Eyes Well Rubbed

George Whitefield: What Think Ye of Christ?

2010-12-23T00:34:00.000-05:00

Some, and I fear a multitude which no man can easily number, there are among us, who call themselves Christians, and yet seldom or never seriously think of Jesus Christ at all. They can think of their shops and their farms, their plays, their balls, their assemblies, and horse races (entertainments which tend to exclude religion out of the world); but as for Christ, the Author and Finisher of faith, the Lord who has bought poor sinners with his precious blood, and who is the only thing worth thinking of, alas! he is not in all, or at most in very few of their thoughts. But believe me, O you earthly, sensual, carnally minded professors, however little you may think of Christ now, or however industriously you may strive to keep him out of your thoughts, by pursuing the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, yet there is a time coming, when you will wish you had thought of Christ more and of your profits and pleasures less. For the charmed, the polite, the rich also must die as well as others, and leave their pomps and vanities and all their wealth behind them. And oh! what thoughts will you entertain concerning Jesus Christ that hour?

–from What Think Ye of Christ?, a sermon by George Whitefield on Matthew 22:42

Who Jesus is matters, especially at Christmas.

2010-12-17T10:12:00.005-05:00

What you believe matters. Especially what you believe about the person and work of Jesus. There are many world-views today that portray Jesus in different manners. He is thought of as: a prophet, a nice man, a good teacher, a moral example, a crazed apocalyptic, a god among many, one who never existed, a promised Messiah, the Son of God, and many other ideas.

There are an infinite amount of questions can ask in this life. But as I think, there may be none more important one can ask and correctly answer than who Jesus is. I'm not saying that if you intellectually answer as Peter did that Jesus is, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." That you'll have an intellectual assent into the Kingdom of God. But to claim the same thing as Peter, but understand what that means differently is fatal. Who Jesus is matters, it really does.

This question of who is Jesus has been one of the largest subjects of discussion in Church History, and the debate hasn't stopped yet.

The Apostle John wrote:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. - 1 John 4:1-6

John was serious about the person of Christ. He says that those that don't confess the true incarnation of Christ is of the Spirit of the Antichrist. (This might be really important to think about this time of year as we focus on the incarnation. Being Xmas and all. Especially when Xtians get mad at people who don't know Jesus or corporations don't allow or force their employees to talk about Christmas. Confession of the incarnation is serious business. And for Xtians, living out the incarnation is serious business. We should be in celebration of the coming of Christ for more than that time of year we support mass idolatry and yell at people for not celebrating the coming of the one who can set us free from our idols. Jesus cried out for those who didn't confess him as Lord, he didn't make websites to protest them. He share the gospel not s sarcastic "Merry CHRISTmas." Living out the incarnation is as important as how we confess it.) So how you confess Jesus and who he is shows if you're of him or of the Antichrist. The person and work of Christ are of uttermost importance.

In the 5th century the church came together at Chalcedon an discussed the person and work of Jesus to combat heresy and to define orthodoxy from the Scriptures. It has been a standard for Christian orthodoxy.

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

Those things matter. They still do, because they're still biblical, still orthodox, and still in need of being preached/taught/adhered in our churches. There implications are huge. They define orthodox Christianity from other groups that claim to be Christian but don't believe in the Christ of the Scriptures like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Modalists, and other forms of Arianism that so often creep into the church.

The words of John Stott speak heresy in the church today:

What should the contemporary church do with heretics? Is that a harsh word? I think not. A humble and reverent probing into the mystery of the incarnation is the essence of true christological scholarship. But attempted reconstructions that effectively destroy that which is supposed to be being reconstructed is christological heresy Let me defend my question further. It is based on three convictions: there is such a thing as heresy, that is, a deviation from fundamental, revealed truth; heresy 'troubles' the church, while truth edifies it, and therefore if we love the truth and the church we cannot fold our arms and do nothing. The purity of the church (ethical and doctrinal) is as much a proper Christian quest as its unity. Indeed we should be seeking its unity and purity simultaneously I do not myself think a heresy trial is the right way to approach this. Heretics are slippery creatures. They tend to use orthodox language to clothe their heterodox views. Besides, in our age of easy tolerance, the arraigned heretic becomes in the public mind first the innocent victim of bigoted persecutors, then a martyr, and then a hero or saint. But there are other ways to proceed. The New Testament authors are concerned not so much about false brethren as about false teachers, who act like wolves and scatter or destroy Christ's flock ... Is it too much to hope and pray that some bishop sometime will have the courage to withdraw his licence from a presbyter who denies the incarnation? This would not be an infringement of civil or academic liberty. A man may believe, say, and write what he pleases in the country and the university. But in the church it is reasonable and right to expect all accredited teachers to teach the faith that the church in its official formularies confesses and that (incidentally) they have themselves promised to uphold.

--From 'Is the Incarnation a Myth?' "Christianity Today" (4 November 1977).

Test the Spirits. This time of year you'll hear a lot of teaching of the coming of the Christ child. It may all measure up to the testimony of Scripture, or it may not. Weigh things against the Scriptures to see how they hold up. Ponder teaching to see if it has gospel implications. There are more important things to worry about than if the clerk at the local supermarket says "Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas." Have you pondered if all the teaching you've heard about Christ is true? Christmas should lead us to worship and thats what these teachings do. They don't just give us a stack of theological factoids to throw out when we go to a Christmas party with the pastor. They're to lead us in adoration before Christ who is the creator and sustainer of all things who humbled himself becoming tabernacled in human flesh to live among us, having a perfect life, going to the cross, dying, making propitiation for the sin of all who would ever believe, and raise triumphant over sin, death, and law on the third day. This is what studying Christology should do.

As you celebrate the incarnation this Christmas. Remember its importance matters everyday. Study the Scriptures, encourage your pastors to teach on the person and work of Christ, test the Spirits to see who is of Christ, hold to truth, and strive by means of the Spirit to live like the one whose birth we celebrate.

Is Your Theology Good News?

2010-12-12T09:26:00.000-05:00

In one sense the whole Bible is gospel, for its fundamental purpose is to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to proclaim the good news of a new life to those who come to him. Now if the Bible (which is God's Word through men's words) is gospel, then all theologies (which are human formulations of biblical truth) must be framed as gospel also. Too much contemporary theology fails at this point. It is incommunicable. But any theology which cannot be communicated as gospel is of minimal value. For one thing, the task of formulating truth is fruitless if, once formulated, it cannot then be more readily communicated. If it cannot, why bother to formulate it? For another, Jesus taught that only those who pass on to others the truth they have received will receive any more. 'Take heed what you hear,' he warned, 'the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you'(Mk.4:24).

--John Stott, From "Culture and the Bible" (Downers Grove: IVP, 1981), p. 38.

Mark Driscoll - Two Choices, one of them is Jesus.

2010-12-09T11:45:00.006-05:00

Stott on being a wise and resourceful theologian

2010-12-08T10:50:00.003-05:00

I love this quote I was sent this morning from John Stott. I had a conversation on a radio show chat room this past Sunday night with some fundamentalists and an Atheist. This quote brings me back to that conversation and I'm sure you can imagine why.

The fact that God has revealed himself in Christ and in Scripture does not rule out intellectual exploration. The theologian is no more inhibited from theological research because God has revealed himself in Scripture than the scientist is inhibited from scientific research because God has revealed himself in nature. Both are limited to the data (which, to oversimplify, are nature on the one hand, Scripture on the other), but within the limits that the data themselves impose, the Creator encourages us to use our minds freely and creatively. If, therefore, by the myth of God incarnate were meant the mystery of the incarnation, we would have no quarrel with the concept. The church has always acknowledged that the incarnation is a mystery beyond the full comprehension of human minds. A humble, reverent exploration of what God has revealed of himself in Christ is the essence of true christological scholarship.

--From 'Truth, Heresy and Discipline in the Church', "Christianity Today" (10 March 1978).

Reflecting on the Righteousness of Christ

2010-12-07T12:01:00.000-05:00

Over the past month or so I've been reading a lot of Paul's letters. I've been reading other parts of the Scriptures too. Over the past few Sundays I've heard sermons from Philippians. I'm going through a devotional in Romans with my lovely girlfriend. Along with this, I'm apart of a Bible study that has been going through Colossians. In all my Pauline reading over and over you see the same thought. You need righteousness that isn't your own.

I'm at all these different places in the different letters. In Colossians we're only on chapter one verse six and we've been studying for a month now. In Philippians I just jumped in with the church in the middle of chapter three. I've made my way to the third chapter of Romans today in the devotional I'm going through. In all these studies, I find I need Jesus. I've read all these letters countless times before. Yet the truth of the gospel remains afresh with every reading. But what stands so prominent now is the righteousness of Christ.

When you come to Philippians 3, you find a man who by the worlds standards has every reason in the world to boast. He once was of the most elite family background, was a political and religious leader of a nation, and had affiliation the best and greatest. Religiously he had all the reason to boast and was extremely pious in his own eyes and in the eyes of the people. Yet he says of all his boasting in the the flesh

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. - Philippians 3:8-11

All that Paul could have considered righteousness he considers worthless in light of what true righteousness is. Paul's ultimate goal and striving in life is to be like Christ. Paul knows we need the perfect sacrifice of Christ the make us right before the one true living God. When all is said in done, its the work of Christ and his righteousness that matter most in life. All of our piety outside of Christ is blasphemy at best. Our strivings to worship apart from Christ isn't worship at all. We need the perfect sacrifice of Christ for an aroma to rise before Almighty God, and by his perfect aroma the Father sees Christ and we stand before the throne justified in the righteousness of Christ. This is worth abandoning all and following. In the gospel of Christ is a treasure worth having. There is nothing more beautiful. It is what allows us to take all that we can boast in that is in and of ourselves and say 'worthless' apart from knowing Jesus.

The pastor this past Sunday said, "Without the righteousness of God, we are completely undone."

What a truth! Praise be to God because of Christ Jesus that we can approach God in confidence because of his perfect sacrifice on our behalf. And praise be that his righteousness doesn't just preform a justifying work, but that it causes continual transformation for those whose identity is Christ.

May we take heed to Dr. James M. Boice as he reflected on Romans 2:23:

"If you have been trusting in anything other than Jesus Christ and his death on the cross in your place, throw whatever it is completely out of your mind. Abandon it. Stamp on it. Grind it down. Dust off the place where it lay. Then turn to Jesus Christ alone and trust him only."

Hallelujah, All I have is Christ.
Hallelujah, Jesus is my life.

Stott on Christ in the Old Testament

2010-11-23T09:32:00.000-05:00

The Old Testament is a book of hope, of unfulfilled expectation. From beginning to end it looks forward to Christ. Its many promises through Abraham, Moses and the prophets find their fulfilment in Christ. Its law, with its unbending demands, was man's 'custodian until Christ came', keeping him confined and under restraint, even in bondage, until Christ should set him free (Gal. 3:23 - 4:7). Its sacrificial system, teaching day after day that without the shedding of blood there could be no forgiveness, prefigured the unique bloodshedding of the Lamb of God. Its kings, for all their imperfections, foreshadowed the Messiah's perfect reign of righteousness and peace. And its prophecies are all focused upon him. Thus Jesus Christ is the seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent's head, the posterity of Abraham through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed, the star that would come forth out of Jacob and the sceptre that would rise out of Israel. Jesus Christ is also the priest after the order of Melchizedek, the king of David's line, the servant of the Lord God who would suffer and die for the sins of the people, the Son of God who would inherit the nations, and the Son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven, to whom would be given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him for ever. Directly or indirectly Jesus Christ is the grand theme of the Old Testament. Consequently he was able to interpret to his disciples 'in all the scriptures the things concerning himself' (Lk. 24:27).

- John Stott

Stott on Jesus and the Old Testament

2010-10-22T06:41:00.002-05:00

It was the consistent teaching of Jesus that Old Testament Scripture was God's Word bearing witness to him. For example, he said, 'Abraham rejoiced... to see my day' (Jn. 8:56). Or in John 5:46 he says, 'Moses... wrote of me', and again, 'the scriptures ... bear witness to me' (verse 39). At the beginning of his ministry, when he went to worship in the synagogue at Nazareth, you will remember, he read from Isaiah 61 about the Messiah's mission and message of liberation, and added: 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing' (Lk. 4:21). In other words, 'If you want to know whom the prophet was writing about, he was writing about me.' Jesus continued to say this kind of thing throughout his ministry. Even after the resurrection he had not changed his mind, for 'he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself' (Lk. 24:27). Thus from the beginning to the end of his ministry Jesus declared that the whole prophetic testimony of the Old Testament, in all its rich diversity, converged upon him. 'The scriptures ... bear witness to me.' - John Stott

Makes you wanna read through the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings doesn't it? Take a reading, you'll find Christ.

Christian Ignorance isn't bliss...

2010-10-19T12:29:00.004-05:00

Christian ignorance isn't bliss, it is dangerous and a travesty.

"Christians, think!" - R.C. Sproul

The church is in need of many things today. One of these things the church needs today is to think. The church is full of theologians. In fact every member of Christ's catholic church is a theologian. The problem is that many, if not most, of these theologians are poor ones. The task of the theologian is the understand God and himself. This requires much study, reading, reflection, meditation, and prayer. Sadly few Christians think. Bereans are few in the pew today. The Lord has given us his word to teach us who he is and who we are.

We're told to entrust our souls to our shepherds and rightly so. But I think we would be wise to be as Bereans to search the Scriptures along with those shepherds who pour themselves out over the text in study. We're called to love God with all that we are including our minds. We're not called to love God with someone else's mind on our behalf. Many Christians today don't devote themselves to the study of scripture and theology. When confronted with other worldviews and theologies many Christians are left with "I've always been taught" or "my pastor says/" What they've always been taught may be true and their pastor may be preaching truth. (I pray this is the case in our churches) but there must be some reason behind why they've been taught such things. Christians, think! Search the Scriptures. Reason through the text. Buy some books. Meditate on the Scriptures instead of reading them just to read them. A touch and go reading of the text won't develop a deep understanding of who God is and the intricacies of your soul.

Many evangelical Christians would say that God's word is his revelation to humanity. But few can say they've even read the entirety of the Canon. If God is speaking, we would be wise to listen with a honed ear.

Michael Horton in his book Putting Amazing Back into Grace : An Introduction to Reformed Theology says:

The Church was not the Pope or the magisteriuam (the Church's teaching body), said the Reformers, but all Christians gathered together led, to be sure, by the official teachers and pastors. Doctors (theologians) were desperately needed, but every Christian was responsible to understand the Bible's doctrines. The whole Church was to study the Scriptures, learn them, and come to conclusions about the Bible's basic teachings, and the people, clergy and laity were to do these things together, as the body of Christ. Of course, the laity were not to use the Bible as a wax nose to be shaped by private, subjective opinion, which Sola Scriptura has come to mean in some circles today; rather, it meant that all believers had the right and responsibility to read, understand, and obey God's Word--with the rest of the Church (though certainly not without it). While this idea created enormous freedom for the individual to approach God's Word directly, the Reformers insisted that it would not work unless the average Christian was taught enough about its teachings to "rightly divide the Word of truth." In other words, when it came to faith and practice, God wrote the book.

It was the Reformers who brought back the doctrine of the priesthood of believers to the church. They taught and rightfully so that all Christians are given the Spirit of God and the revelation of Scripture and are to study it for right doctrine and right living.

Horton rightly notes that the Reformers taught that the people should be educated on how to "rightly divide the word of truth." Pastors/Preachers/Teachers teach your people to rightly divide the word of truth. It is the job of the Overseers to study the Scriptures and proclaim them to their people. It is also their job to teach them to do the same. Paul was diligent to pray and teach the Ephesians that they would "grow in grace" and "not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine." I'm so thankful for the resurgence of pastors/preachers/teachers that are pouring themselves into the Scriptures and teaching the entire counsel of God to their people and teaching their people to study it so. It is my prayer that more and more of the clergy and the laity of the local church would begin to think about hard things, wrestle with the Scriptures, to know why they believe what they believe, and to fully rely on the Spirit of God to direct them in these things.

Pastors: teach the whole counsel of God. Teach your people to how to study the word of God on their own. Teach verse by verse exposition during worship times and in the class room. When you teach the bible, give your people additional resources to study. Have the whole church on the same page. Encourage them to dive deeper into the Scriptures. Give them resources on how to study the Scriptures. Teach a class on hermeneutics. Do Old Testament and New Testament Survey classes in your church. Bring in bible teachers for your people to sit under. Pray for your people that they might understand God's word! Be in the Scriptures yourself, if you're not it'll show.

Church goer: Study the word. Ask your pastor for resources. Ask them for classes on how to study the bible. If they are in place, take them! Buy books (Good books, ask for good books, there is a lot of garbage and things that will waste your time out there today.) Pray, a lot. Meditate on the Scriptures. Talk with your family about the Scriptures. Sunday after church at lunch, spend time thinking/talking about the sermon. Ask questions, if you don't ask, you won't find out.

Looking for somethings to read and help you study?

Get a good study bible. I'd recommend these:

ESV Study Bible

John MacArthur Study Bible

Reformation Study Bible

Books you should read:

The Reason for God - Tim Keller

Desiring God - John Piper

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Handy resources for theological and biblical studies:

Evangelical Dictionary of Theology

Bible Doctrines - Wayne Grudem

Doctrine: What Every Christian Should Believe - Mark Driscoll and Geary Breshears

Calvin's Commentaries (Some of the most valuable volumes I own)

These are just a start. If you'd like my recommendations for other subjects let me know, I'd love to help.

