Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Mon, Feb 1, 2010
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Includes articles by Peter Lundell, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, and Steven L. Childers.

Articles In This Issue

Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Daniel Henderson
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Anguishing Prayer

In Daniel 9:1-19, we find a powerful, passionate prayer offered by Daniel on behalf of the people of Israel. The 70 years of captivity were about to end, and the Jews would have the opportunity to return to Jerusalem. Daniel worshiped, confessed the sins of his people, and anguished over their spiritual condition. He was more concerned with what would happen in their hearts than he was their newfound freedom to return home. Daniel's prayer is a model for all of us. It is an example of the great need for spiritual anguish in our prayers. As we ...

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Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Mack Tomlinson
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Spiritual Reading

I received an excellent question from a dear friend of mine concerning what is the best approach for reading good books. Here are his questions and then my reply: "Dear Mack, You've been reading good books for a long time now. If you could go back and do all of your reading over again, would you do anything different? Read different books? More books? Fewer books? More books by the same author? Take better notes? Forget taking notes? I think you get the gist of my questions." My Reply Reading! What a gift, what a discipline, what a benefit ...

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Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Bob Thune
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Living Missionally

What exactly does it mean to live missionally? Does it mean moving into a disadvantaged neighborhood to work for renewal? Does it mean living in the same zip code as the people we are trying to reach so we can truly be a missional community? Does it mean deepening already existing relationships with co-workers? Does it mean deliberately changing my patterns of life to bring me into contact with non-Christians "on their turf"? Tim Keller helps to answer this question by observing that the standard pattern of evangelism in the New Testament centered around the oikos (Greek for household). But ...

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Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Jonathan Edwards
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Biblical Signs of a Work of God

I will now show positively what are the sure, distinguishing scriptural evidences and marks of a work of the Spirit of God. By these marks we may judge any operation we find in ourselves or see among people without danger of being misled. In this I shall confine myself wholly to those marks that are given us by the apostle John in the fourth chapter of his first epistle. 1. Jesus Is Exalted When the operation raises people's esteem of Jesus, it is a sure sign that it is from the Spirit of God. This work of the Spirit ...

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Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
John Owen
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

The Glory of Christ

The first glorious thing we learn about the person of Christ is that he is the perfect revelation of the Father, for we behold "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6 NKJV). He is "the image of God" (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4) and "the brightness of [the Father's] glory and the express image of His person" (Heb. 1:3). He alone perfectly reveals God's nature and will to us. Without Christ we would have known nothing truly about God, for he would have been eternally invisible to us ...

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Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Steven L. Childers
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

True Spirituality: Repentance and Faith

There is a lot of confusion today about repentance. Many people see repentance as morbid self-flagellation, leading the repenter into despair. Repentance is seen as a kind of evangelical penance reserved only for those special times when you've been really bad and need to humble yourself before God. This view of repentance reflects how so few Christians today seem to have grasped the first of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, which he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg church, giving birth to the Protestant Reformation. In the first thesis, Luther writes, "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ ...

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Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
John Armstrong
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Knowing Jesus = Engaging the World

There is much talk in our day about "knowing" the Lord. A great deal of it seems quite hollow. It seems to have become a form of religious jargon at times. We instinctively know something is wrong, but we're not quite sure why. If I know and love Jesus, then my life must be profoundly centered in two realities. First, I have encountered Jesus in the gospel in a personal way. He is "my Lord and my God" (John 20:28). Second, because of this divine encounter with God, I now follow Jesus daily: "If anyone wishes to come ...

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Article
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Bill Elliff
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Heartcry Journal - Issue 48

Personal Meditations on Powerful Texts

"Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him" (Genesis 7:5 NASB). The power to save lives eternally rests in God alone. He is the sole Savior. But those of us who recognize His complete grace often fail to understand the power of our obedience in the salvation of others. As God goes about His work of delivering men and women, He "figures in" human choices. Noah "did." How a single additional word ("Noah did not") would have changed history! But Noah did. And, he did fully ("according to all"). His obedience was complete. What if he ...

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