John Calvin, in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, brings up a point about our motives when we are faced with sin:
"He restrains himself from sin, not merely from a dread of vengeance, but because he loves and reveres God as his Father, honours and worships him as his Lord, and even though there were no hell, would shudder at the thought of offending Him. See, then, the nature of pure and genuine religion. It consists of faith, united with a serious fear of God, comprehending a voluntary reverence, and producing legitimate worship agreeable to the injunctions of the law."
From Book One, Chapter 2
FYI, Calvin wrote this 1,600 page book as an introduction to his commentaries. Spending most of his life writing exegeting scripture through his commentaries (almost the entire NT and most of the OT), he died mid-sentence in Ezekiel 22 at the age of 55 in excrutiating pain. Often, he would be told to rest and he would reply "Will the Lord come and find me idle?"
He died writing instead of resting.
Praise God for the men and women who devote their life to knowing God through his Word!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
David Livingstone
David Livingstone got on his knees one day and prayed this prayer
“Send me anywhere, only go with me.
Lay any burden on me, only sustain me.
Sever any ties but the ties that bind me to your service and to your heart
Thru it all the words of God came to me
‘Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age’”
May that be our prayer.
“Send me anywhere, only go with me.
Lay any burden on me, only sustain me.
Sever any ties but the ties that bind me to your service and to your heart
Thru it all the words of God came to me
‘Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age’”
May that be our prayer.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
For the Grace of God Orphans
'While I am a great advocate of looking to the past, I would warn anybody against living in the past. The only justification for looking to the past is that we may learn great lessons from it and apply them.' Arguing that, 'the gospel is literally the only hope for the world today', he showed how the gospel always makes a powerful effect upon the world after there has first been a distinct quickening in the life of the church. The modern church was bypassing her primary need. She was adopting 'methods of big business and advertising' instead of praying for a visitation of God. As the Belfast press reported his words: 'The Church has never tried so hard to deal with the situation as she has tried in this century. We have never had so many organizations, we have never worked so hard, but we are not touching the situation.' –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Fight of Faith, Iain Murray, p. 371.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Amazing Grace
"I may not be that mature man or woman that I long to be but thank God that I am no longer that old man or old woman I once was."
~Sinclair Ferguson
Thank you Lord for your grace for raising me from the dead to life.
may I be worthy of your calling Lord.
~Sinclair Ferguson
Thank you Lord for your grace for raising me from the dead to life.
may I be worthy of your calling Lord.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Bleeding of the Evangelical Church
Here are some amazing quotes from The Bleeding of the Evangelical Church written by David F. Wells regarding the Evangelical church and today:
"..what people who are coming in these church doors today are thinking about, and what they want, is not primarily personal salvation. What they want is a sense of personal well-being however momentary and fragmentary that personal sense of well-being is and our churches are beginning to cater to this. I have no doubt at all that they are going to become very successful. Indeed, some are successful already and they are going to become more and more successful because marketing in America is what makes the wheels go around. They are, in other words, simply doing what Pepsi has done, what self-help groups have done, the auto maters, the makers of jeans, the makers of movies, and what Madonna herself has done. Why shouldn't churches do this? Why shouldn't they want to be successful in the same way Pepsi and Madonna are? The answer is that marketing will produce success but not necessarily the kind that has much to do with the Kingdom of God"
His response to WHY this is happening:
"The reality that we have to face today is that we have produced a plague of nominal evangelicalism which is as trite and as superficial as anything we have seen in Catholic Europe. Now why is this? Well, I would suggest that it begins with the crumbling of our theological character. I have spoken of this in my book, No place for Truth, in terms of the 'disappearance of theology.' It is not that theological beliefs are denied, but that they have little cash value. They don't matter. I likened the situation to that of a child who is in a home but who is ignored. It is not that the child has been abducted; the child is there. The child is in the home, and research which I have conducted strongly points to the fact that where this kind of theological character is crumbling, there the centrality of God is disappearing."
