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Is Salvation by Faith or by Works?

2011-09-14T13:07:00.001-07:00

Recently on the White Horse Inn, Mike Horton told the story of a priest who was asked this question. His answer, “Neither. Salvation is by the Grace of God.”

This gives us the correct perspective upon the Christian message. We are born in Sin under the condemnation of God. There is no hope, no purpose, no meaning, until we center upon the message that Christ died for our Sin. Francis Schaeffer said about the Christian message, “Its center is not Christ’s life, nor His miracles, but His death.”

We live in “a world,” as Schaeffer says, “that does not want to say ‘no’ to self—not just for a minor reason, but out of principle, because people are determined to be the enter of the universe.”

“When we step out of the very black perspective,” says Schaeffer, “and into the perspective of the kingdom of God, then these negatives [of sin, a fallen world, and our own fallen nature] which are laid upon us take on an entirely different aspect.”

“This is the subject of thousands of years of prophecy. The center of the Christian message is the redemptive death of Jesus Christ.”

The 11th Commandment

2011-09-12T12:55:00.001-07:00

I recently read a story from Spurgeon in which a preacher dressed as a poor person seeking lodging at the home of a man who had a reputation for holiness and godliness in order to test this man’s integrity. In the process of this masquerade, his wife, in her husbands absence, had devotions from the catechism with the family, servants and guests. She asked the masquerader how many commandments there were, and he answered 11! She lamented that a “man of his age” did not know the number of commandments.

The preacher found that all that was said of this man was true, and later during a worship service where this family was attending, he preached on the 11th Commandment from the text of John 13:30, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.”

The humbled woman remarked that from then on when they were asked how many commandments there were the answer would now be 11!

Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), co-founder of L’Abri Fellowship, with his wife, sees this commandment to love as a summation of the commandments. In the first chapter of his book, True Spirituality, Schaeffer lays out the fundamental principle that if we break the command to love, we break the first commandment to love God, and we show that we do not love our neighbor as our self.

He gives us two practical tests to help us measure our inward spirituality: one, do we covet? Two, do we envy? If we seek contentment, says Schaeffer, then we will be putting covetousness and envy out of our practice. “When we. . .understand that failure in these areas is really coveting, a lack of love, every one of us must be upon his knees as Paul was upon his knees when he saw the commandment not to covet; it destroys any superficial view of the Christian life.”

I hope that your appetite for this book is wetted to read more about the “positive inward reality” of the walk with Christ should be.

Creature vs. Creator: The Essential Difference Between Philosophy and Theology

2011-03-23T23:27:00.001-07:00

Justin Taylor posted a comment entitled, “Getting the Creator-Creature Order Right” quoting from the author Ardel Caneday.

Justin begins by saying, “Many missteps in theology are on account of the implicit idea that God must be like us in some way.”

Our friends at ReformedForum discussed this creature-creator distinction as the essential difference between Philosophy and Theology in their podcast Philosophy for Theologians. The program title is “The Relationship of Philosophy to Theology”

A Presbyterian Recommends of a (Gasp) Baptist Theologian

2011-03-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

In Christ the Center’s podcast, “The Role of Seminary in Today’s World,” (beginning about 38:40) President of Westminster Seminary, Peter Lillback, recommends Augustus Strong’s, Systematic Theology, to readers as a book the expounds classic Baptist theology and ranks among his recommendations of Calvin, Hodge and Warfield. He also recommends Spurgeon, not so much for his exegisis sometimes, but “his homiletic skill is unparalleled.”

For Baptists Mohler says, “Start with Calvin. Hodge, Warfield, Samuel Miller, James Montgomery Boice.

Theological Darwinism and the Survival of the Fittest: Confessional Protestantism

2011-03-16T21:56:00.001-07:00

“A lot of Baptists have not been confessional in nature,” says Dr. Peter Lillback, President of Westminster Theological Seminary—Philadelphia, “and a lot of the excitement we see going on at Southern [Seminary] is a rediscovery of confessional Baptist theology, and that theological underpinning brings a lot of unity.”

Dr. Lillback made these comments in the Christ the Center podcast at the ReformedForum website in the program entitled “The Role of the Seminary in Today’s World.” (beginning at about 11 min, 59 secs)

Even more insightful were the comments by Dr. Al Mohler. Responding to Dr. Lillback’s assertion of theological unity, Dr. Mohler said, “It really does, but it’s sort of like theological Darwinism—survival of the fittest. Confessional Protestantism is going to be all that remains because everything else is going to melt away with the disappearance of Cultural Christianity. The reality is that only those churches that hold themselves accountable to a confession of faith, and do so not out of obligation, but out of joy, are going to be left standing in terms of what we would recognize as the visible church.”

We’re Not Just Passing a Mid-term With God

2011-03-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

One of my friends made this comment as we were discussing the chapter, “What God Understands: His presence in our suffering,” from C. J. Mahaney’s book, Living the Cross-Centered Life.
When we live in the reality of life in Christ, we will be engaged in a moment-by-moment reality of the sufficiency of Christ to strengthen us in our sufferings, temptations, sins, joys, and intellectual and spiritual explorations.
Our union with Christ radically changes our view and approach to living; we are not merely in a test with God, but we are smack in the middle of His purposeful working in our world.

Nobel scientist has new spin on 'original sin'

2011-03-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Nobel scientist has new spin on 'original sin'
What a relief! Now we can rest in the “fact” that sin is due to evolution. “Natural selection has resulted in traits such as group selfishness being coded in our genes, explains Christian de Duve, professor emeritus at New York City's Rockefeller University. “These were useful to our ancestors under the conditions in which they lived, but have become noxious to us today.”
Too bad he’s wrong. Sin is a result of Adam’s rebellion against God, and all his offspring inherit this sin when their born. Furthermore, Sin is a universal moral problem, not a merely, “group selfishness being coded in our genes.”
de Duve explains, “These [genomic codes] were useful to our ancestors under the conditions in which they lived, but have become noxious to us today.”
In fact, de Duve is an example of Sin working in the mind of man who “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” de Duve is deceived by the deceitfulness of Sin. The fruits of this is a denial of historicity of Genesis

SermonAudio.com - Giving to God

2011-03-08T07:53:00.001-08:00

We’ve got to stop treating God as “a vending machine of blessing!”

Sometimes a metaphor hits me between the eyes and rips open my selfish complacency, Jeremy Twombley’s metaphor was a part of his sermon, “Giving to God,” preached from Numbers 7.

Please listen to this sermon at the link below.

SermonAudio.com - Giving to God

Habits of Sin Learned at the Morticians

2011-02-26T13:56:00.000-08:00

John Street tells about the trips that pastoral students take to the morticians before the embalm the body. After a person dies, the muscle memory will cause the body to do odd things. The body will sit up. The body will reach up and scratch the face.

Taking this illustration, Street reminds us that when we sin we are exercising our bodies unto unrighteousness, and using the illustration of the dead body, he reminds us that we build a habit of evil doing when we continue to sin unrepentingly. As Christians, we should be exercising our bodies unto righteousness; this is a fruit of the Spirit working in us.

We are saved to be holy and like Christ!

Husbands: Learner, Lover, Leader!

2011-02-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

Gentlemen, we need to know that we are not old dogs that can’t learn new tricks. We are men! As such we can also change.

This is important to know because the “stings of the curse” are that the woman seeks to manipulate and control her husband while the husband seeks to have the woman despotically “under his thumb.” James correlates this sin dynamic, “WhaTheret causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" (James 4:1, ESV).
Husbands are responsible to be Learners, Lovers and Leaders of their wives and being a godly man.

Learner
1 Peter 3:7, "[7 ] Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7 ESV)
This is an ongoing, concerted, effort.
I need to know my wife, study herjuniqueness of her gender. I need to learn what is unique about my wife. I need to learn and know her unique life struggles.
I need treat her as a weaker vessel; not as weak. I need to give her respect, honor and cherish her as if she were a Ming vase instead of a Tupperware ^® container. Romantic love is comes from giving your wife this attention.

Lover
Eph 5:25, "[25 ] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, (Ephesians 5:25 ESV)
I am to love my wife "as Christ loved” (Eph 5:25, 1 Jn 4:19.) I need to love her first; take the initiative and be a lover before being loved. I need to love her most , that is I need to give myself to her, love her more than myself. Then, I need to love her unmistakably, so that she knows in word and deed that I lover her (1 Jn 3:18).
I am also to love my wife "as my own body." If I would only love her as I (selfishly) love me, my marriage would richer.
Loving my sweeheart like this will overcome bitterness (Col 3:19).

Leader
A godly leader will focus on the needs of others. I need to be goal oriented, setting godly goals. I need to be an example of control in every area of life: what I read, what I eat, where I go on the internet. I need to be a problem-solver; my wife's problems are all of my problems, but not all my problems are hers. I need to be a teacher, leading her in the Word, and we should be living out the Word. Finally, I need to be a joy to live with; I want my family to love when I come home.

Be a blessing to your wife, men!

My First Live Blog and How I'm Learning to Hate!

2011-02-26T08:42:00.001-08:00

My wife and I are attending the God Country Baptist Church Marriage and Family Conference. The spekaer if Dr. John Street from Master’s College, and he's teaching us to hate!

John launched the conference with his keynote lecture from Romans 12:9, “[9 ] Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9 ESV).

If our marriages are going to thrive, we need to abhor evil. We need to learn to hate our sin more. There is too much compromising with sin; and, marriage is in great danger from many forces in our society.