Jury Duty

2010-10-05T21:16:00.002-05:00

This morning for some odd reason I wanted to listen to the O.C. Supertones. They aren't one of my favorite bands. I used to like them back in middle school and early high school. But I always enjoyed the song, Jury Duty. That would be one of the songs I decided to listen to this morning. As I began to think about it I must confess I felt quite convicted. I'd become the guy in the song. I'd become the guy who has a crappy day and doesn't take the time to thank God for his grace and mercy and that day he's given me. Instead I wallow around in my own self pity and complain. My mind begins to think in ways I can complain with 140 characters to the world on Twitter. But everyday is good! Everyone is a gift from the Lord and his grace is demonstrated in every breath I take.

Take a listen. The video is a little odd, yet nifty. Someone invested a lot of time in it.

5 am on tuesday
Why am I up so early
Drive out to santa ana ’cause I’ve got jury duty
No breakfast short tempered
And I cut my head shaving
Ten miles out I hit traffic
Some days just aren’t worth saving

You know I haven’t had the best of days
But I want to stop and thank you anyway

At the courthouse I waited
And waited then I waited
At lunchtime my car stalled out
I couldn’t get it started
Had a book by c.s. lewis
I finished the last page and
Slept on my desk for three hours
Just like my high school days

'Cause every single moment whether sleeping or awake
Is your creation
And what you’ve made is good
I don’t always thank you for the rough days and
The hard times in my life
Even though I should

Got home and decided I’d be in a bad mood
My shy and quiet wife said she didn’t like my attitude
Got a call from my mother
Forgot my sister’s birthday
I’m a lousy older brother safe to say I’ve had a bad day

'Cause every single moment whether sleeping or awake
Is your creation
And what you’ve made is good
I don’t always thank you for the rough days and
The hard times in my life
Even though I should

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! - Psalm 118:28-29

Waffle House Theologians

2010-09-16T19:24:00.001-05:00

Several good friends and I often gather at the Waffle House and sit around eating chicken biscuits and drinking coffee while discussing life. Often times we have theological discussions about what we've been reading in the Scriptures and in other books. We've put together a blog where we can all post. You should check it out!

http://wafflehousetheology.wordpress.com/

Not What My Hands Have Done

2010-08-30T09:30:00.002-05:00

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

- Horatius Bonar

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:1-10

Free water and the free offer of the Gospel

2010-08-17T20:46:00.004-05:00

Me: "Would you like a free bottle of ice cold water?"

Vacationer: "No thanks! I don't have any money." or "How much is the water?" or "Wait, free?" "Free? What'd you do to it?" "Why free?"

Vacationer: (Either walking away) or "Sure, can I get one?"

Me: "Absolutely! Its free its a gift to you from Kure Beach First Baptist."

That little dialog, if you can call it one, is one that would happen nearly everyday this summer as I was at the beach. We used bottles of waters as tools to try to start up gospel centered conversations. They work as a great tool. They often started gospel centered conversations. But as I offered out free bottles of the water on my little stretch of sand at Kure Beach I would often get responses like the ones I wrote earlier. People would constantly petition they couldn't buy our free water because of a lack of money.

Mind you we always told people the water was free. As we often got this response from our free offer of water I began to think of the gospel. (Of course I'd try to think of the gospel as I was using the water as a tool to try to share the gospel.) The work of the gospel through Christ Jesus in the life of sinners is a free offer. Its work remains a free gift that is given by God alone to sinners undeserving.

I'm sure many of you reading this are familiar with Romans 6:23 "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sin=death. We've all got that problem. Sin that is. It separates us from God. It means death, physical and spiritual entered the world because of it. (You can go back and read Romans 5, Paul talks all about it) Sin=death. We've all done it. We all deserve death.

Good news: the verse doesn't stop there. The bible doesn't stop at Genesis 3 with the fall of man because of the sin of Adam. The story continues. God promises redemption for fallen humanity. Before hand he gives mankind his law, which none of us are able to keep. (Read all of Romans 6 and 7 for more on that.) The only person able to keep the law of God is God. So God comes to earth and dwells among us in human flesh through his son Jesus. Jesus is God's plan for the redemption of mankind. Jesus in human flesh lives a perfect sinless life. He has a short ministry on Earth of about three years. In this time he reveals himself as the son of God and preaches the gospel that he came to seek and save that which was lost. He comes to lay down his life for his sheep. There is the good news: the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The work of Jesus in the gospel: his dying and taking the wrath of God upon himself and atoning for sins, is the free gift of God.

Jesus work is a free gift. To get eternal life, to obtain salvation, to be able to be restored to God and be set free from sin and death one needs one thing: Jesus.

You don't need Jesus+anything to be saved. You don't need to take anything away from Jesus. You just need Jesus and his atoning work on the cross. Paul is pretty clear that its his work and his work alone that saves. For the sake of the length of this post I won't go through all of Paul's letter to the Galatians. If you've read Galatians you know Paul's struggle with the Galatians who were submitting themselves to those of the "Circumcision Party." These were Jews that were saying to be saved one must have Christ and the Law or Christ and circumcision. He immediately scorns the Galatians for leaving the gospel and following their teachings.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit to a yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1

Jesus, the one who brings the free gift of God, came to set the captives free. He came to set us free from sin, law, and death.

I don't know of any Christians today who claim one must be circumcised to obtain life eternal with God. But so many today try to add things to the gospel. So many think salvation is found in doing good works, going to church, giving money, getting baptized, reading the bible, or serving in the church. All of these things are great things and I think we should all do them, but out of duty which is delight. We think the gift of the water isn't free. We don't listen to the one who has offered it to us who says come and rest all you who are weary. We don't go to drink of the water of life and feast on the bread of life which are offered freely to all who believe.

Charles Spurgeon tells a story:

A man who had been for some time a certain place of worship had embraced the idea--and a very natural one too--that he was saved because he had been baptized. He had been to one of those churches where they teach little children to repeat something like this: "In my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." "Now," said he, very simply and very plainly, according to what that catechism teaches (and a gross delusion it is), "I am saved because I have been baptized; that has made me a child of God"

The good elder who sought to instruct him more soundly and scripturally could find no metaphor that would suit his intellect better than to take a black inkwell and show it to him. "Now," said the mature Christian, "I will wash it." Having washed the outside of the ebony, ink-filled bottle, he invited the man to drink out of it because it was clean. "No," said the man, "it is black, all black; it is not clean just because you washed the outside." "Oh," came the elder's reply, "so it is with you; all that those drops of water could do, all that your baptism could do for you, was to wash the outside; but that does not make you clean, for the filth is all within.

He would continue saying:

The work of the covenant of grace is not to wash the outside, not to cleanse the flesh, not to impose rites and ceremonies and the laying on of hands. Instead, it is to wash the inside, to purge the heart, to clean the inner being, to renew the soul. This is the only salvation that will ever enable a man to enter heaven. You may right now renounce all your outward vices, and I hope you will. You may go and practice all of the church rites and ceremonies, and if they are scriptural, I wish you would. However, they will do nothing for you, nothing whatever to enable you to enter heaven, if you miss one other essential thing--that is, obtaining the covenant blessing of the renewed nature, which can only be received as a gift of God through Jesus Christ and as the result of a simple faith in Him who died upon the tree.

So I would ask you reader today, where is your hope? Is it in the free gift of the gospel? Or do you doubt the saving blood of the Savior? His sacrifice is enough? Have you never trusted in the work of the cross? The gift is free. It is the only thing that saves. If you are in Christ, trust in him alone. There is nothing we can add to the work of Christ. We must trust in the free gift of God. We need not blaspheme the cross by trying to deny its cleansing power. May we flee to Christ as our only hope and only salvation.

Shai Linne Atonement Q and A

2010-07-30T11:31:00.001-05:00

Stott on Substitutionary Atonement

2010-07-15T08:35:00.001-05:00

We strongly reject, therefore, every explanation of the death of Christ which does not have at its centre the principle of 'satisfaction through substitution', indeed divine self-satisfaction through divine self-substitution. The cross was not a commercial bargain with the devil, let alone one which tricked and trapped him; nor an exact equivalent, a *quid pro quo* to satisfy a code of honour or technical point of law; nor a compulsory submission by God to some moral authority above him from which he could not otherwise escape; nor a punishment of a meek Christ by a harsh and punitive Father; nor a procurement of salvation by a loving Christ from a mean and reluctant Father; nor an action of the Father which bypassed Christ as Mediator. Instead, the righteous, loving Father humbled himself to become in and through his only Son flesh, sin and a curse for us, in order to redeem us without compromising his own character. The theological words 'satisfaction' and 'substitution' need to be carefully defined and safeguarded, but they cannot in any circumstances be given up.

- John R.W. Stott

Stott on the Cross of Christ

2010-07-12T06:21:00.000-05:00

Consider Christ. 'The death he died he died to sin, once for all' (Rom. 6: 1 0). What does this mean? It can mean only one thing; that Christ died to sin in the sense that he bore sin's penalty. He died for our sins, bearing them in his own innocent and sacred person. He took upon himself our sins and their just reward. The death that Jesus died was the wages of sin - our sin. He met its claim, he paid its penalty, he accepted its reward, and he did it 'once', once and for all. As a result sin has no more claim or demand on him. So he was raised from the dead to prove the satisfactoriness of his sin-bearing, and he now lives for ever to God. If this is the sense in which Christ died to sin, it is equally the sense in which we, by union with Christ, have died to sin. We have died to sin in the sense that in Christ we have borne its penalty. Consequently our old life has finished; a new life has begun.

- John R.W. Stott

The Religious Affections and the SBC

2010-06-28T14:59:00.003-05:00

I must admit I'd love to quote more of Edwards than I think this post will allow. I'd love to post more than I know most of the few readers of my blog would want to read. So I would just recommend picking up a copy of his Religious Affections to read for yourself. I'm not finished reading it. I'm not even close. But I think the preface alone is worth the price of the book. If you don't want to buy it you can read it here for free. I can't help but find myself meditating on the words of this book. It isn't a quick read. Nor do I think it should be. It is worth taking the time to pour over slowly to treasure the truths of the this Puritan mind. As I've been reading I've been taking notes in the margin of my Yale edition. (If you're gonna buy it and read it you might want to get this edition, it has wider margins than the Banner of Truth edition.) I cannot help but take notes. I've found myself taking so many notes that I don't really need a bookmark because every page I've read looks like I've bled all over it with blue ink.

As I've been reading through the Affections I have been reading it through the several lenses I often and almost always wear. I have been reading it with the lens of Scripture. I wish I knew the Scriptures the way Edwards did. Every page of the Affections is saturated with Scripture. But what I do know of the Scriptures I try to weigh whatever it is a I read against it. I want to discern what I read if it's biblical or not.

The second lens I've been reading the Affections through and really everything I read is a lens of Reformed soteriology. Call it a Calvinistic lens if you'd like.

The third lens I often look through but not always is a Southern Baptist lens. I'm a Southern Baptist. I attend a Southern Baptist college. I attend a Southern Baptist Church when I'm at school and home. I serve at a Southern Baptist church right now as a missionary. My convention isn't perfect. It has its faults. But I think God is using the Southern Baptist Convention. He is by no means dependent on it for the fulfillment of bringing his bride from all nations to his son. But I think he is using it to do so. I have a love for my convention and those who are in it. I want to see a lot of things in the convention change. I want us to realize our purpose is to exist for the glory of God and to spread the message of the Supremacy of Christ to all nations including the one the SBC is located in.

With those lenses in mind and particular the SBC lens I'd like to look at a few things Edwards says in his preface to the Religious Affections.

It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ, all along hitherto. It is by this means, principally, that he has prevailed against all revivings of religion, that ever have been since the first founding of the Christian church.

With all the recent talk and discussion of the Great Commission Resurgence during the last year and at this years convention along with the Conservative Resurgence of the 80's and 90's there have been a lot of things change for our convention. Things for the good. These events are: one that took place and one we are on the precipice of that can be a time of revival for the SBC. The Conservative Resurgence took a convention that was headed toward Spiritual Death by denying truth. The Word of God and the gospel of Christ Jesus were forsaken in large part in our seminaries and colleges with massive repercussions in the local church that even my generation will not cease to see the lasting effects of. With that Resurgence things began to turn around in our seminaries by returning to the belief in the supreme authority of the Scriptures in the Christian life. Things haven't been the same since for the SBC. Our seminaries are producing more pastors, teachers, missionaries, and educated laymen than ever that are being grounded in the word of God. I'd say this is a work of revival to return to the foundation of our faith in the gospel as it is revealed in the Scriptures.

Now we find ourselves on the edge of what can be a great thing for our convention with the Great Commission Resurgence. I think we would be wise to take note from Edwards as Southern Baptist. We stand on the edge of a Resurgence that seeks to make the SBC about the gospel and spreading the Supremacy of Christ to the nations by revamping our convention to make it more efficient, better stewards of what God has given us, and keeping the vision of the Kingdom of God at the forefront of our sight at all times. (This is my prayer for the SBC and the effects of the GCR)

As the SBC looks to the future may our visions be an Edwardsian God entranced vision of all things. Though I fear if we are not careful and do not seek to have a God entranced vision of all things we shall quickly fall into Satan's snares and wicked devices that seek to destroy the church of God. Our affections as a convention and individuals must have Christ always in mind. Our inclinations and drawings must be toward things of the Kingdom. We must realize our home is in the New Jerusalem not Nashville. But all the while Nashville must work together with Richmond and Alpharetta to keep the New Jerusalem in mind. May our heart long for the Kingdom to come and hearts break for those who aren't yet bound for the promised land. May our hearts break for the Nations for the sake of the name of our Lord and Savior. We need Christ centered affections.

Back to Edwards:

It is ever likely to be in the church, whenever religion revives remarkably, till we have learned well to distinguish between true and false religion, between saving affections and experiences, and those manifold fair shows, and glistering appearances, by which they are counterfeited; the consequences of which, when they are not distinguished, are often inexpressibly dreadful. By this means, the devil gratifies himself, by bringing it to pass, that that should be offered to God, by multitudes, under a notion of a pleasing acceptable service to him, that is indeed above all things abominable to him.

By this means he deceives great multitudes about the state of their souls; making them think they are something, when they are nothing; and so eternally undoes them; and not only so, but establishes many in a strong confidence of their eminent holiness, who are in God's sight some of the vilest of hypocrites. By this means, he many ways damps and wounds religion in the hearts of the saints, obscures and deforms it by corrupt mixtures, causes their religious affections woefully to degenerate, and sometimes, for a considerable time, to be like the manna that bred worms and stank; and dreadfully ensnares and confounds the minds of others of the saints and brings them into great difficulties and temptation, and entangles them in a wilderness, out of which they can by no means extricate themselves.

By this means, Satan mightily encourages the hearts of open enemies of religion, and strengthens their hands, and fills them with weapons, and makes strong their fortresses; when, at the same time, religion and the church of God lie exposed to them, as a city without walls. By this means, he brings it to pass, that men work wickedness under a notion of doing God service, and so sin without restraint, yea with earnest forwardness and zeal, any with all their might.

By this means he brings in even the friends of religion, insensibly to themselves, to do the work of enemies, by destroying religion in a far more effectual manner than open enemies can do, under a notion of advancing it. By this means the devil scatters the flock of Christ, and sets them one against another, and that with great heat of spirit, under a nation of zeal for God; and religion, by degrees degenerates into vain jangling; and during the strife, Satan leads both parties far out of the right way, driving each to great extremes, one on the right hand, and the other on the left, according as he finds they are most inclined, or most easily moved and swayed, till the right path in the middle is almost wholly neglected. And in the midst of this confusion, the devil has great opportunity to advance his own interest, and make it strong in ways innumerable, and get the government of all into his own hands and work his own will.

And by what is seen of the terrible consequences of this counterfeit religion, when not distinguished from true religion, God's people in general have their minds unhinged and unsettled in things of religion, and know not where to set their foot, or what to think or do; and many are brought into doubts, whether there be anything in religion; and heresy, and infidelity, and atheism greatly prevail.

Beloved there is great potential and great danger following a time of Spiritual Renewal and awakened affections of Christ and the things that he desires. Our affections must be inclined to live for the glory of God, not the glory of the convention, tradition, state conventions, associations, and even the local church. If we would seek to exist for the glory of the name sake of God our Father and to make him the desire of our heart. Our convention would look completely different and there would be no need for the GCR.

But like the rest of humanity the SBC is filled with fallen creatures. Our rolls and rosters are churches are inflated. Our pews are often times filled with people like I've met in the past month whose faith relies in "being born Baptist" rather than being born again by the Spirit. There is a need for renewal in our churches for regenerate church membership and healthy church discipline. We may fearfully be facing Satan's deception as Edwards wrote "he (Satan) deceives great multitudes about the state of their souls; making them think they are something, when they are nothing; and so eternally undoes them; and not only so, but establishes many in a strong confidence of their eminent holiness, who are in God's sight some of the vilest of hypocrites." We as preachers and pastors in the SBC need to proclaim the gospel unwaveringly without fear or timidity and implore our people to examine their souls. We need to live by example, teach, and preach the supremacy of Christ in all areas of life especially our affections that affect every area of life.

We must fight the devices of the enemy as he tempts the saints with constant discord and unholy affections. If we don't keep our affections focused on the Kingdom and things that are above it shall quickly affect the saints and turn a time of renewal into a time of stagnant religious mediocrity. As Edwards said, "By this means, he many ways damps and wounds religion in the hearts of the saints, obscures and deforms it by corrupt mixtures, causes their religious affections woefully to degenerate, and sometimes, for a considerable time, to be like the manna that bred worms and stank; and dreadfully ensnares and confounds the minds of others of the saints and brings them into great difficulties and temptation, and entangles them in a wilderness, out of which they can by no means extricate themselves." It is only by the work of the Spirit that renewal and revival will come to the SBC and the church as a whole. But very quickly can the sin of men put a damper on renewed and holy affections. May the SBC become and remain Kingdom focused that we don't return to a state of spiritual stagnancy or worse degeneration.