"..what people who are coming in these church doors today are thinking about, and what they want, is not primarily personal salvation. What they want is a sense of personal well-being however momentary and fragmentary that personal sense of well-being is and our churches are beginning to cater to this. I have no doubt at all that they are going to become very successful. Indeed, some are successful already and they are going to become more and more successful because marketing in America is what makes the wheels go around. They are, in other words, simply doing what Pepsi has done, what self-help groups have done, the auto maters, the makers of jeans, the makers of movies, and what Madonna herself has done. Why shouldn't churches do this? Why shouldn't they want to be successful in the same way Pepsi and Madonna are? The answer is that marketing will produce success but not necessarily the kind that has much to do with the Kingdom of God"
His response to WHY this is happening:
"The reality that we have to face today is that we have produced a plague of nominal evangelicalism which is as trite and as superficial as anything we have seen in Catholic Europe. Now why is this? Well, I would suggest that it begins with the crumbling of our theological character. I have spoken of this in my book, No place for Truth, in terms of the 'disappearance of theology.' It is not that theological beliefs are denied, but that they have little cash value. They don't matter. I likened the situation to that of a child who is in a home but who is ignored. It is not that the child has been abducted; the child is there. The child is in the home, and research which I have conducted strongly points to the fact that where this kind of theological character is crumbling, there the centrality of God is disappearing."
Friday, September 26, 2008
Martin Luther's wife
“Martin Luther married Katie. Katie is a really feisty lady. Martin has his ups and downs and Katie comes down one morning and he is in a funk and is absolutely miserable so she goes upstairs and puts on black clothing as if she is going to go to a funeral. She comes down and he says “What are you wearing that for?” She replies “Because God has died” and then Luther explodes with “God has not died! He is alive and on the throne” and she responds with “Then why are you acting as if God were dead?”
~Ask Pastor John” podcast on “If we suffer, does that mean God is our enemy?” on 9/25/2008
~Ask Pastor John” podcast on “If we suffer, does that mean God is our enemy?” on 9/25/2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Our dreadful, accountable freedom
I liked this article on pyromaniacs I had to post the entire thing:
Our dreadful, accountable freedom
by Dan Phillips
If you've been an alive Christian (which should be a tautology) for more than five years, you've already had the heartbreak. If you've been a faithful pastor, you've had it many times. Goes like this:You tell an unbeliever of Christ, giving it your faithful and loving best. Or you warn a professed believer of some dreadfully foolish or sinful path he's taking. In both cases, you tell him something from the Word of God — that Word that (we are told) is powerful: living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).And what happens?
Nothing.
Nothing, or worse. He shrugs it off, she makes lame excuses. There is no sign of impact, whatever. You might as well have been throwing cotton balls at a charging elephant. Throwing, and missing, as a matter of fact.Inwardly, you think you really messed up. Deeply inwardly, where no one can see, you think that you dare to wish that the "powerful" Word looked... well... a little more powerful. You wish that it showed a little more power. But for effect, it might as well have been a fortune cookie you were reading — not the Word of the mighty King of all kings.
So consider Jeremiah 36, one of the most strikingly vivid narratives in the Word. Yahweh directs Jeremiah to put all his prophecies into writing (v. 2). The prophet does so, and directs Baruch to read them at the Temple. They do cause a stir and a reaction — but not the appropriate response (cf. vv. 7 and 24). Nonetheless, word reaches wicked King Jehoiakim, who has the scroll fetched for a private reading.Now, think of it: this is the very Word of God. There is no issue of transcriptional variations, there is no question of translation. These are the ipsissima verba Dei. One pictures the text crackling with Divine power, like static electricity before a lightning bolt strikes.But does the bolt strike? How does the king respond to the words of the King?Well, it's a cold day, with a nice little fire going in the brazier (v. 22). Fires need fuel. The king decides he's found a fit use for the Word: not food to warm his heart, but food to feed the flames. Strip by strip, as Jehudi reads, the king slices off the despised Word, and throws it to the fire (v. 23).How could Jehoiakim do that? How could Yahweh let him do it?Such is our frightful freedom, our dreadful liberty, that we can shrug off pleas and warnings of the Sovereign of the Universe.And all the while, Yahweh sat apparently idle. He did nothing, and nothing happened. Not immediately.But then, when Jehoiakim was done, Yahweh announced in effect, "Was that fun? Terrific. Now here's the bill (vv. 29-31)."Yahweh directed Jeremiah to rewrite the prophecies — and "many similar words were added to them" (v. 32). I'll go out on a limb here and say that I don't think they were "happy words." They weren't about the king's best life, now; they were about his date with justice, soon (vv. 30-31). The evil monarch's rejection did not cause the words of God to disappear, nor did it nullify God's judgment. On the contrary, by his refusal, Jehoiakim assured that judgment.And so it is with us, with our hearers — and with our readers.
