We were made to know.

When you think about it, do you know God for who He really is?  We were created to know and Glorify Him forever.  This isn’t a “knowing” that is just surface level, it’s not a knowing that is an acquaintance.  This knowing is so much more than that.  It’s a knowing of awe, admiration, wonder and an intimacy with Him.  You might ask then “How do I truly know Him?”  Well I’m going to try and give 3 practical way to do this.

1. Pray– Prayer is talking with God, by doing this you will come to truly know God for who He is.  We were given the ability to do this by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, we don’t need anyone to talk to God for us, we can go straight to Him.  Just like when you talk to your friends now, you get to know more and more about them by talking to them.  So do the same thing with your Heavenly Father.
2. Read His Word– He gave the Bible to us to read and learn more about Him.  Every page is filled with who He is and what He has done.  I really encourage you to read through the whole Bible in a year to see how God is working in the Old Testament to the New Testament as one complete story.  There are many plans that people have set up to help you accomplish this goal.  The ESV has one where you read the OT once, the Psalms twice, and the NT twice, in a year, check that out here.  Also there are other great resources that can help you understand the storyline of the Old and New Testament together, one would be God’s Big Pictureby Vaughan Roberts.  I would highly recommend The Message of the Old Testament together with The Message of the New Testament by Mark Dever.
3. Study the Attributes – Studying the attributes of God is a great way to get to know Him.  How can you do this?  You can pick up many books written about the attributes of God but I’ll suggest a couple: The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink, Knowing God by J.I. Packer.  Or just pick up a good Systematic Theology and look under The Doctrine of God section.  The men that have written these books have one thing in mind and that is for you to know God.

I hope that if you find yourself wondering who God is that you will make and effort to Pray, Read His Word, and Study His Attributes so you can know Him more.  Yes we cannot fully comprehend who God is nor will we ever be able, but don’t you want to know Him as much as your mind can comprehend now?  I do and I pray that you do too.

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Praying for Your Pastor

Since Bro. Matt so kindly sent the church links to this website I thought I would repost about something I see as very important praying for you pastor! 

Justin Taylor blogger of Between Two Worlds put up an excellent, and what I see as a very important post about praying for your pastors.  I hope many will commit to praying often for their pastors.  It reminds me of hearing Tom Nelson talking about the revivals of church history and I can’t remember what he said verbatim, but he said basically that prayer doesn’t start revivals, if people are praying then a revival has started.  I think this is true, I know personally I don’t pray enough, and I don’t think others pray either.  I pray that others and I will, by God’s grace, begin to pray more frequently, in detail, watch the results, and praise God for all we see.

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Check these out. (if your not busy)

You’re an Expository Preacher? Ohhh!  Bro. Matt Perry begins posting on reason why pastors should preach expostionally.  Has interesting story starting it off, then leads into 10 reasons to preach expositionally.

After Bro. Matt has convinced you that expository preaching is necassary you can find out how one goes about this.  Pastor Steve Weaver has a series on how he prepares and preaches an expository sermon here.

 West Coast Revival is a band that formed out of a Soveriegn Grace Church in california.  I have two of their songs on my I-Tunes and they are good.  After reading an interview from the New Attitude blog I am definetly thinking about picking up their new full length album that is out.  I would keep an eye out for this band, it seem they are going to continue to produce some Biblically sound music.  Check out the interview here and their website here.

Justin Taylor gives an update on Dr. Mohler here.  Continue to pray for Dr. Mohler

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Praying for Your Pastor

Since Bro. Matt so kindly sent the church links to this website I thought I would repost about something I see as very important praying for you pastor! 

Justin Taylor blogger of Between Two Worlds put up an excellent, and what I see as a very important post about praying for your pastors.  I hope many will commit to praying often for their pastors.  It reminds me of hearing Tom Nelson talking about the revivals of church history and I can’t remember what he said verbatim, but he said basically that prayer doesn’t start revivals, if people are praying then a revival has started.  I think this is true, I know personally I don’t pray enough, and I don’t think others pray either.  I pray that others and I will, by God’s grace, begin to pray more frequently, in detail, watch the results, and praise God for all we see.

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What to Pray for (John Piper)

If you are like me, you find that from time to time your prayer life needs a jolt out of the rut it has fallen into. We tend to use the same phrases over and over. We tend to default to worn out phrases (like the word default). We fall into patterns of mindless repetition.

The devil hates prayer. Our own flesh does not naturally love it. Therefore, it does not come full-born and complete and passionate from the womb of our heart. It takes ever renewed discipline….

read the rest here

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