May we avoid these devices of the Enemy Edwards wrote of:

By this means, Satan mightily encourages the hearts of open enemies of religion, and strengthens their hands, and fills them with weapons, and makes strong their fortresses; when, at the same time, religion and the church of God lie exposed to them, as a city without walls. By this means, he brings it to pass, that men work wickedness under a notion of doing God service, and so sin without restraint, yea with earnest forwardness and zeal, any with all their might.

By this means he brings in even the friends of religion, insensibly to themselves, to do the work of enemies, by destroying religion in a far more effectual manner than open enemies can do, under a notion of advancing it. By this means the devil scatters the flock of Christ, and sets them one against another, and that with great heat of spirit, under a nation of zeal for God; and religion, by degrees degenerates into vain jangling; and during the strife, Satan leads both parties far out of the right way, driving each to great extremes, one on the right hand, and the other on the left, according as he finds they are most inclined, or most easily moved and swayed, till the right path in the middle is almost wholly neglected. And in the midst of this confusion, the devil has great opportunity to advance his own interest, and make it strong in ways innumerable, and get the government of all into his own hands and work his own will.

Let us keep our minds and affections inclined to Christ and the work of his Kingdom so as not to be as the Jews in Romans 10 who, "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." May our zeal be for Christ and his righteousness alone be seen as enough. May we believe that Christ truly has all authority on heaven and in earth and that he is with us always until the end of the age. May we truly make disciples of Christ of every nation baptizing them as witnesses to the gospel not inflated numbers that look good on earth but are of no use for the kingdom of God as they produce false hope and assurance for those who haven't truly come to faith. May we gladly submit to the word of Christ and his righteousness.

It is my prayer that the SBC remains committed to the gospel and the word of God. Heaven forbid we ever begin to tamper with the gospel in hopes of trying to manipulate people into the Kingdom of God. It is Christ's gospel for us to proclaim, not alter. If we keep our affections inclined to Christ, his work, and his commands then we shall see a continuing work of renewal among the SBC and a work of regenerations among the nations as God uses the SBC for the continuing work of his Great Commission.

As the gospel continues to be proclaimed among the nations and in our churches we must never forsake discipleship. True deep, Christ exalting, self-denying, sin-mortifying discipleship must become a deep investment of every pastor, preacher, professor, Sunday School teacher, Deacon, secretary, choir member, nursery worked, R.A. and G.A. leader, Awana worker, musician, and every lay person in the pew. We must be committed to discipleship and living with Holy Affections. May the words of Edwards not be so of the SBC that:

And by what is seen of the terrible consequences of this counterfeit religion, when not distinguished from true religion, God's people in general have their minds unhinged and unsettled in things of religion, and know not where to set their foot, or what to think or do; and many are brought into doubts, whether there be anything in religion; and heresy, and infidelity, and atheism greatly prevail.

My feeble attempt in this blog post and all that I write may have a very very very small effect on the life of those in the SBC. But I pray that more of us may take an interest in personal revival in our own lives and in the life of our convention. May our affections be centered on Christ. If they are, it'll turn the SBC upside down and fight against the fiery darts of the Enemy.

My design is to contribute my mite, and use my best (however feeble) endeavors to this end, in the ensuing treatise; wherein it must be noted, that my design is somewhat diverse from the design of what I have formerly published, which was to show the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God, including both his common and saving operations; but what I aim at now, is to show the nature and signs of the gracious operations of God's Spirit, by which they are to be distinguished from all things whatsoever, that the minds of men are the subjects of, which are not of a saving nature. If I have succeeded, in this my aim, in any tolerable measure, I hope it will tend to promote the interest of religion. And whether I have succeeded to bring any light to this subject or no, and however my attempts may be reproached in these captious and censorious times, I hope in the mercy of a gracious God, for the acceptance of the sincerity of my endeavors; and hope also for the candor and prayers of the true followers of the meek and charitable Lamb of God.

- Jonathan Edwards

I'm praying Edwards design might be ours in all that we say, do, and write.

-soli deo gloria-

Edwards on loving God

2010-06-23T17:21:00.004-05:00

From a vigorous, affectionate, and fervent love to God, will necessarily arise other religious affections: and hence will arise an intense hatred and abhorrence of sin, rear of sin, and a dread of God's displeasure, gratitude to God for his goodness, complacence and joy in God when God is graciously and sensibly present, and grief when he is absent, and a joyful hope when a future enjoyment of God is expected, and fervent zeal for the glory of God.

- Jonathan Edwards, the Religious Affections

Five Four Three Two One

2010-06-23T11:54:00.004-05:00

For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 3:4-11

I'm not sure I can say, "For when one says, I follow Calvin," and another, "I follow Arminius," are you not being merely human? What then is Arminius? What is Calvin? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each." Switch it around if you'd like to replace Paul with Arminius and Apollos with Calvin. I'm not saying Paul was a Calvinist or vice versa. Though I do believe my understanding of the way a person comes to faith in Christ is reflective of Paul's writing in the New Testament. I call myself reformed for a reason or a Calvinist if you'd prefer that title. But my point isn't that. My point I think is much the same as Paul's there is one foundation that has been laid, Christ Jesus.

I believe the discussion around the Doctrines of Grace are important and can be highly profitable. I think the writings of saints before us and those with us today are highly profitable. I hope and pray more people continue the discussion and continue to write on them in the future. Many might say its all foolishness and completely unprofitable, but I believer the err. Why not wrestle with the deep things of God and try to understand the mystery of grace that has been revealed? We are to grow in grace and grow in the knowledge of God our Father as he has revealed his truths in the Scriptures. Now would probably be a good time to step down from my soapbox. (I know many don't particularly care for free writing thoughts on a blog, and in a lot of ways this post is. But I assure you this has been a thought I've been pondering for the past couple weeks.)

As I'm sure some of my readers (if I even have any) know I am working as a summer missionary at Kure Beach. My mission is to reach the residents and vacationers of Pleasure Island with the glorious gospel of our Lord Christ Jesus. The entire month of June it has been myself and my fellow missionary Ethan. (We've also had the help of some of the folks in the church, to which we are extremely grateful!)Come July 1 we'll have youth groups for the entire month through the first week of August. When they come we help facilitate mission trips for the groups to spread the message of the gospel here on the Island.

All the summer long Ethan and I are working side by side six days a week. That's where Paul's words come in. I am a five point Calvinist. Ethan, isn't. We both agree that men are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as he is revealed in the Scriptures alone. We have differing views on the role of human responsibility. We both agree that it is initially the work of the Holy Spirit in initiating the work of grace in salvation. We both pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborers to Kure Beach and that he would have a sovereign harvest. We pray that God would put us in the right paths of people to share the gospel with them. We pray that God would send people to us on the lot of an evening to hear the gospel. We work together trying to do the work of evangelists as much as these earthen vessels can be used for the glory of God to spread the message of his supremacy across our 7 mile stretch of sand.

Do we agree on every theological tenant? No. Does this keep us from working together? No. Our theological identifications might be different but our ultimate identity is found in Christ, our Cornerstone on which our faith has an unwavering foundation. But we can bear witness that though we may disagree theologically, we can work together for the sake of the gospel. It is my prayer and hope that more and more those that are like minded in the gospel. There are some compromises we cannot make. We cannot compromise on the gospel that men are saved only by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as he is revealed in the Scriptures alone. But for those who are like minded in the gospel. That they understand we can work together for the fulfilling of the Great Commission. Especially Southern Baptists whose Doctrinal Umbrella covers a multitude of differing soteirological views. Calvinist, Arminians, Molinists, and views in between. There is great work that can be done that need not be hindered by titles. May we work together for the sake of the gospel without compromise. Might we saturate our lives with prayer and devotion. Might our greatest identity not be with Nashville, Leiden, Geneva, or wherever else. May we identify with these things, but not make them our cause. May the flag we fly be Christ and Him crucified.

Radical Christian Sacrifice

2010-06-12T17:45:00.001-05:00

The Constant work of the Gospel

2010-05-25T21:37:00.002-05:00

The gospel isn't simply the ABC's of Christianity, but the A-through-Z. The gospel doesn't just ignite the Christian life; its the fuel that keeps Christians going everyday. Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn't to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel--and since Christians remain sinners even after they're converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel.

- Tullian Tchividjian, from Surprised by Grace

Some Non-Turkey Day Reflection

2010-04-07T15:37:00.002-05:00

A little less than a month ago in chapel Dr. Greg Matthis preached a message on Philippians 1:1-10. In his sermon he spent some time talking about Paul's gratitude. He challenged us to really be thankful people and evaluate all the things we should be thankful for. I know this isn't Turkey Day and that is typically when people post on these kinds of things. I felt like I should take some time to reflect on all the things I've encounter since I've been here at Southeastern. I'm not normally one to post lists of things on my blog. I'll often post a quote or rarely some song lyrics because that is the creative thing to do in the world of blogging, right? A good friend has done the list thing on her blog a few times and I figured I would do the same.

I'm thankful for:

- That day JJ came to me told me Southeastern had an undergraduate program.

- The guys who were gracious enough to write letters of recommendation for me to come to college. Including Mr. Wright who along with me found it humorous that a Catholic was writing a letter of recommendation to a Baptist College.

- All the Southeastern Grads who encouraged me to get my education and be involved in Southern Baptist Life

- The Pastors who have poured themselves into me all through middle school, high school, and now in college. Even though we've not always seen eye to eye on everything I've always been encouraged with the task of gospel ministry. These guys include Scott Hobbs, Aaron King, John McIntyre, Kelly Stanley, Derik Davis, Don Cashwell, Alex Poindexter, Joey Canady, Lindy Sifford, Mike Bradshaw, C.L. King, Andy Davis, and Andy Winn.

- I'm thankful for all the guys I've been exposed to through these guys and others who have discipled me through the pages of their books and the countless hours they've poured into preaching that I've tried to absorb like a sponge. These guys include: John Piper, John MacArthur, Mark Drsicoll, Tim Keller, Ligon Duncan, Rick Phillips, J.D. Greear, James MacDonald, David Platt, Alistar Begg, Mark Dever, Eric Mason, Joshua Harris, C.J. Mahaney, D.A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, Danny Akin, and so many other guys who've been an encouragement.

- I am thankful for Southeastern as a whole. I've been here almost three years and I cannot begin to describe the influence this place has on me.

- I'm thankful for the fact that Southeastern isn't just about Wake Forest, this school really has taught me what it means to have a worldview the includes the world.

- I am very thankful for my professors who have with much diligence labored to teach myself and all of my fellow students truths that will make us better gospel witnesses for the glory of God.

- I am thankful in particular for Mr. Nathan Saunders who taught Western Civ. at Southeastern. He's become a great friend to me and has no idea how much he has changed my life just by talking about Kure Beach during class.

- I am thankful Nathan recommended me to work at Kure Beach First Baptist for a summer as a Resort Missionary. I had no idea what it would be like but I am very thankful for it. The past two summers have been some of the most memorable summers of my life. I've made a connection with a great church. I absolutely love the people of KBFBC and pray for them all the time. They love Jesus and his Word and if it weren't for Saunders Western Civ. class I may have never found out about the church. Had I never found the church I would have never been exposed socks that don't droop and we all know that is something to be thankful for.

- I am thankful for all the guys I have lived with since I've been at Southeastern. Dusty Black, JJ Philligin, Graham Jackson, Nick Majors, Travis Lockey, Cameron Lockey, and Andrew Crosby.

- I am thankful for all the discussions I have had with all these guys. It is hard to beat yelling at one another until 3 in the morning and going to bed happy. It isn't that all of our discussions have happened until 3AM though many of them have. We've been able to discuss the things of God and they've all had a love for theology. We've been able to keep one another sharp and share the faith by living in communion with the Triune God and one another.

- I am thankful for my job. I get to work with some great people at the library on campus. They've always been of great encouragement to me and you can always count on that little group of library assistants to pray for one another. On top of all that, I get to work with books! Who wouldn't want to work in a theological library?!

- I am thankful for chapel. One of the things I missed most about being away from school for a semester was Tuesday and Thursday at 10AM.

- I am thankful for the Cooperative Program. Because people give to the CP I get to come to school for half price.

- I am thankful for all the friends I've made since I've been here. Many of whom I'm sure will be for life.

- I am thankful for all the things I've learned since I've been here. Just when this arrogant 18 year old thinks he has it all figured out he comes here to have the legs knocked out from under him theologically. I've learned so much and will continue to learn. If I didn't, I wouldn't need to be here.

- I am thankful for all the incredible books and authors I've been exposed to since I've been to Southeastern. Evidently people other than John Piper write books?!

- I am thankful for the preaching opportunities I've had since I've been here. Most of which I would not have been given if I'd not been a student at Southeastern.

- I am thankful for the location of this school, being where it is I've been able to see a lot of North Carolina. I've also been exposed to the Triangle. Its good to be exposed to a more urban place than Wilmington. Being here has exposed me to the idea of church planting and there is a ton I can learn from guys right here in RDU. Church planting itself is something I am very thankful to have been exposed to since I've been at Southeastern.

- Most of all I'm just thankful for the gospel. I know this sounds like the cliche Christian thing to say. But its true. I've learned so much about the gospel in my time I've been here. I feel like the phrase of this semester alone has been "grand narrative." I've got so far to go, but i'm constantly learning more and more about the implications of the gospel and how God is doing a work of redemption in the world. I pray that I can have a continued attitude of thankfulness and reflection in the gospel and all of its implications.

solideogloria

Symphonic

2010-03-08T22:15:00.002-05:00

Until the coming of Jesus Christ, the Bible is like a piece of music whose dissonance begs for some final resolution into harmony. Redemptive history is like a symphony with two great themes: the theme of God's passion to promote his glory; and the theme of God's inscrutable electing love for sinners who have scorned that very glory. Again and again all through the Bible these two great themes carry along the symphony of history. They interweave and interpenetrate, and we know that some awesome Composer is at work here. But for centuries we don't hear the resolution. The harmony always escapes us, and we have to wait.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the resolution of the symphony of history. In the death of Jesus the two themes of God's love for his glory and his love for sinners are resolved. As in all good symphonies there had been hints and suggestions of the final resolution. That is what we have in Isaiah 53 seven hundred years before Jesus came.

- John Piper, The Pleasures of God, 158-9.

Dirty Snow

2010-02-13T23:56:00.004-05:00

I cannot help but think of Psalm 51:7 every time it snows, and the last big snow we had in Wake Forest I blogged about the verse.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. - Psalm 51:7

I began to think about this verse two weekends ago when we had heavier snow fall that we had last night and today. Particularly about the phrase "whiter than snow".

The picture above is one of a pile of dirty snow.

At one point it was really nice white fluffy snow. But then it was sleeted upon. Then it was scraped up into a pile across a dirty side walk. Then it started to melt. It is dirty snow. But don't forget at one point it was really white, really fluffy, really clean, really pretty snow. Now that pile of snow is gone. The snow that fell today is mostly gone.

Why "whiter than snow?" I think it is because snow gets dirty, melts, and gets pushed into piles. You see all the self-righteousness we try to bring before God to make ourselves right before him, no matter how clean it seems is as the dirtiest minstrel rags. We need something whiter than snow to stand before God as holy. We need the righteousness of Christ because it can never be tainted, it cannot evaporate away, it cannot be pushed aside.

The gospel is a beautiful thing.

The gospel is that in the very beginning was God and he created all things through his son, and they were perfect and made for his glory. Then sin entered the world through our Father Adam. God promises redemption. He sends at the right time his son Jesus to die for the ungodly. Jesus is buried and three days later is raised to life defeating sin and death. He makes it so that through faith in him and repentance of heart one can have the greatest gift in the universe, God himself. His shedding of blood bears the awful weight of our sin and guilt before a holy judge, absorbs his wrath and forgives our trespasses. That which is crimson and poured out makes us so that we stand whiter than snow before God. This is beautiful way more beautiful than even the prettiest snowfalls that quickly melt, as its beauty is eternal.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. - Psalm 51:8-17

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in Him before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ to the purpose of his will and the praise of his glorious grace in which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. - Ephesians 1:3-10

Beautiful.

the Weight of Glory

2010-02-09T00:04:00.003-05:00

I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How god thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except in so far as it is related to how He thinks of us. It is written that we shall "stand before" Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son--it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.

- C.S. Lewis, from "the Weight of Glory" Preached June 8, 1941

Baptist Mardi Gras

2010-02-08T13:37:00.003-05:00

I just listened to this sermon by Dr. Russel Moore. I think it is a sermon we could all take the time to listen to. It is preached on the story of Esau trading in his birth right for a bowl of soup and how we exchange our inheritance in Christ for the temporary pleasures of this world. If you listen to the sermon you'll find out what I titled this post as I did. I would encourage you to take a listen even if it does step on your toes a bit as it did mine.

The Gospel Saves From Morality - Piper

2010-02-06T09:01:00.000-05:00

Why I Tweet

2010-02-03T09:20:00.002-05:00

Burk Parsons had a tweet this morning that is the primary reason why I use twitter and get updates on my phone.

"Following thoughtful godly men on Twitter helps us throughout the day to stop, think, be encouraged/convicted, and pray."

This is why I tweet.

There are a handful of guys I follow mobile that I would encourage you to follow if you are on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/burk_parsons

http://twitter.com/johnpiper

http://twitter.com/cslewisdaily

http://twitter.com/reformedglory

http://twitter.com/tozeraw

http://twitter.com/banjoey1

There are lots of other guys and gals I follow as well and you can find them by just going to my Twitter account and seeing who I follow.

http://twitter.com/ReformedFisher

What to say?

