The Immanuel Principal

Throughout the biblical record of God's administration of the covenant, a single phrase recurs as the summation of the covenant relationship: "I shall be your God, and you shall be my people." The constant repetition of this phrase or its equivalent indicates the unity of God's covenant. This phrase may be designated as the "Immanuel principal" of the covenant. The heart of the covenant is the declaration that "God is with us."

O Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants

Living and Trading Above

“As birds that light upon the ground to pick up a little seed, immediately fly up to heaven again; so the redeemed of the Lord use the world, and take the lawful comforts of it, but their hearts are presently off these things, and they ascend to heaven. They live here, and trade above.”
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity IV.8

All Things are Yours... Including Death

ALL THINGS ARE YOURS, INCLUDING DEATH

“Neither death nor life… will able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). In fact, not only can death not separate us from the love of God, it is, along with every other hardship, a gospel gift. Listen to the way Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23. “Let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas of the world or life or death or the present of the future- all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” All things are yours- including death! Death is included in the treasure chest of gifts from God through the gospel. So in one text Paul says that we are “more than conquerors” in death. And in another text Paul says that all things are ours, including death. I take him to mean that because of the truths of Romans 8:28 and 8:32 God takes every hardship and makes it serve us, including death. Death is “ours”- our servant. The fact that we are “more than conquerors” means that death doesn’t just lie dead at our feet after the battle- it is taken captive and made to serve us.
And how does death serve us? How does the blood-bought servitude of death bless the children of God? Paul answers, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21) Why is dying gain? He answers two verses later: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Being with Christ after death is “far better” than staying on earth. That is why we are more than conquerors when death seems to triumph. It becomes a door to better fellowship with Christ.

-John Piper, God is the Gospel pp125-126

Stolen Moments in Autumn... the Kleins

A video I made of the Klein life we live shot on my new digital harenizumi.

enjoy.