Not all slice away unwelcome revelation with a pen-knife (though some do the literal equivalent). No, they use a keyboard. They use wit, sneers, storming off, sniffing off, various forms of "never laid a glove on me."But He who sits in the Heavens knows, He sees. It counts. What you heard, what our hearers heard — it counts.The silence we hear is deceptive, when we do not see it through the spectacles of God's Word.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;you thought that I was one like yourself.But now I rebuke youand lay the charge before you.(Psalm 50:21)
Consider in closing this word of testimony from Augustine's Confessions (Book Two, Chapter 3):
Woe is me! Do I dare affirm that thou didst hold thy peace, O my God, while I wandered farther away from thee? Didst thou really then hold thy peace? Then whose words were they but thine which by my mother, thy faithful handmaid, thou didst pour into my ears? None of them, however, sank into my heart to make me do anything. She deplored and, as I remember, warned me privately with great solicitude, "not to commit fornication; but above all things never to defile another man's wife." These appeared to me but womanish counsels, which I would have blushed to obey. Yet they were from thee, and I knew it not. I thought that thou wast silent and that it was only she who spoke. Yet it was through her that thou didst not keep silence toward me; and in rejecting her counsel I was rejecting thee--I, her son, "the son of thy handmaid, thy servant."
If it is God's Word — He is speaking. He has spoken. He has spoken to you, and to me.It counts.
Our dreadful, accountable freedom
by Dan Phillips
If you've been an alive Christian (which should be a tautology) for more than five years, you've already had the heartbreak. If you've been a faithful pastor, you've had it many times. Goes like this:You tell an unbeliever of Christ, giving it your faithful and loving best. Or you warn a professed believer of some dreadfully foolish or sinful path he's taking. In both cases, you tell him something from the Word of God — that Word that (we are told) is powerful: living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).And what happens?
Nothing.
Nothing, or worse. He shrugs it off, she makes lame excuses. There is no sign of impact, whatever. You might as well have been throwing cotton balls at a charging elephant. Throwing, and missing, as a matter of fact.Inwardly, you think you really messed up. Deeply inwardly, where no one can see, you think that you dare to wish that the "powerful" Word looked... well... a little more powerful. You wish that it showed a little more power. But for effect, it might as well have been a fortune cookie you were reading — not the Word of the mighty King of all kings.
So consider Jeremiah 36, one of the most strikingly vivid narratives in the Word. Yahweh directs Jeremiah to put all his prophecies into writing (v. 2). The prophet does so, and directs Baruch to read them at the Temple. They do cause a stir and a reaction — but not the appropriate response (cf. vv. 7 and 24). Nonetheless, word reaches wicked King Jehoiakim, who has the scroll fetched for a private reading.Now, think of it: this is the very Word of God. There is no issue of transcriptional variations, there is no question of translation. These are the ipsissima verba Dei. One pictures the text crackling with Divine power, like static electricity before a lightning bolt strikes.But does the bolt strike? How does the king respond to the words of the King?Well, it's a cold day, with a nice little fire going in the brazier (v. 22). Fires need fuel. The king decides he's found a fit use for the Word: not food to warm his heart, but food to feed the flames. Strip by strip, as Jehudi reads, the king slices off the despised Word, and throws it to the fire (v. 23).How could Jehoiakim do that? How could Yahweh let him do it?Such is our frightful freedom, our dreadful liberty, that we can shrug off pleas and warnings of the Sovereign of the Universe.And all the while, Yahweh sat apparently idle. He did nothing, and nothing happened. Not immediately.But then, when Jehoiakim was done, Yahweh announced in effect, "Was that fun? Terrific. Now here's the bill (vv. 29-31)."Yahweh directed Jeremiah to rewrite the prophecies — and "many similar words were added to them" (v. 32). I'll go out on a limb here and say that I don't think they were "happy words." They weren't about the king's best life, now; they were about his date with justice, soon (vv. 30-31). The evil monarch's rejection did not cause the words of God to disappear, nor did it nullify God's judgment. On the contrary, by his refusal, Jehoiakim assured that judgment.And so it is with us, with our hearers — and with our readers.