2010-01-30T18:06:00.002-05:00

I got a phone call earlier today from my Mom and had one immediately followed by my Dad. A friend of mine from way back to kindergarten died yesterday. I'd like to say we stayed as close as we did when we were in elementary through middle school. But we still kept up with one another some. Last time I saw him was this summer where he worked. His name was Michael Helgren. I'd ask if you would to be praying for his family with me.

When a friend dies it gets you to think quite a bit. It did for me. My thoughts went straight to Ecclesiastes 12:1. I've written about that verse on here several times. I cannot forget that verse. "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them." We have but one life here on the earth to glorify God. We must make the most of that for his glory and our pleasure. (When the two are one in the same.) Michael was just 21 years old and a professed believer in the Lord Jesus. I know that one of the things Michael and I would talk about as we were in the years of High School was Jesus. He served in his local church and even worked at a local Christian bookstore. I thank God for Michael's faith and his desire for ministry in the church.

I just got off the phone a bit ago with his Mom. She's dazed right now I think, just taken back by all of it and rightly so. She told me she knows the Lord is with her and that he has a plan and will use whats going on. I'm thankful for that. There is hope in that. There is always hope in Christ Jesus for his kingdom stands forever and for Michael eternity is a life enjoying God forever in His presence.

Not all of us seem to take our time of youth seriously for the glory of God. Being a teenager or a twenty-something does not make one invincible. For it is appointed for men once to die and then comes judgement. Beloved if you are 12 or if you are 92 and reading this, remember your Creator. We get one life to make an impact for the kingdom of God here on earth. Don't waste it. Try to love the Lord with all of your heart, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.

The second phone call I received was from my Dad. It was about the first phone call I received. It started out with him saying "um" over and over for about 45 second. (He can't talk well due to his stroke, but this was a bit long even with his aphasia.) Michael's death really stirred my Dad up. My Dad and I have a different relationship now that he's had his third stroke. Roles have changed a bit, he's much like the son now and I'm much like the Father. There are a lot of times that I'm not viewed as my Dad's son, but almost as his enemy now. This is because I've tried to be a loving son, one that is looking for the best for my Dad. I am the one with the iron fist that says he has to do the things the doctors have required and says no to the things that will obviously hurt him. It's odd and not very pleasant if I can be honest. My Dad has been very violent with me over the last semester. This is not the Father I knew before the stroke. He never did and said the things he has done over the last five months or so. I understand it is the stroke. But today he called to tell me several times over that he was sorry for everything that had happened this semester. I really didn't expect that. Certainly not today, not in light of what happened with Michael, not really at all. But I'm thankful, very very very thankful. I love my Dad, a lot! I hate seeing him act in a way that "isn't him."

Solomon speaks to this in the same context of 12:1 when he said "Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity." in the previous verse. I think my Dad removed a lot of the vexation from his heart today. Youth and the beginning of life are fading away like the wind. Make the most of it for the glory of God. Love God and those around you. Pray with me for Michael's family and friends.

solideogloria, semper

Pants

2010-01-30T10:47:00.004-05:00

I read yesterday in the Biblical Recorder this article. A SBC pastor has been questioning if the Great Commission Resurgence proposed in the Southern Baptist Convention right now can include him due to the kind of pants he wears when he is preaching and the type of preaching he does.

Confession: I get terribly tired of the pants discussion. I think I may have written on this before, but I really can't remember. There always seems to be some kind of debate about what kinds of clothes one wears when they preach and go to church. There are some ideas in different camps about pants, really there are ideas about clothes in general. There is one side that says you must "wear your best" on Sunday morning. This probably means a coat and tie. If you don't wear those things you are shunned. There is also a side that says "come as you are" which probably means jeans and a shirt with a collar that isn't tucked in.

Often times I think the guys who wear jeans to corporate worship on Sundays (which I do probably 90 percent of the time) have become the guys in suits. Wearing a coat and tie to a jeansy place on Sunday might get you shunned and called a pharisee. When you go to a coat and tie place, wearing jeans might get you called a heathen.

My take? Wear clothes to church. Don't be a naked Anabaptist. Don't wear that which is going to show off. If you do, you're trying to draw attention to yourself, that is not what life is about. Life is about making much of Jesus. When you wear your clothes to corporate worship don't worry about what everyone else is wearing. Corporate worship is about just that, worshiping as the body of Christ. Its about having real genuine biblical fellowship with the triune God and the bride of Christ. God is looking for those who worship him in Spirit and in truth not jeans and a button down plaid shirt or a coat and tie. True worshipers of the Father will be dressed in suits with ties tomorrow and in jeans. There will be worshipers of the Father who worship him in Spirit and truth who will walk barefooted tomorrow to gather. There will be those who can lose their lives for worshiping corporately tomorrow. We are worried about pants? Glorify God and don't die on the hill of your theology of pants.

Sure...why not.

2010-01-22T22:13:00.003-05:00

If you've not heard of Stuff Reformers Like you should check it out. The second thing on the list is Microbrews. I'm a 20 year old who doesn't drink. I have no plans of starting to drink when I turn 21. But I do love soda that is made with real sugar, not corn syrup. I love when I go on trips to find soft drinks that are only found in that region. I found this wonderful bottle of Black Cherry Cream Soda today and couldn't help but laugh a little bit when I saw it said "micro brewed" on the label.

So here is my microbrew.

Begg on Baptism

2010-01-22T22:07:00.003-05:00

I've listened to these two broadcasts by Alistar Begg on Baptism today. If you have some questions about baptism and you've been looking for some sound teaching on the subject listen to these.

http://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2010/01/18/baptism-debate-part-a/

http://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2010/01/19/baptism-debate-part-b/

David Platt at the 2009 SBC

2010-01-19T17:32:00.002-05:00

Barnacle Vision

2010-01-10T22:41:00.007-05:00

"Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." - John Owen

Today I was invited to go on a boat ride over to Masonboro Island. Temperatures were hovering right above freezing and I did not have nearly enough clothes or the right ones to go over and stay warm. But I never turn down a ride over to the Island. I found every article of clothing I had behind the seat of my truck and put them on.

As usual when we go to the Island we carry a bucket with us. We use the bucket to pick up stuff we find on the Island. We do our best to pick up whatever trash we find and if we find any shells worth picking up we get those too. Today we kept 6 whelks, a piece of rubber, 4 cans, a plastic cup, a busted up headlamp, a shoe, a piece of what I think was a wet suit, and two pairs of sunglasses. Whelks are always cool to find we passed over several dozen that were busted up, but in about a mile and a half of beach we managed to find 6 really nice ones. But the coolest thing I think I found today was a pair of sunglasses.

When I picked up the glasses the first thought I had was that they were trash. But when I looked at them closer I thought wow these even have the nose pads still on them. I quickly realized that I was not looking at nose pads but barnacles. I turned the glasses over and saw that the entirety of the lenses were covered with barnacles along with the arms of the glasses. These would do no one any good, you'd be all but blind wearing these.

This is were the Owen quote comes in. The barnacles on the glasses remind me of what sin can do in our lives. Sunglasses are made to look through just like we are meant to see through our Spiritual eyes. But what happened with the sunglasses was that barnacles attached themselves, and left by themselves to the glasses they quickly took over. Not only did they change the appearance of the glasses, but they affected their functionality. No longer can they be seen through. "

Owen is referring to Romans 8 where Paul says. "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." As a Christian we must learn to put to death our sin, or it will kill us. You see we've been given spiritual eyes that allow us to see the light of the glory of God. But if we allow sin to rule in our lives our vision begins to be blocked and sure enough sin will be the end of us. We don't have to live that way since the Spirit of God dwells with in us. So we must put to death our sin. Barnacles don't have to stay attached to something if action is taken, they can't grow. Likewise we don't have to give in to the temptations of sin. We can take action against them so that we don't get spiritual barnacle vision. Paul doesn't leave off with the verse I quoted he continues, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father"' Beloved we do not have to return to the yolk of slavery that comes from sin. Let us fight out sin and see clearly with illumined eyes unto the light of the gospel of the glory of God that is Jesus.

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, by beloved, flee from idolatry." - 1 Corinthians 10:13-14

Prayer: An Overflow of Confidence in Christ - Piper

2010-01-08T11:51:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyIVLT0lyHM (for when this gets imported to Facebook)

Jesus, I come to Thee

2010-01-06T22:06:00.002-05:00

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of my sickness, into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of earth’s sorrows, into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair, into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

- William Sleeper

A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Psalm 130

Bound with Christ: A Year in Institutes

2010-01-06T11:03:00.003-05:00

Hi my name is Allen and I have never read John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. That is about to change. A week or two a go Will Adair posted a tweet inviting seven people to join him in going through the Institutes in a year. I jumped on it like white on rice. I have always avoided reading Calvin to be honest. I used to take pleasure in being able to say that I was a 'Calvinist' and I had not read anything by Calvin. I still agree with myself that I came to my conclusions of a monergistic view of salvation by reading the Canon of Scripture not Calvin is a good thing. But I think it is foolish of me to dismiss one of the great theologians just because I don't want to be labeled.

In the recent years I've come to treasure my 22 volume commentary on the Scripture by Calvin and his little treaties Truth for All Time. I would highly recommend them both. So now the time comes to read the Institutes. But not just for the sake of being able to say, "I have read Calvin's Institutes." It is time to read it so that a group of people can edify one another, so that I can be edified by the old dead guy with an awesome beard and really cool hat (a legacy reformed guys today still seem to practice along with having to many books, drinking beer, smoking cigars and pipes, French press coffee, finding Tulips everywhere, and all the other stuff you can find on Stuff Reformers Like). But most importantly so that God could be glorified, that his followers (including this guy you are reading) might glean from one another and try to be more like Jesus. Also that we can learn more about who God is in his attributes and rightly bring him glory for those things not just look at Him as one of the homeboys but a very personal God who is due much glory. That when we truly see Him as the treasure that He is we find satisfaction in Him and he is glorified.

So here comes and adventure over the next year with Chris Canuel, Will Adair, and some other folks I don't know yet on a blog dedicated to the reading of Calvin's Institutes over the next year.

D-Rec Update

2010-01-06T11:01:00.002-05:00

It is snowing again in Boone. As a matter of fact it is snowing so much in Boone they have canceled out trip up there today and will be holding off work till it stops. But I would ask of you that you continue to pray about the things I said before. As soon as the weather clears up work will resume, and the work of the gospel never stops. I have no idea if the guys here in Wilmington are still planning to go but other teams will make there way up. Pray for those guys and the people they meet.

soli deo gloria

D-Rec

2010-01-05T11:23:00.004-05:00

D-Rec also known as Disaster Recovery is what Wednesday through Saturday will consist of for myself and a group of people from River of Leland and Southside headed to Boone, NC. I am excited to say the least I absolutely love going on these trips. They are a ministry of the North Carolina Baptist Men. They respond to pretty much everything you can think of that fits under the category of disaster from the World Trade Center Attacks by feeding workers, to years spent in Gulfport Mississippi doing recovery and rebuild following Hurricane Katrina, responding to tornadoes by rebuilding destroyed homes, removing mud from flooded out homes, and the list goes on here in the States and across the globe.

Its pretty amazing to see how God works on these trips. God can use a tree following through someones house as an open door for a presentation of the gospel. Some of these people may not ever hear the gospel if it were not for shattered trees all over their property following an ice storm. We have these trailers full of chainsaws, chaps, 4 Wheelers and tractors but they are just tools. Tools that are means to an end, an open chance to share the good news that God himself has given the greatest gift of all to man kind, himself. While saws are running hard in the background and there is a chain of buckets of mud out of a basement someone is sharing the good news of Jesus. That is why I love these trips the most. I love being able to fellowship with brothers and sisters as we serve others, but what is more important than any tree being removed is knowing that God is being exalted and exulted in. That with the use of some saws it might be seen that Christ has supremacy over all things, and that all the things that have happened to people in the midst of chaos is not beyond his control. It gives the church an opportunity to show that the work of Christ is more valuable than their own time and money.

So with these things said I ask that you would pray for the teams that are already there working, the team that will leave tomorrow, and the teams that will follow. Pray for us to have safe travels. Pray for us to have a safe trip with no injuries on the job site. Pray that we have genuine fellowship and that men and women would grow closer to Christ on this trip. Most importantly pray with me that those working might be able to say and live out that, "the greatest cause in the world is joyfully rescuing people from hell, meeting their earthly needs, making them glad in God, and doing it with a kind, serious pleasure that makes Christ look like the Treasure he is."

May God be glorified in the work of his saints and the proclamation of the gospel in Boone.

2000-2010

2009-12-31T19:43:00.002-05:00

Ten years ago I was ten years old. Ten years from now I might be dead. Ten years from now I might be 30.

Pond Hopping with Affections Placed

2009-12-29T23:01:00.004-05:00

When I was in middle school and the early part of high school I often said there were two things I wanted to have. 1)A boat 2)Someone to place my affection upon.

Well I'm 20 years old now and high school seems forever away even if it was just three years ago. I now have two boats, one of which I have not used since 2005, and the other has been in need of repair for three years now due to holes. Boats aren't all they are cracked up to be. Fishing is still great, but I've started to learn there is more to live for than getting out of school to hit the Intercoastal.

The second thing I asked for was someone to place my affections upon, even as a 15 year old I was an old man I guess. I wanted a girlfriend. I've also learned that true satisfaction in life isn't found there. Looking back I realize I was no where near where I needed to be to date, and probably am still at a point where I shouldn't. What I have learned is there is a place to set my affections and the name I jokingly called my smallest boat is taking a different place in my mind, one I could not have ever imagined.

So I jokingly gave names to both of my jon boats in high school. 'Flattitude' for the larger boat because of its being a flat bottom jon boat primarily used for flounder fishing. The second is a very old 11' 8'' Arkansas Traveler or so thats what I was told it is by the man who gave it to me. I jokingly called it 'Pond Hopper' because of its use for bream fishing in ponds and smaller bodies of water.

In the 2 years I have spent at Southeastern I have developed a bit of a broader view of the world. I now realize that there is way more to the world than southeastern North Carolina with the occasional visit to states that touch her boarders. There is an entire world out there that is very different than the one I have grown up in. Majority of the world does not have the same view of the physical and metaphysical as I do. That is a view of the world that is absent of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have a new set of glasses now that give me vision more than ever to the need of the proclamation of the gospel. So now I find myself wanting in some way shape form or fashion to "jump the pond". I don't know if this means going to an urban center in the US where the nations gather or to go over the pond.

Someone to place my affections upon. The idolatry of dating constantly before me then and before me now. The entire world both secular and the church have a constant pressure above individuals to find their worth in someone of the opposite sex. I have learned the ultimate end of placed affections, Christ. Placing all my affections with the end of the glory of Christ also places a new set of glasses in front of my eyes that give me a different vision. I have learned that if I spend the rest of my life as a single man and serve the kingdom of God than I am much better off than if I lived in rebellion married. What I look for now is not what I looked for even at the end of high school. What I seek in dating now is someone to potentially marry. Someone who I can serve the kingdom of God with and that God would be glorified in a relationship; not any of my pride or desires. The end of those affections: the glory of Christ.

So pond hopping now goes beyond bream fishing and affections are placed.

solideogloria

Looking

2009-12-26T01:15:00.002-05:00

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. - Hebrews 12:1-3 (emphasis added)

Christmas as it would be on the calender has come and gone quite quickly this year, or at least it has for me. But perhaps the longest of it was the very day itself, Christmas. Its been a pretty discouraging day for me. I don't desire to constantly sulk in whats going on in my life, because it isn't worth spending to much time focusing on. This Christmas was really different with my Dad. I've written a bit in the past about life since his third stroke. This is a bit more. It really seemed today like my Dad didn't care much about what was going on. Opening the gifts we had gotten for one another seemed like more of an inconvenience than anything else. This has me down, but I always seem to find encouragement in cracking open the pages of scripture.

I know that when I start to focus on the temporary things of the flesh too much it isn't good. They can become like blinders on a horse, so I try to do as Paul says in Hebrews; to keep my eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of the faith. Looking to Jesus is always encouraging because he'll never change. He is always faithful in so many ways. When I consider Him who has endured so much hostility I really find myself less weary and more strong hearted. I can look back to the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11 and see how they looked not to a kingdom on earth, but to a kingdom not built with hands. It really is encouraging. So I share this short passage of scripture with the world. Maybe if you're sight is elsewhere and you feel weary, you can look to Jesus and not lose heart.

solideogloria

A White Christmas

2009-12-25T10:25:00.002-05:00

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. - Psalm 51:7

All the time their are complaints about how it is always in the 50's in Wilmington at Christmas. We have not had a white Christmas in Wilmington for 20 years. But I'd like to take a little bit of time to look at some snow this Christmas morning.

The words at the top of this post are in the midst of a lament of repentance by David in Psalm 51. David confesses his sins in verses 1-5 and gives praise to God for some his attributes in verse 6. Then we get to verse 7 and he says God can purge him of his sins and make him white as snow. Snow is often a symbol of purity and that is what David is talking about here.

For those who are in Christ Jesus, every Christmas is a white Christmas. Jesus came in the flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Christmas really is about the cross. Contrary to Ricky Bobby theology, the Christ child did grow up. He went to the cross and bore the sins of all who would ever believe and took upon his shoulders the wrath of God for sin. Through the blood of the grown Christ child born in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago, you and I can have a white Christmas. John in his first epistle penned, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Jesus' blood is our hyssop that washes us immaculate before God like no lye of self-righteousness could ever attempt to do. To borrow from the hymn writer, "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus"

The cross of Christ makes for a 'White Christmas'.

