NEVER LET THE GOSPEL GET SMALLER!

The text below is a wonderful gem from well known Baptist preacher John Piper. Well, it blessed me and I agree with it 100% and I want to share it with you:

Never Let the Gospel Get Smaller

Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:
Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.
Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.
The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,
grace gets bigger;
Christ gets greater;
his death gets more wonderful;
his resurrection gets more astonishing;
the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
its global extent gets wider;
your own sin gets uglier;
the devil gets more evil;
the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.
So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.
Pray that it won’t. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

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This text was taken from John Piper's blog: desiringgod.org/blog

LEARNING LIKE A CHILD!

CAN NUMBERS TEACH US SOMETHING?



Or can we learn, as an adult something from the numbers? 1,2,3,4....

This is not an article on bible numerology or numerology treatise, it is just an exercise

to focus our minds on the small things that can make us great. I know that as an adult you have already learned how to count. however, you still need to learn how to count your blessings and your steps towards the goals you settled for your life. I am just trying to give significance to numbers and try to learn something from them.

Let's go to the numbers:

One - This number means that you have just started...

Every thing starts with one, doesn't it? Everything has a beginning, for example, this is the

first day of this site (blog). I had to start with this one. Start everything with what you have!

As Theodore Rosevelth said " DO what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Two - Oh, this one, means You are growing up! Life is lived one step at time. Never try to live your life in rush, otherwise you'll crush! You'll never live your life in one day. Today is hard, but remember, tommorow is another day. The cure for an evil day is the next day...

... Six - You are already far from where you came, but no you're not there yet! There are still mountans to be climbed, valeys to walk through, sun to be exposed to, rain to fall in your head, etc. if you can bear weight you can bear pain and if you can bear pain you can get the payment!

Seven (or any other number) - Life is beginning to make sense now. There will be a time in your life when life as you know it will begin to make sense to you. Then, at this point the pain of your past won't be counted as pain, but as a testimony. As time goes by, pain, difficulties and problems gain another meaning, we give another significance to them. Until this point, life disapointed us, almost broke us apart, we cried times and times again, and we started to think that it was the end, but it wasn't, there are still another numbers ahead...! I had to get a lesson from every difficult moment of my life. If you don't learn with your life, no other master will have success with you. if you learn with the predicaments of life, you won't need many masters!

Ten - Congregatulations! You lived, you survived and you reached your destiny! The pain is gone, the payment is received! You lived your story and God got his glory in the story of your life! If you are a truly son of God, that's how your life's gonna end: in VICTORY! Yes, victory is waiting for you, God is pushing you towards it, your family is counting on it, you must believe in it. You must crave for what devil doesn't want you to achieve and achieve what God has purposed for you beforehand!



God Bless you! This is just the beginning,



Always In Christ,



Pastor Jorge Baptista,Sr.
His faithful servant
+244 923514348
Luanda - Angola