my burg

the gospel prayer

2012-01-27T14:16:00.001-05:00

Here are the four parts of "The Gospel Prayer", written by J. D. Greear:

1. "In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less."

2. "Your presence and approval are all I need for everlasting joy."

3. "As You have been to me so I will be to others."

4. "As I pray, I'll measure Your compassion by the cross and Your power by the resurrection."

From Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, by J.D. Greear

23 1/2 hours

2012-01-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

OK, I can do this!

a wedding charge

2012-01-26T17:56:00.004-05:00

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV)

This passage describes the working of the Holy Spirit within the life of the yielded believer. Our own sin nature would produce in us the "deeds of the flesh" listed in the previous verses, but a different kind of fruit is produced when we walk (or, keep in step with) the Spirit.

My wife and I -- in discussing together the traits and virtues that make a marriage strong -- realized how many of the most vital ingredients of a healthy marriage are included in this list.

1) Love. Christian love is a commitment to seek the other person's highest good. The greatest demonstration of this is in the life and death of Christ: "And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:2) Christ emptied himself to come to us to redeem us from our sins; he hung upon the cross bearing our guilt and judgment; he rose victoriously from the dead to reign forever. It is his power that will enable you to also demonstrate a sacrificial and serving love toward each another. When we die to ourselves, we will find in Christ that we actually gain more than we lose.

2) Joy. "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." (Isaiah 12:3) As this is true of salvation, this is true in your marriage. Sometimes we so enjoy our partner we forget that all those good gifts come from God and ultimately it is the Lord alone who can give us happiness. Frank Pittman, noted marriage therapist, says, “Marriage isn't supposed to make you happy -it's supposed to make you married… A happy marriage is a marriage between two happy people.”

3) Peace. Peace means having reconciled relationships, and learning how to forgive and be forgiven... "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." (Colossians 3:12-13) The most important words you can learn in your marriage are these, “I’m sorry, I was wrong, will you forgive me?” Practice these words daily! You stand next to the person you will forgive, and who will forgive you, more than any other person in life. Ruth Bell Graham once said, "A good marriage is the union of two good forgivers."

4) Patience. This is the God-given ability to hang in there and bear the burdens, without bitterness or retaliation. "Love bears all things..." The Holy Spirit enables us to be long-suffering with those whom we love.

5) Kindness. "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted…" (Ephesians 4:32) This means God can give you grace to always act in kindness, with courtesy, with compassion and empathy. This is so vital to a successful marriage: to feel what the other is feeling, and to deal with each other with respect and courtesy.

6) Goodness. Goodness is beauty of moral character, having an integrity and winsomeness which only the Holy Spirit can give, being someone that it’s a blessing to live with. A Turkish proverb says, "No road is long with good company."

7) Faithfulness. This is being true to your vows, faithful to your commitments. This includes sexual purity and avoiding emotional entanglements with others. This is forsaking all others to be faithful to your spouse.

8) Gentleness. Like kindness, this is a Spirit-birthed ability to deal with each other gently, to avoid all harshness and severity. It means to show grace to each other, just as God has shown you grace. There's no place for shouting. Let your words, your posture, your facial expressions, your demeanor, your actions always be in gentleness.

9) Self-control. This means, among other things, observing proper boundaries in your marriage, in your finances and work and time and possessions. It also means that in an argument you don’t say the first thing that comes into your mind!

As a couple you will need these fruits in your married life! Christ died to purchase them for you. The Holy Spirit has been sent to indwell you and make them real in you. Now, by faith you must walk with him and trust him for what you need.

May he empower you this day forward in a very new and fresh way for the glory of God and for your lifelong joy. "With joy draw water from the wells of salvation!"

To Chris and Christine, January 21, 2012

more marriage quotes

2012-01-21T11:42:00.003-05:00

Here are two helpful insights on marriage from some literary sources...

"I knew couples who’d been married almost forever – forty, fifty, sixty years. Seventy-two, in one case. They’d be tending each other’s illnesses, filling in each other’s faulty memories, dealing with the money troubles or the daughter’s suicide, or the grandson’s drug addiction. And I was beginning to suspect that it made no difference whether they’d married the right person.

"Finally, you’re just with who you’re with. You’ve signed on with her, put in a half century with her, grown to know her as well as you know yourself or even better, and she’s become the right person. Or the only person, might be more to the point.

"I wish someone had told me that earlier. I’d have hung on then; I swear I would.”

(From "A Patchwork Planet", by Anne Tyler)

-------------

"I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even
marry you because I loved you. I married you because you
gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults.
And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect
people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.

"And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that
protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them - it was that promise."

(From "The Skin of Our Teeth", by Thornton Wilder)

Both quotes found among many others at the smartmarriages.com website.

who could say this?

2012-01-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

"For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." (John 10:17-18 ESV)

Amazing, amazing words! Who in his right mind could even say such a thing? Only the One who could do it...

"I believe in the miracle which is at the foundation of the Christian Church because in that case the question does not concern merely the resurrection of a person about whom I know nothing, a mere x or y, but it concerns specifically the resurrection of Jesus; and Jesus was like no person who has ever lived.

"It is unbelievable, I say, that any ordinary man should be raised from the dead, but then Jesus was no ordinary man; in His case the enormous presumption against miracle is reversed; in His case, far from its being inconceivable that He should have been raised, it is inconceivable that He should not have been raised; such a one as He could not possibly have been holden of death.”

(J. Gresham Machen, from What is Faith?)

three deadliest words

2012-01-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

martin luther king jr day

2012-01-16T12:09:00.006-05:00

I'm reading again Martin Luther King's powerful letter, written from the Birmingham jail in April 1963. It never ceases to move me.

He is responding to complaints by fellow clergy, saying that he should not be involved in civil rights protests and should await social changes that will come in due time...

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people...

Read the complete letter here.

new edition pilgrim's progress (crossway)

2012-01-14T17:39:00.002-05:00

Just downloaded this for Kindle at bargain price, though the hardback with color artwork looks good.

I was blessed by the editor C. J. Lovik's poem in the preface:

The shadow of a wooden cross
A rising Son displayed.
In that place and on that day
An ancient debt was paid.

Prophetic Word merged with flesh,
With love bound to a tree.
There justice met with mercy
For all the world to see.

Divine the name of Him who hangs
With emblem wounds of glory,
Page of light that turned the night
Into a different story.

Joy was mixed with agony
That day upon the tree.
Reflecting on the Book of Life
My Savior thought of me.

Love deep and wide and full and free,
Love priceless and apart,
Love stained with crimson hues and tears
Has entered human hearts.

Look up, dear soul, and fix blind eyes
Upon the Savior’s tree
And you will find as others have,
He makes the sightless see.

An unexpected resting place
Was found beneath that tree,
Where all my burdens came undone
And I found liberty.

brief apologetic

2012-01-14T13:44:00.000-05:00

I appreciate Michael Patton and the guys at Credo House. He recently posted a four-point personal apologetic for the faith here. Worth reading.

union with Christ by faith: like marriage

2012-01-13T10:32:00.003-05:00

We've been studying the federal headship of Christ, and our corporate solidarity with him through faith.

I love this portion from On the Freedom of a Christian, by Martin Luther, published in 1520.

The third incomparable grace of faith is this, that it unites the soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband; by which mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage-- nay, by far the most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ claims as his.

If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul. For, if he is a husband, he must needs take to himself that which is his wife's, and, at the same time, impart to his wife that which is his. For, in giving her his own body and himself, how can he but give her all that is his? And, in taking to himself the body of his wife, how can he but take to himself all that is hers?

In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For since Christ is God and man, and is such a person as neither has sinned, nor dies, nor is condemned,--nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned; and since his righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and almighty; when, I say, such a person, by the wedding-ring of faith, takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of his wife, nay, makes them his own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were his, and as if he himself had sinned; and when he suffers, dies, and descends to hell, that he may overcome all things, since sin, death, and hell cannot swallow him up, they must needs be swallowed up by him in stupendous conflict. For his righteousness rises above the sins of all men; his life is more powerful than all death; his salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.

Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its husband Christ. Thus he presents to himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith in the word of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus he betroths her unto himself "in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies." (Hosea ii. 19, 20.)

Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? …

Read the complete work here.

Shadows, DC*B + Lecrae @Passion2011

2012-01-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

Life is full of light and shadows
Oh, the joy, and oh, the sorrow
Oh, the sorrow

And yet will He bring dark to light
And yet will He bring day from night

When the shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When darkness falls on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we're thrown and we're tossed
We'll remember the cost
We're resting in the shadow of the cross

With every breath I take, every heartbeat
Sunrise, and the moonlight in the dark street
Every glance, every dance, every note of a song
All a gift undeserved that I shouldn't have known

Every moment I lie, every moment I covet
I'm deserving to die; I'm earning Your judgment
Without the cross there's only condemnation
If Jesus wasn't executed there's no celebration

So, in times that are good, in times that are bad
For any time I've had at all, I will be glad
And I will boast in the cross, I'll boast in His name
I will boast in the sunshine, boast in His reign

What's my life if it's not praising You?
Another dollar in my bank account of vain pursuit
I do not count my life as any value, precious at all
Let me finish my race, let me answer Your call

it really is finished

2012-01-10T14:12:00.004-05:00

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:11-14 ESV)

"It was during that time that I really rediscovered functionally the NOW power of the gospel. I had been preaching the gospel with great passion for many years. I had been preaching it with great conviction and yet it wasn’t genuinely functional until God brought me through the crucible of pain and suffering. I began rediscovering the reality and beauty and the brightness of the gospel.

"Everything I needed and longed for in Christ, I already possessed.

"It was during that time that God was helping me connect the dots between what I was experiencing and what Christ had already accomplished for me. And it was specifically in Colossians chapter 1, second part of verse 12-14 where Paul says you’ve already been transferred, you’ve already been qualified, you’ve already been forgiven, you’ve already been redeemed, everything you could possibly want, everything you could possibly desire, is already yours in Christ. It’s a done deal.

"It really is finished.

"Now I live my life under a banner that reads, 'IT IS FINISHED', and it is that reality gripping my heart that’s set me free in ways that I had never ever been free before and it radically changed me. I tell people all the time that my focus is singular; my passion is myopic now. I don’t care as much as I used to what other people think about me, both good and bad.

"I’m freer than I’ve ever been and my preaching has radically changed. Everything about me has changed. I’m still learning, obviously, and will until the day I die, but I really, really learned how the power of Christ’s finished work intersects with my daily grind in a brand new way."

Interview with Tullian Tchjividjian, author of Jesus + Nothing = Everything

on scientism

2012-01-09T12:31:00.000-05:00

In communicating the gospel, we must always be aware of the assumptions / presuppositions of the ones to whom we are communicating. Here's Greg Koukl on scientism...

The term “scientism” describes the view that science is the only reliable method of knowing truth about the world. Accordingly, “Everything outside of science is a matter of mere belief and subjective opinion,” says J. P. Moreland, “of which rational assessment is impossible.”

Here is how scientism self-destructs. Imagine you wanted to collect all knowledge in a box. Let’s call it the “Truth Box.” Before any alleged truth could go into the box, it must first pass the scientific truth test (the claim of scientism). The problem is that your knowledge project could never get started because some truths need to be in the Truth Box first before science itself could begin its analysis. The truths of logic and mathematics must be in the box, for example, along with the truth of the basic reliability of our senses. Certain moral truths — like “Report all data honestly” — must be in the box. In fact, the entire scientific method must be in the box before the method itself can be used to test the truthfulness of anything else.

None of these truths can be established by the methods of science, because science cannot operate in a knowledge vacuum. Certain truths — known through means other than science — must be in place before science can begin testing for other truths.

--Gregory Koukl, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions

8 blessings from romans 5

2012-01-07T11:10:00.002-05:00

This week's study in gravitate was "The Blessings of Justification," from Romans 5:1-11.

Romans chapters 5-8 deal with the life we now have because of our union with Christ. Through him, and what he has accomplished on our behalf, we are declared righteous, and now have a new life. “The righteous by faith shall live.” This salvation from God encompasses not just the past and present, but also the future...

