He humbled Himself.

Obedience in missions and social justice has always been costly, and always will be. In the village of Miango, Nigeria, there is a SIM guest house and a small church called Kirk Chapel. Behind the chapel is a small cemetery with 56 graves. Thirty three of them hold the bodies of missionary children. Some of the stones read:

Ethyl Armold September 1, 1928- September 2 1928
Barbara Swanson 1946-1952
Eileen Louise Whitmoyer May 6, 1952- July 3, 1955

For many families this was the cost of taking the gospel to Nigeria. Charles White told his story about visiting this little graveyard and ended it with a tremendously powerful sentence. He said "The only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango is to remember that God buried his son on the mission field".

-John Piper in his book Future Grace

I hate the prosperity Gospel.

Calvinism is the gospel. (There I said it)

The nineteenth century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said it this way:

“I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus"

"John Calvin A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine and Doxology"

John Calvin

John Calvin, in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, brings up a point about our motives when we are faced with sin:

"He restrains himself from sin, not merely from a dread of vengeance, but because he loves and reveres God as his Father, honours and worships him as his Lord, and even though there were no hell, would shudder at the thought of offending Him. See, then, the nature of pure and genuine religion. It consists of faith, united with a serious fear of God, comprehending a voluntary reverence, and producing legitimate worship agreeable to the injunctions of the law."

From Book One, Chapter 2

FYI, Calvin wrote this 1,600 page book as an introduction to his commentaries. Spending most of his life writing exegeting scripture through his commentaries (almost the entire NT and most of the OT), he died mid-sentence in Ezekiel 22 at the age of 55 in excrutiating pain. Often, he would be told to rest and he would reply "Will the Lord come and find me idle?"

He died writing instead of resting.

Praise God for the men and women who devote their life to knowing God through his Word!

For the babies who still live in their mother's womb

Please read, it burdens my heart.

I'm not Voting for a Man, I'm Voting for Generations of Children and their Right to Live

David Livingstone

David Livingstone got on his knees one day and prayed this prayer

“Send me anywhere, only go with me.
Lay any burden on me, only sustain me.
Sever any ties but the ties that bind me to your service and to your heart
Thru it all the words of God came to me
‘Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age’”


May that be our prayer.

For the Grace of God Orphans

'While I am a great advocate of looking to the past, I would warn anybody against living in the past. The only justification for looking to the past is that we may learn great lessons from it and apply them.' Arguing that, 'the gospel is literally the only hope for the world today', he showed how the gospel always makes a powerful effect upon the world after there has first been a distinct quickening in the life of the church. The modern church was bypassing her primary need. She was adopting 'methods of big business and advertising' instead of praying for a visitation of God. As the Belfast press reported his words: 'The Church has never tried so hard to deal with the situation as she has tried in this century. We have never had so many organizations, we have never worked so hard, but we are not touching the situation.' –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Fight of Faith, Iain Murray, p. 371.