CT Image Blog

A planetary nebula designated NGC 2818, photographed by the Hubble Telescope. By NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning the first day.

Genesis 1:1 - 5

(One of my Favorite Blogs..)

Turning to the Father's

I've enjoyed this podcast for awhile (till I washed my mp3 player in the wash a few months ago :(.. )

This comes from the Greek orthodox church, they introduce you to some of the early desert monks of Egypt and others doctors of the church from Asia minor. While the western church (catholic tradition) has traditionally placed an importance on organization, and administration (which is important), the eastern church (orthodox) has an incredible heritage of worship and devotion.

Want to be a missionary?

My Top Ten ways to prepare

10. Get on your knees and pray for the nations. Learn what the world map looks like.

9. Linger in the places your world that is cross cultural, relocate and immerse yourself if possible.

8. Share your life and faith every week. Think about others, interests, fears, humor, language, culture, and how to explain the gospel to others more clearly and winsomely.

7. Fight your corruptions with the gospel of grace, and wrestle with God as if sin could completely derail your life, marriage and ministry.

6. Go camping, as rough as you can. Incrementally start learning to conserving water. food and power at home.

5. Live in community, not just your best friends exactly like you, just to help with rent, but see if you can handle a cross cultural living in your own home, have certain times you eat meals together and worship together.

4. Cultivate a lifestyle of generosity, don't worry so much about how you'll 'treat' yourself on the weekends, but take some of "your" extra time and money and give it away. Imagine you're going to heaven one day and that it will be unimaginably worth it to live life for others now.

3. Cultivate a lifestyle of risk, pray for the courage to take heat for Christ from others walk into situations with people cross culturally that make you look foolish out of love, Ask God what is it that He would want you to risk each day. Be willing to have others problems totally screw up your day. Take the Jericho road, robber's are there, but also people made in the image of God.

2. Cultivate a lifestyle of service, be ready to say yes to Jesus, to love and serve others, especially those in the Church. Especially if you're young going to the East, work on how you relate to those who are older, find ways to serve them.

1. Spend time with others that share the dream of missionary service and spur each other on.

These are written in no order, just as they came to mind, its a culmination of advice I've heard in the past, things we've done and found really helpful, and thing's we are looking to keep working on. Me and my wife have both served in hispanic kensington,phila. , Kristy has been to Mexico 10 times, and I have been to Kenya twice, once for almost a year. We are hoping to go to help a pastoral / church planting coaching team that works with the east african presbyterian church, as I work for my master's in divinity. (4-5 years?)

Job

Tozer Devotion

This is what I look at every morning before work at 1am. Here is the daily devotional from Tozer from the Alliance website. My mind is half working, and don't wake up too early to do much more.

The Size of the Soul

Chapter #35

Christian--Or Only a Student of Christianity?

Living Out Faith

. . . the snare Epictetus warned against is the very one into which multitudes of professed Christians are falling, viz., mistaking the word for the deed and falsely assuming that if they know the teaching of the Christian faith they are therefore in that faith.

The One who said, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6), would hardly be displeased if we were to humble ourselves to learn an important lesson from an old Greek philosopher.

It will help us to locate ourselves spiritually if we face up to the rather ungracious question: “Are you a Christian in fact or merely a student of Christianity?” A lot will depend upon the answer, and if ever we should be frank, it is when we examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith. Multitudes tread a hazy path to death because they will not bring themselves under the searching eye of God. They prefer to assume everything is all right, though so to assume is always dangerous and may be deadly.

Prayer

O God, may I increasingly live my faith in You by trusting You for Your power in daily living.

Scripture

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
—James 2:17

Thought

Are we living out our faith? If not, is ours genuine faith? In Christ there is enablement but it has to be appropriated and exercised.

He is Risen!

The Resurrection (Matthew 28 ESV)

28 m Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and n the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for o an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 p His appearance was like lightning, and q his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and r became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, s as he said. Come, see the place where he [1] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, t he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb u with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus v met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and w took hold of his feet and x worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; y go and tell z my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

The Report of the Guard

11 While they were going, behold, some of a the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, b ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to c the governor's ears, we will d satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews e to this day.

The Great Commission

16 Now the eleven disciples f went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they g worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, h “All authority i in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 j Go therefore and k make disciples of l all nations, j baptizing them m in [2] n the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them o to observe all that p I have commanded you. And behold, q I am with you always, to r the end of the age.”

Let Your Sins Be Strong:
A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon


If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the
victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new
heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.