1) Peace: God is not against me. (5:1, 10, 11) Though we were once enemies, now God is reconciled to us through Christ (cf 2 Cor 5:17-21).

2) Grace: we have free access and a secure position before God (5:2a) By the work of his Son we have free, unhindered access, and warm welcome before God. (See also Hebrews 4:14-16 for an application of this truth.) We have a "standing" in grace... we are ever in the need of, and ever the recipients of, his undeserved, bountiful generosity. I do not begin with grace and perfect myself through works.

3) Hope: our glorious future gives us joy and confidence now (5:2b, 4) Unlike "hope" in the world, we have not only a bright expectation, but a certainty of being glorified in God's presence (and new creation) forever (cf Romans 8:18-21).

4) Character: we have a new way to look at suffering. (5:3-4) God grants tribulation, but with it grants perseverance. And this perseverance works good for us, testing and proving our character, and making us fit for his new creation.

5) Love: we are the recipients of the outpouring of God’s love. (5:5-8) His love is so very unique, in that he demonstrates at the Cross the righteous love that, coming from his nature, is both just and justifying (3:26) (See also 2 Cor 5:14-15).

6) Holy Spirit: he is God’s gift to us that we might know truth (5:5) He gives us the Spirit that we might know experientially our position before him. More on this in chapter 8.

7) Salvation: not just now, but from now on, because Jesus lives (5:9-10) His death secures our forgiveness and new standing, but more, he has risen and ascended, and lives ever to make intercession for us, and will return one day to complete his work of salvation in us. (See also Rom 8:34; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).

8) Joy: because of all this we can rejoice in the Lord (5:11) The verb kauchaomai appears in 5:2, 3, 11. Though
translated "rejoice", the field of meanings is more along the lines of "boast, glory, take pride in." (BAGD) The idea here is not so much a personal delight in (though that is called for), but more that our our boast now is not in ourselves (promoting,
posturing, etc.) but our boast is in Jesus Christ and in what he has completely accomplished for us who are so underserving.

Therefore I no longer need -- as is the case of my fallen humanity -- to validate myself by what I have done, or glory in what I have accomplished (hiding all that I have not done well) and promoting myself to others, whether subtly or not-so-subtly. Here's the truth: God is for me; I am secure in Jesus; all things are working in my favor as a child of God; I am bound for a glorious future; I am loved; I am empowered; I was saved, am saved and will be saved.

All of this is true because, by simple faith, I am "justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..." (Rom 3:24 ESV) So he now becomes "my glory and the lifter of my head" (Psalm 3:3)

We do not even glory in any of our spiritual accomplishments (if there be any). The salvation we have is a complete and gracious work of God from eternity past to eternity future (see Romans 8:29ff). J. C. Ryle once wrote, "Glory not in your own faith, your own feelings, your own knowledge, your own prayers. Glory in nothing but Christ."

If you are a Christian, which of these eight blessings mentioned is most real to you now? Which is least? If you are not a Christian, please look at what God has done for you and come to him now, believing that Jesus died and rose from the dead to give you all these blessings as a gift in Jesus Christ.

on distraction and avoidance

2012-01-05T17:31:00.002-05:00

Appropriate for our times...

"Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound?
Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not

On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,

For those who walk in darkness

Both in the day time and in the night time

The right time and the right place are not here

No place of grace for those who avoid the face

No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice."

(T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday)

properly basic belief

2012-01-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

I am coming to appreciate Alvin Plantinga's work, especially in epistemology.

2012 certainties

2012-01-03T10:18:00.003-05:00

Notes and quotes from David Kingston's New Year's Day sermon. The mp3 of this message is available here.

The Certainties of 2012

1. We can be certain of God’s love for us because of Jesus’ birth. (John 3:16; Phil 2:6-7)

"Jesus--a simple name with so much power and meaning, but on that night so long ago, the tiny baby, wrapped by Mary in swaddling clothes, waving little arms, hungrily sucking a fist, was like any other newborn baby. He was helpless and dependent, and Mary was His hope of survival, His nourishment, his very lifeline. God entrusted His most priceless gift to a very human, very young, earthly mother. Why? Because God so loved--that He gave. He relinquished His hold on His Son and placed Him in fragile human arms. (Janet Oke, in "Reflections on the Christmas Story".)

2. We can be certain of God’s forgiveness because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. (2 Cor 5:21; Phil 2:8; 1 Cor 15:3-8; John 1:10-13)

He was condemned that we might be justified.
He bore our sin that we might be set free.
He died that we might live.
He suffered that we might be redeemed.
He was made sin, that we might be made righteous.

3. We can be certain of God’s ultimate triumph because Jesus is coming back. (Phil 2:9-11; Rev 19:11-13, 16; 21:1-8)

a. Jesus return is certain. (John 14:1-4; Acts 1:10-11)

b. Jesus return will be sudden and unexpected. (Matt 24:36-41; 2 Peter 3:10; 1 Thess 4:15-18)

c. Jesus return will divide. (Matt 24:36-41; Rev 20:11-15; 21:1-8)

4. How should we then live in the light of these certainties?

a. For believers: they bring us joy and comfort, even in our sorrows.

"The immense step from the Babe at Bethlehem to the living, reigning triumphant Lord Jesus, returning to earth for his own people--that is the glorious truth proclaimed throughout Scripture. As the bells ring out the joys of Christmas, may we also be alert for the final trumpet that will announce his return, when we shall always be with him." (Alan Redpath in "The Life of Victory".)

They bring a challenge to holy living.

"The primitive church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death or about heaven. The early Christians were looking not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory. They were watching not for the undertaker but for the uppertaker."
(Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910)

"The best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is never to forget the presence of Christ." (William Barclay in “You Can Say That Again”)

"The only way to wait for the Second Coming is to watch that you do what you should do, so that when he comes is a matter of indifference. It is the attitude of a child, certain that God knows what he is about. When the Lord does come, it will be as natural as breathing. God never does anything hysterical, and he never produces hysterics." (Oswald Chambers, 1874-1917)

They bring a hope for the future (Phil 3:20-21)

For not yet believers: They bring a warning for the future (Heb 2:1-3)

pen wallpapers

2012-01-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

Now that it's 2012 I know you're asking, hey, where can I download some new fountain pen wallpapers? (Aren't we all?)

To save you the hassle of searching, I've given some cool links below, and a few examples.

www.penhero.com/PenGallery_Wallpaper.htm

http://homepage.mac.com/mbacas/home/Pens/Wallpaper/index.html

www.leighreyes.com/?p=3565

www.penphotography.com/penphotography/wallpapers.html

worshiped by angels

2011-12-22T18:13:00.000-05:00

There is a prominence of angelic ministry at two places in Jesus' life: at his birth, and at his death and resurrection.

At Christmas we are reminded that there is a spiritual realm, and the existence of angelic beings who are very much interested in what's going on here.

The angels love the Son of Man, who is the Word made flesh.

"Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory," (1 Timothy 3:16)

"And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him.'" (Hebrews 1:6)

"...things into which angels long to look." (1 Peter 1:12)

So should we -- like these mighty beings -- see Jesus, look intently at all he has done, and worship him!

more on marriage

2011-12-20T21:09:00.002-05:00

Recently published: The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, by Tim Keller, with his wife Kathy.

I'm looking forward to reading this. I listened to part of the sermon series this was based upon, but I plan to put this book in the queue soon. Here are some popular Kindle highlights, and a quote at the end that Trevin Wax posted. Great insights to think about...

Wedding vows are not a declaration of present love but a mutually binding promise of future love.

Marriage used to be a public institution for the common good, and now it is a private arrangement for the satisfaction of the individuals. Marriage used to be about us, but now it is about me.

According to the Bible, God devised marriage to reflect his saving love for us in Christ, to refine our character, to create stable human community for the birth and nurture of children, and to accomplish all this by bringing the complementary sexes into an enduring whole-life union.

It is the illusion that if we find our one true soul mate, everything wrong with us will be healed; but that makes the lover into God, and no human being can live up to that.

The Christian teaching does not offer a choice between fulfillment and sacrifice but rather mutual fulfillment through mutual sacrifice.

Whether we are husband or wife, we are not to live for ourselves but for the other. And that is the hardest yet single most important function of being a husband or a wife in marriage.

If two spouses each say, “I’m going to treat my self-centeredness as the main problem in the marriage,” you have the prospect of a truly great marriage.

The Christian principle that needs to be at work is Spirit-generated selflessness—not thinking less of yourself or more of yourself but thinking of yourself less. It means taking your mind off yourself and realizing that in Christ your needs are going to be met and are, in fact, being met so that you don’t look at your spouse as your savior.

The primary problem is . . . learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married.

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

As a pastor I have spoken to thousands of couples, some working on marriage-seeking, some working on marriage-sustaining, and some working on marriage-saving. I’ve heard them say over and over, “Love shouldn’t be this hard; it should come naturally.” In response, I always say something like, “Why believe that? Would someone who wants to play professional baseball say, ‘It shouldn’t be so hard to hit a fastball?’ Would someone who wants to write the greatest American novel of her generation say, ‘It shouldn’t be hard to create believable characters and compelling narrative?’”

nehemiah walk-through

2011-12-18T17:49:00.101-05:00

We finished teaching our adult elective on Sunday, "Rebuilding Jerusalem: Leadership and Community in Nehemiah."

Did a walk-through and discussion to highlight key lessons and applications by chapter, as follows:

1. Prayer: important from first to last. We need to ask, as we live and/or lead in community, have I prayed about each decision? Do I see the big picture of God's work of redemption in history? Do I feel his concerns on my heart? Do I really believe in God's providential guidance? Am I living in dependence upon him?

2. Planning: results in informed and timely action. Am I adequately informed before I take action, or even before I speak of intended action? Am I thoughtful, and do I know the task that lies before us? Have I taken the trouble to get first-hand knowledge of the situation? Am I bringing others into this information -- and my intentions -- at the right time?

3. Labor: the work is divided, and everyone has a part. Do we know our assignment? Do we see the big picture of what God is doing and how our labors fit in? Are we actually working side-by-side with others? Are we using our talents, or lack of talents, to avoid doing the work set before us?

4. Opposition: is ever-present; courage and wisdom needed. Do I know who my enemies are? Am I prepared to work and to defend the work at the same time? Am I alert and vigilant toward the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy? Do I shy away from conflict when I should face it squarely? Am I seeking God for the wisdom and courage needed to face intimidation and deception?

5. Authority: brings justice and order to the community. Do we have a true understanding and respect for authority within God's plan? If we have authority, are we acting in a timely way to bring about justice and peace within the community? Are we holding others accountable to God's standards, especially when their actions hurt others? As a parent, am I acting with proper authority within my family? If we are under authority, are we appreciative and submissive for the greater good?

6. Success: despite all opposition God grants success. Do I understand God's definition of success as found in the Bible? Am I seeing some aspects of his work in and through me actually coming to completion? Am I sticking with the work until God gives success? Will I be able to say to God, the work you gave me to do I accomplished? Am we aware of his supernatural work in and around his people? Do I fully understand that it is God who wills and works in me to bring about his purposes?

7. People: make up the community of God. Just a list of names, but that's who makes up the community! Am I letting tasks get in the way of relating to people? Am I remembering that the work is ultimately not about a wall, but about people coming into and enjoying God's kingdom? Am I building relationships in the midst of the work? Do I know others by name and appreciate their being in God's family?

8. Word: renewal and rebuilding comes from hearing Truth. Am I reading and using God's Word in ministering to others? Do I realize that it is the hearing of the Word that brings about faith and life? Am I involved in a smaller group where together we can seek a real understanding and application of Scripture? Do I realize that, when God brings fresh power to his people, it is usually through the proclamation of his Word in a life-changing way?

9. Confession: dealing with and repenting from sin. Am I honest about sin in my own life? Am I humbled by the evil still in my heart? Am I willing to deal with this openly among God's people? Am I turning from sin and trusting Christ for the forgiveness he purchased with his death? Do I see that God delights to give us forgiveness, joy and refreshment when there is no denial in our hearts?