Not all slice away unwelcome revelation with a pen-knife (though some do the literal equivalent). No, they use a keyboard. They use wit, sneers, storming off, sniffing off, various forms of "never laid a glove on me."But He who sits in the Heavens knows, He sees. It counts. What you heard, what our hearers heard — it counts.The silence we hear is deceptive, when we do not see it through the spectacles of God's Word.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;you thought that I was one like yourself.But now I rebuke youand lay the charge before you.(Psalm 50:21)
Consider in closing this word of testimony from Augustine's Confessions (Book Two, Chapter 3):
Woe is me! Do I dare affirm that thou didst hold thy peace, O my God, while I wandered farther away from thee? Didst thou really then hold thy peace? Then whose words were they but thine which by my mother, thy faithful handmaid, thou didst pour into my ears? None of them, however, sank into my heart to make me do anything. She deplored and, as I remember, warned me privately with great solicitude, "not to commit fornication; but above all things never to defile another man's wife." These appeared to me but womanish counsels, which I would have blushed to obey. Yet they were from thee, and I knew it not. I thought that thou wast silent and that it was only she who spoke. Yet it was through her that thou didst not keep silence toward me; and in rejecting her counsel I was rejecting thee--I, her son, "the son of thy handmaid, thy servant."
If it is God's Word — He is speaking. He has spoken. He has spoken to you, and to me.It counts.
Father murders only son.
Just that caption alone, will grip any reader's heart. Yet so many Christians, blow off what God did for our sin.
"God has shown that He still hates sin, that He is going to punish it, that He must punish it, and that He will pour out His wrath upon it. How did he show that on Calvary? By doing that very thing. What God did on Calvary was to pour out upon His only begotten and beloved Son His wrath upon sin. The Wrath of God that should have come upon you and me because of our sins fell upon Him. God always knew that He was going to do this. We read in the Scriptures of 'the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world'. It was a plan originating in eternity. It was because He knew that He was going to do this that God was able to pass over sins during all those centuries that had gone."
"The cross not only shows the love of God more gloriously than anything else, it shows His righteousness, His justice, His holiness and all the glory of His eternal attributes. they are all to be seen shining together there. If you do not see them all you have not seen the cross"
(Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones The Cross The vindication of God pg. 14 and 17)
"God has shown that He still hates sin, that He is going to punish it, that He must punish it, and that He will pour out His wrath upon it. How did he show that on Calvary? By doing that very thing. What God did on Calvary was to pour out upon His only begotten and beloved Son His wrath upon sin. The Wrath of God that should have come upon you and me because of our sins fell upon Him. God always knew that He was going to do this. We read in the Scriptures of 'the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world'. It was a plan originating in eternity. It was because He knew that He was going to do this that God was able to pass over sins during all those centuries that had gone."
"The cross not only shows the love of God more gloriously than anything else, it shows His righteousness, His justice, His holiness and all the glory of His eternal attributes. they are all to be seen shining together there. If you do not see them all you have not seen the cross"
(Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones The Cross The vindication of God pg. 14 and 17)
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Meaningless
Since graduating from college this past semester and my grandma passing away this summer, the vanity of life has gotten so much more clearer. Since graduating, everyone automatically expects me to get a career. Why? It's like we are almost programmed to "do certain things" as if we were machines. Get a career, husband, have children , pay off debts (mortgages, cars, etc) of things I do not own, hopefully make it to retirement and then die of cancer. Meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless.