John showed from Genesis 2 how God gave us marriage. God rooted marriage in the creation of mankind into gender distinction. The focus of marriage in light of creation is the relationship with one another. Then as we grow in families each one of us has understand that our goal in life is to leave, cleave and become on flesh.

Of course, to become one flesh is more than anything physical; to become one flesh mentally, psychologically, in how we treat our property, our possessions. We must also understand that a husband and wife are in an unbreakable covenant (Heb, berith).

More to come.

Seduction Rather Than Persecution

2011-02-23T13:10:00.001-08:00

This is the peculiar danger to the American church. American Christians live in a free, comfortable, prosperous, and sensuous culture.

Our culture is full of self-indulgent pleasures and diversions of entertainment and gratification of our senses.

The Bible tells us, “[2 ] And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them [false prophets] the way of truth will be blasphemed.”(2 Peter 2:2 ESV) He was speaking of the false prophets that would terrorize the church, but the church is admonished from indulging in their “sensuality.”

The Greek word is aselgeia, meaning “1) unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence.” Taking all the nuances of this word, one can see what havoc such character among the members of Christ can devour the church.

We Americans need to be on guard from the seduction of the world and guard ourselves against sensuality with a healthy dose of continence. We need to avail ourselves of the Word and Spirit to change our lustful ways in ways of restraint and voluntary restriction from the many allures and amusements in this world, and in self-denial seek to serve one another and our neighbors.

Applied Christianity

2011-02-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Theirs is a movement that advocates for “missional living” as a means of applying the gospel in a way that emphasizes a way of life.

In some ways this is very admirable emphasis, except that missional living aims at being a means of evangelism. Some years ago there was a similar movement called “lifestyle evangelism.”

The bottom line for me is that the danger of the movement is that it confuses life lived as a result of the the work of the Gospel in us, as opposed to the proclamation of the Gospel which is the mission of evangelism.

I’m reminded too of the old liberal call to apply Christianity. J. Gresham Machen said:

At this point Christian teaching is in full accord with the modern liberal Church; the evangelical Christian is not true to his profession if he leaves his Christianity behind him on Monday morning. On the contrary, the whole of life, including business and all of social relations, must be made obedient to the law of love. The Christian man certainly should display no lack of interest in"applied Christianity."
Only--and here emerges the enormous difference of opinion--the Christian man believes that there can be no applied Christianity unless there be "a Christianity to apply." [7] That is where the Christian man differs from the modern liberal. The liberal believes that applied Christianity is all there is of Christianity, Christianity being merely a way of life; the Christian man believes that applied Christianity is the result of an initial act of God. (J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, Chapter 5, "Salvation")

Christianity and Pluralism

2011-02-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I discussed the difference between Christian and Islamic views of politics. These differences are very serious. Furthermore, as you add the exclusivity claims of both religions and the view of secularists that view both religions as unable to come to any truth-claims, politicians wonder how we won't come to blows in some "clash of civilizations."

Michael Horton at The White Horse Inn ("The Mission Statement", begin about 8:50) disagrees with the conclusion that there will be a class of civilizations. Horton says, "It's only a clash of civilization, Christian and Muslim, if Christianity is equivalent to Modernity. [The clash] is Islam versus Modernity, not versus Christianity because Islam is simultaneously a missionary-political faith. When Christianity has been, over centuries of its history, like that it has been unfaithful to the New Testament. When Islam does it, it is being faithful to the Qur'an.

Ken Jones makes a good point when he says that Christians need to do a better job a living as neighbors of different faiths, and different cultures. "We are either trying to Americanize them along with their religion and we've been intolerant," says Jones, "or at that other extreme we've been absorbent so that religious differences have been minimized, but that idea of pluralism is not something we've done a good job at."

People fear Christian involvement in politics in the public arena because there is [wrongly] a sense that the advance of Christianity equals the elimination of political toleration for all groups. However Horton points out that Christians have to preach what the Bible teaches us:

"[26 ] For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [27 ] but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27 ESV)"

However as Horton points out that Christians are not executing that judgment, we are proclaiming forgiveness and grace so that people who are under that wrath--like ourselves--will not be under it on "that day."

Christians need to articulate that we believe in political and religious pluralism, and can't defend coercion of others by political force, but reserve the right of free speech to preach what we believe. Christianity equals peace and non-coercion by force.

Muslim vs. Christian View of Politics

2011-02-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

As I was listening to a podcast of The White Horse Inn called “The Mission Statement,” part of the discussion touched on the difference between Reformed Christianity and Islam regarding their view of politics.

The difference was summarized along these lines: the Islamic view of politics if most faithful to its creed when religion and civil law coincide. In the article, “Islamic Politics—Introduction”, we learn, “One of the most controversial aspects of Islamic politics is the concept of jihad, or “holy war.””

Khurshi Ahmad explains, “A Muslim is one whose outlook on life is permeated with this consciousness [of the pillars of Islam]. . . Jihad has been described in the Qur’an and the Sunnah as the natural corollary of these pillars of faith. Commitment to God involves commitment to sacrifice one’s time, energy and wealth to promote the right cause. It may be necessary at times to give one’s life in order to preserve Truth.” (Khurshid Ahmad, Islam: Its Meaning and Message, 3rd ed. Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, 1999, pg. 39.)

In contrast, Christians are consistent with their creed when religion and politics are separate. To a Christian there are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of God and the kingdom(s) of men.

Dan Bryant writing in the September/October Issue of Modern Reformation magazine explains, “While God instituted the authority of the civil magistrate, he did not institute it to be a means of redemption. Its task is temporal justice; limiting the effects of wickedness. The kingdom of God will never be advanced by the state or through politics. God alone accomplishes redemption, graciously drawing rebellious men and women to himself, bringing them into his holy body, the church, the bride of Christ, which has the risen, reigning Christ even now as its head.” (Dan Bryant, Modern Reformation Magazine, “Christianity & Politics: How Shall the Twain Meet?”)

Understanding these different views, I now understand that to separate the state and religion is to gut Islam of a central tenet that defines their religion. Any one that asserts that Islam can be integrated into Western political society is only deceiving themselves. Either Islam will relent (not likely), or the West will have to someday use force against Islamic forces in order not to be swallowed up by Islamic Theocratic law.

As for Christians, we are called to preach the Gospel, and there is no other option. If Islam should gain a foothold in the United States true Christians will continue to do so--even at the pain of death or persecution becase we are taught, ". . .do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28 ESV)

Husband Leadership: Some practical guidance

2011-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

my previous post

Don't Abdicate Your Responsibilities:

As her worship leader

As a sanctifying agent

As caretaker for her wellbeing

As her lover and friend

The Leaven of the Gospel—The Saturation Commission

2011-01-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

From Gospel Centric:
“Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. It must be studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made useful in advancing the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom must be advanced not merely extensively, but also intensively. The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man. We are accustomed to encourage ourselves in our discouragements by the thought of the time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. No less inspiring is the other aspect of that same great consummation. That will also be a time when doubts have disappeared, when every contradiction has been removed, when all of science converges to one great conviction, when all of art is devoted to one great end, when all of human thinking is permeated by the refining, ennobling influence of Jesus, when every thought has been brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ.”—J. Gresham Machen, Originally published in The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 11, 1913. Read the whole article: Christianity and Culture by J. Gresham Machen

Pride

2011-01-29T21:41:00.001-08:00

Pride. The great enemy of Spiritual growth. This self-diagnostic list is really, really helpful. It would be worth reading and re-reading this year as we pursue Christ.

The Gospel of Steve Jobs

2011-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Tim Challies passed on this post from Andy Crouch at Making Culture.

“As remarkable as Steve Jobs is in countless ways—as a designer, an innovator, a (ruthless and demanding) leader—his most singular quality has been his ability to articulate a perfectly secular form of hope. Nothing exemplifies that ability more than Apple’s early logo, which slapped a rainbow on the very archetype of human fallenness and failure—the bitten fruit—and made it a sign of promise and progress.”

Jobs articulates the gospel of our age: follow your heart.

But mankind needs to know that "[9 ] The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV). Furthermore, this self-delusion prevents people from seeing escaping the wrath of God: "[18 ] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." (Romans 1:18 ESV)

2011-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Justin Taylor continues to bless me. Some of the young guys in my church have commented on how I am such an inspiration to them. But I have privately thought that I’m not doing anything particularly remarkable. The following story made me pause and consider the wonderful providence of God in living faithfully in the mundane, repetitive day-in-and-day-out life, dealing with the struggles and troubles of being a welfare worker, husband, father and above all a follower of Jesus.

Do You Recognize the Extraordinary in God’s Ordinary Providence?
“Clarence Macartney told the story about Dr. John Witherspoon . . . a signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the (then) College of New Jersey. He lived a couple of miles away from the college at Rocky Hill and drove horse and rig each day to his office at the college.

“One day one of his neighbors burst into his office, exclaiming, ‘Dr. Witherspoon, you must join me in giving thanks to God for his extraordinary providence in saving my life, for as I was driving from Rocky Hill the horse ran away and the buggy was smashed to pieces on the rocks, but I escaped unharmed!’

“Witherspoon replied, ‘Why, I can tell you a far more remarkable providence than that. I have drive over that road hundreds of times. My horse never ran away, my buggy never was smashed, I was never hurt.’

“So we must beware of thinking that God is only in the earthquake, wind, and fire; of thinking that manna but not grain is God’s food. Most of God’s gifts to his people are not dazzling and gaudy but wrapped in simple brown paper. Quiet provisions of safety on the highway, health of children, picking up a paycheck, supper with the family—all in an ordinary day’s work for our God.”

—Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua: No Fallen Words (reprint: Christian Focus, 2000), pp. 48-49

"The Seeker-Sensitive Movement: Your Thoughts Al and R.C..."

2011-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

This video has 'made the rounds,' but I'd like to post it still because Sproul really articulates the answer with skill, grace and truth.

What Men Really Want—Really!?

2011-01-22T14:02:00.001-08:00

Okay guys let’s face the question that Dan Phillips writes about at PyroManiacs, what would happen if my wife was the perfect submissive wife?

It's all really-really on you now. To open that up a bit...
Any pretense you ever felt you had for defaulting or abdicating is all gone now. To open that up a bit...
You may genuinely have accepted your role in your marital problems, but inwardly you always had "but after all what can I do, married to a woman like this?" That's all gone now. All eyes turn to you. You don't even have the appearance of the excuse you thought you had. It's all you. What are you going to do?
You'd better deliver. Are you ready to deliver? Are you like a minority-party politician, sniping at the party in power, going on and on about what better ideas you have and what a better job you'd do — and, now once you find yourself in power, it's a whole different ballpark, and you see that the market-value for talk remains a goose-egg?
And if it all ends up in the ditch, you will have driven it there. Are you ready for that rap? Are you ready to be a man and shoulder the blame? Are you ready not to have any excuses, any buck-passing, any notes-from-Mom excusing you from manning-up and taking it squarely?
What's more, you are now the buffer, the shield, for that woman. Maybe for months, years or decades she kept defying God's purposes, refusing to subordinate herself to you, and caught all sorts of grief for it from God's world. But now she's positioned with you as her head, her shield, her protection. You don't hide behind her as an excuse or as a person. She hides behind you, and rightly so. Are you man enough for that? Are you ready to be her hero, her knight, her champion, her protector? Did your heart stir as mine did at the story of the men at the Tucson shooting who threw themselves between the murderer's bullets and their wives? Men like seventy-six year old Dorwan Stoddard, who pulled his wife down and died shielding her with his body? Those were men being men, I tell you. Are you ready for that role?
The wellbeing of that precious, vulnerable, trusting woman is right smack on your shoulders, under God. She said "No" to every other man in the world — many of whom, just 'twixt us two, are vastly superior to you and me in every way — and said "Yes" to you. Are you at least a half-decent guy? Do you take that role, that place, seriously? Will you rise to it, now that the shackles and hobbles are off? Well, sport, what are you going to do about it now? Bat's in your hands, your shoes are on the plate, the pitcher's winding up, here comes the ball. What are you going to do, Bub? It's all you. What are you going to do?

Suddenly the grass on the other side of that fence isn't as green as you were thinking, is it?

The Madness of Sin

2011-01-12T20:22:00.001-08:00

In all the commentary fallout of the assassination attempt in Tucson, I’ve had liberal relatives engage in the blame the right game, and I’ve had friends who have wailed about the left.

What is usually missing is the important truth about this act: it is sinful. Much of the problem is that the media itself is much of the problem. The negative influence of the mass media has reduced the horrendousness of the concept of Sin.

In his article, “Civil Sin: Evil and Purgation in the Media”article by Quentin J. Schultze, says, “. . .the the eclipse of sin has not reduced the amount of evil portrayed and reported in the popular media. It appears that evil, as a more publicly acceptable concept than sin, is doing more business than ever. News reporting and dramatic narratives are saturated with evil people and evil actions. These stories exist in everything from the nightly news to soap operas, prime-time drama, and movies. However, nearly all of this evil is disconnected from religious faith and from any sense of transcendence. This secular concept reduces evil to morally wrong or bad actions causing harm or pain to other human beings, perhaps resulting in misfortune. In my judgment, if anthropologists unearthed, in the year 2020, the remains of current North American popular culture, they would find very little evidence for the culture's belief in sin, but they would simultaneously be overwhelmed at evidence for moralistic belief in evil.”

The greatest tragedy to be viewed in the news of Tucson assassinations is that most people don’t grasp the magnitude of sinfulness in evil as not “only a matter of human cause and effect,” but “a more egregious matter of willful disobedience of God.” The media itself in all it’s many portrayals of sin begins to chip away at the first person effrontery of sin. As voyeuristic consumers of mass market evil, sin becomes “someone else’s problem, confined largely to highly evil people, and best eliminated through ridding society of such people.” This view of sin deceives people into “objectifying evil in the ‘other’ rather than seeing it as part of the fallen self.”

Schultze concludes, “it is entirely appropriate to hold the media accountable for contributing to the cultural blinders that prohibit fallen human beings from recognizing their own fallenness. I would also hold theologians accountable for not helping all of us to see this more clearly and cogently. As Ellul wrote, "In order to participate truly in this preservation of the world, the Christian ought to place himself at the point of contact between two currents: the will of the Lord and the will of the world."

Hermeneutical Problems With Christian Authors

2011-01-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

I listen to many podcasts. One of them from Reformed Media Review (RMR) at Reformed Forum was a critique of the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Chan has been on the platform with John Piper and some other reformed men.

The critique is gracious, but firm in it's assertions that some men shouldn't write books, and few should be teachers. The main point of the critique at RMR is that Chan seems to imply that the kind of "crazy love" that a person should produce is self-produced love, not a love manisfested as an overflow of the work of the Spirit and Word in our lives.

The reviewer is concerned that Chan has a faulty hermeneutical point of view that leads to some troubling conclusions. "Indicatives need to be the foundation of the imperatives."

Check out the review, the discussion is good to hear in order to see how our foundational hermeneutic affects all that we do and say.

Historicity and Doctrinal Belief

2011-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I listened to Machen’s Chrisitianity and Liberalism recently and I’d like to share these thoughts (pages 22-30 of the .pdf version
“Christianity is an historical phenomenon, like the Roman Empire, or the Kingdom of Prussia, or the United States of America. And as an historical phenomenon it must be investigated on the basis of historical evidence. . .But if any one fact is clear, on the basis of this evidence, it is that the Christian movement at its inception was not just a way of life in the modern sense, but a way of life founded upon a message. It was based, not upon mere feeling, not upon a mere program of work, but upon an account of facts. In other words it was based upon doctrine. . ."The great weapon with which the disciples of Jesus set out to conquer the world was not a mere comprehension of eternal principles; it was an historical message, an account of something that had recently happened, it was the message, “He is risen.””

The Argument for the Blasphemous and Unseemly

2011-01-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

Isaac Moorhouse explores the question "Why Are So Many Protestants Capitalists But Not Libertarians?"

"The famous poet, theologian, and political protester John Milton advanced this argument boldly and eloquently in defense of free-speech against censorship. (I review his arguments and their relevance to the modern world in a short paper here). His Areopagitica, a brilliant tract against England’s laws of Imprimatur, makes the case that the greatest harm done by prohibiting blasphemous and unseemly publications is not harm done to the authors or even readers, but to those who would be deprived of the choice not to read it, and thereby would lose the ability to make a truly moral choice.

Milton felt that speech must be free if men are to ever be moral beings. Sheltering a person from any possibility of acting wrongly does not make a person of character. Additionally, Milton argued that weakness and fear are what motivate the desire to prohibit “false” writings. Can’t truth stand on her own? Can’t those who seek her find her and avoid falsehood?"

I'm interested to read comments.

FULL FAITH AND CREDIT

2011-01-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

This phrase comes from the U. S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 1. It is intended to mean that any evidential records recognized in a state court should be extended to the federal court. In essence what is deemed trustworthy at one level should be held trustworthy at the higher level.

This concept made me think about the different levels of trustworthiness that the Word of God should have in our lives. Just as we profess the supreme authority of the Word of God at the lower level of profession by the mouth, so this authority should hold true at the level of our practice.

For instance, we profess that God’s Word has authority over what we watch, but how many times to we entwine ourselves in the lustful and ungodly and unholy images of the television or the shopping mall, or the computer?

We also profess that God’s Word has authority over our speech and thoughts, but how many times do we entangle ourselves in a lie, or defile ourselves with profanity, or hold on to evil and unholy thoughts that manifest themselves in unholy behavior?

These questions are rhetorical, but they demand that we confess them to God and, if necessary, to our pastor or the one we offend, in order to receive forgiveness and cleansing (1Jo 1v9).

It’s time we start putting full faith and credit to practice in our lives, living in a manner worthy of the gospel (Eph 4v1, Col 1v10, 1Th 2v12, 3Jo 1v6), so that all levels of our being prove trustworthy.

Every Member Ministry

2010-12-30T12:39:00.001-08:00

In our Evangelical churches we have this idea that our pastor(s) are the primary ministers of the Word of God.
We need to help our people see that the Word of God is more powerful than any idea of their ability or inability to minister to others.
The authors of the book The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, explode this unbiblical idea. Ministry, say the authors, is the work of the church, that is the people. The members of the local church are like a vine that grows on the trellis of the organizational superstructure and programs of the church; they grow in the Word and Spirit of truth in order to minister the Word to other people.
The emphasis of the pastor is in training people to minister the Word of God to other people—to “equip the saints for the ministry.” (Eph 4v11-16; 2Ti 3v16)
It’s time that we all grow-up in the faith and gird ourselves for spiritual warfare. It’s time we stop making excuses for not ministering the Word to people around us.

Better Waters and God’s Way

2010-12-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Usually the waters where I love casting a fly where the trout lie are clean and sparkling waters of pools and ripples. But there are when these waters are brown like my morning coffee and cream because they are so clogged with mud.