10. Covenant: commitment to preserve community, support worship. Am I committed to support the life and work of God's people? Am I a faithful member of a church? Am I giving to support its ministry? Do we think about God's new covenant with us through Jesus Christ, and how he is faithful to us in all things? Are we energized by this?

11. Organization: leaders make a difference. If I am a leader, am I bringing order and peace to the life of our community? If I am not currently in leadership, am I supporting those who lead and giving thanks for the blessing of an organization that brings order to our lives? Is our organizational structure conducive to our spiritual life and community?

12. Celebration: the importance of worship and music. Are we celebrating and giving thanks for all that God has done? Are we a people happy in the Lord? Do we sing with our hearts? Do we take sufficient time to stop and reflect upon God's works? Are we pursuing the purity that is fitting for the worship of God?

13. Purification: an ongoing need until the Kingdom comes. Do we realize that problems will persist and that Christ's Kingdom is not consummated yet? Do we get overly discouraged at problems which continue to crop up? Are we continuing to turn to God in prayer for all the challenges we face? Are we continuing to pursue purity and growth, or do we get disheartened or bitter? Do we leave our cause and our work and our reputation in the hands of the Lord?

my 7 favorite marriage quotes (today)

2011-12-17T14:16:00.000-05:00

"Marriage isn't supposed to make you happy - it's supposed to make you married." (Frank Pittman)

"You don't marry one person; you marry three:
the person you think they are,
the person they are, and
the person they are going to become as a result of being married to you." (Richard Needham)

"No two human beings are made for each other. Every human being is made for God. Marriages are not made in heaven. There are no prefabricated marriages. They are made right here on earth, day by day, by the sacrifices both persons are called upon to make. And marriages are not made by what comes naturally. That is important, of course, but marriages are made by what does not come naturally and that is self-sacrifice. You will soon learn that it costs to be a lover, that the language of love is sacrifice. And you will have many opportunities to speak this language." (From wedding homily by Father Rodney Kissinger)

"When there is love in a marriage, there is harmony in the home; when there is harmony in the home, there is contentment in the community; when there is contentment in the community, there is prosperity in the nation; when there is prosperity in the nation, there is peace in the world." (Chinese proverb)

"My grandmother had three sayings on her kitchen wall:
'It could be worse.'
'It's a great life - if you don't weaken.'
'We get too soon oldt, and too late schmardt.'"
(Diane Sollee, smartmarriages.com)

"William Morris wrote a poem called 'Love is Enough' and someone is said to have reviewed it briefly with the words 'It isn't.' . . . , To say this is not to belittle the natural loves but to indicate where their real glory lies. It is no disparagement to a garden to say that it will not fence and weed itself, nor prune its own fruit trees, nor roll and cut its own lawns. A garden is a good thing but that is not the sort of goodness it has. It will remain a garden, as distinct from a wilderness, only if someone does all these things to it." (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves)

"My wife uses fabric softener. I never knew what that stuff was for. Then I noticed women coming up to me, sniffing, then saying under their breath, 'Married!' and walking away. Fabric Softeners are how our wives mark their territory. We can take off the ring, but it's hard to get that April fresh scent out of your clothes." (Andy Rooney)

how we googled 2011

2011-12-16T09:21:00.002-05:00

justified as a gift

2011-12-14T12:10:00.001-05:00

"[we] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." (Romans 3:24-25 ESV)

"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!'" (Romans 8:15 ESV)

"When our salvation depends upon our righteous behavior, our righteousness will be driven by a desire to elevate ourselves in the eyes of God. This is not love for God, it’s self-protection. ... The gospel turns religion upside down. The gospel assures us of God’s acceptance, given to us as a gift earned by Christ’s worthiness, not ours. In response to that gift, we are moved to obey. Love for Him grows in response to His love for us.”

(J. D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary)

jonathan edwards on kindle

2011-12-14T09:53:00.002-05:00

Adam Parker at BringTheBooks.org has posted Kindle-compatible (.prc) files of some of the Yale editions of the works of Jonathan Edwards, available as free downloads. Tables of contents are included.

Download these to your computer and then transfer them via USB to your Kindle.

All of Edwards works are available online, as well, at the Yale website.

If you are new to Edwards I would recommend two works to start: The Religious Affections, which is an essay on the signs which accompany a true saving experience (a work of God in the heart). And Charity and Its Fruits, which is a series of sermons on love from 1 Corinthians 13.

Download from here.

unto us is born

2011-12-12T20:28:00.001-05:00

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God

Welcome to our world

(Chris Rice, "Welcome To Our World")

what grace is ours

2011-12-12T17:40:00.002-05:00

athanasius paraphrased

2011-12-10T09:57:00.005-05:00

Excerpts from chapter 2, On The Incarnation of the Word, by Athanasius...

"It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human brethren by the offering of the equivalent...

"Naturally also, through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, all men were clothed with incorruption in the promise of the resurrection. For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word's indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.

"You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be....

"Thus by His own power He restored the whole nature of man.

"'For it became Him, for Whom are all things and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.' [Heb. 2:10] He means that the rescue of mankind from corruption was the proper part only of Him Who made them in the beginning. He points out also that the Word assumed a human body, expressly in order that He might offer it in sacrifice for other like bodies: 'Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself assumed the same, in order that through death He might bring to nought Him that hath the power of death, that is to say, the Devil, and might rescue those who all their lives were enslaved by the fear of death.' [Heb. 2:14-15]

"By man death has gained its power over men; by the Word-made-Man death has been destroyed and life raised up anew."

My summary: The human race has fallen from the glory of its creation by God. Only the Creator of humanity can restore it, and in his love he comes to rescue us from corruption and death. He comes as a human, as one embodied person, and unites himself to human nature. Our corporate solidarity is such that his glorious presence within the human race reverses its corruption. The value of his sacrificial death is more than equivalent to the death which enshrouds the entire human race. We by faith unite ourselves to him in confidence of this Sacrifice and in the hope of the resurrection.

In taking on human nature Jesus restored the whole nature of humanity.

the gospel for those broken by the church

2011-12-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

Dr. Rod Rosenbladt on "The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church" from Faith Lutheran Church on Vimeo.

fred and nehemiah on rebuilding

2011-12-07T16:38:00.003-05:00

Here's Fred Smith with some lessons from Nehemiah on rebuilding walls (or, recovering from a loss).

The best way to overcome the confusion that comes with loss is to organize it. A plan dispels confusion. When Nehemiah got the vision for rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem, he realized the people had lived depressed for 80 years, moping because the wall was down. How long did it take to rebuild? 52 days!

We have fallen walls in our own life that need restoring. The longer we grieve, the harder it is to begin the restoration process. Start rebuilding before you make a heavy psychological investment in the loss.
Here are four points for rebuilding:

1. Stay constructively busy. Too many people think they need to head for the islands for a vacation when experiencing loss. A good friend, Dr. Howard Rome, formerly head of the World Psychiatric Society, once said to me when discussing a severe loss “Fred, stay busy.” He knew that if I kept moving my training and habits would keep me constructively busy. Now a word of warning….not just busy, but constructively busy. One of my favorite poems says, “When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.” That is NOT constructively busy. Rebuild the wall after loss.

2. Live with the facts. A friend asked me to assess his son’s executive capabilities. I had to tell him I didn’t see great potential. In a conversation with the young man he told me he wouldn’t have anyone around him who brought bad news because it depressed him. You can’t run a business or a life like that. A sound solution to any problem depends on a clear statement of the facts. I must work with the facts as they are, not as I wish they were.

3. Don’t lose the good of a bad situation. Kubler-Ross says the greatest things in her life have come from the “windstorms” of her life. She talks about putting people into the tumbler of life to polish them. I say, “don’t waste the experience.”Scripture is full of examples where crisis turned to blessing. Joseph said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Paul tells us that in God’s economy all experiences work for the ultimate good of His people.

4. Be redemptive. It is my Christian responsibility to bring redemption whatever my circumstances. Revenge is not redemptive; fear of failure is not redemptive. I am not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind. I am not to be externally pressed, but internally impressed by the Holy Spirit to bring redemption----whether I am winning or losing.

From Breakfast with Fred, weekly email.

the true God-man

2011-12-03T14:13:00.001-05:00

And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God." (Luke 1:35 ESV)

"The glory of the incarnation is that it presents to our adoring gaze not a humanized God or a deified man, but a true God-man -- one who is all that God is and at the same time all that man is: one on whose almighty arm we can rest, and to whose human sympathy we can appeal." (Benjamin B. Warfield)

gospel trail (ministry of tourism style)

2011-12-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

Israel's ministry of tourism recently inaugurated a "gospel trail" to "follow in the footsteps of Jesus." Though I don't really think us walking in the literal, physical footsteps of Jesus is quite what he was interested in, nevertheless, this is a great idea. Seeing the scenery and locations of the events recorded in the Gospels in invaluable.

Gleaned from the JPost article: The route of the Gospel Trail follows the path which Jesus walked at age 30 after he left Nazareth. The trail, which runs for 63 kilometers, starts at Mount Precipice just outside Nazareth and continues eastwards down to Capernaum, taking in a number of important sites, including the Mount of Beatitudes, Magdala (Migdal today) the home of Mary Magadelene; Tabgha, the site of the Feeding of the Five Thousand; and Capernaum, where Jesus established his ministry. Those traveling the trail will be able to do so by car, bicycle and, more traditionally, on foot – despite the current lack of amenities and accommodation along the route. The ministry says it is working on a program to encourage entrepreneurs to develop tourist facilities to provide services for those walking the trail.

Jerusalem Post article is found here.

Dr. Thomas Schreiner - Living Like Jesus is the Only Way - ETS 2011

2011-12-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

A good word (17 minutes) from Tom Schreiner to ETS scholars (and all aspiring scholars, and students). If "Jesus is the only way", how does this affect my relationship with others especially in academia...

Dr. Thomas Schreiner - Living Like Jesus is the Only Way - ETS 2011

Dr. Schreiner is the author of a superlative commentary on Romans, and is professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

this is how he comes

2011-12-01T10:44:00.000-05:00

Ann Voskamp writes:

"And this Gospel? It doesn’t come wrapped in twinkling lights and satin bows; it comes straight into our pitchest black. The Gospel of Christ, it’s a messy, bloody thing and this is how God was born, bloody and bruised, and that’s how God chose to die, bloody and beaten. And our God, He knows the comings and goings of our bloody battles, and this is exactly where He meets us. The Gospel is good news in the eye of the worst news.

"Advent is believing this, and this is how Christ comes:

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him…” (Isaiah 11:1-2)

From her post, "One small seed."

new release: theology of edwards

2011-11-30T11:08:00.002-05:00

Gerry's new book is out, and already at the top of my wish list. (I like the cover art, as well... they've put some color in JE's cheeks.) Will have to save a few $ before it goes in the shopping cart. (I think Oxford's publishing philosophy is "we publish no book under $80.")

The Theology of Jonathan Edwards, by Michael J. McClymond, and Gerald R. McDermott. (Oxford University Press, 2011)

By the way, co-author Michael McClymond, historical theologian at St. Louis University, will be in Roanoke, February 10 (Friday) at 7:30 pm at Antrim Chapel, speaking on, "Jonathan Edwards and the Future of Global Christianity." (Sponsored by the Blakley Fund for Evangelical Studies. The public is invited; no tickets are required.)

newness

2011-11-29T13:55:00.003-05:00

"...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Cor 5:17 ESV)

This truth refers not just to my individual story of conversion to Christ. Indeed, at age 20 I died to an old life and found new life in Jesus. But more, as united to Christ by faith and by the Spirit, I am part of the new creation that began at Jesus' resurrection, which will be consummated in fullness at his second advent.

It was the Firstborn and Lord of the new heavens and new earth who stepped out of the tomb that Sunday, and us with him. Chesterton writes,

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but of the dawn. (From The Everlasting Man)

Sometimes, I feel old and worn out. I need to remind myself of these things: "The new has come," and it hasn't changed in its newness. The old creation "wears out like a garment" (Heb 1:11) But I can't wear out the newness of the new creation which is everlastingly new.

