Category: newsletter

Chicago is in the news with plenty of negative stories, so let’s put a few positive pictures before us. Here are some recent photos from a rooftop lunch our church enjoyed after a recent Sunday morning worship meeting. The park below is where we have been meeting outdoors for worship each week.

Church happenings: The building where our church normally rents space has been closed for coronavirus. When we resumed our Sunday worship services in July, we began meeting outdoors each week in Grant Park, the huge park on the lakefront in downtown Chicago. It has been a great experience. We are giving glory to God in public, being a testimony for him, and as a side effect, we get to enjoy being outside.

Reading:

J. I. Packer, “Rediscovering Holiness”

Thinking:

I am extremely pleased to have written this month about a paradox that has puzzled me for years: What sort of accountability do Christians have on Judgment Day? I have puzzled over that for years.

What’s to puzzle? you might ask.

For one thing, 2 Corinthians 5:10, which says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Paul wrote that to Christians. So it seems to me we have a paradox. Christians are fully forgiven, yet we will “receive what is due” for both good and evil deeds on Judgment Day.

That is what has puzzled me for a long time. So, I finally wrote about it for three posts, beginning with the post about forgiveness on August 10th and continuing the theme on August 24th and 31st. I hope you read them all, because the most important day in your life is Judgment Day. On that Day you want to have as few surprises as possible because on that Day all decisions are final and forever.

Favorite posts over recent months:

• The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
• The Favor of God the Father toward His Divine Son
• Why Jesus Is the Only Way to God

New resource now available: I created a new email course called “How to Recognize the Presence of God.” Share this free resource with people you know by sending this signup link:  https://forms.aweber.com/form/91/817532891.htm

During the corona-virus pandemic, God has protected my health and the health of everyone in my family and church. I thank him for this mercy.

Church happenings: During the lockdown, for two months now we have had a prayer meeting every weeknight on Zoom, which has been a great joy and will be my enduring memory of this time.

Preaching: Over the last several months, I gave a series of ten sermons on Psalm 91.

My favorite posts of the last five months:

• Faith versus Works of the Law: Only faith in Jesus connects us to God’s grace and makes us good enough for God.
• Four Common but Erroneous Views of God’s Love: Does your view of God’s love agree with the Christian gospel?
• The Savior of the World: The Lord has the heart of a savior. He is both mighty to save and willing to save.
• You Need the Atoning Blood of Jesus: Blood is just as essential to spiritual life as it is to physical life.
• The Vindication of the Son of God: The vindication of the Son of God is of ultimate importance to God the Father.

Listen: Do you ever feel as though you are waiting for God to do something, and he is taking a long, long time? I invite you to listen to my reading of one chapter from a book I have written but not yet published. The chapter is titled Tested by Waiting. I welcome your feedback (in the comments below or send me an email).

Scriptures I have memorized and recently meditated on: Psalm 91:1–16. Matthew 17:19–20. Matthew 21:20–22. Mark 11:20–25. Luke 17:5–6

Reading: The Atonement, by Leon Morris. Systematic Theology, by John Frame. Leviticus, by Gordon Wenham.

Blessed New Year to you!

I trust that you are well.

At the start of a new year I have much for which to thank God. Most importantly, I feel as though I walked with God more closely than at any time in my life and that he taught me much about himself and his ways. Writing this blog played an important role in that. Meditating and writing on God’s love for a year has marked me forever. If you’re new to the blog, I urge you to go back and read the posts.

Other all-important themes for knowing God that we have studied have been the holiness of God, and how to practice God’s presence.

The next theme

Next up, we will explore another critical subject that is absolutely essential if we are to understand God and his ways, and that is the gospel. What does the gospel teach us about God? How does the gospel of Jesus Christ distinguish the God of the Bible from every other so-called God and religion?

So, again, the goal in this upcoming theme is to understand the gospel deeply for the purpose of knowing God and his ways better. We will see how this knowledge has enormous implications for everything in the Christianity life, not just for knowing how to be saved.

Blog email provider

On a practical note, at the end of the year I experimented with using a new company as my email provider. I didn’t like the results (some subscribers did not receive my emails) and switched back to the previous company. However, I’m still planning to get another provider. If you don’t receive your email as usual from me on Mondays (switching email providers can cause email services like Gmail to think an email is spam), please send me an email (brian@CraigBrianLarson.com) and let me know that. And check your junk folder.

I’m praying for you and all my readers regularly that God will give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.

Maximum payoff

Suppose that in 2019 you earned a new certification or degree in your field of work. That would help you in great ways, but far greater good would have come to your life if you grew in the knowledge of God. Knowing God correctly results in making better decisions, having more faith, love, and hope, living morally in a way pleasing to God, and experiencing God’s presence, for starters. All the things that matter most flow out of our knowledge of God.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 ESV).

So, as 2020 begins, make it your ultimate goal this year to know and love God better. You will never regret it, and the fruits endure forever!

Much love,

Brian

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

Growing readership

Ninety-eight people have now signed up to receive my free weekly email post. I pray several times each week for these readers. Specifically I ask God to give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him better, especially that we would grow in our knowledge of his love and holiness, and I pray the Lord’s prayer for us.

Favorite posts

I had a hard time selecting my three favorite posts of the period. If you have not been reading regularly since May 7th, try to make time to go back and read all those posts, because they will change your life. The topic of the fatherly love of God is that powerful and important. My favorites:

Your Heavenly Father Cares about Every Aspect of Your Life

The Intimacy of Absolute Trust

The Connection between the Father’s Love and the Children’s Daily Bread

Blog and personal news

You probably noticed I began using a small image of the blog banner’s blue sky and clouds at the end of each article, along with the theme Scripture:

“Thus says the Lord…Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me” Jeremiah 9:23-24

I shot that picture looking out our apartment window a few years ago. Nancy and I have lived here on the 20th floor for over nine years, and we have taken thousands of photos of the sky. There is no end to God’s creativity in the heavens. Below is an amazing photo we took of a storm moving in recently (that horizontal line above the dark clouds is the leading edge of the incoming front, not a window curtain! I’ve never seen anything like it).

On the subject of design, below is my favorite color combination in the lead image of the last two months, which I used in the June 17th post. Even with the minimal changes I make each week in theme images, I enjoy the creativity of combining colors and words. I don’t choose any color that strikes me; rather, I have a palette of about 15 colors along with black, white, and all the shades of gray from which I mix and match. Yes, my favorite color is blue. The background’s dark blue in this image reminds me of the color of the sky at nightfall in summer, which I love beyond description.

Nancy and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on June 22. We did the garden circuit over several days. We enjoyed perfect weather at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We also celebrated by going to the Japanese Garden at Jackson Park and the rose garden of Grant Park. The Lord is good, and my love is a red, red rose.

A few weeks ago my son Aaron and I attended a free rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony. Aaron lives in the same apartment complex as we do and leads worship at our church. He is a man of God who like his father earnestly wants to know the Lord and his ways and thus is a careful, observant, meditative reader of God’s Word. He is blessing to me and all who know him.

In upcoming weeks I have more wonderful topics to explore under the fatherly love of God, so be sure to tune in to upcoming emails.

Vision of knowing God

The effort you put into knowing God better is worth it.

Knowing God as he actually is changes you into a better, more loving person. 1 John 4:7–8 says, “Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Knowing God increases the level of God’s grace and peace in your life. Second Peter 1:2 says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

Keep reading every week and improve your life in every way.