Apparently this is how the Jordan looked in ancient times when a Babylonian general named Naaman sought out a cure for his leprosy from the Israelite prophet Elisha. He was told to wash himself in the waters of Jordan seven times, but his memories of the beautiful, clean waters of his homeland caused him to despise the proffered cure:

“[11 ] But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. [12 ] Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. (2 Kings 5:11-12 ESV)”

In Naaman’s example, we see our own pride and willfulness because we do little better, seeking our own way of salvation and sanctification. Our corrupted wills seek to find our own way to God according to our own imaginations. We should instead trust in the blood of Christ and rely upon the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to wash us of daily defilement and cleanse us from sin.

Naaman’s servant asked his master if the prophet had asked Naaman to perform some great deed of strength or daring wouldn’t he have done it? But instead he was asked to bow to the prophet’s (and God’s) way. And so the Holy Spirit humbles us when we come under conviction of sin and we are told to only believe in Christ and be saved. We insist upon presenting God with our own wretched deeds.

It’s time we spend more time in the the middle of the cleansing flood of Jesus’ blood and the water of the Word that soothes our soul and makes our lives sparkle with His glory instead of the dullness of our deeds.

Challies Dot Com | Informing the Reforming

2010-11-21T07:22:00.001-08:00

Quoting Randy Alcorn

Challies Dot Com | Informing the Reforming.

To whom does our marriage preach? Of course, the first audience is God and his angels. They watch and rejoice, or if our marriage is a war zone, they grieve.

Who is the second audience? Most of us think first about our non-Christian neighbors. Maybe they will see our attempts to model Christian marriage and want the gospel? They might, and we hope they will, but actually they are the third audience.

The second audience, usually overlooked by most Christians, is our children. What is our marriage telling them about Christ and his bride? They see it all. They hear our fights. They absorb our attitudes. They know who or what really sits on the throne of our lives. They watch how we handle resentment. They hear the way we talk to each other. They know when we hear the Sunday sermon and apply it. They also know when we ignore it.

The message that our marriage preaches either repels or attracts our children. God wants your child to watch your marriage and think, “I want a marriage like that, and I want the God that produced it.” Or, “When I think of the beauty of the gospel, I think of my parents’ marriage. I want to be part of a church that is loved by God the way my dad loves my mother. I want to be part of a church that finds its joy in submitting to Christ as my mother joyfully submits to my father.”

Deja Vu II

2010-11-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

Reformed Baptist Blog: Al Mohler and R.C. Sproul on the "Seeker Sensitive...: "I saw this video over at the Reformed Baptist Fellowship blog, and I couldn't help but post it here as well. I think the readers of this blog"

It looks like there’s my friends are promoting a reformed perspective on evangelism through bringing people to church.

These specific comments by R. C. Sproul are cogent, “. . .what people were looking for was power! . . .Now the power is in 'the program.' Whereas what Luther says. . .is that the power of the Holy Ghost is mediated in and through The Word? When are we going to believe that?"

Neo-Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism

2010-11-09T21:57:00.001-08:00

At REFORMEDFORUM there is a post that explores whether J. Gresham Machen knew and was acquainted with Rudolf Bultmann. Although the conclusion is open to doubt, within the discussion is a recount of the influence of the modernist hermeneutic upon Evangelicalism, especially the influence of Barth upon Evangelicals who embrace him without understanding that his orthodox words have modernist meanings.

DEJA VU

2010-11-08T06:33:00.000-08:00

There is a controversy, I am told, about personal evangelism among some Reformed Baptists. On one side people say that personal evangelism is evangelising people around the in their lives, while on the other side people say that personal evangelism is bringing people around us to church to be evangelised.

This argument reaffirms that there is nothing on new under the Sun. This is the sort of ridiculous argument that is a waste of the precious time that we should be redeeming for the Savior. We should be like Paul who didn't really care if the Gospel was preached to hurt him or preached to help him.. Paul's cry was 'just preach the Gospel!'

During my Spiritual sojourn among Fundamentalist Baptists there were similar arguments in their association of churches. They never served to advance the Gospel. When I heard about this inane contentiousness among this new-found Reformed circle, I had an eerie feeling of Deja Vu.

Hopefully my brothers in this other association can step back from the brink of the cliff of internal bickering, and turn about to shout the Gospel to the lost and perishing.

Staring Into the Cup

2010-10-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have been reading C. J. Mahaney's book, Living the Christ Centered Life. It's so easy to read about Christ facing the cup of the wrath of God and not sensing the absolute agony of soul that Jesus is experiencing. Listen to Mahaney in the sermon set to video and you can hear his passion! I am just barely seeing the incredible comfort to souls who are experiencing the sorrows, trials, dissappointments and distresses in our souls in this life that Jesus by himself bore our pain, and knows our sorrows. Then, there are our brothers and sisters who face death and real persecution for their faith, they can look to Jesus who died for them, who took away the "cup of his wrath" (Is. 51:17) so that they might have hope that they will live as they face the last enemy.

MULTI-SITE CHURCH DISCUSSION

2010-10-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

Multi Multi-Site Discussions through Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, moderated by Dr. Al Mohler, discusses the concept a church that meets at multiple sites. The discussions claim a biblical basis for multiple sites, and discuss how the concept is consistent with Baptist principles. I don't see how a church can meet at multiple sites and still maintain its identity as a local church. "Does congregationalism describe a biblical church?" I wonder if there is a confusion between the local church and the "universal" church theologically and in practice on the city/regional level. Also, important in the discussion is the role of incredible technology that makes it possible to fragment the same preaching message into multiple spaces at one time. But important also is the observance of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's table, and the practice of discipline. Does the desire of to reach more people trump the theological teaching of local ecclesiology? I don't think so. At the point where there are multiple sites, you have multiple churches.

WORK AND MARRIAGE

2010-09-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

"The great bourgeois experiment: the we can find work enjoyable and marriage romantic"-- Alain de Botton.

Truly, for Christians we should find meaning in work and marriage in Christ. As we serve the Lord Christ and honor Him, we should glorify Him. In this can we experience meaning and fulfillment. Otherwise we will be tempted to find meaning in our work and romance, making them idols in our lives. Even as we serve Christ, we will always be fighting the flesh--the feel good, hedonistic lure to indulge in our work and romance as if they were first place for fulfillment.
Even so, God has made work and romance for our good and our pleasure when subordinated to life in Christ. There are many good pleasures in this world, but none will fulfill us; only eternal life in Christ will staisfy.

A REFLECTION ON THE BEGINNING

2010-09-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

     ". . .my pastor was preaching messages from 1 Timothy that challenged me to re-examine my sense of calling and commit myself to more regular prayer (among other Spiritual exercises) and rising to the call of manly leadership in the church and my family.
     "Another important Ligon Duncan's message at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (PCRT) in Sacramento, CA moved me to ask what I was really doing for Christ. What talents, what training, what skills have I learned in my years have I and can I use for God's glory?"
     Over three years ago, I wrote those words to give reason for writing in this blog. So, how have I done?
     I have not improved in my prayer life. Wow, I can't believe I haven't done such a simple thing. But, then, God has been gracious to have more consistent Bible reading/listening most mornings. I have been listening to a daily ESV podcast, and read along in my Bible. I still have to drag my mind back to this task, but praise God for the building of this morning ritual in my life. I have been having pretty regular devotions with my sons, and will be taking up devotions with not only the older boys, but the younger ones also. My wife and I are more close, but we need to do better to have more devotional time together. Each of us are working to be spiritual leaders to our children, but often times we succumb to the pressures of trying to get people to do their school work or chores.
     God has been good to allow me to play guitar for the nursery, and I am being examined for the possibility of being a deacon. Am I using my talents, training and treasure for God's glory. I hope so, but I still am fighting what I want to do and what God, through the church and my leaders, is giving me to do.
     I hope this encourages others to learn to wait upon God, be honest with your failings, but persevere to keep on serving God better and more.

TWO KINGDOMS AND POLITICS

2010-05-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

The guys (Horton & Co.) at White Horse Inn consistently produce such quality stuff. The program they did on March 13, 2010 was entitled "Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms." Their conversation with David VanDrunen was important for me because I've sought to be more active in Libertarian politics.

Horton & Co. and VanDrunen point out two extremes to be avoided by the Church: the monastic extreme and syncretistic desire to "create Heaven on Earth, to Christianize everything in a sort of artificial way."

The category of two kingdoms avoids these two extremes. Originated by Augustine in his apologetic, The City of God, and modified by Luther and Calvin asserts that there are two kingdoms in this world. There is the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man which, according to Luther, are both ruled by God, but in different ways.

Horton points out that this idea begs the question whether, "religion pollutes our common life together." The question that unbelievers ask, says Horton, "Is God and religion, Christianity in particular, dangerous to civil society?"

VanDrunen concurs, pointing out that in Augustine's day, "Christianity was becoming an important part of the empire. Emperors had been converted and yet there were these attacks by the barbarians on Rome. So there were many questions whether Christianity ruined Rome, and whether Christianity was responsible for this."

"Does Christianity harm civil society? Does it benefit civil society? Is it trying to take over civil society?"

As a Christian who seeks to be politically active, I would respond that Christianity is absolutely beneficial to society because it brings to politics a realism that enables a politician to exercise a tolerance and an honesty that is tempered with compassion and love, but guided by insights that are essential in the managment of people and resources in a society. The Christian politician can embrace a freedom of thought that allows for the choices of sinning mankind, but trusts in the Providence of God to make all things right.

And yet, as a citizen (and ambassador) of the Kingdom of God, the Christian politician will be opposed by the citizens of the kingdom of man; as a person living in two kingdoms, the Christian politican will never be able to be at home in this Earthly realm, although he might still do much good.