Each and every day, therefore,...

--I am in the eternal new covenant with God through Jesus Christ. (Jer 31; Heb 8)

--I have an unchanging new identity in the righteousness and likeness of God. (Eph 4:24)

--I have new mercies to receive from God today. (Lam 3:22, 23)

--I have new life from the Spirit to experience. (Rom 7:6)

--I have new songs to sing. (Ps 33:3)

--I am waiting for a brand new world to come. (Rev 21:5)

So, sometimes my body feels old, especially at 6 in the morning, but the new has come, and it is still new!

such a good shepherd

2011-11-26T11:58:00.001-05:00

Listen to this song by Fernando Ortega. Enter in, and worship the Shepherd!

http://youtu.be/361OpSxEs6M

Wesley on human depravity

2011-11-26T10:17:00.001-05:00

Sometimes people think that it is only Calvinists that hold to "total depravity". Yet this is a biblical doctrine, held also by classic Arminians, too. It is only in Pelagius (in the 4th century) and later in the Enlightenment and some branches of modern evangelicalism that believe there is some good spark in humanity that is able to respond to the knowledge and goodness of God.

Case in point is this excerpt from John Wesley's sermon on "Original Sin."

"...we can have no love of God: We cannot love him we know not. Most men talk indeed of loving God, and perhaps imagine they do; at least, few will acknowledge they do not love him: But the fact is too plain to be denied. No man loves God by nature, any more than he does a stone, or the earth he treads upon. What we love we delight in: But no man has naturally any delight in God. In our natural state we cannot conceive how any one should delight in him. We take no pleasure in him at all; he is utterly tasteless to us. To love God! it is far above, out of our sight. We cannot, naturally, attain unto it...Thus are all men atheists in the world...”

"They knew not that all men were empty of all good, and filled with all manner of evil. They were wholly ignorant of the entire depravation of the whole human nature, of every man born into the world, in every faculty of his soul, not so much by those particular vices which reign in particular persons, as by the general flood of Atheism and idolatry, of pride, self-will, and love of the world. This, therefore, is the first grand distinguishing point between Heathenism and Christianity. The one acknowledges that many men are infected with many vices, and even born with a proneness to them; but supposes withal, that in some the natural good much over-balances the evil: The other declares that all men are conceived in sin, and shapen in wickedness; -- that hence there is in every man a carnal mind, which is at enmity against God, which is not, cannot be, subject to his law; and which so infects the whole soul, that there dwelleth in him, in his flesh, in his natural state, no good thing; but every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil, only evil, and that continually."

(John Wesley, Sermon on Original Sin, #44)

Parker V-S Vacumatic Successor

2011-11-24T11:57:00.001-05:00

Great pen. Took many good notes with a burgundy VS in D. A. Carson's class on Hebrews. Eccentric? Yes, I know.

PenHero 365: Parker V-S Vacumatic Successor

hard sayings of Jesus

2011-11-23T09:29:00.000-05:00

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." (John 6:53-55 ESV)

I'm preparing to preach on the second half of John chapter 6, which includes this statement by Jesus. His hearers -- both outsiders and his own disciples -- found it difficult and offensive. As would many today.

In my study I came across F. F. Bruce's book, The Hard Sayings of Jesus (IVP Academic, 1983) His introduction is noteworthy:

Many of those who listened to Jesus during his public ministry found some of his sayings 'hard', and said so. Many of those who read his sayings today, or hear them read in church, also find them hard, but do not always think it fitting to say so.

Our Lord's sayings were all of a piece with his actions and with his way of life in general. The fewer preconceptions we bring from outside to the reading of the Gospels, the more clearly shall we see him as he really was. It is all too easy to believe in a Jesus who is largely a construction of our own imagination - an inoffensive person whom no one would really trouble to crucify. But the Jesus whom we meet in the Gospels, far from being an inoffensive person, gave offence right and left. Even his loyal followers found him, at times, thoroughly disconcerting. He upset all established notions of religious propriety. He spoke of God in terms of intimacy which sounded like blasphemy. He seemed to enjoy the most questionable company. He set out with open eyes on a road which, in the view of 'sensible people, was bound to lead to disaster.

But in those who were not put off by him he created a passionate love and allegiance which death could not destroy. They knew that in him they had found the way of acceptance, peace of conscience, life that was life indeed. More than that: in him they came to know God himself in a new way; here was the life of God being lived out in a real human life, and communicating itself through him to them. And there are many people today who meet Jesus, not in Galilee and Judaea but in the gospel record, and become similarly aware of his powerful attractiveness, entering into the same experience as those who made a positive response to him when he was on earth.

what to give thanks for

2011-11-22T11:56:00.004-05:00

Many families like mine, I know, have a time around the Thanksgiving dinner table where we share "what we are thankful for."

Sometimes, especially with younger children, there may be long pauses after we've thanked God for our family and pets.

So, it's time to think ahead and get a running start on gratitude. Here's what I came up with this morning...

God exists, and you are not him. God reigns, not chance! God rules over creation and history, working all things according to the counsel of his most wise and glorious will. Give thanks for these truths!

God is unchanging in his essence, nature and purposes. God is good, his steadfast love endures forever, he is infinitely wise and powerful, and he is not capricious or evil. Give thanks that he is trustworthy!

God has made a beautiful creation: trees, mountains, animals, and many other things. For all things bright and beautiful, great and small, wise and wonderful -- give thanks to God for all that he has made!

You are created in the image of God: you can think, feel, touch, love, and make choices. Give thanks for this! If you have chosen poorly, give thanks that God joyfully welcomes back the prodigals who return.

God cares enough for us that he has revealed himself to us in words. He wants us to know him! Thank him for the gift of His Word, the Bible.

God sent his Son into the world that we might be saved. Give thanks that he came to us when we could not come to him!

Jesus is God and man in one Person. He knows our weakness, and he is mighty to deliver us. Give thanks for such a great Savior!

On the Cross, Jesus bore all your sin, guilt, shame, debt, and brokenness. He has carried these off, never to be placed to your account again. Give thanks for this!

The tomb that Jesus was placed in was only a temporary stay for him. The Father was pleased with his Son's sacrifice, He is risen forevermore, and the new creation has begun. Give thanks!

In Christ you have forgiveness, new life, adoption into God's family, and a calling to serve his Kingdom. Give thanks for your position in Christ!

Is God at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure? Give thanks with trembling!

God gives you a spiritual family for fellowship, to encourage and build you up in Christ. Give thanks for the church!

God is a God of providence. He guides your life and provides for your needs: food, clothing, shelter, safety, and much more. Give thanks for many such blessings you have received!

Do you have a family? If your family life is happy, that is a gift from God -- give thanks for this! If your family life is not happy, this is a way God draws you to himself to find the happiness that only he can give. Give thanks in all things!

Do you have friends? Give thanks for the wonderful gift of friendship, for those who stick close to us through thick and thin. Are you lonely? Give thanks that there is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Are you employed? Give thanks for this. Are you unemployed? Give thanks in all things, and believe that he will never abandon or forsake you. Give thanks to him who supplies all your needs.

Are you healthy? This is a gift from God. Are you in sickness, in pain, or in sorrow? Give thanks that your Father in heaven cares for you, will never leave you, and will one day wipe every tear away. Give thanks ahead of time!

Finally, God will one day banish evil forever, and will establish a new heavens and earth in truth, beauty and righteousness. Give thanks for the glorious future we have!

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NAS)

highlights, from the garden to the city

2011-11-22T09:44:00.002-05:00

I am enjoying From the Garden to the City, by John Dyer, which is a readable, yet thoughtful, biblical theology of technology. Here are some quotes...

“One of the most dangerous things you can believe in this world is that technology is neutral.”

"When technology has distracted us to the point that we no longer examine it, it gains the greatest opportunity to enslave us."

“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” (quoting John Culkin)

"...a simple, encompassing definition of technology: 'the human activity of using tools to transform God’s creation for practical purposes.'"

"Technology, then, is the means by which we transform the world as it is into the world that we desire. What we often fail to notice is that it is not only the world that gets transformed by technology. We, too, are transformed."

"In this sense, technology sits between us and the world, changing and molding both at once. The world feels the spade, but we feel the handle. We use the tool to dig at the ground, but in another sense the ground uses the tool to chafe at our hands."

"The shovel connects us to the earth, but it also functions to insulate us from directly touching the soil. Our primary connection then is with the tool, not the creation itself, giving the tool the opportunity to simultaneously shape both the world and its user."

"In some sense, all of our technology can be understood as an attempt to overcome the effects of the fall. We create shovels and tractors to help us work the unruly land, and we invent soft bedding and epidurals to help ease the pain of childbearing. We build air conditioners and heaters to overcome the weather and drive-through windows to overcome our hunger. We invent lightbulbs to overcome the darkness and search engines to overcome our lack of wisdom. Each of these inventions brings us incredible benefits, and collectively they work to reduce the suffering that we experience from the curses of the fall. And yet, like Adam and Eve’s clothing, our technology never truly solves the deeper problem of sin that came with the fall."

"We use our idols fundamentally as a way of meeting our needs apart from God, and this is our greatest temptation with technology—to use it as a substitute for God."

"If you ask the average person, 'What is the meaning of your cell phone and what sense of identity and values does it mediate to you?' you might be answered by a confused look. But if you ask, 'How would you feel if you lost your cell phone?' the immediacy of the answer would betray deep beliefs about what it means to be connected. It may be that the cell phone is not just a tool but an integral part of the person’s identity, who they define themselves to be."

"...in the post-fall world, God not only approves of but even helps with our technological development. At the same time, technology is also one of the chief means by which humans attempt to create a world without God. As our technology grows more and more powerful, the illusion of control becomes increasingly convincing. Today, our powers have grown to the point that in Western industrialized countries, we can go through our entire lives without the slightest physical need for God or other people."

"In his later years, Marshall McLuhan offered us what he called a 'tetrad' that is helpful in understanding how those tendencies emerge and play out within a culture. McLuhan’s tetrad proposes that all media and technology do four things. First, they extend or magnify something that we do naturally. For example, a mobile phone extends our ability to communicate and enhances our sense of personal identity. Second, they eliminate or amputate something that we used to do. Mobile phones eliminate the need for landlines, and they also eradicate one’s ability to be unreachable and alone. Third, all media retrieves something from the past. Mobile phones retrieve the ability to connect on a regular basis with a frequency and familiarity that people were accustomed to when they lived in small villages. Finally, every technology has the possibility of reversing into a more negative behavior when it’s overused. When we use mobile phones too much, we never deeply connect with anyone, and instead we may maintain surface communication with everyone."

"At one end of this story is a pristine garden prepared by God for humankind to develop and transform. At the other end is a glorious, heavenly city full of human creations, art, and technology. At the center is our Savior Jesus Christ crucified on a cross, the most horrific of all technological distortions, built by transforming a tree from the natural world into a tool of death. Yet in his resurrection, Christ redeemed even that tool, transforming it into the symbol of our faith that eternally portrays his power over death and sin."

John Dyer (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) has been a web developer for more than ten years, building tools for Apple, Microsoft, Harley Davidson, the Department of Defense, and Dallas's NPR affiliate. He currently serves as the Director of Web Development for Dallas Theological Seminary and lives near Dallas, Texas, with his wife and family.

we are bracketed

2011-11-21T10:14:00.005-05:00

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

(Revelation 22:13-14 ESV)

"Our lives are bracketed, or, boundaried, not by the decisions and actions of Caesar, not by the rise and fall of Rome, nor by the rise and fall of the United States. Our lives are boundaried by him, ‘the first and the last.’ Whatever else happens in our history and whatever else happens in my history, Jesus is there as the first word and Jesus is there as the last word. And Jesus is here in the middle with the Word that gives us life.” (--Darrell W. Johnson, Discipleship On The Edge: An Expository Journey Through The Book of Revelation)

Painting above, Christ in the Hagia Sophia as "Pantokrator", which is Greek for "The Almighty (All-powerful) One".

amateur + google = scholar?

