoted from John Owen’s excellent book, The Glory of Christ (1684):

How, then, can we behold the glory of Christ? We need, firstly, a spiritual understanding of his glory as revealed in Scripture. Secondly, we need to think much about him if we wish to enjoy him fully (1 Peter 1:8). If we are satisfied with vague ideas about him we shall find no transforming power communicated to us. But when we cling wholeheartedly to him and our minds are filled with thoughts of him and we constantly delight ourselves in him, then spiritual power will flow from him to purify our hearts, increase our holiness, strengthen our graces, and sometimes fill us “with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”

This quote is taken from the Puritan Paperback version — modernized, abridged and made easy to read. You can see the other volumes in the Puritan Paperbacks series here. If you’re feeling courageous or have some comfortability with reading Puritan prose, the unabridged edition of Glory of Christ is available online for free or in the hard cover Volume 1 of Owen’s Works.

I’d recommend eventually getting to and working through (even if it is work) the older, unabridged edition, but no matter what version you start with, I cannot recommend this book enough. It might be in my top three of all time favorites.

UPDATE: My friend, Justin Taylor, pointed me to a version of The Glory of Christ that I unfortunately didn’t know about. It appears to be an unabridged yet revised/updated edition of the book, put out by Mentor. So this edition would be something between the two options listed above: longer than the abridged Puritan Paperback, but in more contemporary language than Volume 1 of Owen’s Works (which was last edited in the 1850s). If you’re interested to read more about the Puritan John Owen, a good place to start is Justin Taylor’s website JohnOwen.org.

Josh Harris makes a good case for resisting the temptation to tweet during the worship service … further proving the connection between the words twitter and twit (Merriam-Webster: \twit\ noun: a silly annoying person).

In anticipation of our Lord’s Supper service tonight, here’s a meditation from Paul Tripp:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51: 17).

God doesn’t want you to come to Him empty-handed.

No, you can’t come to Him full of yourself,

And you can’t come to Him based on your track record

And you can’t use your performance as a recommendation.

No, you can’t come to Him based on your family,

Your personality,

Your education,

Your position in life,

The successes you’ve had,

The possessions you’ve accumulated,

Or the human acceptance you’ve gained.

But God requires you to come with your hands full.

He requires you to bring to Him the sweetest of sacrifices,

The sacrifice of words,

He calls you to bring Hosea’s offering.

“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.

Your sins have been your downfall!

Take words with you

And return to the Lord.

Say to Him

“Forgive all our sins

And receive us graciously,

That we may offer our lips as the sacrifice of bulls.”

God doesn’t want you to come to him empty-handed.

He asks of you a sacrifice.

Not a grain offering,

Not a lamb or a bull.

No, that requirement has been satisfied

By the blood of the Lamb.

Yet God asks of you a sacrifice

It is the offering of words,

Words of humility,

Words of honesty,

Words of moral courage,

Words of moral candor,

Words that could only be spoken,

By one who rests in grace.

Words of confession are what you must bring.

Place words,

Free of negotiation or excuse,

On His altar of grace,

And receive forgiveness and cleansing.

Uncover your heart,

Exposed by words, and say:

“We will never again say, ‘Our gods’

To what our own hands have made,

For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

What David willingly did He requires of you,

Come with words,

It is the way of grace,

It is the way of freedom,

It is the way to God.

–Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy, pp. 25-26.

Join us for our Lord’s Supper service this evening. It’s always the last Wednesday of every month at 6:30 PM. In fact, come early this week for the missions fund-raising dinner at 5:30 PM.

(Yes, I know that’s when the Red Wings game starts, but all things in their time: forgiveness, reconciliation, prayer, singing, preaching, sacraments, and then … “go, drink your wine, eat your bread, and watch your hockey with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your deeds” – paraphrasing Eccl. 9:7.)