THE ENEMIES OF OUR SOULS

2009-12-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

Psalm 143:9-10:

Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord!
I have fled to you for refuge!

Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God!

Let your good Spirit lead me
on level ground!

God delivers us from our sins, the enemies of our souls. The enemies of lust, greed, blasphemous speech, gossip, lying are mere tips of the iceberg of our remaining sin. We need to flee to Him. We must run to the foot of the cross of Jesus where there is the judgment of our sins in His body, and forgiveness through His blood. We find that there is an abundance of Grace from God

Jesus and our father are our refuge from these sins that war against us. Our hearts and minds are deadened to our evil works, even in our redeemed state. “O Lord deliver us from our sins!” should be our plea. We should wait upon the Lord who hears our cry (Psalm 40). God is our deliverer, our Savior. His name is Jesus, Immanuel—God with us! The Lord Jesus has promised to always be our deliverer when he promised us before his ascension, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

God does not leave us exposed to our sins, but teaches us His will. The Holy Spirit of God can make us sensitive to our sins if we only avail ourselves of the means that the Father has ordained. The Holy Spirit teaches us as we read and meditate on the Scripture that we read; He teaches us as we seek to obey God’s Word in application of the Truth that we take in. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

We do God’s will because He is our God, and because we are His people. It is the sovereign work of God in us the makes our paths level. We do not toil and labor as in an uphill climb, but on the level ground of God’s Truth. John Gill comments on this verse saying, “. . .as the Targum, where honesty prevails, and honesty prevails, and honest and upright men live. . .the way to eternal life, to heaven and happiness; the land where only truly righteous and upright persons dwell; such will be the new heavens and the new earth, as well as the ultimate state of glory, (2 Peter 3:13); and to this the Spirit of God is the leader and guide of his people, (Psalms 48:14).”

Government and Liberty

2009-09-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

After reading about Libertarianism, I believe that this political philosophy captures the original ideas of the founding fathers, and has answers to our current dilemma regarding the Republican/Democrat actions that assume that government must continually expand to 'solve' various perceived societal ills.

Scripture provides us with a view of government that teaches us that it is coercive and oppressive unless, as Libertarians believe, it is limited--and I would add limited severly. Consider 1 Samuel 8:

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. 19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Obey their voice and make them a king. Samuel then said to the men of Israel, Go every man to his city.

Politics and Providence

2009-08-13T19:49:00.001-07:00

Does the political climate make you upset or frustrated with our country’s leaders (whichever party). It does me. Sometimes I even take some small action by signing a petition or sending an e-mail to my elected representative. I will even be heard to grumble, along with some friends, and even in a most bellicose way. However, maybe all of us (myself included) need to think on the excerpted words of William S. Plumer from his book, Jehovah-Jireh: A Treatise on Providence (my emphasis underlined):

“Consider how great is the danger of resisting providence. Whenever God’s will is known, submit to it, not grudgingly, but of a cheerful mind. For their sins the Jews had a hard bondage in Babylon. What made their case worse was that among them were prophets and diviners, who fomented rebellion against their masters. They were quite opposed to the reigning powers, and, in fact, were in favor of sullen rebellion against God and man. These false teachers vexed the people and kept their tempers chafed. But by God’s direction, good Jeremiah wrote them a letter, saying: ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives from Jerusalem unto Babylon: Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city, whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.” (Jer. xxix.4-8). How much better it is thus cheerfully to submit to Providence than to quarrel with it, and fret, and lose our good tempers, and, with our tempers, our good consciences! For, “who hath hardened himself against God and prospered?” (Job ix.4).

Living in the Present Presence of God

2009-06-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

I was expressing to a close friend my desire to live for God better. This friend told me a story about how he learned to live in what he called the present presence of God.

A call from a stranger on Judy’s cell phone told him that she had been in a traffic accident. When he arrived he saw the large pickup truck that collided into the passenger side of Judy’s Honda Civic on its side in the intersection. He said that Judy was stretched out on her back with a paramedic kneeling at her head stabilizing her neck. She recognized his voice, when he came to her side, so he was encouraged that she was alert and speaking, but she was more concerned and upset for the other driver who, according to a police officer next to her, said was trapped in the pickup. Right away, my just took Judy’s hand and prayed with her. “But I was just speaking words. I didn’t even sense I was speaking to God.” Like myself, he found himself doing the Christian thing: living for God, but living by faith.

What he learned was the Bible doesn’t speak about a Christian life, but speaks of a life of faith. We fall into the Christian lingo instead of being filled with the truth of the Word. We need to take heed from James; we need to live our lives by faith; faith without our works is dead faith, but works without faith are dead works, and so we are admonished to pray in faith, not doubting, but believing. (Jas 5)

Testimony of Christ in the Workplace

2009-06-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Jesus Christ came to visit this world. He was God “reconciling the world to himself.” Through Jesus Christ God made if possible for alienated men, sinners, to return to Him, but only through Jesus Christ. God ordained that all the world’s peoples—all nations and tribes of every language—would be redeemed from their estrangement.

As Jesus came to this world he humbled Himself to be God’s Servant. His home was the glory of heaven, but He when he visited this world His glory was veiled (Heb 9:3; 10:20); and, yet he abided in this other world, which is cursed and defiled, without being touched by this defilement. As God’s Servant (Isa. 49, 53) He exemplified to us how to live in this desecrated realm in a perfect and God-honoring way.

For example, He humbled himself for about 30 years as a son, and under the tutelage, it is presumed, of his earthly step-father in the trade of a Carpenter. As it is enjoined upon us in the 4th Commandment, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD YOUR God,” so it is that Jesus exemplified this for us. Richard Steele says “That his precepts might have greater force, he has given us his own example: for before his entrance into the ministerial office, we find him labouring in the carpenter’s trade: and if so divine a person stooped to a laborious calling to teach us humility, diligence and industry, shall any who call him their master, refuse to imitate him herein?”

Have you ever stopped to consider that “preaching the Gospel” includes exemplifying humility, diligence and industry at our place of employment? When we spend our employer’s or customer’s time to evangelize our fellow employee, or our employer’s customer, we are stealing our master’s time and money. Certainly there are recognized times where we converse with people in the course of our business, but we should guard our testimony by following our Lord’s example to us.

DO HARD THINGS

2009-06-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

"It is a matter of serious regret that young people are commonly so little disposed to listen to the advice of the aged."

This was the first sentence in an article written by Arichibald Alexander in 1844. In some ways one might say the same of our youth today, but I have been challenged by two young men who wrote a book that we are using in Sunday School at our church.

This book's title is, Doing Hard Things. It has changed our household. It is becoming a common retort to my kids when they don't measure up to a challenge or task, no matter how small. I do not escape from these rejoinders.

My wife has been taking an active interest in encouraging me in my exercise and diet, and when I groaned my dismay at being served oatmeal for breakfast, she said—yes, you guessed it, "Do hard things."

My reply was, "oh please, don't devalue the saying." I was properly rebuked by her soft answer, "Sometimes the hard things, look easy." Well, yes this is what the Harris brothers say, and this is what I've been challenging my kids to do also.

So far the message of this book has changed our family. My daughters are now volunteering at the local pregnancy support group. I have changed my priorities to be more involved in my church's men's fellowship and with my family's devotions, and my wife is continuing to minister to one of our church members and service with our home schooling group. We have eight children, and we are looking for hard things for them also.

By all means, find this book, read it, then do hard things.

No King In Israel

2009-06-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

There was no king in Israel.

As I listened to one of my pastors preach from this section, I'm afraid I didn't hear everything he said (it was Wednesday evening, after a long day, and I had just sat down after a hectic day--okay I think you got the drift).

But later after I took the time to read through this book and put together what I did hear, I was struck by this phrase which is found three times in the book of Judges. Ever since I jettisoned my dispensational beliefs, I have been blessed with the personal discovery of redemptive history. It's not that I never heard the phrase when I was in Bible college, but now I embrace the concept as part and parcel of my reformation.

This phrase is found in the latter part of Judges: after all the cyclical apostasy, repentance, and salvation of the nation, and as you meditate upon this book's place in the canon, and upon the redemptive historical context of the events, you remember that there is a reason for these accounts.

The events of the judges happen after the admonition of Joshua to keep the law and to obey it because the result will be that the LORD will be their God and they will be His people. Then on the other side of this book begins the story of Ruth which happens in the days of the judges which is the story of the origin of the kingly line of David and, ultimately, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
There was no king in Israel says the author of Judges. Yet, as my pastor reminded me, there were previous injunctions regarding the king in the Law, and there was the promise that "the sceptre shall not pass from Judah."

Finally, let us take warning from the fact that there was a King in Israel, but He was rejected. He manifested his presence in the Tabernacle, but the people would not obey Him, nor worship Him. To me this is the most frightening aspect of the statement, "There was no king in Israel." Let us beware that in the New Israel, the Church of God, we do not idolized self and dethrone our King Jesus who is our Lord.

FIGHTING DOUBTS

2008-06-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

As we go through trials and, even more importantly, enjoy blessings and successes, we need to fight doubts that either God has abandoned us, or that we free from dependence upon God.

Frankly I think all of us Christians find it easy find in our experience the fight to have assurance in our trials. And we need to remember that ". . .the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church . . .according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

In our trials we cry out to God with an assured hope that we have "access with confidence," and "this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." And, thus we fight the doubts that God is there with an assurance given us in comfort of the Holy Spirit ministering to our being as our Comforter and Counselor.