2011-11-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a quote sent to me from my friend Harry...

"One of the most disastrous illusions of the internet age is that an amateur plus Google is equivalent to a scholar. A search engine offers information, more or less relevant according to the skill of the searcher. But it does not sift that information; it does not sort fact from fancy, wheat from chaff. It does not explain which facts are relevant and which are beside the point. It does not weigh the merits of competing arguments and tell the user where the balance of evidence lies. A bright amateur armed with the internet may at best be better informed than he would otherwise have been, and he may occasionally catch a real scholar in a factual error. But it will not turn him into a scholar himself. There is no such thing as effortless erudition."

(- Dr. Timothy McGrew, Professor of Philosophy at Western Michigan U)

not at all natural

2011-11-19T19:43:00.005-05:00

"And [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him." (Acts 17:26-27 ESV)

An age-old question of philosophers is, "why is there something rather than nothing?" Another question easily overlooked is the follow-up, "why is there this something rather than something else?"

Sixty years ago, in an article titled "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences," Physicist Eugene Wigner, who received a Nobel Prize for theoretical contributions to nuclear physics, remarked, "it is not at all natural that 'laws of nature' exist, much less that man is able to discover them."

Here are some other things he wrote:

"The enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and that there is no rational explanation for it...

"The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We should be grateful for it and hope that it will remain valid in future research and that it will extend, for better or for worse, to our pleasure, even though perhaps also to our bafflement, to wide branches of learning...

"It is difficult to avoid the impression that a miracle confronts us here, quite comparable in its striking nature to the miracle that the human mind can string a thousand arguments together without getting itself into contradictions, or to the two miracles of laws of nature and of the human mind's capacity to divine them."

Albert Einstein said something very similar, when he said, "How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?"

Einstein summed it up this way: "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible."

We have a world we can see and measure and explain. Natural laws are a blessing of creation. Even the very laws of identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle are miraculous gifts which testify to our Creator God, and lead us onward that we might come to know him.

on athanasius

2011-11-19T19:18:00.000-05:00

"[Athanasius] stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, 'whole and undefiled,' when it looked as if all the civilized world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius – into one of those 'sensible' synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which, then as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen. It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away."

(--C. S. Lweis on the influence of Athanasius, from his introduction, On The Incarnation)

real hope

2011-11-19T19:11:00.001-05:00

“Christian hope is not about wishing things will get better. It is not about hoping that emptiness will go away, meaning return, and life will be stripped of its uncertainties, aches, and anxieties. Nor does it have anything to do with techniques for improving fallen human life, be those therapeutic, spiritual, or even religious. Hope has to do with the knowledge of ‘the age to come.’ This redemption is already penetrating ‘this age.’ The sin, death, and meaninglessness of the one age are being transformed by the righteousness, life and meaning of the other. What has emptied out life, what has scarred and blackened it, is being displaced by what is rejuvenating and transforming it. More than that, hope is hope because it knows it has become part of a realm, a kingdom, that endures. It knows that evil is doomed, that it will be banished. This kind of hope has left behind it the ship of ‘this age,’ which is sinking.”

(--David F. Wells, from The Courage to Be Protestant)

2011-11-16T10:36:00.002-05:00

a prayer

2011-11-14T14:24:00.003-05:00

Martyn Lloyd-Jones mentions in his sermon "What is a Christian?" a stanza that Hudson Taylor had written on a slip of paper that he used as a bookmark. When Taylor, founder of China Inland Mission, died in 1905, this was discovered in his Bible:

Lord Jesus make Thyself to me
A living bright reality
More present to faith’s vision keen
Than any outward object seen
More near, more intimately nigh
Than e’en the sweetest earthly tie.

--Attributed to Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871)

excerpts, os guinness on evil and modernity

2011-11-14T13:32:00.003-05:00

Interviewer: Do you think the American church is heading down the wrong path with its concert-style worship and feel-good lectures that are part of many services?

Os Guinness: I think that evangelicalism in America at the moment has lost its way. It is profoundly worldly. It is almost as deep in what Martin Luther called a Babylonian captivity as the pre-Reformation church was. And much what we have here is more American than it is really Christian. And there are different examples. If you look at the religious right, that has become an ideology that practices things that are anti-Christian. They do demonize their enemies, they do stereotype their enemies. I've been horrified this year as you do and Stuart does and Ravi does, we love apologetics, the defense of the faith. But it's to win people. Whereas the current tendency in the American church is to turn apologetics into culture warring. Us/them, we/they, those dreadful liberals or those atheists or those liberal leftists or whatever it is. That's not apologetics. We should be winning them to our Lord because we love Him and we want them to know Him too.

And so there are so many examples. You look at say how the prosperity doctrines are coming to Africa. Tragically. I mean the Africans have no money at all and pastors driving Cadillacs based on these things which they get from the United States. There's so much of the American church. We've got to call our fellow believers to renewal and revival and reformation. Evangelicals used to be the reviving, renewing force. Now we're second only to the Protestant mainline as worldly and thoroughly captive to the culture. It's time to wake up.

Interviewer: Os, you wrote in that book [The Last Christian on Earth] that the Christian church is becoming its own gravedigger. Explain what you mean by that.

Os Guinness: Well, it's a very simple idea in the social sciences. The Christian faith, not so much the church by itself, but the Christian faith and its ideas is the single strongest idea that has made the modern world. Think of its links to democracy, to the rise of science, and all sorts of things. The Christian faith is the single strongest idea that has made the modern world. But we've fallen captive to the modern world we've helped to create. So the more captive we are, the more the church becomes its own gravedigger.
...

Os Guinness: I personally don't think there are more secularists in America. I think people are more open about acknowledging they are or identifying themselves with secularism because they're fed up with what they see of Christians.

There's no question that just like a house eaten by white ants, looks terrific, until suddenly it starts to crumble and fall. Much of evangelicalism is a house eaten by white ants, and the rot is there.

Evil and Modernity, part 2. [Transcribed by H. Kriz, 11/2011]

thank you, veterans!

2011-11-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

Video: Theology as More Than Just an Academic Discipline

2011-11-10T13:02:00.000-05:00

Video: Theology as More Than Just an Academic Discipline

that's what I suspected

2011-11-10T09:11:00.002-05:00

2011-11-08T19:31:00.000-05:00

the gospel visualized

2011-11-07T12:55:00.002-05:00

Trevin Wax has made a helpful graphic explaining the three-legs of the gospel according to his book, Counterfeit Gospels. The three legs are the Gospel Story, the Gospel Announcement, and the Gospel Community...

walking on the water

2011-11-03T16:39:00.001-04:00

When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.

But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid."

Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

(John 6:19-21 ESV)

"Christ Walking on the Water" was painted about 1901 by Russian landscape artist, Julius Sergius von Klever (1850-1924).

the gospel begrudged

2011-11-02T09:13:00.000-04:00

"The world bears the Gospel a grudge because the Gospel condemns the religious wisdom of the world. Jealous for its own religious views, the world in turn charges the Gospel with being a subversive and licentious doctrine, offensive to God and man, a doctrine to be persecuted as the worst plague on earth. As a result we have this paradoxical situation: The Gospel supplies the world with the salvation of Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and every blessing. Just for that the world abhors the Gospel."

--Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians

sunday notes and quotes

2011-11-01T10:43:00.003-04:00

This passage answers these three questions: “Who is Jesus? Why should I believe him? And what does he want from me?”

1) The unique relationship of the Son to God the Father is described in 5:16-30:

• He does whatever the Father does (19)
• He knows all that the Father is doing (20)
• He gives life like the Father gives (21, 24-26)
• He is the Judge of all (22, 27-30)
• He is to be honored in the same way as the Father (23)
• His word believed gives eternal life and rescues from judgment (24)

“The Son’s will is to please his Father, not just to save us; and the Father’s will is to have all men honor the Son, not just to forgives us. To grasp the divine relationships in the drama of redemption is to humble our pride and heighten our sense of speechless privilege. To be saved and renewed, to be recipients of new life, to be forgiven, all because we are caught up in the perfection of love among the Persons of the Godhead, is unutterably solemn, ecstatically wonderful.” (D. A. Carson, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus)

There is a direct relation between the deity of Christ and salvation by grace through faith. Athanasius reasoned that Christ's deity and humanity was seen in the kind of salvation that the Lord Jesus accomplished. To be a perfect substitute, he must be human. To have such power and eternal consequence to the salvation he accomplished means that he must be God. We can also run that the other way. Given that Jesus was human and divine, and that he was sent to us from the Father, would indicate that the kind of salvation we needed was total and gracious. He did not come as a prophet to show us how to be better people. Or as a fellow human just showing us how to get to God. He came as a mighty Redeemer to save us from our guilt, sin, death and bondage.

2) Those who testify to the Son (31-47):
• John the Baptist (33-35)
• The Father, through his works (36-38)
• The Scriptures (39-44)
• Moses (45-47)

3) What he wants from me: faith

Faith means believing all that Christ says about himself (5:24)
Faith means coming to Jesus for life (5:39-40)
Faith means finding my source of significance in God (5:44)

“There is no other rule or test for who is a member of the people of God or the church of Christ than this: where there is a little band of those who accept this word of the Lord, teach it purely and confess against those who persecute it, and for that reason suffers what is their due.” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Psalm 110:3)

principles of interpretation

2011-10-30T21:16:00.005-04:00

Shared this with Cru study group leaders tonight:

An Introduction to Biblical Interpretation

Assumption: the Bible has a dual authorship: divine and human (2 Peter 2:21; 2 Tim. 3:16). Because of its human authorship it comes to us in human language and culture, and general hermeneutical principles apply (i.e., use of an historical, grammatical, rhetorical approach). Because of its divine origin it is also authoritative, with integrity (without contradiction), and inerrant in the originals. Because this is God’s revelation we must seek the ministry of the Holy Spirit for true understanding (1 Cor 2:13-16).

There are three related levels, or senses, of meaning:

• The Literal (historical)… what did it mean to the original hearers at that time?
• The Spiritual (theological; typological)… what does it mean for all time?
• The Moral (ethical; application)… what does it mean for us at this time?

Some basic principles:

1. Take Scripture first in its plain and normal sense.
2. Understand the historical background of any passage.
3. Interpret a passage in harmony with its larger context.
4. Define words by their historical usage, rather than by root or later usage.
5. Any Scripture has basically one meaning, though many applications.
6. Interpret a passage in light of its literary genre.
7. Identify figures of speech, which are not meant to be taken literally.
8. Biblical examples are normative only when supported by a command.
9. Avoid building a doctrine or practice on one passage of Scripture.
10. A doctrine is not biblical unless sums up all that Scripture says about that topic.
11. Examine the rationale for any command – distinguish between unchanging principles and cultural applications of those principles.
12. Allow for progress of revelation—some topics become more clear in later Scripture.
13. Seek to understand how the passage fits into the unfolding history of redemption.
14. Identify types (foreshadowing patterns) in line with other clear Scriptural teaching.
15. Prophecy can have both literal and symbolic elements. Fulfillment may come in installments.
16. Compare Scripture with Scripture – the Bible best explains itself.

Sources:
• Berkhof, L. Principles of Biblical Interpretation.
• Carson, D. A. “Must I Learn How to Interpret the Bible?” Modern Reformation 5:3.
• Henrichsen, Walter. A Layman's Guide to Interpreting the Bible.

on natural law

2011-10-27T14:49:00.002-04:00

"For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them..." (Romans 2:14-15 ESV)

Here are some excerpts from an interview with Jay Budziszewski on Natural Law...

Law has rightly been defined as an ordinance of reason, for the common good, made by the one who has care of the community, and promulgated. Consider the natural law against murder. It is not an arbitrary whim, but a rule that the mind can grasp as right. It serves not some special interest, but the universal good. Its author has care of the universe, for he (God) created it. And it is not a secret rule, for God has so arranged his creation that every rational being knows about it...

