Enriched Affections

I love the gift of music. There's just something about the simple melody of a few notes on the piano, or the complex harmonies of an A6 chord played on the guitar. It's a testimony to the sheer infinitude of music that original songs are still being written by thousands of artists around the world, even with millions of songs already out there. For me, music is like journaling. Sometimes I just play the notes to express my feelings or to get something off my chest. Other times I write down lyrics. When something gets journaled often enough it tends to make its way into a new song. Often that song is just a personal something for me to enjoy and hum while I go about my business. Sometimes it'll be good enough to share with my wife. On the rare occasion that it raises her eyebrow, I consider transforming it into a song for others to hear. Over the past five years or so that's happened on a few occasions. A Christmas song here, a song about the resurrection there.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps..."   - Proverbs 16:9 If you are at all like me then you like to plan, to know what's coming next and see things through to the end. However, things don't always turn out that way. Take last night at the Huff house as an example. I headed to bed with my workout bag packed for some pre-work exercise, the coffee timer set for 7am, and my heart set on the way it would be in the morning, my way. At 1am our youngest woke up with a stomach ache which turned into other yucky things at around 2:30am. In the middle of that my wife graciously offered to stay up with her so I could get some rest in the guest room. An hour later our oldest woke up with nightmares which kept her awake until 4:30ish. Needless to say, the 7am coffee got pushed to 7:30, the workout didn't happen, and everyone ended their time in bed feeling more tired than when it began. My way was obviously not God's plan for the morni

Day two of Together for the Gospel was "kids" day as Matt Chandler said. The messages on the Bible from Kevin DeYoung and prayer from David Platt were some of the best I've heard on the subjects, and I've heard a lot of sermons in those areas. Matt Chandler finished up the day encouraging us to take all we've heard and go to the nations with it. To be honest about yesterday, these quotes don't do the messages justice. They were life changing words from God and I would highly recommend listening to them on T4G.org when they become available. On this, the final day of the conference, there is still a ton to take in. To say we have a few heavy hitters left on day three would be an understatement with John Piper, Lig Duncan, and John MacArthur on the schedule. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. Without further adieu, here are some of my favorite quotes & paraphrases from the day: Kevin DeYoung on The Inerrency and Sufficiency of Scripture "

Together for the Gospel 2014 is here at last. This is the third time I've had the privilege of attending, and it has been amazing. From the fellowship to the teaching to the times of worship, it's been a foretaste of heaven with believers from dozens of denominations gathering together, centered around the truths of the gospel (to read the articles of faith for T4G click here ). If you aren't able to be here you can watch the sessions streamed live throughout the day by clicking here . If you have time, I highly recommend tuning in. At events like these I'm tempted to tweet just about every other line from these amazing pastors, but rather than bog down the twitter feed or try to keep up, I'll share a few of my favorites quotes of the day with a bit of their context right here. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy a few snippets. On day one we heard from Mark Dever, Thabiti Anyabwile, and Al Mohler as well as a Pre-Conference from the Council for Biblical Manhood a

I love old hymns. I don't mean old as in 1985. I mean old as in written by candle light, authored by men and women who never knew how much their words would be loved by the church. As I was preparing our worship for this coming Sunday I was hunting through my Trinity Hymnal for a good hymn on prayer. There is a lot to choose from, but not a lot that was familiar. How many hymns on prayer do you know of? Many echo the Psalms or speak of relying on God's sovereign hand. But I was looking for something fresh, at least fresh to me. Finding a fresh old hymn isn't an oxymoron. Just because it's old doesn't mean it can't be new. It's like finding a vintage bottle of wine that's increased its flavor as it was waiting to be discovered on an empty shelf. That's how I felt when I read the words to an old John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) hymn called "Behold the Throne of Grace!". For some reason the words (written in 1779) struck me. However,