day no. 13,584: a year in books, 2015

2015

1.  New Testament, Isaiah -Holy Spirit 

2.  My Utmost for His Highest - Oswald Chambers 

3.  Jesus Storybook Bible - Sally Lloyd-Jones 

4.  Dangerous Journey - John Bunyan 

5.  Dangerous Duty of Delight - John Piper 

6.  A Year w/ Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

7.  The Lost Art of Discipleship - LeRoy Eims 

8.  Date Your Wife - Justin Buzzard 

9.  Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan 

10. Action Bible NT - Sergio Cariello 

11. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis 

12. Death By Love - Mark Driscoll 

13. Future Men - Douglas Wilson 

14. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis 

15. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 

16. The Grace Exchange - Larry Huntsperger 

17. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis 

18. Beowulf - translated by Douglas Wilson 

19. Isaiah:God Saves Sinners (Preaching the Word) - Ray Ortlund, Jr. 

20. Crazy Busy - Kevin Deyoung 

21. When You Rise Up - R.C. Sproul, Jr.

day no. 13,555: the passive and active wrath of God

REV 9:6 the passive wrath of God grants people their wish to be left alone; the active wrath of God denies them their wish to be left alone.

— Todd Van Voorst (@toddvanvoorst) December 3, 2015

day no. 13,535: Thy Mercy, My God (unabridged)

We choose hymns for each of our kids and sing a verse before bedtime.  "Thy Mercy, My God": is the hymn we picked for Rocco.  It reminds me of Romans 12:1 where Paul turns the corner from orthodoxy to orthopraxy, from the light of the Gospel to living in light of the Gospel.  In this verse, Paul says, "Therefore, in view of God's mercies..."  He uses the phrase "in view of God's mercies" as a summary statement of the entire Gospel he has spent the 11 prior chapters detailing with theological precision.  Therefore, "God's mercies" can be used as a way of referring to the entirety of the Gospel. This song speaks to the glorious joy and gratitude of a heart saved by grace through faith in Christ alone to the glory of God alone!

The author: John Stocker, of Honitan, Devonshire. Contributed during 1776 and 1777 nine hymns to "Gospel Magazine" Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1908 

1 Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song, 
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue; 
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last, 
Hath won my affections and bound my soul fast. 

2 Without thy free mercy I could not live here 
Sin soon would reduce me to utter despair; 
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive, 
And He that first made me, still keeps me alive. 

3 Thy mercy surpasses the sin of my heart 
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart, 
Dissolved by thy goodness, I fall to the ground 
And weep to the praise of the mercy I found. 

4 The door of Thy mercy stands open all day 
To the needy and poor, who knock by the way; 
No sinner shall ever be empty sent back, 
Who comes seeking mercy for Jesus' dear sake. 

5 Thy mercy in Jesus exempts me from hell; 
Its glories I'll sing, and its wonders I'll tell: 
'Twas Jesus the friend when He hung on the tree 
That opened the channel of mercy for me. 

6 Great Father of mercies, thy goodness I own, 
And covenant love of thy crucified Son: 
All praise to the Spirit, whose action divine 
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.

day no. 13,534: ten years in the making

10 years ago today I nervously attempted to hide a bowl and washcloth in Paige's dorm room at Wartburg College. I didn't want her to catch a glimpse or a whiff of what was to come later that evening.  I got my James Bond on and she didn't see the supplies until I exited the bathroom later that evening with them prepped and ready to go.  She sat down on her dorm room futon and I sat down at her feet, bucket, water and washcloth in tow. I washed her feet and asked her if she would do me the honor of being my girlfriend and committing herself to me and the prospect of seeing if perhaps God would bless our budding love all the way to the altar. She said, "Yes!" and 10 years later we sit here in our living room with 5 little kids calling us mom and dad. 8 years of marriage and a budding legacy that began 10 years ago today on a dorm room floor in Waverly, IA. 

day no. 13,526: rocksteady

tonight at 10:38pm Rocco Henry Warfield Van Voorst was born and transferred from womb to room. weighing in at 9lbs 10.9oz and towering over other lesser babies at 22 inches, he is a rockstar! 

i love this little man.  

i have no idea who exactly he looks like yet, but newborns always kind of look like they've recently participated in a fight club.  

what a stud little buddy. i'm very excited to get to know him and to tell him about Jesus and to introduce him to his brothers and sisters who will most certainly love him with all their little van voorst hearts.

welcome to our circus little man.  we're working without a net and we may have a bunch of clowns crammed into a van, but it's entertaining and the popcorn is overflowing.

day no. 13,523: character witness

My faithful dead friend Oswald Chambers reminded me of this today:

"Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life. Much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him — “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” — this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible."

day no. 13,522: 181,882 days ago this very day

Happy Reformation Day!


498 years ago today Martin Luther nailed 95 theses beginning with...

1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent" (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. ~ Martin Luther

He changed the way we think about repenting which is fitting since the word repent means change your mind, agree with God NOT do penance.


Feast your eyes upon this article published today by R.C. Sproul.

Here's the closing remark:

In the final analysis, the Roman Catholic Church affirmed at Trent and continues to affirm now that the basis by which God will declare a person just or unjust is found in one’s “inherent righteousness.” If righteousness does not inhere in the person, that person at worst goes to hell and at best (if any impurities remain in his life) goes to purgatory for a time that may extend to millions of years. In bold contrast to that, the biblical and Protestant view of justification is that the sole grounds of our justification is the righteousness of Christ, which righteousness is imputed to the believer, so that the moment a person has authentic faith in Christ, all that is necessary for salvation becomes theirs by virtue of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. The fundamental issue is this: is the basis by which I am justified a righteousness that is my own? Or is it a righteousness that is, as Luther said, “an alien righteousness,” a righteousness that is extra nos, apart from us—the righteousness of another, namely, the righteousness of Christ? From the sixteenth century to the present, Rome has always taught that justification is based upon faith, on Christ, and on grace. The difference, however, is that Rome continues to deny that justification is based on Christ alone, received by faith alone, and given by grace alone. The difference between these two positions is the difference between salvation and its opposite. There is no greater issue facing a person who is alienated from a righteous God.

At the moment the Roman Catholic Church condemned the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, she denied the gospel and ceased to be a legitimate church, regardless of all the rest of her affirmations of Christian orthodoxy. To embrace her as an authentic church while she continues to repudiate the biblical doctrine of salvation is a fatal attribution. We’re living in a time where theological conflict is considered politically incorrect, but to declare peace when there is no peace is to betray the heart and soul of the gospel.