Our subject is called natural law because it is built into the design of human nature and woven into the fabric of the normal human mind. Another reason for calling it natural is that we rightly take it to be about what really is—a rule like the prohibition of murder reflects not a mere illusion or projection, but genuine knowledge. It expresses the actual moral character of a certain kind of act...

God has made some things known to all human beings; these are general revelation. He has also made additional things known to the community of faith; these are special revelation. Natural law is about general revelation, not special revelation. However, a Christian natural-law thinker will make use of special revelation to illuminate general revelation—and will use God-given reasoning powers to understand them both...

Natural law is moral reality. It affects the day-to-day routine of the average business executive the same way that it affects everyone else. Like others, then, business executives need to know that if they say “I am doing the best I can, but everything is shades of gray,” they are lying to themselves. Most of the time the right thing to do is quite plain. Like others, they also need to face up to the fact that some moral rules hold without exception. Figuring out a way to outwit or outrun the usual bad consequences does not make a basic wrong right...

A conceit of contemporary liberal thought is that we have no business raising our voices in the public square unless we abstract ourselves from our traditions, suspend judgment about whether there is a God, and adopt a posture of neutrality among competing ideas of what is good for human beings. This is a facade—a concealed authoritarianism. Neutralism is a method of ramming a particular moral judgment into law without having to go to the trouble of justifying it, all by pretending that it is not a moral judgment...

I denied Christianity, denied God, denied even the distinction between good and evil. What happened to me was what the Gospel of John calls the conviction of sin. I began to experience horror about myself: Not a feeling of guilt or shame or inadequacy—just an overpowering true intuition that my condition was objectively evil. I could not have told why my condition was horrible; I only perceived that it was. It was as though a man were to notice one afternoon that the sky had always been blue, though for years he had considered it red. Augustine argued that although evil is real, it is derivative; the concept of a “pure” evil makes no sense, because the only way to get a bad thing is to take a good thing and ruin it. I had always considered this a neat piece of reasoning with a defective premise. Yes, granted the horrible, there had to exist a wonderful of which the horrible was the perversion—but I did not grant the horrible. Now all that had changed. I had to grant the horrible, because it was right behind my eyes. But as Augustine had perceived, if there was evil then there must also be good. In letting this thought through, my mental censors blundered. I began to realize, not only that my errors had been total, but that they had not been honest errors at all, merely self-deceptions. Anything might be true, even the claims of Jesus Christ, which I had rejected some ten or twelve years earlier. A period of intense reading and searching followed. I cannot recall a moment at which I began to believe, but there came a moment of realization that I had believed for some time, without noticing.

Full interview here.

at the pool of bethesda

2011-10-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

Jesus comes to the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. By Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1617-1682.

cool picture, cool pen

2011-10-20T22:41:00.000-04:00

This is a scan from Popular Science, November 1950 issue, which had an article on "How Your Fountain Pen Is Made." This particular pen displayed is the Sheaffer Valiant Touchdown.

I have one currently inked, exactly like these pictured, which came from the Fountain Pen Restoration site. It has a conical, triumph nib, and is a really smooth writer.

debt crisis explained

2011-10-20T10:32:00.002-04:00

the gospel transforms

2011-10-19T10:21:00.000-04:00

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 ESV)

Here's a good quote from "Of First Importance" blog, from Michael Horton, shared with the Gravitate study on Romans...

“The gospel transforms us in heart, mind, will, and actions precisely because it is not itself a message about our transformation. Nothing that I am or that I feel, choose, or do qualifies as Good News. On my best days, my experience of transformation is weak, but the gospel is an announcement of a certain state of affairs that exists because of something in God, not something in me; something that God has done, not something that I have done; the love in God’s heart which he has shown in his Son, not the love in my heart that I exhibit in my relationships. Precisely as the Good News of a completed, sufficient, and perfect work of God in Christ accomplished for me and outside of me in history, the gospel is ‘the power of God for salvation’ not only at the beginning but throughout the Christian life. In fact, our sanctification is simply a lifelong process of letting that Good News sink in and responding appropriately; becoming the people whom God says that we already are in Christ.”
--Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life (Baker Books, 2009)

theologize your kindle

2011-10-17T22:18:00.000-04:00

Here are two excellent (and free) systematic theologies that you can download to your Kindle:

Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology in 3 Volumes here.

Robert L. Dabney's Systematic Theology here.

Also, speaking of free, here are many of the works of Octavius Winslow (19th century English Baptist pastor, who was a contemporary and friend of Charles Spurgeon) available for download in various formats here.

excerpts from luther on galatians

2011-10-16T21:55:00.001-04:00

Here are some highlights from my reading of Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians, translate by Theodore Graebner.

"The article of justification must be sounded in our ears incessantly because the frailty of our flesh will not permit us to take hold of it perfectly and to believe it with all our heart."

"We must learn that forgiveness of sins, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are freely granted unto us at the preaching of faith, in spite of our sinfulness. We are not to waste time thinking how unworthy we are of the blessings of God. We are to know that it pleased God freely to give us His unspeakable gifts. If He offers His gifts free of charge, why not take them? Why worry about our lack of worthiness? Why not accept gifts with joy and thanksgiving?"

"A person becomes a Christian not by working, but by hearing. The first step to being a Christian is to hear the Gospel. When a person has accepted the Gospel, let him first give thanks unto God with a glad heart, and then let him get busy on the good works to strive for, works that really please God, and not man-made and self-chosen works."

"True Christian righteousness is the righteousness of Christ who lives in us. We must look away from our own person. Christ and my conscience must become one, so that I can see nothing else but Christ crucified and raised from the dead for me. If I keep on looking at myself, I am gone. If we lose sight of Christ and begin to consider our past, we simply go to pieces. We must turn our eyes to the brazen serpent, Christ crucified, and believe with all our heart that He is our righteousness and our life. For Christ, on whom our eyes are fixed, in whom we live, who lives in us, is Lord over Law, sin, death, and all evil."

"Faith in God constitutes the highest worship, the prime duty, the first obedience, and the foremost sacrifice. Without faith God forfeits His glory, wisdom, truth, and mercy in us. The first duty of man is to believe in God and to honor Him with his faith. Faith is truly the height of wisdom, the right kind of righteousness, the only real religion... Faith truly honors God. And because faith honors God, God counts faith for righteousness... Because of my faith in Christ, God overlooks my distrust, the unwillingness of my spirit, my many other sins."

"Let us become expert in the art of transferring our sins, our death, and every evil from ourselves to Christ; and Christ's righteousness and blessing from Christ to ourselves."

"The Law is a mirror to show a person what he is like, a sinner who is guilty of death, and worthy of everlasting punishment. What is this bruising and beating by the hand of the Law to accomplish? This, that we may find the way to grace. The Law is an usher to lead the way to grace. God is the God of the humble, the miserable, the afflicted. It is His nature to exalt the humble, to comfort the sorrowing, to heal the broken-hearted, to justify the sinners, and to save the condemned. The fatuous idea that a person can be holy by himself denies God the pleasure of saving sinners. God must therefore first take the sledge-hammer of the Law in His fists and smash the beast of self-righteousness and its brood of self-confidence, self-wisdom, self-righteousness, and self-help. When the conscience has been thoroughly frightened by the Law it welcomes the Gospel of grace with its message of a Savior who came into the world, not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax, but to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, and to grant forgiveness of sins to all the captives."

"Accordingly each Christian continues to experience in his heart times of the Law and times of the Gospel. The times of the Law are discernible by heaviness of heart, by a lively sense of sin, and a feeling of despair brought on by the Law. These periods of the Law will come again and again as long as we live. ... When the Law carries things too far, say: 'Mister Law, you are not the whole show. There are other and better things than you. They tell me to trust in the Lord.' There is a time for the Law and a time for grace. Let us study to be good timekeepers. It is not easy. Law and grace may be miles apart in essence, but in the heart, they are pretty close together. In the heart fear and trust, sin and grace, Law and Gospel cross paths continually."

cloud reader

2011-10-10T15:57:00.000-04:00

One of the cool features of Kindle is the Cloud Reader app.

21 principles of effective leadership

2011-10-09T18:51:00.000-04:00

Here are *21 principles of effective leadership that Nehemiah demonstrated in chapters 1 - 2 of the book of Nehemiah:

• He established a reasonable and attainable goal
• He had a sense of mission
• He was willing to get involved
• He rearranged his priorities in order to accomplish his goal
• He patiently waited for God's timing
• He showed respect to his superior
• He prayed at crucial times
• He made his request with tact and graciousness
• He was well prepared and thought of his needs in advance
• He went through proper channels
• He took time (three days) to rest, pray, and plan
• He investigated the situation firsthand
• He informed others only after he knew the size of the problem
• He identified himself as one with the people
• He set before them a reasonable and attainable goal
• He assured them God was in the project
• He displayed self-confidence in facing obstacles
• He displayed God's confidence in facing obstacles
• He did not argue with opponents
• He was not discouraged by opposition
• He courageously used the authority of his position.

*From Donald K. Campbell, Nehemiah: Man in Charge, p. 23.

heart-stopper!

2011-10-08T19:47:00.003-04:00

identification

2011-10-04T18:10:00.002-04:00

And they said to me, "The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire."

As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days...

(Nehemiah 1:3-4a ESV)

Principles of Leadership from Nehemiah #1

The principle of identification: the leader identifies with the people he is serving.

Nehemiah mourned the humiliation of his ancestral home, the “city of the great King” (Psalm 48:2). “These are my people, my ancestors, my home…” Even though he probably had never been to Jerusalem before, he felt the humiliation of being a part of the chastened people of God.

Good leadership begins with feeling – we identify with the people to whom we are sent (or to whom we belong). Jesus left heaven to embrace our humanity and our humiliation. He too wept over the same city that Nehemiah did, mourning the future devastation of Jerusalem (Luke 19:21). He shed tears for his friend Lazarus taken in death (John 11:35).

We share humanity with all others created in the image of God. We too are in the body and share suffering in this world, with those who are our neighbors. We share a common identity and name with our kindred in families and nations.

Yet, greater than this, we share with all other believers our fellowship in Christ. They are united to the same Savior as we are, and we all are part of his one body: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

We too live to see the building up of the people of God from lowliness until the day that they will inhabit the glorious City of God, the New Jerusalem: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

So, godly leadership in the church, and in the home, begins with our identification with the people of God, seeing them as “my people”, sharing in their needs and destiny. As a Christian parent I begin my parenting task by remembering my children’s needs, their high calling, their humble frame, and our shared destiny in God’s kingdom. I begin with compassion for where they are, but I view them in faith as mature adults in the glory of God’s family.

So before Nehemiah prays, and before he plans, and before he does anything, he feels. He shares in the suffering of his people. Good principle for us to follow.

Photo above: Jewish men praying at the western wall in Jerusalem.

not theological mumbo jumbo

2011-10-04T10:05:00.000-04:00

Good quote from the Of First Importance blog:

"In the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Christ, man’s sin was more than visible. Man’s disobedience to God, his rejection of truth, his cruelty, his lies, his hate, his greed, his vested interest, his oppression, his exploitation, his abuse of power, his deliberate choice of evil — all were there on the cross for everyone to see, hear, and feel. That is why the biblical statement that Jesus became the sin of the world is not some theological mumbo jumbo. It is a statement describing historical fact. It was not Jesus who was judged and condemned on that cross; it was human sin.”

(Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Transformation, 2009)

sunday notes and quotes

2011-10-03T22:41:00.001-04:00

"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:31-36 NIV)

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.” (C. S. Lewis)

"Jesus is excellent in his origin: he is from God; Jesus is excellent in his words: he speaks God’s words, and Jesus is excellent in his power: He acts with God’s power and authority through the Holy Spirit. He is very God of very God, as the Nicene Creed reminds us: 'I believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man...'" (David Kingston)

“Belief is obedience to the utterance of God; disobedience is unbelief. Belief is thus defined as commitment to authority rather than a passive opinion.” (Merrill Tenney)

"He must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:30 NIV)

“When I am gone, don’t talk about William Carey; talk about William Carey’s Savior. I desire that Christ alone might be magnified.” (William Carey, Baptist missionary to China, as he lay dying)

"Based on today’s passage we can say that believing in Jesus means at least three things:
--First and foremost it means to believe with all our being the key truths about him: that he is God and that he paid the price for our sins on the cross and that he rose from the dead.
--Secondly it follows that this belief will turn into grateful worship of him as our Lord and our God.
--Thirdly, as we see from John’s example, it means that we will gladly serve him and his body, which is the church. In so doing, we will look to make much of Jesus and little of ourselves." (David Kingston)

movie science and actual science

2011-10-03T10:57:00.000-04:00

graphics

2011-10-02T16:36:00.001-04:00

A couple of time lines from class today...

beginning nehemiah

2011-10-02T16:26:00.002-04:00

Understanding and Applying the book of Nehemiah...

