Wow–my favorite bible study software, Logos, now has 35 Video Tutorials for Biblical Language Study available for free to watch on their site. Every week I discover some amazing feature that helps me in my studies using this software. You can also check out the Logos Bible Software Blog.

This from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening for today is a powerful reminder as we daily face the battle.

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”
Matthew 4:1

A holy character does not avert temptation—Jesus was tempted. When Satan tempts us, his sparks fall upon tinder; but in Christ’s case, it was like striking sparks on water; yet the enemy continued his evil work. Now, if the devil goes on striking when there is no result, how much more will he do it when he knows what inflammable stuff our hearts are made of. Though you become greatly sanctified by the Holy Ghost, expect that the great dog of hell will bark at you still. In the haunts of men we expect to be tempted, but even seclusion will not guard us from the same trial. Jesus Christ was led away from human society into the wilderness, and was tempted of the devil. Solitude has its charms and its benefits, and may be useful in checking the lust of the eye and the pride of life; but the devil will follow us into the most lovely retreats. Do not suppose that it is only the worldly-minded who have dreadful thoughts and blasphemous temptations, for even spiritual-minded persons endure the same; and in the holiest position we may suffer the darkest temptation. The utmost consecration of spirit will not insure you against Satanic temptation. Christ was consecrated through and through. It was his meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him: and yet he was tempted! Your hearts may glow with a seraphic flame of love to Jesus, and yet the devil will try to bring you down to Laodicean lukewarmness. If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in war time, we must sleep with helmet and breastplate buckled on, for the arch-deceiver will seize our first unguarded hour to make us his prey. The Lord keep us watchful in all seasons, and give us a final escape from the jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear.

Paul Lamey over at Expository Thoughts summarizes D. A. Carson on Expository Preaching from a 1996 issue of Leadership Journal…

Don’t abandon expository preaching:

1. It is the method least likely to stray from Scripture.
2. It teaches people how to read their Bibles.
3. It gives confidence to the preacher and authorizes the sermon.
4. It meets the need for relevance without letting the clamor for relevance dictate the message.
5. It forces the preacher to handle the tough questions.
6. It enables the preacher to expound systematically the whole counsel of God.

From: Expository Thoughts posts part 1, part 2, part 3.

We celebrated Zachary’s 5th birthday today. The big ‘05′–Happy Birthday Zack!

It’s been a long week. It’s Saturday night. I just finished studying for tomorrow’s services. I’d usually like to be ready before now but an eye problem took me to the doctor today, then I couldn’t get the van started, someone called and wanted to see the truck we’re selling, we had a little birthday party for Zack tonight, then… well you get the idea.

It’s times like this I remind myself why I do this–I love to preach God’s Word–I love being a part of God’s work in preaching His Word to His people. And then there are guys like Al Mohler who shoot straight about what the church really needs that give a good shot in the arm too.

From Al Mohler’s blog…

“Preaching is so important that the preacher must be willing to suffer to advance the proclamation of the Gospel, he said.”Every single Christian pastor ought to be ready and willing at a second’s notice to say, ‘I can put up with virtually anything if I get to preach,’” Mohler said, adding that preachers should rejoice in sufferings when they open the door for preaching opportunities.One difficulty of preaching is that frequently it produces no visible response in the congregation, he said. But preachers should not become frustrated at a lack of visible response because the Word of God often works silently in people’s hearts in ways that are undetectable to the eye, Mohler noted.”The Word of God goes in and does surgery that the hearer does not even immediately recognize is taking place,” he said. “It’s in the mystery of the preaching of the Word of God, accompanied by the Spirit, that the believer is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in the silent, invisible surgery of the soul.”If you want quick results, you’ll be tempted to do something other than preaching. If you want instant gratification, you’ll look at some other form of programming or you’ll get excited about some other dimension of ministry at the expense of preaching. But if you want to build Christ’s church and if you want to see Christ’s people conformed to His image, preaching is the indispensable mark of the church.”

Now that’s encouraging.

I know you all can’t wait to get my pick for Sunday’s Super Bowl. STEELERS it is. Had them picked early in the season–even over the unbeaten Colts. May be just wishful thinking on my part but it seems like its time for the Steelers. We’ll see. No Super Bowl party for us instead of church. But we’ll be recording the game to watch after our evening worship service–it’s better that way–no commercials or half-time show. Came across the Ben Roethlisberger Blog tonight.

For those of you who enjoy computers as I do, you might find this cool Mac Expose clone for the PC interesting–it’s called SmallWindows–it’s still in beta but works pretty well. I’m usually running five or six or ten applications at a time–especially since I just added a gig of ram to my workhorse notebook–so this is a fun tool that makes switching between open windows a breeze–no pun intended. I loaded it up last night and was showing the guys the cool application switching action and I was getting a bunch of oohs and aahs.

And my oldest son, Kevin, pointed me to the ESV Bible Firefox Plugin. If you use Firefox as your web browser–if you don’t you should–the plugin adds the ESV Bible to the list of available searches in the search menu bar.

Pray for me if you think about it this week as I prepare messages for Sunday. We’ll be in Acts 9 in the morning and I’ll be continuing a series on spiritual warfare in the evening. (When you’re preaching on spiritual warfare you definitely don’t cancel the service for a Super Bowl party.)