Spoiled

2009-12-24T01:31:00.003-05:00

I am absolutely spoiled. I find myself right now complaining that I left my bible in my truck. I have 11 others in reach right now without even getting up. What is wrong with me? So stinking spoiled. I'm on the internet right now with money (not much, but nevertheless I have it) in my pocket. I have unlimited access to all the resources for education that I could ever need and want. While people are trading off pages of the scriptures to one another and having their heads roll if they get caught with it. I witnessed hundreds of dollars spent today on animals that soon shall perish with much lament, while I know hundreds of people shall die un-noticed due to malnutrition in the next 24 hours.

In moments like these I just need to repent of my own greed, gluttony, sloth, and idolatry before God. Then besiege Him to send me somewhere. Because I really feel like if I had the resources I could jump the pond right now. But jumping the pond may not be the solution, it might be to go to a place here State side that no one else wants to be at. Church plants pop up in Wilmington all the time (I know people in Wilmington need Jesus) but when are the middle class white people going to do something for the people they do not even know that scare them and cause them to lock their door when they drive through that part of town, just because the people living there aren't the same skin color?

A frustrated, jaded, unprepared, sincere "send me."

Its a relationship, not a religion. Right?

2009-12-20T13:02:00.004-05:00

My name is Allen and I am a podunk kid from southeastern North Carolina. Since I'm just this podunk kid no one has ever heard of I can say quite a bit and probably few will ever hear what I have to say. I have something to say. What I desire to say goes against what seems to be the majority of people who have a worldview pretty close to mine. If you are an evangelical in the southern part of the United Sates I am sure you have heard the phrase, "Its not religion its a relationship." I disagree.

I am sure this is where many of you are cringing and calling people like myself stupid, arrogant, religious pharisees. Because you've always been told and firmly believe that religion is this man made evil that condemns people to hell. The only way someone can get to heaven is to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I, on the other hand am convinced you can have a personal relationship with Jesus and still be damned. I know I am stepping on egg shells here, but I ask that you will continue reading with me. Don't stop reading here. I promise we aren't on opposing teams and I've not recanted the doctrine of eternal security of the believer. Some of you reading this right now may not affirm the doctrine of eternal security of the believer, we can debate that later if you'd like.

So its not a religion, its a relationship. Right?

Lets go to a good friend of every preacher, Merriam-Webster to see what it has to say.

Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Anglo-French religiun, Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice.

So the word has a historical meaning dealing with the supernatural. I think genuine faith in Christ deals with the metaphysical. (Check)

It is a noun, so it is an idea. We've got that one down already since its been called this man made evil idea. Right? (Check)

Definitions:

1)the service and worship of God or the supernatural
2)commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

I feel confident that I can say my faith in Christ is certianly an act of service and worship to God (Romans 12:1-2) I also can say that I put devotion in my relationship with Christ and observe certain practices. As a Baptist I uphold two ordinances; baptism and the Lord's supper.

Merriam-Webster does not stop there in defining religion. We get another definition, this probably the one most people have a problem with.

a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

This is where many people look to all the traditions of the church. But I would look to Christ and see that he indeed instituted somethings. Like those two ordinances I mentioned earlier, baptism and partaking of the Lord's supper. We find in Matthew's gospel that Jesus himself instituted the church and declared that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. Jesus instituted some religious things that I think we are all very thankful for. Through God's revelation in his word we are given a system of things to belief and practice.

I do not want to simply play a game of semantics with Merriam-Webster. What I would like to do is look at the word religion in James' epistle, a guy by the name of Judas Iscariot in the gospels, and look to some old dead guys with cool hair that I am indebted to.

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. - James 1:26-27

If anyone thinks he has true religion, that he is a truly religious person he must have self control over his tongue. We might be wise to back up and read what is going on in verses 19-25. James is telling his readers to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Doing these things is more godly. He tells his readers to put away their sin and to be doers of the word of God. Not to simply hear the word of God and let it fall to the way side, but to genuinely follow the commands of Christ. If you just hear the commands of Christ and let them fall to the way side you are deceiving yourself. Its like looking in a mirror and walking away forgetting what you look like. But for the person who keeps the commands of God, those things which he instituted he is a doer of the word.

So following Christ, being a doer of the word is keeping things that are "religious" in nature. But the one who thinks he is truly religious but lets the word go to the wayside and allows his tongue to hold him captive, his religious is worthless. So if there is a religion that is worthless, there is a religion that has value. So what is this religion that has value? It "is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this; to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

I think a lot of people miss some things when they read over this passage, and they related to the relationship v. religion discussion. If it can truly be called a "x" v. "y" situation, I think Christianity is both, but because of religion one can have a relationship.

Pure and undefiled. Having a relationship with Jesus alone is not pure and undefiled. It is because of Jesus one can have not only a religion that is pure an undefiled but a relationship that is also. God instituted religion with his covenant people on Sinai. He gave them the law, a set of religious practices. No one except God himself could keep the law. Jesus came and kept the law. He "kept it to the T." He was the perfect sinless sacrifice that was to be once for all. After Jesus died and rose again the wrath of God was poured out on him, sin was not only absolved for those who would come to faith in Christ. The punishment that was required of God for those transgressions was poured out on Jesus. His death and resurrection was not only expiation, but propitiation. Through faith in Christ a man can stand before God, pure and holy. Through faith comes obedience to Christ, producing good works that show one really has faith in Christ. The man who obeys who stands clean before God in Christ alone has religion of worth.

Everyone always focuses on the part of the text that says, "to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." Being in the word, submissive to the lordship of Jesus leads to the services of others. "and the other, love your neighbor as yourself." It is an act that is pleasing to God and done for his glory. If you are in Jesus visit the orphans and serve the widows in their afflictions. Be a servant like Jesus. It is something God has instituted for his church to do.

Then the last part of the verse, "to keep oneself unstained from the world." This to I've seen ignored many times. Perhaps because it calls for Lordship and lays a theological smack down to proponents of antinominanism. If you follow Jesus, if you are a person of true religion, you'll not look like the world. You stay away from sin and idolatry unlike the man who has worthless religion who doesn't practice the commands of Jesus.

So do we continue to make the word "religion" taboo among evangelicals? Do we in practice say that if one is practicing religion, they do not have a relationship with Christ? Do we damn the apostle for his use of this word and shun anyone from using it?

Judas Iscariot: a man who had a personal relationship with Jesus.

Matthew's Gospel 10th chapter:

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. - Matthew 10:1-4

Matthew lists the Apostles and the dominion Christ had given them. Then and the end of the list comes Judas. The one who betrayed him. We all know that Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss for a bag of silver. Then afterwards he hung himself, the limb broke, he fell and his bowels burst from his body. The gospels tell us that Satan himself entered Judas before this betrayal. The story of Judas is not a very heroic or cheerful one. It is a truly sad story about the betrayal of the Creator of all things by a man who followed him for three years and was numbered among the men that penned most of the New Testament.

Judas Iscariot had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In one way entirely more personal that anyone that you and I have with Christ. Judas walked with Jesus for years and sat under his teaching. He was numbered with the Apostles and given the same authority they had. Yet, Judas was not subject to the Lordship of Christ.

John MacArthur in his book Twelve Ordinary Men writes of Judas, "He is the most colossal failure in all of human history. He committed the most horrible, heinous act of any individual, ever. He betrayed the perfect, sinless, holy Son of God for a handful of money. His dark story is a poignant example of the depths to which the human heart is capable sinking. He spent three years with Jesus Christ, but for all that time his heart was only growing hard and hateful."

It is not a good thing to be associated with Judas. Today people still will call someone who is a traitor a 'Judas.' But Judas knew Jesus, he walked with him for years. In John 6 Jesus had a large group of disciples quit following him, but Judas stayed. The night he betrayed Jesus he was close enough to share bread and the dip for that bread. It is safe to say that in one sense Judas was close to Christ. Yet his religion was worthless completely defiled.

I propose some questions: What does it mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus? Where does this idea come from? Is a personal relationship with Jesus saving faith?

Judas' personal relationship with Jesus is not the kind of relationship a true believer in Christ has. Judas heard the word of God, constantly but it never pierced his soul. The story of Judas is one that leave a legacy that forever says he esteemed him not. But for the believer who has genuine intimate fellowship with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The word is proclaimed, the word falls on ears that can hear, faith is given, and works come to fruition. For that man or woman, the one who had ears to hear who came to faith, their religion is pure an undefiled. It is religion that produces a relationship. It is one that does not end like Judas'. For the true believer in Christ, there is a relationship that begins on earth and continues forever in worship and enjoyment of the Creator of all things and the redeemer of all who would ever believe forever.

A personal relationship is more than just association with Christ, it is identity in him. Only through the reconciliation of man before God through the precious blood of Jesus can a true relationship with God be found. In this relationship comes religion, pure and undefiled before God the Father.

Poor ignorant Jonathan Edwards should have known that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. Especially in his book the Religious Affections where he calls Christianity true religion time and time again. Poor Edwards was not alone in this. Charles H. Spurgeon a personal hero of mine also had the misfortune of not knowing that Christianity was a relationship not a religion. I read yesterday one account where he was preaching on the Bible and its role in "our holy religion." John Calvin wrote his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion with much ignorance as he even used the words 'Christian' and 'religion' in its title. To write a book about Christian life and doctrine and call that religion, poor ignorant John Calvin.

These gentlemen had a very deep understanding of what it meant to have a relationship with Christ. But they did not relent from calling Christianity a religion. They were keen to be with the apostle to distinguish it from false religion and promote Christianity as the only one true religion of the one and true living God, the God of the bible. They devoted their lives to gospel and its proclamation. Their lives and writings reflect the words of the apostle Paul, "whatever is true, whatever pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8)All of those men were very intelligent and very wise, yet they used the word "religion" synonymously with Christianity. I think we would be wise to look at their example and not throw the semantic baby out with the bathwater.

I do not think it is a cardinal sin to call Christianity a religion. We must be wise to not associate it as just one of the worlds religions, but to present it as the one true religion that does service and is worship of the one true God. What we face before us today is no different than that which Calvin, Edwards, and Spurgeon faced with a multitude of religions and worldviews. Let us looked deeper at what it means to have a personal relationship with Christ and the work of his atonement in our relationship with God the Father. Let us not dismiss the words of the apostle James in calling Christianity true religion and quickly say that religion is damnable. While the majority of religion is just that, there is that which is pure and undefiled which leads to an everlasting relationship with the God of the universe.

The Misfortunate Case of Chris Henry

2009-12-17T12:19:00.003-05:00

I was looking on the news this morning on the web when I came across a sad story. You can read it here. It is the story of a professional athlete, Chris Henry. He was a wide receiver for the Bengals. He had a fight with his fiance and died shortly afterwards. As I read the story my mind went straight to Ephesians 4.

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Ephesians 4:26-32

Chris Henry will never have a chance to reconcile things with his fiance, nor will she. I found it pretty intriguing that this made the front top of the page on Fox News. If I had an argument with someone close to me and died right afterwards it never would make the news. But the sad thing is that disputes between people who aren't famous happen every single day and many of them will not have the chance to make things right. Many people refuse to try to make things right and will hold a grudge all the way to the grave and it eats away at their bones. This could be a good reminder to all of us that if we have some kind of bad blood between us and another to make things right.

It would be much better if we could live in a way that never lets the sun go down on our anger and give a stronghold to the enemy. Instead of giving him a stronghold we should as Paul instructs the Ephesians, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." God sent his son Jesus so that we might have reconciliation with him both now and forever. He has forgiven us if we are in Christ Jesus and we ought to do the same with others.

solideogloria

A Little Reflection

2009-12-16T20:32:00.003-05:00

One of the first texts I was ever assigned to exposit before a group of people was Philippians 4:10-13. A good friend of mine and I tag team preached. We both preached the same text back to back, it was a pretty interesting night. It was on my 15th birthday and God taught me an awful lot through that text. One of the things I learned was a word in the text, that at 15 years old I had heard before but had no idea what it meant. I truly had no definition for this word. Content. So I did what any good researcher at 15 years old does, I went to the internet. I found the following:

content- adj. satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

When I understood what this word meant it blew verse 13 out of the ballpark. Christ does more than just allow you to hit a ball out of the ballpark. I say this because probably 95% of the time I hear this verse quoted it has something to do with athletics. But that is not what Paul is talking about in his letter to the Philippians.

So fast forward to this semester being at home in Wilmington, this week, and tonight at church.

Five years later I've never forgotten the words of Paul in Philippians 4. "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:10-13

This semester at home has been like no other season in my life. One simple blood clot has changed my world. My Dad had a stroke two days after moving back to school for this semester. It was a major stroke and my parents needed help so I came home and skipped out on school. I've found since coming home that things are pretty tough at home. I'll spare most of the details. But things are really tough with the bread winner can no longer work. In a lot of ways I don't have my Dad anymore. He is a totally different person, who truth be told really doesn't seem to like me anymore. Because I'm the bad guy who won't let him eat what he wants, let him yell at my Mom like he does out of impatience caused by his stroke, and makes for sure he takes his medicine so that he doesn't put himself in the ground any quicker. My heart breaks to hear my Dad pray knowing that he used to pray for probably 10 minutes before we ever went anywhere for the day, and now he stumbles to say "thank you Jesus". So things are tough.

But I'm constantly reminded of the words of the prophet in Lamentations, "The steadfast love of the LORD never cease, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him." There is infinite hope in the Lord and his steadfast love and mercies that he shows my family and I every single day. Finding myself much like Paul who was in need, the Philippians helped him out. God has sent numerous Philippians and Epaphroditus like characters into our lives. When we have no idea where the money is going to come from to pay the bills, it comes. When we don't know how we are going to pay for my Dad's medications, free samples show up or money comes. When my Mom's spirits have been down because of all the stress and knowing the man who is her husband isn't the same anymore sets in, someone comes along to bring her joy. God is so good.

For me I am not going to fret, because I know that God's grace is enough and he will provide. I keep telling my mother time and time again, God is in control. Its where my thick Calvinistic view of providence comes to play. Where the rubber meets the road so to speak. I don't just confessionally hold these doctrines, but I do my best to live them. Its practical theology not just a good looking system on paper. I truly believe that God causes all things to work for his purpose, and that he really is causing all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose and have been predestined unto salvation so that they might look more like his son Jesus. Even if that means taking everything away including the roof over my head. If he does, he has lost none of his goodness. Because God's doing good things does not make him good. It is because he is good, he does good things. I don't curse my God for what he has done, I really truly thank him. I take hope in the glory of Christ, and hope will not put me to shame.

So I have been meditating a bit on Paul's words the past two days because of something I read on Facebook that was pretty silly. I say God is good way beyond doing well on some silly game that in eternity won't matter. He is good when your Dad can't talk, your house is on the border of foreclosure, he is good when you cannot afford trash services, he is good when your mother seems like she is on the brink of a mental breakdown because the stress of taking care of a childlike 48 year old bears down on her 24/7. He is good when all you want to do is get back to school and get an education so you can go through the formalities to get into full time ministry. He is good when the world maligns you because you stand firm on the word of God. He is good when vicious rumors of being a cult because you trust God in EVERYTHING arise against you. Oh Belove you must believe me that God is good, taste and see. You will find out when you learn that the power of Christ can let you be content in ANY circumstance, even when you are hungry and in a prison cell for Jesus that he is Good.

So that brings us to tonight. Mr. Mike who is the youth pastor at church invited everyone to come out for some music, a lesson, and then cake and coffee afterwards. He asked the question, "What is God doing in your life?" Several people answered him, but I didn't. But I'll answer here because I've been asked that question three times now this week and my answer remains the same. God is teaching me that he is enough. God is enough. I don't need anything else but Him, and he will supply all my needs. I began to think as he asked this that God was teaching me a bit about Philippians 4. Want to take a guess where he taught from tonight? That's right, you guessed it. Philippians 4. He taught verse 19:

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:19

Yep. The promise remains, our God will supply everything we need according to the riches of his son Jesus. So his ability to meet our needs are endless, his means and promises of meeting our needs are perfect. It may not be what we want, but the good news is that His thoughts aren't our thoughts and that His ways are much higher than ours. They work out for perfect good. Trust Jesus make Him look like the treasure that he really is. Because I promise you the things and people we make ultimate treasure in our live can be gone as quickly as the wind. But Christ is eternal.

To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. - Philippians 4:20

A little wisdom from Spurgeon

2009-12-09T23:01:00.003-05:00

I'm reading through a sermon by the late Reverend Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I read the following and thought I should share it. Its great wisdom for those who are ministers of the gospel from behind the pulpit.

God teaches his people every day, by sickness, by affliction, by depression of spirits, by the forsakings of God, by the loss of the Spirit for a season, by the lackings of the joys of his countenance, that he is God, and that beside him there is none else. And we must not forget that there are some special servants of God raised up to do good works, who in a peculiar manner have to learn this lesson. Let a man, for instance, be called to the great work of preaching the gospel. He is successful; God helped him; thousands wait at his feet, and multitudes hang upon his lips; as truly as that man is a man, he will have a tendency to be exalted above measure, and too much will he begin to look to himself, and too little to his God.

Let men speak who know, and what they know let them speak; and they will say, "It is true, it is most true." If God gives us a special mission, we generally begin to take some honor and glory to ourselves. But in review of the eminent saints of God, have you never observed how God has made them feel that he was God, and beside him there was none else? Poor Paul might have thought himself a god, and been puffed up above measure, by reason of the greatness of his revelation, had not there been a thorn in the flesh. But Paul could feel that he was not a god, for he had a thorn in the flesh, and gods could not have thorns in the flesh. Sometimes God teaches the minister, by denying him help on special occasions. We come up into our pulpits and say, "oh! I wish I could have a good day to-day!" We begin to labor; we have been just as earnest in prayer, and just as indefatigable; but it is like a blind horse turning round a mill, or like Samson with Delilah: we shake our vain limbs with vast surprise, "make feeble fight," and win no victories. We are made to see that the Lord is God, and that beside him there is none else.