But when things are good, we are in peril to live a life of doubt as if God is not there. We need to make our cry, " I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life." (Ps. 119:93). Our life without God is like grass that is withered to a crunchy brown. We must fight doubts that are sufficient in ourselves, and do not need the water of God's Word in our life. We must fall to the temptation to live in the blessings of God without any sense that He is permeating us with His presence-- not in a strictly emotional way, but in a wholistic way, so that our being is blanketed with the deep sense of doing His will. (1 Cor 10:31). Our soul must speak to itself with this permeating presence of God in the words of David (Ps. 103:1-5):

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The Peace of Christ

2008-04-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

In a recent training on Stress Management, the conversation turned to different types of stress upon an individual. Among this were physical, emotional, and Spiritual.
Of course, the idea of Spiritual stress interested me, and as we talked, I realized that the comments aimed at describing spiritual stress as some form of imbalance or disharmony in their being, and I realized that these people were trying to describe peace, or more accurately, the lack of peace.
Since I was not the trainer, I didn't have the chance to expand on the only way to find peace: repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness.
There is a family in our church that is facing a difficult trial that involves false charges of child endangerment. Now, I know this family to be very diligent about watching their children, and other member of the church have told me the same thing and encouraged this family to trust God to work out all these things for their good.
Even so, the father has expressed his struggle with fear and anxiety, even when he knows that God is their advocate, and he has found encouragement in Paul's words from Philippians 4, "5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. "
Praise God for His Peace, and may we have opportunity to communicate the peace of Christ to all those around us in word and in deed.

Where Is Our Focus?

2008-02-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a young man some time ago, and in the course our convesation , I told him, "If you do anything, pick just 2 or 3 things that you want to accomplish in life, and stick to them." These words are easier said than done for me. As I work 8 hours at my day job and spend much of the rest of my time with the family, or maintaining our finances, I still find time to practice some guitar and write a little bit. Additionally, I fit in study time for some ministry. But these interests and duties, I perceive, are unfocused pursuits that need to be evaluated in the light of God's Word to do all to the glory of God, and require a more disciplined and biblical approach to my intellectual pursuits.
The current reading from James W. Sire's book, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual life as a Christian calling, has led me to consider Sire's proposition as to what it means to be intellectual and how to use the intellect; he comes to the place where he lays out the uniquenes of being a Christian intellect, "A Christian intellectual is everything an intellectual proper is but to the glory of God." Sire points out that Christian thinkers have a passion not just for thinking, but for a passion for holiness which is the glory of God. The greatest expression of the holiness in God in man was in the person of Jesus Christ, and furthermore, a passion to glorify God is a passion to be like Christ, and this includes the desire for God to remake us through "gradual means, the means of grace. . . ." I believe Sire rightly notes, "A passion for holiness will therefore result in a passion not only to know the truth, but to do the truth." [E. Michael Jones, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior (San Franciso: Ignatius, 1993)]; there is an unbreakable link between knowing and doing. Even so, we still struggle. We experience the frustration of desiring to what we know is right and no doing it; and, what I hate, that I do. (Romans 7:14-25). Paul's description discrepancy between orthodoxy and orthopraxy is where we observe our inability to glorify God. How shall we then focus our attention upon glorifying God in all that we do when we are plagued by this struggle between what we believe and what we do? The answer is found submission to the Holy Spirit in two parts: first, in aspiration to setting our minds on the things of the Spirit (Prov. 23:7; Pil. 4:8), and second, in mortifying the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirt (Rom. 8:13; Col 3:5). Spirit God's work in our life is sanctifying to our mind and to our practice as He uses the means of prayer, the minstry of the Word of God, worship, fellowship of the saints, and communion to grow us in grace intellectually and practically. Let us seek to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength. Amen!

Back, At Last

2007-12-15T02:09:00.000-08:00

I've failed.
Until now, I've not been posting, and realize that if I'm going to continue to be faithful to use my gift from God, that I need to persevere. Pray for me that I will have wisdom to deliver me from myself and use my time wisely.
To God be the glory.

The previous post was motivated by the desire to spread the word and shake up people among our Evangelical peoples to take up the cross and follow Christ and preach the Gospel of salvation of sin--any sin--through faith in the blood of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
To Christ be the glory.

The Coming Storm

2007-12-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

Our neighbors to the North are becoming more mired in the quagmire of sinful tolerance, and as the increasing political knitting of the North American Continent into a mirror of the European Union we can expect to see increasingly accomodation to the radical homosexual agenda to transform our culture into one that also tolerates behavior perversions as a of rejecting of God.

Bill Whatcott has been banned from speaking Truth in Sakathcewa, Canda, for speaking God's truth in regarding the sinful behavior or homosexuality. This Catholic "activist", was taken to court and fined for hurting the feelings of four homosexuals.

Luther Says, Real Men Change Diapers

2007-08-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

Gene Edward Veith shared this excerpt from Luther's sermon, "The Estate of Marriage" (1522) :

Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up the nose and says, "Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? 0 you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful. carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise."
What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, "0 God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers. or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? 0 how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight."

I must say, I need to repent! To think that I could despise my child, my wife and my God.

CATHOLIC REFORMED BAPTIST

2007-08-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

In 1985, God un-blinded my eyes, and opened my eyes to the words, ". . .but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."

I journeyed for 17 years among the fundamentalist baptists, usually aligned with the General Association of Regular Baptists (G.A.R.B.C.). In all that time, I always had a feeling of alienation with other Christians. Even among the G.A.R.B.C. there always seemed to be conflict around some theological issue or another.

Within the last five years, I jettisoned my dispensational theology to embrace a more reformed understanding of scripture; this change was not to much of a jump since I has always grown-up spiritually being taught the Doctrines of Grace. Embracing these truths of scripture, eventually forced me to face the fact that my brothers I sought to minister with were Arminian, although they might deny this claim. But in their practices to bring people to decisions for Christ, accompanied with calls to walk the aisle to pray to accept Jesus, they would betray their beliefs.

Now, as I explore the riches of Calvinist Baptists and Puritan and Presbyterian writers that view not only salvation and sanctification differently, but also the fellowship of the saints, I am enjoying a largeness of heart toward other Reformed people that I never had in my sojourns among my fundamentalist brethren.
I was pleasantly pleased to see that the heritage of Reformed Baptists in the stories of William Kiffin, Hanserd Knollys and Benjamin Keach, is one of a greater circle of fellowship with Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Puritans. These men were purified with the fire of persecution of the Church of England, that tempered their spirits to downplay their denominational differences for the sake of embracing the truths of scripture that the Reformers brought forward during the Reformation as it played out in England, Scotland and Ireland. This new understanding comes from reading the book by Michael A. G. Haykin, Rediscovering our English Baptist heritage: Kiffin, Knollys and Keach.
Haykin summarizes the reformed heritage of the Baptists, "Although the seventeenth-century Calvinistic Baptists were not backward in confessing their distinctive beliefs, they were also very conscious that they stood in a broader movement that went back to the time of the Reformation, when certain central New Testament truths, especially to do with the doctrine of salvation, had been rediscovered. The Calvinistic Baptist regarded themselves as part of an international Reformed movement that embraced believers throughout Europe."
He quotes Samuel E. Waldron, "How often small, isolated and despised bands of Reformed Baptists or other Reformed Christians have reacted by over-emphasising their distinctives and displaying a vulnerability to all sorts of peculiarities and eccentricities! Such things have destroyed much of their usefulness. What is needed is the same kind of catholicity of spirit manifested by our first fathers. We must, without betraying our convictions, emphasise our oneness of spirit with other conservative and Reformed Christians."

The Goodness of God

2007-07-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

After being on vacation, then sick with a fever that went to the family, I fell short of my goal to write a post weekly. In my own strength this was frustrating. As I finally moved to consider some topics to address, I considered how God really has been good to my family and me.

I was reminded, "Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah." (Ps. 68:19)

Here are some comments on Psalm 68.

The Lord has chosen his dwelling place. The believer is indwelt by God through the Holy Spirit. Of the great and might men and women of this world, the Almighty God of the Universe has chosen to indwell each and every person who is the object of His Grace in Jesus Christ.

Other mountaintops are not higher than the place God has chosen. God is no respecter of persons. Every mighty person among mankind can not claim a higher position than the lowliest citizen of God's Kingdom. For everyone indwelt by Almighty God is a king and a priest in His Kingdom. We are His servants, and we are His ambassadors. For the redeemed live as lights in the darkness of the world through our deeds of kindness and compassion and love. But it is not our acts of service ("ministry" in Christian-ese), that secure a higher place in God's eyes, rather we are lifted up by God because he is merciful to us who are sinners.

God's protection will be upon his chosen dwelling and not another. God's protection is not by the power of man, but by the power of His Gospel. For our deliverance from The Death is not our work but the work of God in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for sinners, suffered our condemnation in death for three days, and then was raised for our justification. We are not ashamed of this message because it is The Good News about Christ "for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes."

God's protection is total victory. The Resurrection of Jesus is the greatest victory for mankind because of it's totality. In His victory on the cross he interposed His Righteous Self between God's Wrath and sinners; in His victory in the grave he bore our condemnation and penalty for sin; and, in His Resurrection He secured our justification before God.

His victory is put on view to all because the psalmist tells us that he “led captivity captive.” In other words, He is at the head of a public parade of the conquered enemies of Death and Hell as in a display of His power and authority over them. And so His people are assured of Life and a place of honor in His earthly and heavenly Kingdom.

But not only are Death and Hell so absolutely conquered, but the Lord also is showered with glory through the gifts of men, that is the service of servants who are willing to be subject to the conquering Lord, and displayed as “trophies of His grace.”

