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I want to recommend Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung. My time was certainly well spent reading the 128 pages of this book. The Spirit used these words to quickly convict me on how I am not as careful with my time as I need to be. It's filled with practical changes to make us better stewards of the time God has given us. I especially enjoyed the last chapter on Mary and Martha from Luke 10. Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book. In this first quote the author confesses that he too has the problem of being too busy.

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A morning news show listed most popular New Year's Resolutions for 2015. Exercise, lose weight, and spend less time on digital devices made the list. Nothing inherently wrong with those. But these from the pen of Jonathan Edwards are better and richer:

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As a new year begins I am mindful that I learned many things in 2014... some of them were painful and some of them were joyful and some of them were embarrassing and some of them were helpful. I learned a bunch of stuff last year. I am glad for most of it and some of it I wish I never knew. But I guess everything in my life comes from a sovereign God and is for my good so I must have needed it all. So here are some of my lessons...

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'Tis the season for resolutions. A brother in the church with me recently sent me this very practical blog post from Tim Challies concerning making resolutions that stick. I commend it to you:

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Two days of wishing to die.

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Last Sunday we as a church body found ourselves in Genesis 3. We are asking the question, "Why did Jesus come?" And the answer from Genesis 3:15 was "Because of the Promise and Plan of God."

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I am a waterfowler. I enjoy seeing ducks swim. I like hearing the whistle of the wind under their cupped wings. I am often struck by the beauty of a flock of Canada Geese in their familiar V-formation. More times than I can count, I have nearly run off the road while gawking at a field full of feeding geese. And I enjoy hunting ducks and geese, and enjoying them later as table fare.

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You and I have an enemy within us. Our flesh fights against us and leads us into sin. We must kill it! This book can help. The Christian life is about becoming more like Jesus Christ everyday. Jesus was perfect, righteous and holy. He never sinned. We on the other hand sin often. The Christian life is a an ongoing battle against sin. We put off the old and put on the new. Christian maturity is about the process of putting sin to death and striving for holiness. The war will last the rest of our earthly days, but we are not fighting it alone. We have been given the Spirit of God Himself. He is at work within us. He is also given us a weapon for the fight which is the Word of God. Sadly many Christians neglect the power and weapon that is available to them. Probably the most helpful writing on the topic was penned about 300 years ago by John Owen. His works Indwelling Sin, The Mortification of Sin and Treatise on Temptation have become Christian classics. They are a very challenging read and have been recently combined and updated into more modern English under the title Overcoming Sin and Temptation. Owen's writings are a boot camp that will prepare you to fight sin. To make this treasure of wisdom even more accessible an author has done a modern rewriting and abbreviation of Owen's books. The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin by Kris Lundgaard is a little book that I believe every Christian should read. It is filled with practical ways to gain victory over the sin that so easily entangles us. I have read this short book many times and keep coming back to it because I have found it extremely helpful in my own fight against sin and is a practical guide to introduce others to the raging battle. It is an easy read, but it is about a difficult fight. I want to strongly encourage you to prayerfully read through this book. Better yet, find someone to read it with. Look up every scripture referenced and think deeply on the implications of each text. It will do you good. The following are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

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As a preacher, my bread and butter is verse-by-verse, or passage-by-passage exposition of the Scriptures. This normally means preaching through Books of the Bible. The advantages of this kind of expository preaching ministry are manifold, and have been expounded upon by men far more qualified to speak to the subject than me. For my purposes here, just suffice it to say I do not do as well in the pulpit when trying to come up with topical sermon series.

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With more and more violent persecutions being committed against Americans and Christians by Islamic militants (not to mention Hindu radicals or North Korean atheists), we western Christians are being forced to deal with matters we'd prefer to ignore or not think of often.

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