Very frequently God teaches this to the minister, leading him to see his own sinful nature. He will have such an insight into his own wicked and abominable heart, that he will feel as he comes up the pulpit stairs that he does not deserve so much as to sit in his pew, much less to preach to his fellows. Although we feel always joy in the declaration of God's Word, yet we have known what it is to totter on the pulpit steps, under a sense that the chief of sinners should scarcely be allowed to preach to others. Ah! beloved, I do not think he will be very successful as a minister who is not taken into the depths and blackness of his own soul, and made to exclaim, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

- C.H.S from the sermon "Sovereignty and Salvation"

Christmas Lights are not the Gospel

2009-12-01T14:17:00.003-05:00

Christmas lights are not the gospel and it is not the job of the local mall to carry out the Great Commission.

"All this commercialism will not ruin my Christmas" - Charlie Brown

I read the following poem today:

Twas the month before Christmas
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying,
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas- no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About shepherds and wise men and angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a 'Holiday'.
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks, and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X-Box an I pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken and Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their tress upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
A K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace
The true gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,
not Happy Holiday!
Please, all Christians join together and
wish everyone you meet
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christ is "The Reason" for the Christ-mas Season!

So now according to the poem I am going to try to choose my words carefully.

I started to say that Christmas lights are not the gospel, and it is not the job of the local mall to carry out the Great Commission. I think this poem makes the old American expression of Christmas out to be equated with the gospel and puts the responsibility of proclaiming Christ's incarnation in the flesh in the hands of American secular commerce.

I am terribly sorry folks but December 25th is not the only day about Jesus. Nor is the time when the radio stations start playing Christmas music until the 25th the only time about Jesus. "From before Abraham was I AM" are the words of Jesus. He has always been and always will be. Thats who God is. The date December 25th is not a God instituted holiday. Nor are Christmas trees biblical, they started out as pagan fertility symbols. So we can continue to fuss about our giant pine male fertility symbols and putting crosses on our pine female fertility symbols all we want, but that is not fighting for the gospel. Being able to say Merry Christmas is not a God given right. But proclaiming the gospel in its entirety is a God given command.

Why in the world do people in the church get so upset when people who don't know Jesus don't want to talk about Jesus? Hello! It is not the responsibility of Wal-Mart to proclaim the coming of Christ, it is the job of the church. So do not get angry when the world says Happy Holidays! Fighting over wise men who weren't actually at the stable when Jesus was born is not worth fighting for. Scripture does not tell us to fight against the authorities, rather they tell us to suffer well. Not that I think having Kwanzaa decorations next to Christmas ones is suffering.

To compare politicians with Reindeer being taken out of Christmas is foolish to say the least. It is not the governments job to proclaim Christ. It is a good thing that we have separation of Church and State to a degree. Because it is a terrible thing we can see from Church History when the State begins to proclaim and enforce a Jesus that isn't the Jesus of the scriptures.

It is not the job of Christians to force the American holiday of Christmas down the throat of those around them. Rather it is their job to proclaim the gospel unashamedly in its entirety, even through persecution. The gospel is a hill to die on, not Jesus wrapping paper.

I can say with Charlie Brown, commercialism will not ruin my Christmas. Because the American Dream cannot hold water against my Jesus who is worthy of Celebration 24/7 365 and always will be worthy of adoration and praise.

Good Friday > Black Friday: Why Jesus Saves from the American Dream.

2009-11-27T01:37:00.006-05:00

It is nearing 2AM and I should probably be in bed sleeping. I am awake writing instead. In about an hour or two thousands upon thousands of Americans will wake up to fight one another over sale items. Many are sleeping in tents lined up outside of stores hoping to get whatever it is they have in mind to buy before someone else. It seems every year we hear some story about how someone was killed on Black Friday while shopping. I would love to know that my cause of death was a sweater vest on sale or perhaps Guitar Hero, for those are noble causes for which to die.

Black Friday will be a lovely time for many Americans to spend money they don't really have on things they really don't need; which ultimately serve gods that do not save. But there is good news: Good Friday triumphs over Black Friday and Jesus saves from the American Dream.

Wikipedia, in all of its scholarly glory defines the American Dream. Ultimately it is the pursuit of wealth and prosperity. In this American Dream there is a false sense of hope. The falsehood of its hope is appearing to many people now as it never has before. In case you did not know, the economy is awful and unemployment rates are really really really high. The U.S. Dollar does not have the weight it once did in international economics. So maybe now people aren't putting as much hope in prosperity as they see it quickly being wicked away.

I pray I never lose sight of the words of Jesus in Matthew 6

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. - Matthew 6:19-24

I'm not sure how much needs to be said about Jesus' words here. I think he is pretty straight forward. Don't treasure what is temporal and can be destroyed on earth. Treasure what is in heaven and eternal, that would be Christ himself. Jesus said where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Get that? What you treasure most in life is where your heart will be. There will be what motivates your life. Why treasure that which is perishable? Make Jesus treasure, he has supremacy over anything you can go out and buy tomorrow. You cannot treasure both Christ and things. Consider the weight of Good Friday in Christ's atonement for sin and its ultimate end with the resurrection of Christ three days later. That is supreme over the clothes you can buy in a couple hours that will go out of style quite quickly. The technology you buy this Black Friday will be out dated in less than a year from its purchase. Though these things may last for a while, their impact is not eternal. But Christ, he is the I AM. He always has been, is, and always will be. For by him, for him, and through him were all things created.

Jesus is a treasure worth far more than any amount of money that can be saved. He can save your soul, which to him is much more valuable than any amount of money that you can save. He paid the ultimate price so that mankind could be redeemed, his own life.

Good Friday will always be supreme to Black Friday and Jesus saves from the American Dream.

Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Benefits of Exposition

2009-11-25T19:39:00.002-05:00

I'm working on a sermon for Sunday morning. My text is Nehemiah 8 and my pastor was kind enough to allow me to borrow Charles Simeon's expository notes on the book. Simeon states that the public exposition of scripture (which is what is happening in Nehemiah 8 and 9) have several benefits. One of the benefits it brings is that "It brings every part of the sacred records into view." I cannot help but agree with Simeon. When one sets forth with the task to exposit scripture properly, one cannot tip toe around controversial issues. If indeed you plan to deal justly and rightly divide the text at hand.

Simeon continues:

There are some who bring forward the doctrinal part of Scripture exclusively, and leave the practical part entirely out of sight: there are others who insist only on the practical parts, and leave out the doctrinal. There are some also to whom many of the doctrines contained in the sacred volume are perfectly hateful; and who never in all their lives so much as mentioned the doctrines of predestination and election, but to explain them away, and to abuse the persons who maintained them. But by expounding whole books of Scripture, every doctrine must be noticed in its turn, and the connexion between them and our practice must be pointed out. True it is, that this mode of preaching would not altogether exclude false doctrine; but it would render the establishment of errors more difficult, because the hearers would be able to judge, in some good measure, how far the true and legitimate sense of Scripture was given, and how far it was perverted. The benefit of this therefore cannot be too highly appreciated.

I think there is much wisdom in the words of Simeon for the preacher of the gospel. We must take Scripture as it presents itself, taking it in whole. Not ignoring the things we do not want to preach or seem to contradict a systematic theology. We must be careful not to proclaim non-stop doctrine like that of a lecture while missing implications of scripture that lead to applications in the life of the hearer. Our sermons must have a theological backbone rather than fluffy messages that are no different than that which would be heard by Dr. Phil or Oprah. The message of the gospel preacher must be that which is proclaimed under biblical authority.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. - 2 Timothy 2:15

Thankful that I'm incapable of doing any good on my own.

2009-11-25T19:23:00.003-05:00

Here we have probably the most played song in my iTune's library. Its the song KLove loves to play every year at Thanksgiving. It has nothing to do with Turkeys. But plenty to do with the theology of the Pilgrims. Its really about the depravity of man and the purpose and end of sovereign election of individuals to salvation. So I'm thankful that I'm incapable of doing any good on my own. Jesus saved me, and that is something to be thankful for three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq3leaf2eag

What is it to believe?

2009-11-23T14:11:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpSMRTvipgw

Making more of Sunday morning

2009-11-22T08:23:00.002-05:00

Many of us go to church on Sunday morning and do just that, go. We go, sing, shake hands, sit, try to pay attention, shake more hands, get in the car, argue about what to do for lunch, and then comes Monday. This is the story of a lot of us who go to church, but Sunday morning should be so much more.

Going to church is an act of worship. It is a time for true fellowship with the Triune God and with brothers and sisters. It is a time where you not only worship when you sing, but when you sit under the preaching of God's word. What I would love to see is for people to get more out of their Sunday morning. I think in its ultimate end will glorify God.

A few things to do so.

1) Pray. - Pray for your pastor as he prepares his sermon. Pray for your Sunday school teacher/small group leaders as they prepare their lessons. Pray for your church that God will use her for his glory. Pray for yourself that God would give you receptive ears to hear from his word.

2) Carry your bible to church. - The core of orthodox Christianity is God's revelation to us, his word. The guy in the pulpit should be preaching from this book. Not using it to proof-text his own ideas, but revealing to his people what the bible says, because what the bible says is what God is saying. (If you aren't getting this at church, I would advise finding another church that does.)

3) Open your bible - Don't just carry your bible to look pious. It does you know good if its shut. Yes I know your church probably has the scripture on the screen(s) in front of you. Open it any way and read it. It'll keep you involved with the sermon and perhaps keep the message in your mind longer than the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday.

4) Get a notebook - Take notes during the sermon in a good notebook. Even if you are given little bulletin inserts I would advise taking your own notes. If that means copying the fill in the blanks from the insert to your notebook. I know I'm really prone to loose sheets of paper. But if I lost my Moleskine notebook I would cry. I'm working on filling my second notebook up now since I started doing this my first semester in college. Not only can I go back and look at sermons I've heard in the past, but it has made me a better listener. These notebooks are priceless when you fill them.

5) Discuss the sermon over lunch - Take time with your family and friends over lunch to discuss the sermon. It is biblical, have your conversations seasoned with salt.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:8-9

See, its biblical.

6) Pray through out the week about what you heard on Sunday morning. - Take the time to meditate on what you heard, it'll stick with you. It'll make you more like Jesus if you're hearing the bible on Sunday mornings. You can also continue to study through the text(s) of scripture you heard on Sunday morning.

7) Listen to this sermon by a Scottish dude named Alistar Begg- It is what inspired me to post this. I think it'll help you understand the significance of what is going on behind the pulpit and in the pews on Sunday morning.

http://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2009/11/13/the-first-christian-sermon-part-one-a/

What if?

2009-11-20T09:22:00.004-05:00

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

What if? What if more of us in the church were like Paul in our desires? I think its pretty safe to say from my reading of the New Testament that the Apostle Paul's greatest desire was the gospel of Christ with its proclamations and implications.

I've thought a bit about desires this morning because I have seen a trend on Facebook this morning. I see a lot of people who can be grouped in to one of two categories. Those who are extremely excited about Twilight and those who are tired of hearing about it. I've seen people counting down the days till the movie premiered and they stayed awake and waited in lines to see the premiere. They were excited to say the least.

I'm not writing to pick on Twilight or the people who have been ever so excited about it coming out. Nor the people who are tired of hearing about it. People have done the same thing for Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, the list goes on. But it isn't just movies. There are guys who live for the opening day of deer season. People plan using their entire vacation days from work around the run of a small bony fish that migrates south past our coast every fall, the noble Spot. For some Sunday morning at church becomes nothing more than a pre-game session to sit in the pew and think about the football game and what to pick up on the way home.

What if our greatest desire became the one who created us to enjoy him? What if we thought more of God than we did ourselves? Isn't that the call of the Christian life? Did not Christ say if any man wish to follow after me he must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow? Did not the Apostle say that it was no longer he that lived, but Christ? Might we get excited with David and see the law of the Lord as the delight of our soul? Might we desire God? What if we could say eagerly with the Apostle, Maranatha, Lord come quickly?

We must ask ourselves, where are my desires?

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. - Psalm 37:4

When Trials Come

2009-11-17T11:23:00.001-05:00

When Trials Come

When trials come, no longer fear,
For in the pain our God draws near
To fire a faith worth more than gold,
And there His faithfulness is told;
And there His faithfulness is told.

Within the night I know Your peace;
The breath of God brings strength to me,
And new each morning mercy flows
As treasures of the darkness grow,
As treasures of the darkness grow,

I turn to wisdom not my own
For every battle You have known.
My confidence will rest in You;
Your love endures; Your ways are good.
Your love endures; Your ways are good.

When I am weary with the cost,
I see the triumph of the cross;
So in its shadow I shall run
Till He completes the work begun,
Till He completes the work begun.

One day all things will be made new;
I’ll see the hope You called me to,
And in Your kingdom, paved with gold,
I’ll praise Your faithfulness of old;
I’ll praise Your faithfulness of old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoL3wY4KwA8

Finding Orthodoxy

2009-11-16T22:55:00.003-05:00

Today I decided to clean up my truck a bit. I don't think it has ever been cleaned in the history of its 3 drivers. The first driver passed away shortly after buying it, then my father bought the truck. He used it as a work truck so it was never cleaned. But it managed to get layer after layer of black dirt, then I inherited the truck when off to college. I began to throw away all the garbage that had collected behind the seat from a decade ago. In getting rid of the garbage I managed to find Orthodoxy. In finding Orthodoxy I mean that I found my copy of G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

So I came across a paragraph that made me think of something Chesterton was not using the paragraph at all for. In the midst of arguing about what defines madness and sanity we come to this paragraph, which is Chesterton's response to a man who claims himself to be Christ.

I'm sure this makes me a bad student, bad reader of books, and a zealot with a literary dagger. Nevertheless I would like to share my thoughts.

...So you are the Creator and Redeemer of the world: but what a small world it must be! What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies! How said it must be to be God; and an inadequate God! Is there really no life fuller and no love more marvelous than yours; and is it really in your small painful pity that all flesh must put its faith? How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the starts like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down!

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. - 1 John 5:21

The last phrase of John's epistle. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. My first thoughts of Chesterton's response to the mad man who claimed to be Christ was that of my own sin and idolatry. You see when we sin we make something more important than God, we fasten for ourselves idols. What small gods do our idols make in comparison to the Creator of the universe and the redeemer of mankind.

Is anything other than God really worthy of worship. When I went to Pittsburgh last fall I quickly found out what the city worshiped, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bowing down to big Ben today will do you know good when they fell to the Bengals. What good does the images of the woman in front of you naked do when the computer is off and your pleasure is fleeting. All that is produced is a slavery to come back again and again. Why devote yourself to impress a world that will ultimately fade way?

I cannot help but recall the words of the Lord given to the prophet Jeremiah:

Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the ways of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a crafts man. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

- Jeremiah 10:2-5

Idols: worthless.

Nothing we can fashion with our hands or in our minds can sustain us forever, its all fleeting, vanity, as my ESV footnote says, mist. Everything we worship other than Christ Jesus is vanity gone like a vapor.

Isaiah speaks of the folly of idolatry:

The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" - Isaiah 44:13-17

A tree is found and cut, one half is fashioned into and idol while the other half is burned to keep warm. What folly is found in worshiping creation rather than creator. How much do we limit our spectrum of worship when we place our affections on fleeting things. We become much like Chesterton's madman when we worship anything other than Christ. Our universe becomes terribly small and there is so much around us that is much more powerful than that which we have fashioned for ourselves. Those things can and ultimately be destroyed.

May we say with Jeremiah, "There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might." (Jeremiah 10:6)

Stop with the lollygagging and listen...

2009-11-12T16:16:00.003-05:00

If you can spend an hour on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or whatever else lollygagging on the internet you can take 50 minutes and listen to this sermon by Joshua Harris. Its all about Christ and his righteousness and how significant it is in our lives. It really, really, really, really, really is worth listening to.

http://www.covlife.org/resources/3504519-The_Righteousness_of_Christ

Dudes, Dudettes, Single, Married II

2009-11-11T16:59:00.005-05:00

I'm not married. I'm not dating. But I think much can be appreciated from this video as a single person. Because I know so many times in singleness I've been known to covet the idea of dating and being surrounded by married people, marriage. But the scriptures call that idolatry, and that is a bad thing. Dating isn't bad, marriage isn't bad. But allowing that to take the place of Jesus in what you worship is a terrible thing. Being single I pray about dating, I pray about marriage and in my prayers I pray that Christ would be exalted. That in a dating relationship/marriage (God willing that happens to me), God would be glorified and the love of Christ would be shown to the world through a marriage that would represent the way Christ loved his bride. Right now that is probably fairly distant, so I seek to serve God in my singleness. Not to impose upon scripture, but if I be single or dating I must learn to be content in Christ, for I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Even if that means a life of singleness for the Kingdom of Heaven. Praise be to God if it be in his will that he has in store for me as Whitefield put it, "a daughter of Abraham to be my wife."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spy75eG5nrE (This is the link to the video because when this gets imported as a note on Facebook it won't be visible.)

Remember Your Creator

2009-11-03T20:25:00.003-05:00

Can I urge you to take heed to the words of the preacher? They are like goads and nails firmly fixed and are given by one Shepherd, Christ Jesus.

