Top 10 tweets

1. “He who upholds all things by the power of his word allowed a manger and a cross to uphold him.” – Scotty Smith

2. “It would be amazing if a God of awesome glory recognized our existence, but to welcome us into his family is grace that’s beyond amazing!” – Paul David Tripp

3. “Simply rehearsing our problems isn’t worshiping God. Recalling God’s character in the midst of them is.” – Bob Kauflin

4. “The world encourages us to get lost in the vast expanse of OURSELVES. The gospel encourages us to get lost in the greatness of GOD.” – Owen Strachan

5. “God’s favor rests on us freely because Jesus took the dis-favor of God fully.” – Scotty Smith

6. “Today you’ll fall once again and you’ll either wallow in the disappointment of self-righteousness or run quickly to the grace of Jesus.” – Paul David Tripp

7. “God’s law reminds me that I’m deeply flawed. God’s gospel reminds me that I’m deeply loved.” – Tullian Tchividjian

8. “When we carry on a love affair with the world, we commit spiritual adultery, placing God in the role of jilted husband.” – Randy Alcorn

9. “Most holy joy-producing paradox: Jesus went humbly to the cross so we can come boldly to his throne.” – Scotty Smith

10. “Corporate worship is designed to give you eyes to see the God of Glory that all the small glories of creation were made to point to.” – Paul David Tripp

Preparing for corporate worship: God became man (2)

The apostle John addressed in some of His writings in the New Testament a major problem for the church. Some false teachers were denying that God actually had become a man. He wrote the following in his second letter, verse 7: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." The apostle had strong words for this teaching: It is that of the antichrist. The Bible tells us something quite different than these false teachers did: Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, fully God and fully man. As the church, we declare both His full deity and His full humanity. We will do so this Sunday as we consider the incarnation of God. We will do it as we read what Scripture tells us about His miraculous conception and birth. We will do it as we sing great songs about Him humbling Himself to come to earth and rescue His people. We will do it as we lift praise and thanksgiving to Him for becoming a man to be our Savior and Lord. We will do it as we listen to the preaching of God's Word from the gospel of Luke. We will do it with the recognition this is not just an alternative view of how to celebrate the season but it is at the center of not just Christianity but of history: God became a human being to save human beings.

Top 10 tweets

1. “Will you build seemingly logical arguments for your righteousness or cast yourself on the mercy of your Savior?” – Paul David Tripp

2. “Don’t confuse the sufficiency of God’s grace w/ the easiness of his ways. The gospel is more about changing us than coddling us.” – Scotty Smith

3. “Reminder to self: People are more important than ideas; ideas more important than time; time more important than things.” – Thabiti Anyabwile

4. “Are you benefitting from the insight-giving, protecting, encouraging, and restoring ministries of the body of Christ?” – Paul David Tripp

5. “If you stick around your church long enough you’ll have opportunity to give, to receive, to repent, and to forgive.” – Kevin DeYoung

6. “It is a serious spiritual deficiency in a church either to have leaders who are untrustworthy, or members incapable of trusting.” – Mark Dever

7. “Faith isn’t a muscle we exercise, it’s an empty hand we extend.” – Scotty Smith

8. “If your purse is not open at the top with tithes and alms of all you earn, God will sooner or later put holes in the bottom.” – John Piper

9. “Legalism isn’t legalistic enough. It makes the law doable, rather than unbearable, thus eliminating the need for Jesus.” – Scotty Smith

10. “There is no telling how much we could do 4 the glory of God & the good of His Church & the nations if we did not care who gets the credit.” – Daniel Akin

The Santa of Christmas and the God of Christmas

This video, which was written by Glen Scriviner, provides a humorous, though profound, look at how human beings can view God as if He were Santa Claus. Its title? "Anti-Santy Ranty."

The Christmas child: Devil-crushing Conqueror

A baby changes everything, as a hit song of a few years ago says.

In the case of the whole world -- and especially the church, one baby changed everything.

Our congregational reading Sunday in corporate worship included some of the purposes God the Son gave for coming to earth as a man: To do His Father's will (John 6:38); to serve and give His life as a ransom (Matt. 20:28), and to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).

In reading I John 3 this morning, I noticed two reasons the apostle gives for God becoming a man:

"You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin" (I John 3:5).

"The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8b).

When we think of Christmas, we think of a newborn who entered the world in the humblest of circumstances, a child who -- like other children -- was fully dependent, especially on a mother, to provide for Him. And we think this way appropriately.

Yet, we should never lose sight of who that baby is and what He came to do. As John says, He entered the world as a sin-bearing-away Savior and a devil-crushing Conqueror. No wonder Satan sought Jesus' destruction while He was still a small child.

In this season in which we think of a baby, may we dwell on and contemplate His sin- and devil-defying purposes that set us free.

Mondays are for music: 'Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven'

Kristyn Getty sings in this video a song her husband, Keith, and she wrote, "Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven." While they wrote it as a children's Christmas carol, it is not just for children.

Top 10 tweets

1. “What’s the difference between the spirit of the age and the Spirit of God? One says live well and the other says die well.” – Kevin DeYoung

2. “Truth without grace is legalism. Grace without truth is deception.” – Randy Alcorn

3. “Self-swindling: you are daily admitting your need for forgiving grace or working to convince yourself that you’re okay.” – Paul David Tripp

4. “Defensiveness is a failure to understand and rest in Christ’s finished work. You don’t need to be right, you need death and resurrection.” – Elyse Fitzpatrick

5. “Even the best things we do have something in them that needs to be pardoned.” – Tullian Tchividjian

6. “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. Ps. 84:2 // sincere worship looks silly to the unengaged spectator.” – Tim Brister

7. “Don’t avoid kids and loving them. Wherever possible, we need kids to call us out of ourselves. They’re like Easter eggs – there’s joy inside.” – Owen Strachan

8. “A soft heart embraces hard truth. But a hard heart won’t endure the softest truth.” – Thabiti Anyabwile

9. “Don’t confuse God’s blessing as his endorsement of the way you’re living.” – Paul David Tripp

10. “‘Count it all joy.’ (James 1:2) The mysterious link between miserable circumstances and a merry heart is in this ‘counting.’” – John Piper