Assurance of Daily Blessings. Because of the Lord’s total ascendancy in the lives of His people, they can be assured of daily blessings from His hand. Although not all may go well with them, the Lord’s people are assured of the Lord’s favor and encouragement in difficulty and in ease because we share in His victory over Death and Hell, and also in His Life and Kingdom.

But I Speak Concerning Christ and The Church

2007-07-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

As I reminisce about a recent wedding, these words of Paul came forward as I read the larger context of the passage to my sons in bedtime devotions with them, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

Paul is admonishing wives to submit to their husbands, and husbands to love their wives, and describes this relationship in light of the relationship between Christ and the Church. I am always amazed at how Christ loves the Church, for I often am humbled at the infinite nature of Christ's love, especially in comparison to my own dismal failings as a husband to my wife.

Now, my wife and I are not having marital strife, but we are not perfect and we each must repent of our selfish desires that cause disagreements and conflict that happens between humans that are friends and lovers. In my single-minded pursuit of my own agenda or schedule I have burst with anger at the frustrations I feel when everyone else is (unintentionally) hindering my way. Oftentimes I don't consciously repent before God even though my wife and I may apologize, kiss, and make up. Am I alone in this, I think not.

As I was thinking on this passage, I searched the net, and sought to see what some others might have to say. John Piper's site, DesiringGod.org yielded some gold nuggets in his article on Marriage and conformity to Christ.

Thank God for weddings that point to Christ and remind us of the covenant with the wife of your youth.

Pure Church and the "Mere Church"

2007-06-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

In most churches I've been in, there has usually been a desire for a
program. When I heard the term "heartwork," and "experimental" religion, I began
to abhor the program and sought (and am still seeking) God's work in me and I
pray through me. I have a long way to go, but I'm glad that God has 'brought me
safe thusfar.' These comments are spurred from my reading's at Thabiti
Anyabwile's blog Pure Church. The
following is an excerpt:

On the other hand, though, the passage is remarkably ordinary. The early church's "program" was really quite simple, devotion to: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.It's actually a pretty mere list. No vacation Bible school. No organized men's or women's fellowships. No alternative services for differing musical preferences. No special auxiliaries of the church for this or that social or political cause (and surely there were plenty to be involved in in 1st century Rome and Jerusalem). Nothing mentioned about youth group or youth church. it's a pretty plain paper bag approach: teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer.

Read the whole post.

Politics and Theology

2007-06-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

John Yates is a pastor in Washington, D.C. and seems to encapsulate the ideal of ministering the gospel of the Kingdom of God among the kingdom of men in his article, "Meditations on Ministering Between Calvary Hill and Capitol Hill "

His place of ministry is all of our ministry, even if at a different level; we are to ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:30) in this world; we are to represent the love and Holiness of our God to our neighbors whom we live shoulder-to-shoulder with each day. We must sacrifice ourselves for their sakes.

While on vacation I read an article from the Book Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, entitled "On Turning Muslim Stumbling Blocks into Stepping Stones." by Warren Chastain. (Ralph D. Winter, ed. and Steven C. Hawthorne, ed. 3rd edition; William Carey Library. 1999.)

Chastain describes a meeting with a young man who asked him, "Why should I spend my life reaching Muslims when they are so unresponsive?"

Nate floored me with his question. I found myself unable to give a quick answer to a problem I had mentally wrestled with for two decades! . . . Basically he was facing the issue: he had a lifetime of service for the Lord before him, but he wondered whether it was wise to sacrifice it for a people as unresponsive as the Muslims. I could easily sympathize with him-- and he didn't know half the problem! Our Stumbling Blocks Psychological block ". . . the psychological block of our own attitude. Are we willing to lay our lives on the altar? A statement by Bishop Hill captures the heart of the problem: "Look to the heathen without Christ, and you will find an altar . . . and may God help you be a sacrifice."

Between Two Worlds: Packer on Engaging and Learning from Culture

2007-06-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation and doing a little blog reading while I have a little extra time. I was reading the post from the link above, and was compelled to comment on the excerpt from Packer's book. I know the need to contextualize the Gospel in the culture you find God has put you to minister, but I still think that the culture we should know the best should be the Kingdom culture of Christ.

As ambassadors of this culture, we have the great challenge of being charged with this duty even in the midst of the remaining corruptions of our sin. To seek after Christ and His righteousness gives us our purpose for living. May we seek to pursue God's grace for this task.

Baptist Association

2007-06-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

Local Church Government & Ecclesiastical Fellowship
Different forms of government are found in American churches. The main ones are Episcopal, Federal (Presbyterian), Congregational, Papal, National (Anglican, Lutheran in Scandinavia), No Government (‘Christ is our head, the Bible our creed), Elder (varying types).
Baptist churches are generally of the Congregational, Elder, and sometimes non-governmental forms. Also, concurrently, among the Baptists, is an important conviction that the local church is autonomous; that is, no other church or denominational apparatus can have any biblical authority over the local church. Furthermore, among the Fundamentalist Baptists and Bible Baptists that I have experience with, it was common to hear the self-appellation, independent Baptist church which was meant, “unaffiliated.” This meaning was not the same as autonomous, and caused great confusion among Baptist peoples in regard to the need for fellowship and association with other Baptist peoples; without fellowship with other churches of like-minded belief these Baptist churches did not fulfill the Biblical plan for God’s people for unity in the Body of Christ.
One way that Baptists have sought ecclesiastical fellowship, at least since the 1700’s is through association. Usually this takes the form of a corporate decision by the congregation to join in fellowship with other (Baptist) churches for the purpose of promoting missionary-evangelism, pastoral development and education, and congregational fellowship.
Most of the material is taken from two sources:
What Is A Baptist Association? Jack Keep. Regular Baptist Press, Shaumberg, IL. 1989. Jack was my pastor at Evangel Baptist Church in Dale City from 1985-1987 and 1994-1999.
Principles and Practices for Baptist Churches. Edward T. Hiscox. Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. 1980.

Scriptural Guidance
Founding of a Baptist association is not the restoration of a lost ecclesiastical organization. But 17th and 18th century Baptists put forth scripture for the founding and practice of a Baptist association.
Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas are sent by the church for the purpose of getting advise on the question of whether believers should be circumcised. The church and the apostles and elders received and heard them. They together disputed the question, and heard the argument of Paul for God’s work among the [uncircumcised] Gentiles, and James’ interpretation of Amos 9:11, 12 that the work among the Gentiles was a fulfillment of prophecy. The assembly answered the disputation by letter delivered by men sent by the Jerusalem church. Thus a pattern of conduct and communication was established at this assembly in Jerusalem.
Romans 15:25-28; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. The churches in Asia were collecting financial/material support for the saints at Jerusalem who were in need, and then “urged” Titus to take this support concurrent with the ministry he already had.
Ephesians 4:4-6. Paul speaks to the Christians to have “unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace. . .one body and one Spirit, . . .one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, . . . .” The application for Baptist associations is to seek and keep the unity of the churches in the Holy Spirit.
Other scripture. Matthew 23:8, “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Romans 12:5, “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” 1 Corinthians 1:10, “No I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Thoughts From Hiscox
Edward Thurston Hiscox (1814-1901) was “ a distinguished Baptist theologian” who authored the New Baptist Church Directory in 1890. It is now published by Kregel under the title Principles and Practices for Baptist Churches. The following excerpts are from that book’s chapter XIII, Related Societies.

Founding. It is customary for churches occupying a given extent of territory. . .by common agreement to organize on some simple basis of association for mutual helpfulness and counsel.

Purposes of an Association. Some of the purposes outlined:

Fellowship.
Uniformity in Doctrine.
Counsel for resolving problematic issues.
Focal point for defining and articulating their causes.
Cooperation in efforts that none could do alone, such as: training men for the ministry, planting of new churches, helping weak churches, sharing in the support of foreign missions.

Danger of Denominational Mindset
In practice, association can lead to a denominational mindset which is not always a desired result of association. This denominational mindset takes root in the centralization of financial support for one of the purposes of the churches’ association. I believe this comes from an unclear view of God’s purpose for the churches to have dominance through pastoral oversight.
So, in order for an association to fulfill it’s purpose, the churches have to see their role as one of facilitation instead of management. What is the difference?
In the association that dominates and dictates to churches, the officers of the association become ‘CEO’s’ charged with managing the resources dedicated to fulfilling its "ministries."
In contrast, the association is limited to facilitate the ministries (missions or benevolences) of the churches, the officers of the association only facilitate the support and advise of association affiliated churches. The resources and purpose of ministry and benevolence are controlled the local churches according to each church's mandate to oversee the work of the ministry. The association does not take the role of oversight of the ministries of the association for churches. In fact membership is not made up of churches in a biblical association for a local church cannot transfer it's responsibilities or authority to any other body.
May our Reformed Baptist Churches take heed to the word and hold true to our mandate to preach the Gospel to every creature.