The words of the preacher:

Remember also your creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them." - Ecclesiastes 12:1

This verse has not left me since I heard Alistar Begg preach on it early this year. It made such an impression on me I proceeded to preach the entirety of the chapter on Sunday night when I was invited to preach at a church.

Tonight I was really reflective of this verse as I observed my Dad. I took them to the New Hanover Co. Fair tonight. I had about as much desire to have my foot shot off as I did go to the fair, but I went. My Father has suffered from 3 strokes, two of which the doctors have classified as "major". So to say the least they have affected my Dad. They have completely changed his personality, and have made it difficult to do the things we all dismiss because we do them so much. Watching my Dad has made me thankful to be able to button my pants every morning without difficulty, and be able to get up out of bed. If you can have a steady logical conversation with someone for a steady 10 mins, you've got my Dad beat. The stroke has severely affected his ability to communicate. It was hard for him to even answer the simple 'yes' or 'no' question of "do you want to go look at the animals tonight?"

So if you can button your pants, have a conversation, read, and comprehend what someone is saying to you may I besiege you to listen to the words of the Preacher.

Remember your Creator.
Life for him.
Glorify him.
Tell others about him.
Soak up as much as you can from his word.
Serve the local body as much as you can.

"You were bought with a price, you are not your own, so glorify God with your body." - 1 Corinthians 6:20

Beloved I tell you my Dad is only 48, and had the first two strokes when he was 46. By no means am I saying my Father never remembered his Creator, I'm ever so thankful for my Father and the example he laid before me. Always praying, always. Serving the church in whatever way he could. Going on mission trips. I've learned much about being able to glorify our Creator from my Father. But we are not promised tomorrow, we aren't promised we can do as we please and then one day decide to follow Jesus. We aren't promised that we'll live long enough for our hair to turn grey and fall out. We aren't promised we'll make it to the point where our legs shake, and when we were once 6'4'' we've stooped over and lost a foot of our height. We aren't promised we'll live long enough to have our teeth fall out and go blind. We may never make it to the point where the slightest noise causes us to wake from our slumber. We aren't promised to make it to a point where we can be married and enjoy the benefits of intimacy, and one day have those desires taper with age. We aren't promised forever to draw from the bounty of life on this earth.

The preacher warns that we need remember our Creator before we lose all of our faculties. I besiege you with him to glorify God, life for him. Because the days when you lose your faculties may come quicker than you imagine.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

DWYL - Soli Deo Gloria -

Dudes, Dudettes, Single, Married.

2009-11-01T20:58:00.002-05:00

Take a listen to today's sermon at Covenant Life Church by Joshua Harris on Proverbs 31:10-31. (As I titled the post, I think anyone can take a listen to this sermon and can be edified by gleaning something from it)

Sermon- The Woman of Valor

Awakening

2009-10-21T20:27:00.003-05:00

I've got a few thoughts on Nehemiah 8 after today I had a conversation about revival.

Proclamation

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. - Nehemiah 8:1-3

The entire nation is gathered as the book of the Law is being read. All the ears of the nation of Israel are turned where? To the word of God.

Where are our ears turned today in the church? Are they turned to word of God, what is the desire of the church? What are we listening to, is it the word of God? God forbid we desire to have our ears tickled, and make for ourselves teachers to suit our ungodliness.

There is hope if we continue to read the rest of the chapter. This listening to the word of God produces results when it falls on open ears.

And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. - Nehemiah 8:4-5

Ezra the priest stands and begins to read from the Law. Note a place for the exhortation of scripture was built as a place for an act of worship. Exhortation is worship! So many people think worship is the thing you do when you sing on Sunday mornings, and thats it. Worship is more than just a genre of music, it is to be giving praise and adoration in everything the Christian does. Then the people rose to the reading of the word of God, the exhortation of scripture is a corporate act of worship. It isn't just worship for the one attempting to expose the word of God, but for the hearers to. Going to church, listening to your Pastor preach on Sunday morning is an act of worship. To quote Christ, "Let him who has ears, let him hear." God is speaking through his words, if you have ears to hear. If you have the Spirit of God in you, take heed to what he is saying through his word, it is an act of worship.

And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. - Nehemiah 8:6-8

Ezra praised God through the reading of his word, and the people respond in worship. The word of God prompts worship, they lifted up their hands to the reading of the word of God. Again I say, worship is more than just the music you sing on Sunday morning. When, if ever, was the last time you saw people raise their hands in worship during the time dedicated to the exhortation of Scripture on Sunday morning or any other time?

It was the word that was taught to the nation that prompted praise, not the ideas of men. The priest interpreted it, and the people gave praise! We must ask ourselves, do we praise God for his word? Do we praise him for hearing from him as he speaks through his prophets? The word of God is meant to be proclaimed, and it is not so distant that we cannot understand it. It is not so far over our heads that it is out of grasp. It is where it can be understood. And when it is proclaimed, and understood, it prompts praise. It exalts God, and brings exultation.

Exultation

Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved." And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. - Nehemiah 8:10-12

The joy of the LORD is your strength. Following the proclamation of the word of God, the people went to rejoice in what they heard. It brings joy, you an exult in God on Sunday morning while you heard the word of God preached. Amazing stirrings arise in my soul as I listen to men faithfully exposit God's words. The people exulted in God's word because they understood it. Make it a joyful act of worship as you listen to the word of God proclaimed.

Verses 13-18 the people celebrate the Feast of Booths, they continue in their worship and enjoyment of God.

And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule. - Nehemiah 8:17-18

Being reminded of what God had done with his people during their of wanderings they continued to worship. There was great rejoicing. There is joy when you are satisfied in God. The reading of the Law continued, day by day the reading of the Law did not cease, and the people continued to listen. Perhaps we could take note that a sermon on Sunday morning isn't a fix all for the week, we need to constantly be in the word of God, it transforms and awakens the hearts of men.

Repentance

The people continue to worship under the reading of the Law and it leads to confession and repentance. We find ourselves in chapter 9.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. - Nehemiah 9:1-4

The nation separated themselves, and they confessed their own sins, and the sins that came from those who were before them. Including the syncretism of that came from the nations surrounding them worshiping false idols and the worship of the Lord. They were prompted to confession and worship. If you pray for an awakening among the people of God, pray it is an awakening that comes from a turning of the church back to the word of God. When people come before it, they fall face down and confess their sin.

Doxology

The people confess their sins and worship God. The Nation breaks out in doxology.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise." - Nehemiah 9:5

This is just the beginning of the priest telling the story of God's relationship with his people. The word of God being proclaimed leads to praise and worship of the incredible Creator of all things. It sparks a heart of worship within the people of God, it brings forth reformation into the likeness of Christ.

It stirs hearts to make declarations like, ""Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly." - Nehemiah 9:32-33

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. - 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Spectacular Sins

2009-10-16T10:12:00.001-05:00

I read the following and my heart about beat its way out of my chest:

The apex of the glory of Christ is the glory of his grace--treating people infinitely better than they deserve--giving himself for the everlasting joy of the worst sinners who will have him as their highest Treasure. And the apex of this grace is the murder of the God-man outside Jerusalem around A.D. 33. The death of Jesus Christ was murder. It was the most spectacular sin ever committed.

At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God's grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That's the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display--the very glory that they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace

- Piper, Spectacular Sins. p 12.

Fan the Flame

2009-10-10T12:28:00.002-05:00

7 Pages of notes, may be one of the most important sermons I have ever heard in my life as a man called to preach the gospel unashamedly. I do not normally sit down in front of a computer and listen with my notebook, I did this time. I'm glad I did.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/video/Feed-the-Flame-of-Gods-Gift-Unashamed-Courage-in-the-Gospel

Listen.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

-2 Timothy 1:1-12 (emphasis mine)

Reflecting

2009-10-08T22:40:00.002-05:00

This afternoon I've felt much in line with Paul in Romans 7

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25

I don't like things to dominate my thoughts that aren't God honoring, they can quickly become idolatry. I would like to keep my thoughts fixated on the things that are above, with Christ who is seated in the heavenly places. So I've been in a kindly odd mood this evening. So I decided to go for a walk and listen to a sermon by Alistar Begg, I just downloaded today's broadcast of Truth for Life. Begg was preaching on well; preaching, preaching grace specifically to a group of pastors.

Begg said the following during the sermon, "If we do not take refuge in the gospel we will take refuge somewhere else." God forbid we take refuge in anything other than the gospel. I began to think of my own calling to preach the gospel through the word of God. I thought back to the very first time I preached, the only thing I knew to do, the only thing I thought really made sense as a 15 year old was to go to the bible. So that's what I did, I went to a text of scripture and did my best to expose what I thought the text was telling. I didn't know what it was called at the time, and I probably could have done a lot better job at it, but for what its worth it was an attempt at exposition. Preaching the word of God ought to have the word of God at the center of its preaching. It isn't mean to be just a base to shoot off our own ideas, rather the Scriptures are God's words that instruct us. We preach Christ, and him crucified, and it He is preached boldly, without wavering, and it is this preaching that is built on the authority of the word of God. I believe the word of God is the foundation of the Christian faith, without it we wouldn't know what the Christian faith is, or how it should be lived out.

So I stand on the tweet I posted earlier: "When I was 15 I felt the call to preach, I went to the bible. God forbid I ever leave it."

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 2 Corinthians 4:5

Might we have a high view of Christ

2009-10-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

Piper on the Old Testament

2009-10-05T19:06:00.003-05:00

I was just listening to a sermon from a text in the gospel of John by John Piper when I heard the following quote at the end of the sermon. It is worth sharing. You can listen to the sermon here. Here is the quote:

Don't stiff arm the Jewish scriptures they are gold. God is being revealed and when God is being revealed Jesus our friend and Lord is being revealed. I believe one of the reasons why there is such thin Christian discipleship of Jesus today, is because we have ripped the vision of him out of the Old Testament out of the bible. we think the old testament is just to tough. and we need some fiber today in our love for Christ. the whole Old Testament vibrates with a kind of depth and strength and weight and solidity with out which you cannot know how to follow Jesus. Its just so sentimental. We just ripped out , plucked out, reinvented in 21st century categories, not Isaiahic categories, Mosaic categories, Malachi categories, Amos categories. Let yourself be shaped by these massive realities in the OT. Then when Jesus shows up with things that will knock your socks off, you can say that is my King. - John Piper

A Bigger Problem than Death

2009-10-05T11:10:00.001-05:00

Hold firm

2009-09-30T20:38:00.003-05:00

I can think of nothing more valuable than the gospel which is taught through the revelation of God through his word. I cherish His word. I am ever so grateful for the men who have labored to make an attempt to translate from its original texts into essentially literal English texts so that we might know God's word. It is at the center of my world view. For many who profess faith in Christ, their belief in God is not centered the scriptures. Many have faith in their emotions and feelings, and believe that an existential understanding of the metaphysical realm is sufficient enough. Though I'm very much aware my emotions change, so perhaps my God could be one way today and another tomorrow. (This is not to say that emotions are bad, but my affections aren't a map to the realm of the divine.) My faith is built on an understanding of God in scripture. I think the scriptures are the core to basic orthodox evangelical Christianity, even documents like the Nicean and Apostle's creeds were not independent ideas of their own. The doctrines they teach come from ideas presented in the Scriptures.

I've been thinking much on the scriptures and their centrality my life and faith. If I believe to a doctrine, I do not want to believe a doctrine just because it happens to match a system. I want it to have roots within the bounds of scripture, and if I'm to argue for a particular doctrine I want to argue from the scriptures. With that said, two texts have been on my mind.

The first, Titus 1:9

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. - Titus 1:9

This verse of scripture is one that is to reflect the qualifications for an elder. I'm not an elder in a church. But I do have a desire to church plant, which would put me in the position of an elder in a church some day. The two words that really stick out (and I do not know if I should be making emphasis) are "hold firm." He must hold firm to the trustworthy word, as it is taught. HOLD FIRM. Then Paul takes the next 6 verses to talk about those who haven't held firm to the trustworthy word. He must hold firm so that he can teach sound doctrine, and correct those who are teaching false doctrines. Then Paul rolls right in again in 2:1 "But as for you teach what accords with sound doctrine." There is much to be taught from the scriptures. They are an anchor that keep men from being "carried about by every wind of doctrine" (See Eph 4:11-16). I made a comment a month or so ago when I was talking with a friend that "the bible wasn't give for us to proof text our own ideas." A month later I'm confident it still is true, and i'm holding firm to my copy of the canon.

I pray it can always be said of me, if I'm an elder in a church or not the following from Calvin's commentary on Titus 1:9:

Paul therefore enjoins that those persons shall be chosen, who, having cordially embraces the truth of God, and holding it firmly, never allow it to be wrestled from them, or can be torn from it. - Calvin

The second text that has been on my mind is in 2 Timothy.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. -2 Timothy 3:12-15

Again you can see Paul talking about holding firm to the word. He encourages Timothy to continue in the word, the one he firmly believed. I won't say a whole lot about this text, because I'm going to be preaching it Sunday night. I'll blog on it later I'm sure. Until then...

Hold firm.

solideogloriasemper.

Gathering...

2009-09-25T13:50:00.001-05:00

He gathers the waters of sea as a heap, he puts the deep in storehouses. - Ps 33:7

He contains the seas as easily as a farmer keeps the grain in a store house. Rainstorms, hurricanes, flash floods, subterranean waters, and the mighty oceans inspire awe because of their power and existence apart from man. How much greater should we stand in awe of the Lord? - Expositors Bible Commentary on Psalm 33:7

A word from Ed Stetzer

2009-09-23T08:43:00.001-05:00

You can read Ed Stetzer's post on Between the times here on why he is a Southern Baptist. I agree with the things Stetzer is saying on why he is a part of the SBC, and would include those reasons myself of why I am a Southern Baptist.

Listen to this...

2009-09-21T13:45:00.000-05:00

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/Shadowlands-Pitfalls-and-Parodies-of-Gospel-Centered-Ministry

To Borrow a Hymn

2009-09-13T22:45:00.001-05:00

O church, arise and put your armor on;
Hear the call of Christ our captain;
For now the weak can say that they are strong
In the strength that God has given.
With shield of faith and belt of truth
We’ll stand against the devil’s lies;
An army bold whose battle cry is “Love!”
Reaching out to those in darkness.

Our call to war, to love the captive soul,
But to rage against the captor;
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valor.
When faced with trials on ev’ry side,
We know the outcome is secure,
And Christ will have the prize for which He died—
An inheritance of nations.

Come, see the cross where love and mercy meet,
As the Son of God is stricken;
Then see His foes lie crushed beneath His feet,
For the Conqueror has risen!
And as the stone is rolled away,
And Christ emerges from the grave,
This vict’ry march continues till the day
Ev’ry eye and heart shall see Him.

So Spirit, come, put strength in ev’ry stride,
Give grace for ev’ry hurdle,
That we may run with faith to win the prize
Of a servant good and faithful.
As saints of old still line the way,
Retelling triumphs of His grace,
We hear their calls and hunger for the day
When, with Christ, we stand in glory.

Born Again

2009-09-13T21:07:00.000-05:00

Abiding Sweetness

2009-09-12T10:16:00.004-05:00

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! - Psalm 119:103

Today is right a month since my Dad was put in the hospital for a second major stroke. This past month has been the most challenging month of my short 20 years on this earth so far. But in the midst of all these trials, I really can say it has been a joyful month. James wrote, "consider it all joy my brothers when you encounter trials of various kinds, for we know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." (James 1:2-3) I'm not sure how I would get through this time with my sanity if it weren't for knowing Christ.

I've been able to take joy in the fact that as a Christian I've been called an "elect exile" and that this isn't my home, rather I have an "inheritance kept in heaven, that is imperishable, undefined, and unfading."

I go to bed praying and wake up reminded of the promise of God, that "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning and great is his faithfulness." and because of that "the LORD is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him." By putting my hope in him, I have a reason to give a defense for the times people ask about the hope that I have in me. (1 Peter 3:15)

I've been reminded time and time again that "God works all things together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose." I stand firm on the fact that he has a calling, and a plan. It is one that is a perfect will that cannot be thwarted. "Though the grass withers and the flowers fade, the word of the LORD stands forever." so I can treasure the fact that God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Praise be to God that he is control of everything going on, not I. Because I cannot escape the words of my Savior from the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not lay up for yourselves on earth treasures, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, so will your heart be also."

I love my father ever so much, I don't know how I can express the love for my parents with words on here right now, especially in the midst of this trial. But Christ has supremacy over my parents, if my hope was solely in them, my hope would be crushed. The stroke has taken away a lot of the man I know to be my father and has replaced him with a man who does and says things my Daddy never did or said. But my hope is in Christ, that this is not my home. My hope is that Jesus reigns supreme over all the nerves and vessels of my Daddy's body and one day when we get to a city build by God, those things will be as they were created to be from the beginning. That is hope!

I've quoted quite a bit of scripture in this post, all of it from memory. One of the most comforting things during this past month have been the scriptures that keep coming to the forefront of my mind in the midst of trial. I cannot tell you how many times I've been reminded of Lamentations 3. I never know what time I'm going to be woken up, or for what reason come morning time. But I know that no matter what happens, God's mercies are new every morning and great is his faithfulness.

Beloved, I cannot encourage you enough to take the time to memorize scripture. It is priceless and ever so sweet to have the words of the Lord kept in your heart.

I close this post with two things, some words of our Saviour, and a sermon on those words.

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done to you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." - John 15:7-8

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/3483_If_My_Words_Abide_in_You/

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! - Psalm 119:103

soli deo gloria

What Baptist can learn from Calvin

2009-09-02T22:48:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Dr. Finn for showing this article on Between the Times on what Baptist can learn from Calvin.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thepastinthepresent/historymatters/whatbaptistscanlearnfromcalvin.html

A Question about Eldership

2009-09-02T22:17:00.004-05:00

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. (2) Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, (3) not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. (4) He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, (5) for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? (6) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. (7) Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. - 1 Timothy 3:1-7

Do we let 1 Timothy 3:7 to outweigh verses 1-6 in our churches?