1) Nehemiah recounts God’s providence in preserving the people of Israel as a minority in the midst of hostile nations. In God’s sovereign plan the line of Judah and David would continue, and in the fullness of time bring forth the Messiah to bless the nations (Gen 12:3; 49:10; 2 Sam 7:16; Rom 1:3; Gal 4:4).

2) "The restoration and rebuilding after the exile prefigure Christ’s salvation (Col. 1:13) and the building of the church (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20–22)." (The ESV Study Bible)

3) Nehemiah shows us what the renewal of God’s covenant people looks like in the promised land. “The essence of the kingdom is God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.” (Graeme Goldsworthy)

4) Nehemiah gives us a biblical model for leadership. “What kind of leadership does the Bible present as exemplary? Even more concisely, what is godly leadership? This question will help guide us through the book of Nehemiah.” (Mark Dever, The Message of the Old Testament)

5) Nehemiah encourages us that, no matter how humble or difficult our circumstances, God’s good work will prevail. “The book of Nehemiah is designed to teach us that only with God's help can we actually change ourselves and recover from the damage and ruin of the past. In an individual's life the rebuilding of the walls is a picture of re-establishing the strength of that life.” (Ray Stedman)

the science of spirituality

2011-09-22T14:29:00.003-04:00

The NPR series, "the science of spirituality" leads off with...

More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve.

And then under the "god chemical" article, it continues...

At Johns Hopkins University, research suggests that chemicals that act on the serotonin system trigger mystical experiences that are life-altering. Serotonin is a chemical messenger that helps regulate mood and sleep. Now those neurologists -- and others -- are replicating studies from the 1960s in which patients with end-stage cancer were given LSD to see if they were convinced that life exists beyond death. The research raises the question, is God a delusion created by brain chemistry, or is brain chemistry a necessary conduit for people to reach God? [bold print added]

I'm not sure what to file this under, maybe pseudo-science, or pop science at its worse.

Quite a few of the posts in the response section latched on to these "findings" as further "scientific proof" that religion is a delusion. But is this the case? One post to the article noted...

You must keep in mind that this monitors the effect and not the cause. Many years ago they discovered that people who are expert meditators enter a brain state called Alpha. So, they taught people how to enter Alpha through use of neurofeedback machinery. The result? None of the people was actually meditating. That is, being in Alpha is a side effect of meditation, but you can be in Alpha without actually meditating. As a Christian, and a physicist, I am frustrated by "science" like this. The experimentor has no way of knowing the nature of the individual's actual experience, so the measurement is meaningless.

But the issue is even deeper than that. Not only is there confusion of cause and effect, there is also a confusion of reality with the perception of reality. In other words, if we can understand how we perceive something then apparently we have some kind of explanation of what it is we are perceiving (or not actually perceiving, in the case of God). This does not follow at all.

For example, you could put two people into MRI machines, where you can watch their brain activity. Then you make this statement to them: "You have an advanced stage of cancer." Chances are, in both individuals, you will have an area related to fear-responses light up with activity. You can now identify the part of the brain which is associated with fear. But the fear response does not actually tell you anything about the true medical condition of either person. It has no bearing on that. Perhaps "you have an advanced stage of cancer" is true of one but not of the other. Or neither, or both.

What cannot be said is that, because we know the area of the brain associated with fear, we can say anything about the reality of the thing being feared. The thing may be true, or it may only be imagined. Either way the perception does not tell you with certainty whether the thing perceived is true or not.

I think this is why mysticism (or a mystical feeling about God) is not an infallible sign of the presence of God or genuine contact with him. Christianity has always based much more reliance upon the multiple testimonies of prophets and their fulfilled prophecies, and upon the apostles who were eyewitnesses of Jesus. My Christian testimony includes experiences that might be described as mystical, but my faith rests on the objective and historical work of Jesus Christ.

walk through the temple

2011-09-22T10:58:00.000-04:00

This is a very cool site. UCLA Urban Simulation Team in conjunction with the Israel Antiquities Authority have made videos of what the Temple built by Herod in Jerusalem would have looked like in Jesus' day.

the decline of the west

2011-09-17T14:51:00.002-04:00

Here is an insightful article by Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain. He says we need to see 9/11 and its aftermath from the Muslim perspective, and particularly in light of the social theory of 14th-century Islamic thinker Ibn Khaldun.

Ibn Khaldun's theory was that every urban civilisation becomes vulnerable when it grows decadent from within. People live in towns and get used to luxuries. The rich grow indolent, the poor resentful. There is a loss of asabiyah, a keyword for Khaldun. Nowadays we would probably translate it as "social cohesion". People no longer think in terms of the common good. They are no longer willing to make sacrifices for one another. Essentially they lose the will to defend themselves. They then become easy prey for the desert dwellers, the people used to fighting to stay alive.

Al-Qaeda's application of this principle -- especially after the fall of Soviet Communism during Russia's occupation of Afghanistan -- was not to try to defeat the immoral West on western lands, but to provoke America to come and, like Russia, be mired in defeat in Afghanistan.

Rabbi Sacks says that in the West we focus on Islamic extremism as the primary threat, when the real threat is the loss of our own values and cohesion, which makes our defeat almost certain.

It is a peculiarity of the Abrahamic monotheisms that they see, at the heart of society, the idea of covenant. Covenantal politics are politics with a purpose, driven by high ideals, among them the sanctity of life, the dignity of the individual, the rule of justice and compassion, and concern for the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger. G.K. Chesterton called America a "nation with the soul of a church". Britain used to be like that too. In the 1950s there was no television at certain hours on Sunday so as not to deter churchgoing. Sundays helped keep families together, families helped keep communities together, and communities helped keep society together. I, a Jew growing up in a Christian nation, did not feel threatened by this. I felt supported by it — much more than I do now in an ostensibly more tolerant but actually far more abrasive, rude and aggressive society.

He ends with this admonition...

None of us should be in any doubt as to the seriousness of what is at stake. Europe today is pursuing the chimera of societies without a shared moral code, nations without a collective identity, cultures without a respect for tradition, groups without a concern for the common good, and politics without the slightest sense of history. Ibn Khaldun, were he alive, would tell them precisely where that leads. The question is not radical Islam but, does the West believe in itself any more?

the fountain we seek

2011-09-15T18:25:00.003-04:00

Here's a beautiful exposition of gospel truth in exalted prose by French pastor and evangelist Jean Cauvin...

If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is ‘of him.’

If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.

If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion;

if purity, in his conception;

if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.

If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion;

if acquittal, in his condemnation;

if remission of the curse, in his cross;

if satisfaction, in his sacrifice;

if purification, in his blood;

if reconciliation, in his descent into hell;

if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb;

if newness of life, in his resurrection;

if immortality, in the same;

if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven;

if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom;

if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.

In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other.

(--John Calvin, quoted by Justin Taylor in Between Two Worlds Blog)

on grace

2011-09-15T15:02:00.000-04:00

"And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:16-17 ESV)

"Friends, you can't begin to understand the gospel or the Bible if you don't know the meaning of 'grace'. ... If 'glory' means the 'outward shining of the inward being of God', grace is the 'free and unmerited favor of God.' In one word grace is generosity. The grace of God is the generosity of God. Grace is God's gracious kindness to the undeserving. Grace is God taking the initiative, God coming to our rescue, pursuing us even to the cross. Grace is God stooping, God loving, God serving, God lifting, God taking the initiative. Grace, like glory, is seen most vividly at the cross."

(John Stott, "Jesus As the Son Makes God Knowable", sermon at All Souls, Langham Place, 2000)

on water to wine

2011-09-13T10:57:00.001-04:00

Chris Faith, on John 2:1-12, from Sunday's sermon:

So why would the eternal Son of God begin to display His glory by such a frivolous miracle as turning water into wine? Why not start with a big bang? Why not raise the dead, or feed thousands of hungry people with one boy’s bag lunch?

I’m convinced Jesus began by turning water into wine because He wanted to make clear from the very beginning the nature of God’s New Covenant, the reason the Son of God became the Son of Man. He came to reconcile us to God, to usher in a whole new way of intimacy with God.

Jesus wanted us to know He came to start a new chapter in man’s relationship to God. The reality is we can’t measure up to God’s holiness. Water pots for washing don’t bring us into God’s holiness. But Jesus’ death on our behalf truly does.

Hebrews 7:18-19 says it this way: "The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”

You see, Jesus’ message was that with His coming, a whole new age of intimacy with God is now possible. Here is what the prophet Hosea had to say about this New Covenant, in Hosea 2:14-16... "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness, And speak kindly to her. Then I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it will come about in that day," declares the LORD, "That you will call Me HUSBAND and will no longer call Me MASTER.” (Hosea 2:14-16)

With this sign at a beautiful wedding feast, Jesus points out that He had come to change the very nature of the way men relate to God. This is the marvel of the New Covenant.

Chris's message is here.

Click on picture to enlarge.

pN on husbands and wives

2011-09-13T09:09:00.001-04:00

Good friend and fellow pastor, Neil, on Proverbs 12:4....

"An excellent wife is the crown of her husband but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones." (Proverbs 12:4)

Hey—I didn’t write it. But it is a truism that I think bears out under observation. Despite our topsy-turvy, top on bottom and bottom on top culture, there is a natural order to how families are supposed to work. Husbands are supposed to be husbands and wives are supposed to be wives. Husbands are not supposed to be wives and wives are not supposed to be husbands. Specific job descriptions are in part, up for discussion perhaps, but the basic roles and foundational definition that there IS a thing called “husband,” the idea of which God created, and there IS a thing called “wife,” the idea also which God created, stands. And if a woman works at being an excellent wife, she is the best thing in her husband’s life, even eclipsing having an excellent kid and certainly eclipsing having an excellent job, truck, neighborhood, etc. An excellent wife, as it were, is at the top of his life, and shines with glory OF him. She isn’t him. She is herself, uniquely “her” and beautifully individual. But she shines around him. No, she isn’t dominated by him and no she isn’t overwhelmed by him and no she isn’t manipulated by him—if he does that his buddies “in the gate” need to kick his t*il and insist that he treat his wife like a crown, that he cherish her, that she hold the place that a valued crown should hold. But all of that said, she is still a complement to him. Conversely, because a husband and a wife are so bonded, if she who shames him, she who does things that humiliate him this woman rots him from the inside out. He cannot escape it, he cannot really distract himself from it, it is a “cancer,” an “osteosarcoma” to him. That is bad. That is no minor condition. That is rottenness in his bones. This proverbs writer must have observed this contrast three thousand years ago. It is not different today. Husbands need to cherish their wives. Wives need to bless their husbands. That’s just the way it is.

2011-09-11T14:16:00.004-04:00

Read the story here.

a prayer for 9/11

2011-09-10T21:32:00.001-04:00

Written by Mike Cosper, pastor of worship and arts at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky:

Lord as we gather,
celebrating your glory and goodness,
we acknowledge the shadow of today’s anniversary.

Together, we remember September 11, 2001.
We mourn for the lives lost in New York City,
Washington D. C., and on Flight 93.

We lament death’s reign,
the visible and invisible forces of evil,
the principalities and powers of this dark world,
and the evil that lurks in the hearts of all men . . . including our own.

With the Psalmist, we cry:

“How long, Oh Lord?
How long will your enemies scoff?
How long will you withhold your justice
from a world that is desparate to see it?”

