Update on Roxanne at 6:00 Tuesday

Roxanne has had a good afternoon. She walked outside the room with a the help of a walker and got a good, long nap. The doctor said she would need no blood and that everything medically was looking good. At this point, we believe the better odds are we'll go home Thursday. We are waiting for the grandchildren to come tonight for a visit. Yahoo!!

Update on Roxanne Noon Tuesday

Roxanne had lower back fusion surgery yesterday at Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Clinic in Birmingham, Dr. Nichols, surgeon. She went into surgery about 2:00 and got out at 5:15. She made it to her room at 7:45 (which concerned me).

The doctor said he did everything he was hoping to do. The good news was he used her own bone and did not have to make a second incision. The bad news was he said the nerve damage was more severe than he expected - they (the nerves) had taken a real beating over the years. He expects them to recover but it will take time. Also, he expected her left leg (that was the side of the worse nerve damage) to be numb but after surgery it is her right leg that is numb. In fact, about 90% numb with minor feeling in her foot and toes. Again, this should recover but it will take time.

We are very blessed with the pain treatment. They got her last night to where she only had to have two pain pills (no shots) from about 10 pm to 7. She slept very well when they would let her.

They have her up sitting in a chair for the first time. She had to use a walker but with the help of the Lord, pain meds and two therapists, she made it.

The doctor told us this morning it may be Thursday before she goes home.

Thanks for all the prayers, texts, Facebook messages, emails and calls. Your support make us even stronger. Love all

Dr. Johnny Hunt on Easter

My friend, Boyd Bailey, President and Founder of Wisdom Hunters, is doing a three-part interview with Dr. Johnny Hunt, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA on the meaning and message of Easter. Here is part one.

Make Holy Week Holy to the Lord

The week between Palm Sunday and Easter is not intrinsically holy, except that all time is holy, since it belongs to God. But we can make it holy by setting it apart for sacred focus.

John Piper wrote: May I encourage you to do that, for the sake of seeing more of the greatness of Christ. He reveals himself through his word. Take up his word and focus your attention on him in his last hours. Set aside some time this week to fix your gaze steadily on him as he loves you to the uttermost (John 13:1).

The passages in the Gospels that record his final hours are:

• Matthew 26:17-28:20
• Mark 14:21-16:8
• Luke 22:1-24:53
• John 13:1-21:25

You may find that a volcano erupts in your soul. Like it did for me 28 years ago.

Martin Lloyd-Jones on the folly of seeing God as only a God of love

Lloyd-Jones could have been saying this for the 21st Century not the 20th. There really is nothing new under the sun:

“All this modern preaching on the fact that God is love is an indication of the same attitude and spirit. We are told today that the old sermons that preached the law and talked about conviction of sin and called people to repentance were all wrong because they were legalistic . . .So it is said that we must return to the message of Jesus. We must get rid of all our theology, our argumentation and doctrine—it is all unnecessary. The business of preaching is to tell people that God is love. It does not matter what they are, or what they have been, or what they have done, or what they may do—God loves them. Nobody will ever be punished. There is no law; so there is no retribution and no hell . . .

Dignitaries in the church tell us that what we need is a “religionless Christianity.” One of them has written a book in which he says that if you really want to find God, do not go to places of worship. He says that he has found more of God in the brothels and beer parlors of Algeria than he has ever found in a church. Kindness, love for one another—that, we are told, is the message. This is all just a very clever, modern, sophisticated, philosophical way of saying, No repentance!

. . . If you know the message of the Bible at all, you will be in no difficulty about answering this question. Repentance is essential to salvation. There is no salvation without it . . . If you say you need a Savior, it must be because you realize that the life you have been living is wrong and sinful, that it deserves the judgment and punishment of God and of hell . . . the object of that death upon the cross was to reconcile us to God. It is a personal reconciliation. Christ’s death does not just put us right with a law—it puts us right with a person . . . to have this relationship, this communion and fellowship with God, we must be like Him. We see that we must be righteous, for there is no communion between light and darkness—that is impossible, and therefore we must be delivered from all that is wrong and evil. That is repentance . . .

The world needs to be reminded of judgment. This country [England) is becoming lawless—all countries are—and it is no use trying to solve the problem by passing acts of Parliament—you cannot do it . . .you need to change human nature. The trouble is in the human heart, on both sides of industry. Because people have no idea of the judgment of God, they ultimately have no sense of responsibility. Every man is out for himself, trying to get the best for himself . . . The world needs to know that it is rushing in the direction of final judgment. Only the prospect of judgment can sober it and bring it to its senses, and it is the business of the preaching of the Gospel to tell the world that, and not to say that God loves everybody and therefore everybody is going to heaven. Our Lord preached judgment, as we have seen; that is the sole explanation of why He died.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Victorious Christianity, 1st U.S. ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2003), 66-74.

Difference between a believer and non-believer

What is a distinguishing mark of a believer? At our 2009 Pastors Conference Mark Dever gave us a helpful and memorable word:

The difference between a Christian and non-Christian: When a non-Christian is convicted of sin, he sides with his sin. When a Christian is convicted of sin, he sides with God, against himself."

Some misc. quotes

"Jesus loves me" is a great statement as long as the emphasis is on Jesus and not me. His love for me is not due to me, but Him. He is the one and only to receive any praise or glory.

God's love is not just unconditional - but counter-conditional. His love was not just passive (as unconditional might lend us to believe), but it was active. Deuteronomy 7:7 "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;..."

Speaking of churches, Charles Carrin writes, "The chimney is still there but the fire is gone."