Preaching the 27th

2009-08-31T23:08:00.002-05:00

I'm preaching at KBFBC on the 27th of this month and I've been praying about what text to preach. I've been wanting to preach the following passage since February, I think it may be what I preach. Prayers would be appreciated.

Psalms 33:1-22
(1) Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
(2) Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
(3) Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
(4) For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
(5) He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
(6) By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
(7) He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.
(8) Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
(9) For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
(10) The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
(11) The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
(12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
(13) The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
(14) from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
(15) he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
(16) The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
(17) The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
(18) Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
(19) that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
(20) Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
(21) For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
(22) Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Take the 6 Mins, watch this.

2009-08-29T13:22:00.002-05:00

Morning - August 29th

2009-08-29T10:13:00.001-05:00

“Have mercy upon me, O God.” Psalm 51:1

When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, “If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?” He replied, “Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.’” In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and nothing more should be cut on his gravestone:—

William Carey, Born August 17th, 1761: Died - -
“A wretched, poor, and helpless worm
On thy kind arms I fall.”

Only on the footing of free grace can the most experienced and most honored of the saints approach their God. The best of men are conscious above all others that they are men at the best. Empty boats float high, but heavily laden vessels are low in the water; mere professors can boast, but true children of God cry for mercy upon their unprofitableness. We have need that the Lord should have mercy upon our good works, our prayers, our preachings, our alms-givings, and our holiest things. The blood was not only sprinkled upon the doorposts of Israel’s dwelling houses, but upon the sanctuary, the mercy-seat, and the altar, because as sin intrudes into our holiest things, the blood of Jesus is needed to purify them from defilement. If mercy be needed to be exercised towards our duties, what shall be said of our sins? How sweet the remembrance that inexhaustible mercy is waiting to be gracious to us, to restore our backslidings, and make our broken bones rejoice!

~C.H. Spurgeon

I agree.

2009-08-27T23:24:00.000-05:00

"I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books."- C S Lewis

(Thanks to Rick Warren for sharing this on Twitter.)

Not All Who Wander Are Lost - Tolkien and Peter

2009-08-24T22:08:00.004-05:00

"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."- Gandalf, from The Fellowship of the Ring

I know tons of people have heard the one bit of that quote, "Not all who wander are lost." I've seen it on shirts, rings, cups, and all over Facebook. You can find it under my favourite quotes. I've really been trying to live a life like the one we are instructed to live like in Peter's 1st epistle. He addresses his readers as God's elect exiles, his chosen aliens if you will. To those who are are in Christ Jesus, we must remember that this is not our home. Peter's readers were enduring much persecution from the Roman world, and it was for comfort and instruction that Peter taught them of their true citizenship.

How often though can we say as Christians we live like this is only temporary? Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount that we shouldn't store up treasures on earth where rust and moths destroy, but rather store up treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. - 1 Peter 1:3-5

Not all that is gold glitters here on the earth. The shining glory of God our Father awaits us. For the saints of God, there is something to hold on to, an inheritance kept in heaven by the Saviour. When our faith is tested, it is more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire. All this awaiting at the revelation of Jesus' second coming.

Not all who wander are lost

This is not our home:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which rage war against your soul. - 1 Peter 2:11

Sojourners - we only have a temporary stay on this earth. Though we wander the face of the globe, in Jesus we aren't lost. Though we aren't in our home as a exiles we have direction. One that involves following and submitting to the Lordship of Jesus. No longer following the passions of our former ignorance (1 Pt 1:14) but rather waging war against the flesh. Keeping upon the path illumined through the saving grace of Jesus.

Apart from Jesus there is wandering filled with lostness, being called not a people with no mercy. But with Christ called a people who are shown mercies that never cease.

The old that is strong does not wither

Jesus, God from the beginning, creator of all things. The word which became flesh, through whom and by whom all things were created.

Peter reminds us:

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. - 1 Peter 1:23-24

The word of God is strong and does not wither, though all other things will fade away. The word of the Lord is forever.

Deep roots are not reached by the frost

Jesus is called by Peter summoning from the Old Testament:

Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

and

A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. - 1 Peter 2:6-8

Just as the roots of a tree are its support, so is the cornerstone of a building. With no cornerstone the building cannot stand. It stands solid supporting the entirety of the building. Because of the cornerstone those in Christ can:

Come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. - 1 Peter 2:4-5

Our roots, our foundation is firm in Jesus.

Sojourning- soli deo gloria

Come

2009-08-20T20:57:00.002-05:00

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow’r.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies;
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! th’ incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

A Steady Pattern

2009-08-20T09:49:00.005-05:00

For those of you who don't know my Dad has had another stroke, which has me at home instead of being in College. I am only 20 years old, but this has been the hardest week of my life. I'm doing my best to count this time as joyful, and the only way I can is to know I have hope. Hope that this time on this earth, including this period of my life is only temporary. I find much hope that I have an inheritance kept in heaven by my Savior, and one day when the strokes or whatever may come are to much for my Dad, he has that inheritance kept for him as well.

Right now, for some reason my copy of Morning and Evening was left in my truck from my moving from Wake Forest. I started to read this mornings devotion, probably the 2nd or 3rd time I've ever read it, and it was about suffering and trials in the life of David. Spurgeon made much of God in reflecting on David's making much of God during suffering. He wrote of how comforting the Psalms of David are across the board for Christians during times of trials. I can certainly testify that I cannot count the times I've gone to the word of God in the Psalms and found much joy and comfort.

I just received an update from DesiringGod on Facebook with an article about suffering. I read the following quote in the article:

"My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ's sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the remembrance that our holy Head has surmounted all His suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow Him patiently; we shall soon be partakers of His victory"

Right now I feel like my head is deep in the briers, but I know my Savior's grace is sufficient and his mercies are new every morning. I know know no other hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

soli deo gloria

I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, but will full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. - Philippians 1:19-20

Booyah Matt Chandler

2009-08-19T15:53:00.004-05:00

I have a lot on my mind about preaching right now since I'm starting to work with Kure Beach First Baptist with a mentoring and interning period. One of the things that will entail is preaching. I also plan to take to write some soon, I've not been able to with transition stuff with school, to my Dad having a stroke, to transitioning back to Wilmington.

sdg

John MacArthur on Spurgeon and Worldly Preaching

2009-08-17T20:10:00.001-05:00

DWYL- Spurgeon

2009-08-15T14:14:00.001-05:00

A message that says "Don't Waste Your Life" from Spurgeon:

If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cut and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed.

...

2009-08-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-21

True Exultation

2009-08-06T22:07:00.003-05:00

Right now the economy is awful in the United States of American and in the past week I've noticed an increasing amount of talking/preaching around suffering. Maybe I'm just more inclined to listen to it since Pastor Joey at Kure Beach First Baptist has been preaching from 1 Peter. I spent a bit of time last night at the hospital as my Great Great Uncle Tom is slowly passing away due to a brain aneurysm. I spent majority of the day today with my family and of course as my family sees their father/grandfather/uncle/cousin passing away slowly they are grieving. But in the midst of their grief and suffering I see joy.

Peter gave much comfort to the persecuted church when he addressed them as the elect exiles. Beloved it is a joyous thing to know that this earth is not our home if we are in Christ Jesus. Peter wrote a doxology of praise to God first thing in his epistle:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. -1 Peter 1:3-5

Beloved to be in Christ Jesus when death approaches it is truly gain. For we have been made alive in Jesus to a living hope through his Resurrection. An inheritance that is kept for us by God in heaven! It is imperishable, undefiled and that is something to exult in.

Tonight I saw my family exulting in the fact that my Uncle Tom was soon to get his inheritance kept in heaven by God. They all gathered around his bed and started to sing hymns. Much like Peter first thing in his epistle in the midst of tremendous suffering rejoices in doxology. My family began singing songs of the inheritance to come. They gathered and prayed and took joy that Uncle Tom is an exile on this earth.

Oh that we would always be able to exult in our suffering, taking heed the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. -Romans 5:2-5

Soli Deo Gloria

What is preaching?

2009-08-03T12:53:00.001-05:00

How to make a worldwide difference - Piper

2009-08-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

Spurgeon on Church Growth

2009-07-28T16:06:00.003-05:00

I just read a quote by C.H. Spurgeon on church growth that I felt was worth sharing.

The only multiplication of the Church of God that is to be desired is that which God sends: “Thou hast multiplied the nation.” If we add to our churches by becoming worldly, by taking in persons who have never been born again; if we add to our churches by accommodating the life of the Christian to the life of the worldling, our increase is worth nothing at all; it is a loss rather than a gain. If we add to our churches by excitement, by making appeals to the passions, rather than by explaining truth to the understanding; if we add to our churches otherwise than by the power of the Spirit of God making men new creatures in Christ Jesus, the increase is of no worth whatever. - C.H.S

How Radical

2009-07-23T23:46:00.002-05:00

I was reading in Acts 4 tonight to follow along with a sermon excerpt I was listening to from John Piper when I noticed I had a verse outlined in Acts 5.

I had verse 31 underlined, but I began to read the context surrounding that verse. I cannot help but share these verses.

And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." - Acts 5:27-32

Preach the gospel! The message of Jesus as Luke recorded, "God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."

May we be witnesses of these things along with the Holy Spirit and those who have gone before us.

A Challenge from Piper

2009-07-23T23:16:00.000-05:00

Driscoll on Idolatry

2009-07-15T22:07:00.001-05:00

Looking at the glory of Grace in Ephesians 2:1-10

2009-07-12T03:03:00.003-05:00

How terribly to often to we loose sight of how powerful a transformation the gospel has made in our lives?

I'm beginning to think the 4 AM hour is one for writing because I find it to be the hour I awake often times and wrestle over things in my mind. Right now I'm reflecting over the gospel message we proclaim every night at Kure Beach. What my pastor said earlier when we were talking about the weightiness of the gospel, "You were dead. What does that mean?" He knows what it means, but simply meant to present the question in determining your soteriology.

I've started another book by Spurgeon about the relationship between the believer and the saint. The first chapter is a reflection or meditation if you will of Isaiah 53:3, "We esteemed him not"

All we who are like sheep have gone astray.

None is righteous, no, not one' no one understands; no one seeks for God' All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Rom 3:10-18)

Spurgeon wrote of sin saying:

Sin is a madness, disqualifying the mind for sober judgement; a blindness, rendering the soul incapable of appreciating moral beauty; it is in fact such a perversion of all the faculties, that under its terrible influence men will 'call evil good, and good evil; they will put darkness for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter'. To us in our fallen condition fiends often appear more fair than angels, we mistake the gates of hell for the portals of bliss, and prefer the garnished lies of Satan to the eternal varities of the Most High.

O sin, what hast thou done! Or rather, what hast thou undone! Yea, O monster, thou hast become a murderer, for thou hast made us dead in trespasses and sins!

That is where I am right now stirring over Ephesians 2:1-10.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked

Dead! No sick in sin, not half way dead! But dead!

Spurgeon continues writing on this verse, "This last word opens up the entire mystery; for if we are spiritually dead, it is of course impossible for us to know and reverence the Prince of glory. Can the dead be moved to ecstasies, or corpses excited to rapture? Exercise your skill on yonder lifeless body. It has not yet become a carnival for worms. The frame is still complete, though lifeless. Bring hither lute and harp; let melodies most sweet, and harmonies unequaled, attempt to move the man to pleasure: he smileth not at the swelling strain, he weepth not at the plaintive cadence; yea, could the orchestra of the redeemed pour forth their music, he would be deaf to the celestial charm."

We are so far away from understanding the glory of God apart from his son Jesus. The best of our best attempts to be righteous, filthy rags.

The result of our deadness in sin is servitude. Sound odd? Read with me as Paul continues:

in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Paul is writing to these Ephesians who are faithful saints in Christ Jesus and reminding them of the grace of God. The "in which you once walked" is the case for all of us who are in the Lord Jesus. But Paul is giving us a reminder of who we were, and what we are apart from Christ.

We were following the course of this world, not the course of God. Seeking the glory of God is nowhere to be found in the mind. Servitude belongs to the prince of the power of the air, not the King of Creation.

Calvin commentates:

A more severe condemnation of mankind could not have been pronounced. What does he leave to us, when he declares us to be the slaves of Satan, and subject to his will, so long as we live out of the kingdom of Christ? Our condition, therefore, though many treat it with ridicule, or, at least, with little disapprobation, may well excite our horror. Where is now the free-will, the guidance of reason, the moral virtue, about which Papist babble so much? What will they find that is pure or holy under the tyranny of the devil? On this subject, indeed, they are extremely cautious, and denounce this doctrine of Paul as a grievous heresy. I maintain, on the contrary, that there is no obscurity in the apostle's language; and that all men who live according to the world that is, according to the inclinations of the flesh, are here declared to fight under the reign of Satan.

Can we now begin to understand the weight of our sin?

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh All of us! Every night we share the gospel on the lot at the beach I quote Romans 3:23.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

You might could say it is an elementary verse. You can find it in countless gospel tracts, but I don't think we understand the weight of it. We don't come close to the glory of God. Not even close we are to busy walking in our own flesh being servants of the Devil! Our agenda outside of Christ is to carry out the desires of our flesh. And what does the bible call us, children of wrath.

Again I share Calvin's commentary:

All men without exception, whether Jews or Gentiles, are here pronounced to be guilty, until they are redeemed by Christ there is no righteousness, no salvation, and in short, no excellence. Children of wrath are those who are lost, and who deserve eternal death. Wrath means the judgement of God; so that the the children of wrath are those who are condemned before God.

If we can understand the weight of this we can see that the next two words of scripture are two of the sweetest and most beautiful of words one could ever read.

But God

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love in which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved.

Oh what beauty! What a treasure is the gospel of grace! We who were dead in our trespasses of sin and subject to the wrath of God are caused to be made alive together with Christ. In understanding the weight of our sin we can begin to understand the glory of grace in Ephesians 1.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things to the counsel of his will. so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

We were dead in our trespasses and sin, unable to will ourselves out of the yolk of slavery to sin and Satan. But God, being rich in mercy according to his plan made us alive. He predestined us for salvation long before the foundations of the earth. In his mercy he chose us not to be subjects of his wrath, rather he made us alive together with Christ! No longer do we have hearts of stone, but he has given us a living heart of flesh. What a treasure the gospel is when we see the work of God in our salvation! All these things are done according to the counsel of his will! Praise be to God that we who were unable to do any good, unable to seek him were made alive!

But Paul does not stop here, we have an inheritance, having being predestined according to his will.

by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Through the power of the resurrection we have been assured of the ultimate result of our salvation. An inheritance in the kingdom of God seated with Christ in heaven. The knowledge of our Savior begins on earth and will last forever with him in his kingdom.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast

God's mercy saved us, through faith given to us through the proclamation of his word and the regeneration of our hearts. There was nothing in Allen Murray that caused him to be saved, it was only the work of God. There is nothing in any of us that decided in its spiritually dead state that decided to follow Jesus. It is the glory of grace that the causes us to be made alive in Christ Jesus. What a priceless gift of God. Not of ourselves, let we boast and get the glory. Paul told us earlier, "In him we have been obtained an inheritance, having being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory"

Our hope in salvation by faith alone through grace alone is for our hope in Christ to the praise of his glory. All glory goes to the King on the throne. We are reminded that it is not the result of some work within us, but the immeasurable gift of God's grace that has made us alive in Christ Jesus.

The abiding work of this marvelous act of grace that made us alive and freed us from the bondage of sin and Satan is that we grown in the glory of Christ. We are are his workmanship, created for Christ Jesus for good works. Created so that we might bring him continuing glory he has prepared for us good works before hand, so that we might walk in them.

I pray we see the glory of grace in Ephesians 2:1-10, that God would bless the reading of his word, that my feeble attempt to expose and rightly divide the words of scripture would bring him glory. I pray that God would reveal the glory of his grace to those who read his scriptures and see how it is him that has saved us, not anything of ourselves that we might boast. May God be glorified!

-sola gratia-

A Wellspring Eternal

2009-07-11T22:48:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday

2009-07-10T08:43:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday to John Calvin(500) and Happy International Hug a Calvinist Day!

An odd fortune cookie

2009-07-08T11:55:00.004-05:00

I have always been one to joke around about fortune cookies. I always like to say they will be prophetic of my dating life. I have gotten 3 empty fortune cookies after saying that. I don't really invest any kind of serious prophetic notions to fortune cookies, but I received one today that was a blog post waiting to happen.

How true?

My mind immediately went to John 6 when I read the cookie. That chapter is so slam packed with the sovereign grace of God concerning salvation. But this cookie took me to the following verses:

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. -John 6:35-37

Trying to find salvation in any thing other than Jesus Christ will leave you thirsty and hungry. Jesus promises life from his bread and water that is eternal. The promises he gives that all that the Father has given to him will come to him, and they will never be cast out. How precious it is that the Sovereign King has chosen us and given us bread and water to drink. The Holy Spirit drew us to salvation and the work of the Son through his blood shall keep us forever. Never again do we have to seek to find salvation on our own accord, and we do not have to work to try keep it with every breath we take. Christ has laid down his life for those the Father gave to him, those that will come to him, those whom he will raise up on the last day and never cast out. What a joy it is that we do not have to seek salvation from anywhere else, including a cookie.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life" - John 6:47

soli deo gloria

Happy early birthday to the old dead guy!

2009-07-07T21:43:00.003-05:00