King Solomon after exploring a life of riches, women, wisdom, and work comes to this conclusion:
"The conclusion, when all has been heard, is:
fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil"
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
May we live in the fear of God and in obedience until the day we die. For everything else, is vanity.
King Solomon after exploring a life of riches, women, wisdom, and work comes to this conclusion:
"The conclusion, when all has been heard, is:
fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil"
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
May we live in the fear of God and in obedience until the day we die. For everything else, is vanity.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
God uses Satan?
1 Chronicles 21 begins with:
Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
I re-read it again to double-check what I just read. I moved my eyes down to see what John Macarthur has to say about this verse and help me see this verse in relation to the God of the Bible. Here is what he has to say:
"God sovereignly and permissively uses Satan to achieve his purposes. God uses Satan to
1. judge sinners (mark 4:15, 2 Corinthians 4:4)
2. refine saints (Job 1:8-2:10, Luke 22:31-32)
3. discipine the church (1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 1 Timothy 1:20)
4. purify obedient believers (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
Neither God nor satan forced David to sin (James 1:13-15) but allowed Satan to tempt David and he chose to sin. The sin surfaced his proud heart and God dealt with him for it.
The facts:
God was angry against Israel.
God allowed Satan to tempt David.
David gave in to the temptation and sinned.
70,000 men died.
May every sin that I am faced with be fought and conquered so that Satan does not get glory nor people around me suffer as those 70,000 did.
Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
I re-read it again to double-check what I just read. I moved my eyes down to see what John Macarthur has to say about this verse and help me see this verse in relation to the God of the Bible. Here is what he has to say:
"God sovereignly and permissively uses Satan to achieve his purposes. God uses Satan to
1. judge sinners (mark 4:15, 2 Corinthians 4:4)
2. refine saints (Job 1:8-2:10, Luke 22:31-32)
3. discipine the church (1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 1 Timothy 1:20)
4. purify obedient believers (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
Neither God nor satan forced David to sin (James 1:13-15) but allowed Satan to tempt David and he chose to sin. The sin surfaced his proud heart and God dealt with him for it.
The facts:
God was angry against Israel.
God allowed Satan to tempt David.
David gave in to the temptation and sinned.
70,000 men died.
May every sin that I am faced with be fought and conquered so that Satan does not get glory nor people around me suffer as those 70,000 did.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
The Great Commission- me and you
A quote from John Piper on his article "Do you think everyone should be a missionary"?
"You have three possibilities in relation to missions. You can be a goer, you can be a sender, or you can be disobedient. There is no other option but those three. That means that there are no coasters. There are no people who say, "Missions is not my thing. I don't think in terms of going or sending. That's not my calling. I do pro-life work in downtown Minneapolis, period." Well, I don't think that's an option for the Christian, in view of Matthew 28:19-20. When it addresses the whole church—"All authority is mine, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations"—every Christian should feel that they have to be engaged in that. "
"You have three possibilities in relation to missions. You can be a goer, you can be a sender, or you can be disobedient. There is no other option but those three. That means that there are no coasters. There are no people who say, "Missions is not my thing. I don't think in terms of going or sending. That's not my calling. I do pro-life work in downtown Minneapolis, period." Well, I don't think that's an option for the Christian, in view of Matthew 28:19-20. When it addresses the whole church—"All authority is mine, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations"—every Christian should feel that they have to be engaged in that. "
Friday, September 5, 2008
the Revelation of Jesus Christ
I am beginning a 81 part series on the exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ by Arturo Azurdias. He begins with going through 1 Corinthians 13 in order that we may prepare our minds and hearts for understanding the book of Revelation. Here is a true story to introduce you to the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ:
"During Oliver Cromwell’s reign as Lord protector over all of England, a young soldier was sent to die as a result of some egregious offense but the young woman to whom he had been engaged pleaded with Cromwell to spare the life of her fiancé, all to know avail. The young man was to be executed when the curfew bell sounded. At the appropriate moment as he had done for many many years, the sexton of the church grabbed the rope and pulled on it repeatedly. But unlike anytime before, the bell made no sound. The young woman had climbed into the bell tower and wrapped her body around the clapper so that it could not strike the bell. With every tug of that rope, her body was pummeled and smashed against the sides of that giant bell but she refused to let go until the clapper stopped swinging. When the sexton finally stopped tugging on the rope, the young woman managed to climb down from the bell tower and stopped out to meet those who had gathered to observe the execution. She was bruised from head to toe, she was bleeding terribly, when she explained what she had done, the overwhelmed Cromwell commuted the sentence.