The Culture War And The Called-Out Ones

2007-06-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

As the church continues to listen to the voices calling it to ‘re-capture’ our society for Christ, it will regress to a place where it is no longer the church, but an unholy interest group engaged in ‘cultural renewal’ instead of individual New Birth.
In order to prevent such a regression, Christians, then, must reevaluate their role in this society and return to the mandate to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ This proclamation requires that we involve our whole being, not only in the verbal proclamation of the Gospel itself, but also in the deeds of a born-again human and a new citizen of God’s Kingdom culture.
John Piper has done much to exposit Philippians 1, especially verse 20, “. . .20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” He points out that we need to live for Christ and exhorts us to this in his book, Don’t Waste Your Life.
We must honestly need to count all our accomplishments, talents and status as “rubbish” (Phil. 3:8) in comparison with “the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Christ embodies all that is and can be excellent. His example in the Gospels teach us how he balanced perfectly his love for mankind.
Christ loved the woman at the well (John 4:4-26), the certain ruler seeking Eternal Life (Luke 18:18-30), and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). In these examples we see that Jesus exercises love in perfect balance with the unique cultural issues around each person he met. Jesus balanced His love with the racial differences between Himself (a Jew) and the Samaritan women; between His humility and the pride and riches of that certain ruler seeking Eternal Live; and, between His perfect holiness with harlotry of the adulterous woman without excusing the sin of the adulterous woman.
Christ loved these people outside the confines of this world culture, by presenting the claims of the culture of the Kingdom of God, while proclaiming the Gospel.
We are called to be in the world for the same task, but we are admonished not to be conformed to this world. So we have been left in this world that we might make Christ known; as ambassadors of God’s Kingdom to our fellow humans. This will require us to proclaim the Truth of God in this present evil age, and in the face of persecution and hostility.
Paul warns and encourages us, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor 5:16-21)
Our great purpose if fulfilled in being called out of a God-hostile world culture to to live and proclaim the messages of our King Jesus and our Father God. as His ambassadors. “But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. ‘And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.’ But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;. . . .:

The Culture War And The Christian Response

2007-05-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

The secularization of our society has been used by political leaders to centralize government power into the hands of a few people. The growth of the welfare state is an example of our county’s move away from religious practice. The establishment of compulsory state education is another example. These two social issues were once the province of the church and the family.
A great shift has occurred in our views of government “as the major dispenser of political, social, and economic favors.” (John P. Stead, “Developing a Biblical View of Church and State,” in Think Biblically!, 2003). “Governmental institutions are now seen as something to be captured and used by a particular interest group for its own ends.” (Stead) Even ‘Christian’ leaders have accepted this premise, but God calls Christians to a higher and more vital purpose than dominate our culture in an effort to create a Christian counter-hegemony.
Yes there is a war, but it is much more fundamentally rooted in the origins of all problems, Sin in our soul. In Ephesians we read more of the Christian warfare, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Paul tells us, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience if fulfilled.” So the war that mankind is engaged in is for more than man’s culture, but for the very soul of mankind.
Christians, then, must reevaluate their role in this society and return to the mandate to preach the Gospel: the Jesus was sent from God, born of a virgin, died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and was buried for three days and rose again on the third day, and now lives in heaven ruling over the affairs of men until he returns again to judge the living and the dead.
In the meantime we must live on earth for the purpose of declaring the Gospel and living lives that are consistent with those who have been called out of culture and into a new kingdom where we have our citizenship.

The Christian and The Culture War

2007-05-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

As Christians seek to be ‘salt and light’ in our American society, we have become in engaged in a political story which we have written our own part.
This story which we Christians have written involves us in the much touted “Culture War.” We Christians (Republicans) composed a life and death struggle to re-capture our culture. Proponents of this idea have scripted ‘Christians’ in political activism that aims to ‘Christianize’ our nation through the political system through instituting values-based legislation.
As happens in many stories, our part is a thread of a larger history. “The term culture war is a literal translation of the German Kulturekampf, the name given the struggle between the governments of the German Empire under Otto von Bismarck against the Catholic Church.” (Wikipedia, “Culture war”, 11 May 2007). However, it is Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) that provides the theoretical framework of the current political struggle in the United States:

“Gramsci argued that the failure of the workers to make an anti-capitalist revolution was due to the successful capture of the workers' ideology, self-understanding, and organizations by the hegemonic (ruling) culture. In other words, the perspective of the ruling class had been absorbed by the masses of workers. In "advanced" industrial societies hegemonic cultural innovations such as compulsory schooling, mass media, and popular culture had indoctrinated workers to a false consciousness. Instead of working towards a revolution that would truly serve their collective needs, workers in "advanced" societies were listening to the rhetoric of nationalist leaders, seeking consumer opportunities and middle-class status, embracing an individualist ethos of success through competition, and/or accepting the guidance of bourgeois religious leaders.” (Wikipedia, “Cultural hegemony”, 21 May 2007)”

James Davison Hunter’s book, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, identified some defining themes of the current culture war in the United States: abortion, gun politics, and separation of church and state, privacy, homosexuality, and censorship issues.
Our society’s Mass Communications are very real danger to our society because of the influence on culture that the news media, movies, and advertising are having on our minds. The prevailing control of the liberal-radical movement in these media is seen the practical outworking of Gramsci’s theories. However, it is not right for Christian leaders to blaze the way for a new American political Promised Land. John MacArthur observes:

“God simply is not calling us to wage a culture war that would seek to transform
our countries into ‘Christian nations.’ To devote all, or even most, of our
time, energy, money, and strategy to putting a façade of morality on the world
or the appearance of ‘rightness’ over our governmental and political
institutions, is to badly misunderstand our roles as Christians in a spiritually
lost world.”

Also, MacArthur quotes, John Seel from The Evangelical Pulpit (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993):

“A politicized faith not only blurs our priorities, but weakens our loyalties.
Our primary citizenship is not on earth but in heaven. . . . Though few
evangelicals would deny this truth in theory, the language of our spiritual
citizenship frequently gets wrapped in the red, white and blue. Rather than
acting as resident aliens of a heavenly kingdom, too often we sound [and act]
like resident apologists for a Christian America. . . . Unless we reject the
false reliance on the illusion of Christian America, evangelicalism will
continue to distort the gospel and thwart a genuine biblical identity.
American evangelicalism is now covered by layers and layers of historically
shaped attitudes that obscure our original biblical core,”

Anger: How Do You Deal With It?

2007-05-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Of the emotions, anger is close to being the strongest, and the most destructive; the destruction of our anger is physical and emotional. And none of us is alien to this fiery emotion. Here are some thoughts on how should we live as Christians?
One of the most misused passages in regard anger is the account of Jesus cleansing the temple area of the money changers (Mark 3:5). The fact of the matter this not to excuse our anger. I agree with John Piper, "However, good anger among fallen people is rare. That's why James says, 'Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God"
Another passage used to justify anger is Ephesians 4:26, "Be angry and do not sin." Yes the first part is an imperative, but this is where a little knowledge of Greek can be dangerous. The second part is also imperative. It is important to study the syntax of the imperatives in this verse for if we do, we will learn that the first part, "Be angry," is an imperative of permission, but the second part is an imperative of prohibition. So, yes we may be angry, but more importantly, we should never sin. In this same portion of Ephesians we are clearly told to "put away" our anger. That is let it be removed from you, or leave not trace of anger. Yes we may still suffer the continual rise to anger, but we must repent of it, and pray for grace and deliverance of this sin, and pray that God will change us so that we will, "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you." (Eph. 4:32).
We need to take heed to Paul, "be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love . . . 'Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.' See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

What's In The Name

2007-05-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Why did I name this blog, "First Allegiance?"

A couple of months ago, I made the decision to improve the music I was listening to; I wanted to find modern music that was Christian. Even more, I wanted to find some music that was Christian and Reformed in its outlook.
When I googled for some "reformed musicians," I came across a few groups mentioned in Tim Challies' web site. Quoting Tim:

Derek Webb - Just check out the Resources section at his Web site
Caedmon's Call (though perhaps Webb was the only Reformed member and he is no longer part of the band).
Precious Death - Their album covers often had Reformed creeds written in them. Their self-titled album had a list of "Fifteen great books in no particular order" that included titles by Packer, Sproul, Calvin, Owens, Hodge (both A.A. and Charles), Boetner, etc.
Blackball - Christopher Scott who was lead vocalist and songwriter for Blackball was also lead writer and singer for Precious Death (see above).
Steve Camp - Wrote an album based on Piper's book Desiring God and has often identified himself as Reformed.

Among these, I've become infatuated with Caedmon's Call and Derek Webb. It was Derek's lyrics on his album, Mockingbird, that caught my attention, especially his song, "A King and A Kingdom." The chorus and the second verse says:

first allegiance

(vs. 2)there are two great lies that I’ve heard:
the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

As a 'white middle-class Republican' (at least for now), I was speechless, but then I realized, "yeah that's right!" And I had to say in my heart, "I repent, Lord." And also during this time, my pastor was preaching messages from 1 Timothy that challenged me to re-examine my sense of calling and commit myself to more regular prayer (among other Spiritual exercises) and rising to the call of manly leadership in the church and my family.

Another important Ligon Duncan's message at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (PCRT) in Sacramento, CA moved me to ask what I was really doing for Christ. What talents, what training, what skills have I learned in my years have I and can I use for God's glory?

And so this all dovetailed into the commitment to another kingdom and that kingdom's priorities. God willing, I hope to make those priorities my "first allegiance." And that is what's in the name.

Why Another Blog?

2007-05-14T13:22:00.001-07:00

How do I justify yet another web log cast into the vast electronic ocean of information? After all, this one blog is like a tiny minuscule piece of bait that competes for the big fish of an audience that I hope to catch.

I suppose it doesn't matter too much as long as the audience is not too big (I'd hate to hook a whale when I'm fishing for marlin!). But more important is the process. When I go fishing I just love the process; with writing it's kind of the same thing. I may not catch a fish when fishing, and I may not gain any readers when writing, but it sure is a big plus.

Part of this writing process is already limited for me. I've sub-titled my blog, "Writings for the King's Kingdom." So if no one reads anything here, then I hope that my efforts to glorify God will that God will bring the readers to Himself through my musings, rantings, and ruminations.

Soli Deo Gloria.