Fallen Babylon

I'm preaching from Revelation 14 tomorrow on God's sovereignty.
Verse 8: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."

Here are the words to the song in the video.

Hail the day so long expected,

Hail the year of full release.

Zion’s walls are now erected,

And her watchmen publish peace.

Through our Shiloh’s wide dominion,

Hear the trumpet loudly roar,

Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Blow the trumpet in Mount Zion,

Christ shall come a second time;

Ruling with a rod of iron

All who now as foes combine.

Babel’s garments we’ve rejected,

And our fellowship is o’er,

Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Destructive Culture War // Accepted apart from Obedience // Content in the Breaking

David Bahnsen mulls over how the culture war has changed after Kavanaugh.


Paul Tripp reminds us that being accepted by God and striving to obey Him are two very different things.


Toby Sumpter preaches an excellent sermon on contentment in the God who breaks and reshapes you.  It gets going at the 15 or 17 minute mark.

Lost in the Middle

Lost in the Middle: Mid-Life Crisis and the Grace of God by Paul David Tripp

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Paul Tripp is consistently on the mark in diagnosing the sinful condition of the heart, whatever stage of life or topic he addresses. Lost in the Middle does not disappoint. Tripp accurately describes the mid-life problem: a heart fixed on idols that have disappointed you leaves you dissatisfied with and disinterested in life if you don’t re-orient your heart away from the things you crave on earth and back to the Lord. We start excavating our past and are disappointed to find the career or relationship or identity we invested ourselves in for years has not satisfied as we had hoped.

Tripp takes a long time to say it, though. This is the only downside to the book. The stories are often useful for the reader to identify himself as “lost in the middle.” So I don’t begrudge the use or amount of stories. It’s an inherent part of the problem to not realize what is happening to you – that you are lost. So stories of real people suffering a mid-life crisis really help. But the book could have been much shorter and still gotten the point across, it seems. Still, the content of Tripp’s books involved necessary soul searching, which in turn requires slowing down and a meditative, ambling mood. So going over a theme a few times doesn’t hurt. “To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you” (Philippians 3:1).

Highly recommended reading for anyone aged about 35-45.
I give this book a rare 5 stars, because it was immensely helpful to me, personally.



View all my reviews

Trouble sleeping? // Re-Orienting Prayer // Trump

Paul Tripp takes a common symptom of deeper trouble - insomnia - and goes deeper toward repentance and faith in the Lord.

Ben Merkle gave a great talk on prayer a bit ago to a post-college audience.  This is well worth the time to listen.


Doug Wilson distinguishes between the PR on Trump and what he is actually getting done, all while many on the right cry about it.

Savoring Scripture // Tell God's Story

I've been listening to the Kirker's Read podcast, connected to this Bible reading challenge.

Two episodes really grabbed me:

1. Francis Foucachon, a French church planter and chef, talks about reading the Bible in the context of cooking and eating.

2. Nate Wilson urges us to know God's story in the Bible so you can place yourself in it rightly.  This leads to faith, self-sacrifice, courage, rejecting passive fatherhood, manipulative relationships, etc.

Too Much for You

1 Kings 19:1-8

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

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God sets this table of grace for us in the presence of our enemies.  Elijah had Jezebel to contend with.  We have plenty adversaries in the world, our flesh, and the devil to discourage us.  Elijah was discouraged to the point of asking God to take His life.  The journey is too much for you, the angel tells him.  God has designed our path such that we will need to rely on Him.  He teaches us plenty of lessons of working hard and self-discipline in life.  But He doesn’t want you learning to rely on those things to make it.  He gives us food and drink from Him, and we will die without it.  Jesus is the living bread come down from heaven to us.  He is living water – without Him you will die.  Come receive Jesus.  Let God feed you Jesus.  And go in the strength of that food further on your way, and to the mountain of God.

9/30/18

Give It Up

Exodus 32:1-8 - the Golden Calf

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” 6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ”

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It’s been said, when you have gov’t of the people, by the people and for the people, it can be hard to avoid having religion, of the people, by the people, for the people.  This is what Aaron dealt with and caved in to, in making a golden calf.  They didn’t want to wait for Moses any longer.  They wanted a god they could see and touch and use to indulge their sensual appetites.  When it says they rose up to play in verse 7, that isn’t innocent playground time, it means messing around sexually.

Aaron gave them what they wanted and slapped God’s name on the whole blasphemous charade.

We need to confess: we try to keep our sinful desires and indulge them, all while wanting to worship God and name His name.  We don’t fight back against our desires for other gods – we give in and try to have it both ways.  On Mount Carmel, Elijah told Israel: “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”  And do you remember what the people said?  Nothing. 

I plead with you today, from the Word of God, give up your sin.  It will keep you from God.

Let us confess our sins to God.

9/30/18