A poet who was there that day gathered with the crowd to observe the execution captured the scene with these words:
At his feet she told the story
Showed her hands all bruised and torn
And her sweet young face still haggard with the anguish it had worn
Touched His heart with sudden pity
Lit his eyes with misty light
“Go your love lives” said Cromwell
“Curfew will not ring tonight”
This is the very thing that we will see from the Revelation. It will point us to a savior who has purchased our victory in his death. In a world that is filled with such hostility against the things of God, we of all people need not fear the future, come what may, because curfew will not ring for us. Jesus Christ has wrapped himself around the clapper of God’s judgement. Again and again we will see the love of Jesus Christ for us thereby making it altogether incongruous for us to manifest any other kind of disposition to our brothers and sisters in relationship to the truth we learn from this book. "
"During Oliver Cromwell’s reign as Lord protector over all of England, a young soldier was sent to die as a result of some egregious offense but the young woman to whom he had been engaged pleaded with Cromwell to spare the life of her fiancé, all to know avail. The young man was to be executed when the curfew bell sounded. At the appropriate moment as he had done for many many years, the sexton of the church grabbed the rope and pulled on it repeatedly. But unlike anytime before, the bell made no sound. The young woman had climbed into the bell tower and wrapped her body around the clapper so that it could not strike the bell. With every tug of that rope, her body was pummeled and smashed against the sides of that giant bell but she refused to let go until the clapper stopped swinging. When the sexton finally stopped tugging on the rope, the young woman managed to climb down from the bell tower and stopped out to meet those who had gathered to observe the execution. She was bruised from head to toe, she was bleeding terribly, when she explained what she had done, the overwhelmed Cromwell commuted the sentence.
A poet who was there that day gathered with the crowd to observe the execution captured the scene with these words:
At his feet she told the story
Showed her hands all bruised and torn
And her sweet young face still haggard with the anguish it had worn
Touched His heart with sudden pity
Lit his eyes with misty light
“Go your love lives” said Cromwell
“Curfew will not ring tonight”
This is the very thing that we will see from the Revelation. It will point us to a savior who has purchased our victory in his death. In a world that is filled with such hostility against the things of God, we of all people need not fear the future, come what may, because curfew will not ring for us. Jesus Christ has wrapped himself around the clapper of God’s judgement. Again and again we will see the love of Jesus Christ for us thereby making it altogether incongruous for us to manifest any other kind of disposition to our brothers and sisters in relationship to the truth we learn from this book. "
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Full time career or freedom for ministry?
John Piper on Biblical womanhood says his prayer for women :
- That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use
of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home, the
neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world; that you not only pose the
question: career or full-time homemaker?, but that you ask just as seriously: full-time
career or freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom to
work for someone who tells you what to do to make his or her business prosper, or to
be God’s free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and
your creativity could make God’s business prosper? And that in all this you make your
choices not on the basis of secular trends or upward lifestyle expectations, but on the
basis of what will strengthen the faith of the family and advance the cause of Christ.
- That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life
is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the
love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars,houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing your joy in ministry to people’s
needs.
John Piper had much more challenges than those two as far as defining Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. You can go here to know more. It's a bit much so Pages 45-47 are a summary of John Piper's challenges.
Please continue to pray for the christians in India as they are being persecuted for their faith in great numbers this past few week. Please pray for God to remind them of his sovereignty in such spiritual distress. May they know that Jesus says "blessed are those who persecute you in my name." May they rejoice in his name, and dance for joy. I cannot understand what they are going through, but I do know that they are literally taking up their cross, which is what God asks for those who desire to follow Him. for more information, here is a video from a brother in India.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
2008: Persecution for Jesus
Sign the petition to free our persecuted brother in China!
