In your regular reading of God’s Word, are you regularly making it to the cross?

Today, whether you read a few chapters in Leviticus or Luke, Ezekiel or Ephesians, Proverbs or Philippians, you must make it to the cross. If you don’t make it to the cross, if you don’t see the connection between a chapter in Proverbs and what Jesus accomplished on the cross, you’ll miss the whole point of your regular Bible reading. The whole point of reading through your Bible on a regular basis is to begin to see and celebrate that the whole Bible is about the gospel–about the good news of what Jesus has done for you.

Make it to the cross.

Some great thoughts on our Bible reading from Justin Buzzard. Check out the entire post.

Here's some interesting thoughts on the nature of "inception" from the film and Jonathan Edward's work The Freedom of the Will. Read the whole article.

Following this notion then, “inception” is something that is planted in us at a deep level and radically adjusts our inclinations at a level we scarcely fathom. Similar to the inception in Nolan’s film, a Christian concept of regeneration… the effectual calling of God’s Holy Spirit on our will… does not force us to ‘think about elephants’” (as Cobb refers to in the film). It (the gospel) introduces a radical, transforming idea in the mind (and heart). Just like the character of Robert Fischer in the film, who would never DREAM of something so ludicrous as to “split up my entire inheritance”, we – as fallen, sinful humans – do not incline ourselves to God unless such an idea is given to us, (planted, like a seed from a Sower) and  grows inside us, through every facet of our frame, even at the subconscious level.

You may have heard these words in a sermon. Maybe you’ve handed them off to others. Perhaps they’ve rung a spiritual alarm in your heart. They come from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:5:  “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”

This exhortation is often used to motivate careful self-examination–to see if we really believe in Christ, to see if we are actually walking with the Lord, to test if we are genuine disciples or phony hypocrites.

And there is a time for this kind of self-examination. The Sermon on the Mount (the end of chapter 7 especially), the woes on the Pharisees (Matt. 23), and the seven letters of Revelation (Rev. 2-3) come to mind. But self-examination becomes a problem when we don’t believe were allowed to pass the exam. Some Christians turn introspection into annihilation. And some of our heroes don’t always help. There is a strand in some Puritan divines–and I love those dead guys as much as anyone –that so delineates all the sins on our sinny sin sins that we scarcely feel it possible to call ourselves Christian. Pound away with the law, but don’t hammer out the faith.

The thing we often miss with 2 Corinthians 13:5 is that Paul expects the Corinthians to pass the test. He is writing to defend his apostleship, and the chief ground for his defense is the Corinthians themselves. They want proof that Christ is speaking through weak little Paul (v. 3). He offers their lives as proof. The Corinthians ought to test themselves to see whether they are in the faith because Paul knows Jesus Christ is them, so they will not fail the test (v. 5b). Consequently, Paul will not fail their test (v. 6).

So go ahead and encourage one another to examine the heart. Let’s be honest and see if we are in the faith. Let’s test whether or not Christ is in us. But as we put our “in-Christness” to the test let’s not forget it’s okay to give ourselves a passing grade. To God be the glory.

From Kevin DeYoung today. Excellent Stuff.