I've not been blogging here much lately, but there's still plenty to read in the archives. Every so often I bundle together similar posts into a single post, which I periodically update as I write newer related posts. (For a list of all such bundled posts, please click on my tag, "series links.")  Today I've bundled together various posts I've written for and/or are related to Father's Day...

• Happy Father's Day/Bible Reading-I Kings 1: Fatherly Discipline

• the Father's Valentine

• Happy Father's Day: "Only the child cries, 'Abba, Father'"

• Dealing with sins & guilt: Godly guilt leads us to declare spiritual bankruptcy & run home

• God's people ought to be welcoming "Hookers & Robbers"

• every day ought to be our Father's day

• Letter 24 on assurance and fighting for joy (the Father's discipline)

• Reflections on my Dad on his 107th birthday* (Letter 33 on assurance & fighting for joy)

• Shall we not drink the cup the Father has given us? (Letter 53 on assurance & fighting for joy)

• our Father's discipline, William Cowper on trials & sufferings (letter 61 on assurance & joy)

• "A Father at the Helm"

• Holy Father, it grieves me . . . (Father's Day reflections on husbands & fathers)

• sin's cold deception, my Father's warm reception

• The Father's Inheritance (Eleven days' journey ~ A lamentation & an exhortation)

• Father's Day ~ William Carey & his son | duty, risk & the obedient Son

• Fear not, little flock (Luke 12:32) | letter 123 on assurance & fighting for joy

• "The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance

• Are you really Mine?

• A Father's Charge (Reuben, Reuben! My Firstborn Son) – Genesis 49:3-4

• All Saints' Day: "Man, if I could be anything, baby, I'd be a saint!" (Lecrae)

• Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love

• "What an awful place is the christian's closet! The whole Trinity is about it every time he kneels." (Edward Dorr Griffin's prayers for his daughters)

• Prodigal son, my dear seed, How for thy soul shall I plead?

• Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer

• "There are many in the church that never had a kid" ~ John Elias

• Our fathers prevailed with God in prayer ~ turn the heart of the fathers to us! (Malachi 4:5-6)

I John 4:12  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

13  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17  By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19  We love because he first loved us. 20  If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show;
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.
(Bernard of Clairvaux)

---

Work found at http://www.artbible.info/art/large/370.html / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Every so often I bundle together weblinks to related posts into a single post (please see my tags "series links"). And today is an opportune time to do that for my posts on Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones for March 1 marks the 31st anniversary of his entrance into the glory everlasting.

The Doctor, as he was known, has had a huge influence on me. That's really an understatement. Last year on this date, in my post Lloyd-Jones 30 years later ~ Thank you, Dr. Lloyd-Jones for preparing the way, I made some attempt to explain some of the impact he's had on my thinking and on my life, as well as to give thanks and praise to God for His servant.

Christians are commanded to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2), and if we're putting garbage into our minds, what do we expect to get out?! Garbage in, garbage out! How can we expect to be transformed in our minds and conformed into the image of Christ? We need to be immersing ourselves not only in the Word of God, but also putting ourselves under good, sound Biblical preaching and teaching, for God has appointed pastors and teachers to edify and equip the saints, so we might be mature and complete, rooted and grounded in the truth and not rocked and tossed about by every wind of doctrine, so we might do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:7-16). Each and every Christian is responsible to present himself as a worker approved to God who does not need to ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (II Tim. 2:14ff). There are many, many wolves who have come in among the flock; we need to be ever vigilant and continue to gird up the loins of our minds!

Earlier this week, the Martyn-Lloyd Jones Recording Trust released a new video which provides a sort of mini-biography about the Doctor.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Doctor (and for those who are), here are some posts I've written about his life:

And here are some posts which will give you a little taste of ML-J's preaching and teaching – and hopefully whet your appetite for more  . . . not only of ML-J's preaching, but most importantly for knowing and experiencing more of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I also posted these blogs on the characteristics of false and true religion, which are based on ML-J's series of sermons on the book of Acts (this was the last series he preached before his retirement in 1968):

ML-J had an enormous hunger for and knowledge of history and church history. Because of reading and listening to his sermons, I've begun to become better acquainted with church history and the many wonderful hymns and the great cloud of witnesses, some I had little familiarity with and others I'd never heard of, including William Williams, Henry Scougal and W.H. Hewitson. I'd encourage you to peruse through my posts on Christian biography for much of that love of Christian biography has sprung from Lloyd-Jones (as well as John Piper).

ML-J challenged me to examine my life in many, many areas, and he continues to do so (though dead, yet he speaks through the printed & recorded word!). This examination came to me in particular with regard to my understanding of Biblical joy. I remember reading one of Lloyd-Jones' books several years ago (I think it was his part of his series of sermons on John 17, but I've not been able to track down the exact portion), and I became really, really angry as I read it, for in that sermon, the Doctor gave the challenge that all Christians ought to know and experience the joy of the Lord, and though we can be Christians and not have that sense, if we've not gotten to that point, we are a living at a very low level of Christianity and we are a poor witness to the world. Of course, I'd heard and read that before in his sermons, and of course, in the Bible itself, but at that time I bristled at those words, and I tried to make excuses of all sorts. I was just like the Israelites. I was limiting and provoking the Holy One of Israel, and I had that evil heart of unbelief. However, God's mercies pursued me, and the Holy Spirit began to show me that joy was a possibility for me, not because of anything in me, but because I was a child of God and joy is a gift God wants to give to all His children. That's one reason I continue writing about assurance and fighting for joy – for it is my strong desire that all the saints begin to see and embrace the "glorious possibilities" of the Christian life. I know that I can't make you see those possibilities, but what I can do is to put those possibilities before you as I write, and then to pray that the Holy Spirit might open your eyes and hearts to them, as He has begun to do for me. (I'd encourage you to read my 18th letter on assurance and fighting for joy (my testimony of joy).)


Here are a few posts that show how Dr. Lloyd-Jones was used by the Lord to begin to show me what God had already been working in my heart in regard to my grief over the current state of the church and giving me a desire to pray for revival...

UPDATED (2/12/2013): Thanks to the MLJ Trust (http://www.mljtrust.org/), you can download over 1600 of Dr. Lloyd-Jones' sermons here:
http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/. You can also "Meet Dr. Lloyd-Jones" by reading more here:  http://www.mljtrust.org/meet-mlj/.

Each week the MLJ Trust posts a new audio sermon of Dr. Lloyd-Jones at Living Grace with Martyn Lloyd-Jones. This year they began posting full sermons from his Ephesians series from 1954.

Six sermons from the Doctor's series on "Revival," as well as many other sermons are available here at sermonindex.net.

John Piper's biographical message on ML-J: "A Passion for Christ-exalting Power"

God willing, I hope to add to this list periodically, and I'm sure I missed some posts here and there, but I hope and pray these might be of some help to you as you seek to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

~ Karen