On a side note, let me share something Richard Wurmbrand shared with me in his book during his time in prison being persecuted for his faithfulness to Jesus:
"Sometimes I was filled with joy that i felt I would burst if I did not give vent to it. I remembered the words of Jesus 'Blessed are you when men come to hate you, when they exclude you from their company and reproach you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.' I told myself 'I've carried out only half this command. I've rejoiced, but that is not enough.'
When the guard next peered through the spy hole, he saw me springing about my cell. His orders must have been to distract anyone who showed signs of breakdown, for he padded off and returned with some food from the staff room: a hunk of bread, some cheese and sugar. As I took them, i remembered the conclusion to the verse in St. Luke: 'Rejoice in that day and leap for joy- for behold your reward is great." It was a very large piece of bread: more than a week's ration.
Friends to whom I spoke later of dancing in prison asked, 'What for? What use was it?' It was not something useful. It was a manifestation of joy like the dance of David, a holy sacrifice offered before the altar of the Lord. I did not mind if my captors thought me mad, for I had discovered a beauty in Christ which I had not known before."
Let us labor in prayer for brother bike and even the unnamed ones who are persecuted... for we are their brothers and sisters.
September 10, 2008 UPDATE
Pastor Bike is FREE! On Friday, August 29, prominent Chinese house church leader Zhang Mingxuan, affectionately known as "Pastor Bike," his wife and a co-worker were released from Chinese custody. Pastor Bike was arrested along with his wife and co-worker August 6, two days before the Olympic Games began in Beijing. An outspoken evangelist, Pastor Bike has travelled on his bike to many places in China, handing out Christian literature and Bibles and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Instead of being held at a prison or a detention center Pastor Bike and his wife, Xie Fenglan, and their co-worker were taken to resort hotels on a "forced vacation" designed to ensure that they couldn’t talk to any foreign media. Pastor Bike was scheduled to do an interview with the BBC the day of his arrest.All three believers are in good health and spirits and praising God for their release, according to our co-laborers at China Aid Association. The detainees said during their confinement they had opportunities to witness to guards and even high-ranking government officials staying at the hotels where they were held.
On August 26, The Voice of the Martyrs and China Aid Association launched an international online petition drive advocating for Pastor Bike, his wife and co-worker to be released. On September 4, China Aid Association delivered the petition — which had more than 57,000 names printed on 619 pages — addressed to Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C. Included was a letter thanking the Chinese government for releasing these house-church Christians.We are thankful to you and the thousands of others who logged on and signed the petition. Christians in free nations often wonder if we can really make a practical difference for Christians in persecuted countries. Pastor Bike’s release shows that WE CAN!Continue to pray for Pastor Bike, his wife and their co-worker and for other believers in China.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Richard Wurmbrand quote
"Forgetting that pastors are also men, people require them to be models of wisdom, purity, love and truthfulness. So, in smaller or greater measure, they begin to act the part. As time passes, they can hardly tell how much of their behavior is playacting.
I remembered the perceptive commentary that Savonarola had written on the fifty-first Psalm, in prison, with his bones so badly broken that he could sign the self-accusatory document only with his left hand. He said there were two kinds of Christians: those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart only in moments of crisis, and then by their actions.
Did I believe in God? Now the test had come. I was alone. There was no salary to earn, no opinions to consider. God offered me only suffering- would I continue to love Him?"
Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand were not saved when they get married. He often cheated on her with other women, and they were also known as party animals living the night life drinking and smoking till the late mornings. Then God opened his eyes, changed his life, and transformed him into a pastor. Sabina, disgusted by her husband's new hobby, refused to get sucked into his new Christian lifestyle. Yet God's sovereignty, changed her life too. T
hey then began to pray together each night that God would let them bear the cross.
He became a pastor and prayed that God would take them to Russia to witness to the communist. But God brought communism to them.
