"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.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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. "
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