We lament a world at war, and we ask you for peace

In Afghanistan
in Iraq
in Libya
in Israel and Palestine
in Egypt and Syria, and all of the nations of the earth that long for freedom from oppression.

We ask for protection over our loved ones and families who serve overseas,
we pray for the fatherless and the widow,
for the poor and oppressed.

We lift up our global leaders
that by your grace they might lead with wisdom and justice
and work for peace.

And we acknowledge that all such hopes and longings point us to one who will soon return and bring an everlasting peace and justice.

Together we proclaim:

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!

(Posted on The Gospel Coalition Blog)

remembering

2011-09-08T16:48:00.000-04:00

the altar, by george herbert

2011-09-05T11:17:00.001-04:00

[click to enlarge]

on gratitude

2011-09-04T20:09:00.007-04:00

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe..." (Hebrews 12:28 ESV)

Gratitude is the third of three things the Heidelberg Catechism says is necessary to know in order to live and die happily in the Lord: The misery of our fallen-ness (guilt), how we are redeemed (grace), and finally, gratitude the basis of our subsequent living...

Question 2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort [of a saving relationship with Christ], mayest live and die happily?
Answer: Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance. (Heidelberg Catechism, 1563)

Here are some quotes regarding gratitude, it's necessity and nature:

"May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light." (Colossians 1:11-12)

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:16-17)

"Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100)

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." (G.K. Chesterton)

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." (John Milton)

"Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." (Karl Barth)

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” (Thornton Wilder)

"In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 1949)

"Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy
praise." (George Herbert)

it all depends

2011-09-02T12:59:00.000-04:00

Listening to a John Stott message on "Jesus Is Lord", I heard this poem that he used to describe the morality of our relativistic world"

It all depends on where you are;
It all depends on who you are;
It all depends on how you feel;
It all depends on what you feel;
It all depends on how you're raised;
It all depends on what is praised;
What's right today is wrong tomorrow;
Joy in France, in England sorrow;
It all depends on points of view;
Australia, or Timbuctoo;
In Rome do as the Romans do;
If tastes just happen to agree,
Then you have morality;
But where there are conflicting trends,
It all depends, it all depends.

Here's a good intro to a Christian view of morality.

the vocation of thought

2011-09-01T14:18:00.001-04:00

Ravi Zacharias on thinking, and thoughts...

One of the tragic casualties of our age has been that of the contemplative life—a life that thinks, a life thinks things through, and more particularly, thinks God’s thoughts after Him. A person sitting at his or her desk staring out the window would never be assumed to be working. No! Thinking is not equated with work. Yet, had Newton under his tree, or Archimedes in his bathtub, bought into that prejudice, some natural laws would still be up in the air or buried under an immovable rock. Pascal's Pensees, or "Thoughts," a work that has inspired millions, would have never been penned.

What is even more destructive is the assumption that silence is inimical to life. The radio in the car, Muzak in the elevator, and the symphony entertaining callers "on hold" all add up as grave impediments to personal reflection. In effect, the mind is denied the privilege of living with itself even briefly and is crowded with outside impulses to cope with aloneness. Aldous Huxley's indictment, "Most of one's life... is one prolonged effort to prevent thinking," seems frightfully true.

sermon applications

2011-08-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'" (John 1:29 NIV)

“Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.” (Horatius Bonar)

From Sunday's sermon by David Kingston:

Before we end let us make sure we understand the implications of John’s statements. There are two major claims that we need to understand and make part of our lives. There are probably some of you here this morning who are thinking “I would like to become a Christian, to know the forgiveness offered by Jesus. I can see the peace and joy in the lives of Christians that I know, and I want to have this same peace and joy. But how can I know this forgiveness? How can I stand before a holy God and know that my sins are forgiven?” The apostle John gives us the answer in a nutshell right here at the beginning of the gospel by quoting John the Baptist. John called Jesus “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Here is your answer: God Himself has provided the lamb as a perfect sacrifice to pay the price that we could never pay. Jesus, the God-man, the one who was and is both wholly God and yet wholly man, paid the price that we could not pay. And this death was not just for the nation of Israel, it was not just for the Jews. The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus’ death was for everyone; there is no race, no nationality, no ethnicity, no socio-economic status excluded. And that, my dear seeking friend, includes you, whether you are from the wilds of SW Virginia or the urban chaos of northern Virginia, whether from the USA or from another country, whether male or female, old or young. If you are living and breathing you are part of the world that Jesus came to die for, and His death has paid the price for your sins. As Horatius Bonar wrote “Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.”

But there is a second conclusion we need to draw. John understood his ministry to be that of getting a road ready for the king to ride on and to enter a city. In this analogy our lives are like cities, with roads leading up to the city gates. But if you are not a believer in Jesus, your road is full of potholes and the gate is locked shut against the king, so that he cannot enter. The potholes may be small or large, but they are there. And how did John prepare the way? How did he get the road ready? He called people to repentance: Mark 1:4-5 “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” And this is a perfect illustration of what it means to become a believer in Jesus and have him enter your life as king and emperor. Before Jesus can enter our lives as the king and LORD that He is, we need to make sure the road is ready for Him. And that means getting the potholes fixed and the boulders removed, or to change to biblical language, we need to repent of our sins and open up the gates of our town so that the rightful king Jesus can enter in and take control. So if you want to become a Christian, the first step is to acknowledge that you are a sinner before a holy God, and come to him with a genuine sorrow for your sins and genuine desire for Him to take over your life as your Lord and your king. So there is road work ahead!

watching irene

2011-08-26T16:47:00.000-04:00

Interesting fact: "Irene" comes from the Greek, eirene, meaning "peace". The New York Times has a great real-time map here that tracks the storm's progress.

atheism or heroism, but not both

2011-08-24T11:03:00.000-04:00

"If a consciousness of the eternal were not implanted in man; if the basis of all that exists were but a confusedly fermenting element which, convulsed by obscure passions, Produced all, both the great and the insignificant; if under everything there lay a bottomless void never to be filled what else were life but despair? If it were thus, and if there were no sacred bonds between man and man; if one generation arose after another, as in the forest the leaves of one season succeed the leaves of another, or like the songs of birds which are taken up one after another; if the generations of man passed through the world like a ship passing through the sea and the wind over the desert—a fruitless and a vain thing; if eternal oblivion were ever greedily watching for its prey and there existed no power strong enough to wrest it from its clutches—how empty were life then, and how dismal!

"And therefore it is not thus; but, just as God created man and woman, he likewise called into being the hero and the poet or orator. ... The poet is the genius of memory, and does nothing but recall what has been done, can do nothing but admire what has been done. ... Therefore shall no one be forgotten who has done great deeds; and even if there be delay, even if the cloud of misunderstanding obscure the hero from our vision... No, no one shall be forgotten who was great in this world. But each hero was great in his own way, and each one was eminent in proportion to the great things he loved."

--Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

prologue themes

2011-08-20T16:05:00.001-04:00

This is a very helpful chart, prepared by D. A. Carson, to show how the key themes from the prologue of Gospel according to John (1:1-18) are reiterated in later chapters.

stories within the Story

2011-08-19T21:12:00.002-04:00

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:1-4 ESV)

As I'm studying the prologue of the Gospel of John, I'm impressed that the grand story of history centers upon Jesus, who is the Word, the Logos, God the Son who was with his Father at the beginning of our universe. It all begins and ends with the Lord who was both Creator, and then Carpenter of Galilee.

For our own life stories to make any eternal sense (or significance) they must be embedded within this one, great, central Story, and seen in its context...

"Life is not random and meaningless. God tells us (and shows us) that there is a divine purpose at work behind all that takes place. This desire for meaning and purpose behind our individual stories is wired into us as humans. The stories of this world can never succeed at tying all our individual stories together into one great meta-narrative. But where the world’s great stories fail, the gospel story succeeds...

"Ironically, when we live as if our personal story is at the center of our universe, we struggle to find meaning and significance. But when Christ is at the center and we are pushed to the periphery, it is then—in that place of seeming obscurity and insignificance—that we find true worth and value, by giving glory to the crucified and risen King with whom we can become united through faith."

(Trevin Wax, Counterfeit Gospels)

giving himself to comfort others

2011-08-10T21:52:00.002-04:00

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." (John 14:1 ESV)

"He [Jesus] knew what was going to be involved on the cross; he knew he was being made sin for mankind. He knew that when God would lay on him the sins of us all, it would mean a terrible moment of separation from the face of God. He knew all that, and as he said later on in the garden of Gethsemane, his soul was 'exceeding sorrowful' (Matthew 26:38); nevertheless he turned aside to comfort these unhappy followers of his [John 14:1ff]. He was more concerned about their unhappiness than his own immediate problem, and thus we have this wonderful view that on the very eve of the cross, our Lord gave himself freely in comfort and consolation to others.

"How typical and characteristic of him! He did the same thing on the cross itself, you remember, even after they had driven the cruel nails into his hands and his feet. There, dying on the cross, he had time to speak to that thief dying by his side. Bearing in his own body the sins of the world, he had sufficient compassion and love and sympathy and understanding to turn to the wretched man who was there being crucified with him."
(--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled)

no neutral characters

2011-08-08T18:37:00.000-04:00

"Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society, or he may be a blessing spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world. But a blank he cannot be: there are no moral blanks; there are no neutral characters."

(Thomas Chalmers)

preaching the whole elephant

2011-08-06T12:28:00.000-04:00

Tim Keller, on preaching in a pluralist culture...

About every other week, I confront popular pluralist notions, not with an entire sermon, but with a point here and there.

For example, pluralists contend that no one religion can know the fullness of spiritual truth, therefore all religions are valid. But while it is good to acknowledge our limitations, this statement is itself a strong assertion about the nature of spiritual truth. A common analogy is cited—the blind men trying to describe an elephant. One feels the tail and reports that an elephant is thin and flexible. Another feels a leg and claims the animal is thick as a tree. Another touches its side and reports the elephant is like a wall. This is supposed to represent how the various religions only understand part of God, while no one can truly see the whole picture. To claim full knowledge of God, pluralists contend, is arrogance.

I occasionally tell this parable, and I can almost see the people nodding their heads in agreement.

But then I remind them, "The only way this parable makes any sense, however, is if you've seen a whole elephant. Therefore, the minute you say, 'All religions only see part of the truth,' you are claiming the very knowledge you say no one else has. And you are demonstrating the same spiritual arrogance you accuse Christians of."

(Timothy J. Keller, Interview with CT Leadership, 2002)

a plea for christian education

2011-08-06T11:15:00.000-04:00

Machen concludes his work, Christianity and Liberalism, with a call for renewed commitment to Christian education, especially within our homes and churches. Note especially the final paragraph:

[T]he most important thing of all--there must be a renewal of Christian education. The rejection of Christianity is due to various causes. But a very potent cause is simple ignorance.

In countless cases, Christianity is rejected simply because men have not the slightest notion of what Christianity is. An outstanding fact of recent Church history is the appalling growth of ignorance in the Church. Various causes, no doubt, can be assigned for this lamentable development.

The development is due partly to the general decline of education--at least so far as literature and history are concerned. The schools of the present day are being ruined by the absurd notion that education should follow the line of least resistance, and that something can be "drawn out" of the mind before anything is put in. They are also being ruined by an exaggerated emphasis on methodology at the expense of content and on what is materially useful at the expense of the high spiritual heritage of mankind. These lamentable tendencies, moreover, are in danger of being made permanent through the sinister extension of state control.

But something more than the general decline in education is needed to account for the special growth of ignorance in the Church. The growth of ignorance in the Church is the logical and inevitable result of the false notion that Christianity is a life and not also a doctrine; if Christianity is not a doctrine then of course teaching is not necessary to Christianity. But whatever be the causes for the growth of ignorance in the Church, the evil must be remedied. It must be remedied primarily by the renewal of Christian education in the family, but also by the use of whatever other educational agencies the Church can find. Christian education is the chief business of the hour for every earnest Christian man. Christianity cannot subsist unless men know what Christianity is.