Romania then was taken over by Russia and communism.
At a pastor's conference, Sabina could not believe the words that were being spoken about Jesus Christ so she told her husband
"Go and wash this shame from the face of Christ!"
He replied "If I do, you'll lose your husband"
"I don't need a coward" Sabina replied.
He spoke up. And because of that, he spent 14 years in a communist prison, given a chance to love his enemies, those who beat him, urinated on his face and tortured Him. God was glorified through Richard and Sabina bearing the cross.
My prayer is to bear the cross.
I remembered the perceptive commentary that Savonarola had written on the fifty-first Psalm, in prison, with his bones so badly broken that he could sign the self-accusatory document only with his left hand. He said there were two kinds of Christians: those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart only in moments of crisis, and then by their actions.
Did I believe in God? Now the test had come. I was alone. There was no salary to earn, no opinions to consider. God offered me only suffering- would I continue to love Him?"
Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand were not saved when they get married. He often cheated on her with other women, and they were also known as party animals living the night life drinking and smoking till the late mornings. Then God opened his eyes, changed his life, and transformed him into a pastor. Sabina, disgusted by her husband's new hobby, refused to get sucked into his new Christian lifestyle. Yet God's sovereignty, changed her life too. T
hey then began to pray together each night that God would let them bear the cross.
He became a pastor and prayed that God would take them to Russia to witness to the communist. But God brought communism to them.
Romania then was taken over by Russia and communism.
At a pastor's conference, Sabina could not believe the words that were being spoken about Jesus Christ so she told her husband
"Go and wash this shame from the face of Christ!"
He replied "If I do, you'll lose your husband"
"I don't need a coward" Sabina replied.
He spoke up. And because of that, he spent 14 years in a communist prison, given a chance to love his enemies, those who beat him, urinated on his face and tortured Him. God was glorified through Richard and Sabina bearing the cross.
My prayer is to bear the cross.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Why staring at the wall?
Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, died in 2001 and spent 14 years of his life in a communist prison in Romania. In his book, Christ in the Communist Prison, he writes:
"I was made to stand facing a wall with my hands raised above my head so that my fingertips just touched it. "Just keep him there," the chief of the prison told the guard.
"So at last my tortures began, tortures common to all Secret Police prisons: a dreary round of indignities and pain. First I stood for hours, long after my arms had lost all feeling and my swollen legs had begun to tremble. Then I was allowed to collapse on the floor, given a crust and a sip of water, and made to stand again. One guard relieved another. Sometimes two or three would share the sport of forcing me to adopt ridiculous or obscene postures and this went on, with short breaks, for days and nights. Always there was the wall to look at, only the wall.
To make time pass, I thought of the many walls referred to in the Bible, recalling a verse from Isaiah which saddened me: God says Israel's wrongdoings put a wall between Him and the people. In the same way, the failures of Christianity had allowed a communist triumph, and that was why I had a wall before me now. Then I remembered a phrase, "With my Lord, I jump over the wall." I, too, might vault this wall into the spiritual world of fellowship with God. I thought of the Jewish spies who returned from Canaan to report that the cities were great and walled- but even as the walls of Jericho came down, so the wall before me must also fall at the will of God. When pain was overwhelming me, I silently recited a phrase from the Song of Songs: "My beloved is like a roe or a young hart; behold he standeth behind our wall." I imagined that Jesus stood behind my wall, giving me strength. I remembered that as long as Moses held up his hands on the mountains, the chosen people went forward to victory; perhaps our sufferings were helping the people of God to win their battle, too."
So staring at the wall, I created this blog so that I too may know and understand scripture the way Richard Wurmbrand could. He found strength in the Word, though he could not even see a Bible for 14 years. He had hidden the Word in his heart, and was able to flip through his heart like a PC study Bible concordance searching the scriptures that contained the word "wall". May my life hide His word in my heart, so that no matter what comes my way in the future, I will find strength in the Word and only the Word. Because persecuted christians are not of the past, but of the present. May we labor fervently in prayer for these people because they are our brothers and sisters.
To learn more about Richard wurmbrand, go here.
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