Armen Thomassian

A 2 minute section from a devotional I brought at the @SermonAudio HQ on the campus of @BJUedu this morning. Text: 2 Cor. 5:15, “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

@NWBingham @Ligonier All the very best, @NWBingham. Stay in the shadow of the shepherd and He will take care of the rest.

After fourteen years at @Ligonier and more than 1,000 episodes of Renewing Your Mind, I’m stepping into a new season. I’m deeply grateful for the people, the places, the conversations, and the many evidences of the Lord’s kindness along the way. It has been a privilege to serve, to learn, and to help carry forward a teaching ministry that has meant so much to me and to so many. God used @RCSproul in countless lives, and I will always be grateful that I had the opportunity to serve alongside him. I’m looking forward to a brief season of rest with my family and am hopeful for what is ahead. I would value your prayers as I seek the Lord’s direction for this next chapter. Grace and peace.

It is a wonderful thing to know that your sins are forgiven, fully, completely, entirely, absolutely, definitively, and everlastingly.

Young man, you can be afraid. You can be timid. You can feel your inadequacy and the challenge and the weight of the call of God—but if God is in it, obey.

@dalepartridge @haymes_joshua @calvinrobinson Would that Christianity be closer to Trent or Westminster?

Working on a plan to Christianize America with two of the best: @haymes_joshua and @calvinrobinson

Spurgeon on preachers: “There is nowadays, much preaching, but how is it often done? The preacher says, “O Lord, help Your servant to preach, and teach him by Your Spirit what to say!” Then out comes the manuscript, and he reads it!”

Your aim isn’t to be someone else. Your aim is to figure out what the King has asked you to do. Have you figured that out yet?

Sin, to the full extent of its destructive implications and effects, has been conquered by Christ. The miracle of miracles is that God can take an unholy man who by his very nature cannot escape that unholiness, and so change that man, that he becomes holy. The gospel makes the unholy holy. Not that we are already sinless, but that sin is no longer our master and will not be our end.

There is an uncomfortable and inconvenient truth behind the @ThomasSowell quote, “Activism is a way for useless people to feel important.”

I don’t know what your eschatology is, but if it leads you to not live in the victory of Christ’s work, then it’s doing you harm. And it’s wrong. Or at least what you’re concluding from it is wrong.

The fall of an empire can be seen in small epochs. This thought struck me as I stood waiting in line at @Walmart last night. It was 8pm on a Monday evening. It wasn’t busy. Yet I stood for over 10 minutes with one item waiting for a self-checkout kiosk. I said to myself, “This is how @amazon wins.” Incompetence, indifference, and inefficiency will invite Amazon to gobble whatever remains of the legacy stores.

@Raindropsmedia1 See below.

Woman is going viral after claiming that people have been wearing fur hoods incorrectly by not folding them inward.

She’s wrong. If you own an actual coyote fur-lined hood, the fur will create a vacuum in front of your face, protecting it from the chill of the wind. If you have a cheap synthetic version—like the one in the video—then yes, tucking it in will likely do more good. But that’s not the reason why fur has lined hoods for years.

Stop living your life ignoring the gift that God has given to you. You have a gift. Don’t waste your life ignoring the gift. Get a hold of what it is and then put it at His disposal and say, Lord, however you want me to use this, here I am. What wilt thou have me to do?

@AKofiCup Brother, I’m not sure this fits with the dignity of the pastoral office. And no, I’m not even talking about the garment itself—though I think it is an unnecessary distraction. I mean the effort to wear it to make a point. Just my two cents.

I rarely, if ever, give any forethought to what I'll wear to church on Sunday. I'm making an exception for this Sunday, though. Outlandishly bad, egregious and weird. According to some.

@SJBGardner I'm not sure. My immediate thought is the association with criminals. But it could also have the idea of ‘the unevangelized heathen in a distant land far from the means of grace.’ I prefer the former, though my Australian friends might take exception that 😄

@ArmenThomassian No, but what does he mean by Australian? Aboriginal? Criminal? Or just someone born there?

Is this racist? When the young Scottish pastor, Robert Murray McCheyne, sought to describe his unworthiness before God, he said: “I was no more fit for his service than the Australian, and no more worthy to be called and chosen.”

If He were only perfect man, then His death could not save us. If He was God without our nature, then He could never die for our sins. It is in this unique arrangement, planned in eternity past, in which God takes on our nature and stands in the position as our Mediator—it is only through that that the problem of sin can be dealt with and sinners can be reconciled to God.

Remember, you can’t correct the whole church; neither can I. But you can correct your heart. If we all take responsibility for what is ours—our own heart—then we can get to the place where we say, collectively, The King of glory, please come in. And He will.

@SJBGardner That's somewhat personal. Take note of what ministers to you and learn to sing it to yourself.

@ArmenThomassian What hymns would you suggest?

Young man, how will you win against the intrusion of evil thoughts? 1. Diligently guard the eye and the ear from all that corrupts. The affections cannot be pure if the gates to your heart are constantly supplied with that which fuels sin. 2. Learn to apply an immediate and forceful substitution of Scripture. Do not merely fight the thought, but counter it with the Word of God and heavenly meditations. Additionally, you may sing an appropriate hymn that signals battle against temptation. 3. Commit to lawful work and wise rest habits. Idleness invites temptation and the will weakens when tired.

Jesus Christ is not merely enthroned; He is engaged in the ongoing welfare of His people—ever living to make intercession for them. His endless life is exercised to intercede for His people.