Change Your World for Orphans

HT: Z

Hope To Prisoners

Piper recently went to Angola prison in Angola, Louisiana. His whole reflection on the experience is worth your time, but his words to the entire prison (via closed circuit TV) are especially affecting:

For 90% of you the next stop is not home and family, but heaven or hell. O what glorious news we have in that situation. And believe me it is not the prosperity of Gospel. Jesus came and died and rose again not mainly to be useful, but to be precious. And that he can be in Angola as well as Atlanta. Perhaps even more.

Top Five Christmas Albums Ever

You are legally allowed to start playing Christmas music in eight days, so you should probably be prepared. The five Christmas albums no human can live without:

5. Peter, Paul and Mary: A Holiday Celebration: This classic is haunting, warm and, despite PP&M's ignorance, Christ-exalting.

4. Andrew Peterson: Behold the Lamb of God: The first true Christmas album, it is, in reality, a history of salvation. From Abraham to Jesus, Peterson brilliantly makes the grandest meta-narrative a musical sight to behold.

3. Mannheim Steamroller: Christmas: The first Steamroller album (I think), and the only good one.

2. A Charlie Brown Christmas: Jesus seriously considered postponing his incarnation to coincide with Guaraldi's 1965 masterpiece.

1. Holiday Songs And Lullabies: Hands down, the best Christmas album ever. There's just no way they could have produced this thing with any more creativity or beauty. All Christmas albums should aspire to be what this one is.

Is Jesus Your King?

Tim Keller, in his small group study on Mark, says that there are five things you must do to make Jesus King of your life:

A. Obeying. (Not like Jonah. He thought that if he did what God had said that it would ruin things.) The evaluation question: “Am I willing to obey whatever God says about this life-area?” Symptom: guilt and “covering up”.

B. Accepting. (Not like Job. He thought God was unfair, and that he knew how to run history better.) The evaluation question: “Am I willing to thank God for whatever happens in this area?” Symptom: worry, self-pity, or bitterness.

C. Relying. (Not like Abraham. He made Isaac an idol, something he had to have along with God to be happy.) The evaluation question: “Is there something instead of God I am relying on for self-worth?” Symptom: insecurity (people-approval as an idol), “drivenness” (success or achievement as an idol), self-indulgence (comfort as an idol).

D. Expecting. (Not like Moses. When called to do a great deed, he was sure he was not competent.) The evaluation question: “Are there problems or limitations in my life I think are too big for God to remove?” Symptom: boredom and discouragement.

A fifth, overall evaluation question:

If you ever say, “I’ll obey Christ if…” then you are still on the throne of your
life, determining when and whether you will take a course of action. Are there
any if’s in your life?

Marriage is a Mirror

Oh man, this is so good:

On, Do You Presently Trust Christ for Your Salvation?

In a particularly ominous statement on eternal security, Wayne Grudem asks what your response should be when God asks you why you should be let into heaven (in Systematic Theology, p. 803):

If I were to die tonight and stand before God's judgement seat, and if he were to ask me why he should let me into heaven, would I begin to think of my good deeds and depend on them, or would I without hesitation say that I am depending on the merits of Christ and am confident that he is a sufficient savior?

The difference between those two answer is razor thin and, at the same time, world's apart.

Be Acquainted With Repentance

J.C. Ryle:

He that desires to be a true Christian must be experimentally acquainted with repentance and remission of sins. These are the principle things in saving religion. To belong to a pure church, and to hear the gospel, and receive the sacraments are the great privileges: but are we converted? Are we justified? If not, we are dead before God.

Happy is the Christian who keeps these two points continually before his eyes! The brightest saint is the man who has the most heart-searching sense of his own sinfulness, and the liveliest sense of his own complete acceptance in Christ.

It is Our Highest Pleasure, to Love Him Beyond Measure

John Newton (italics mine):

Shall men pretend to pleasure,

Who never knew the Lord,
Can all the worldling's treasure
True peace of mind afford!
They shall obtain this jewel

In what their hearts desire,
When they by adding fuel
Can quench the flame of fire.

Till you can bid the ocean,

When furious tempests roar,'

Forget its wonted motion,
And rage and swell no more;

In vain your expectation
To find content in sin,
Or freedom from vexation,
While passions reign within.

Come turn your thoughts to Jesus,

If you would good possess
Tis he alone that frees us
From guilt and from distress:

When he by faith is present
The sinner's troubles cease;

His ways are truly pleasant,

And all his paths are peace

Our time in sin we wasted,

And fed upon the wind;
Until his love we tasted,
No comfort could we find:
But now we stand to witness

His power and grace to you;
May you perceive its fitness,
And call upon him too!

Our pleasure and our duty,

Though opposite before
Since we have seen his beauty,
Are join'd to part no more:
It is our highest pleasure,

No less than duty's call,
To love him beyond measure,

And serve him with our all.

The Sponge to Jesus' Lips

Driscoll recently went to Israel. He picked up a tidbit there that influenced drastically his understanding of one portion of scripture:



I can't know for certain that he's right. Cultural history like this can't be applied monolithically. But his point is well taken, nonetheless.

We Have Not a Definition for Love, But an Example

D.A. Carson, in For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word, Volume 1, on 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:

It may be difficult to provide a perfect definition for Christian love. But it is not difficult to find its supreme example. Christ's love for us is not grounded in our loveliness, but in his own character. His love is not merely sentimental, yet it is charged with incalculable affection and warmth. It is resolute in its self-sacrifice, but never merely mechanical self-discipline. If we wish to come to terms with the apostolic depiction of Christian love as "the most excellent way"...that all believers must follow, we need only imitate Jesus Christ.

Ashmamed Not to Respond to Such Love

Bernard of Clairvaux:

On the contrary, the faithful know how utterly they stand in need of Jesus and him crucified. They wonder at and reach out to that supreme love of his, which passes all knowledge. They are shamed not to respond to such love and deserving with the little they have to give.

How Often Do I Fast, Weep and Mourn for My Own Sin?

From a friend's blog, a reflection on Joel 2:12:

From what I understand about Joel, he has received word from the Lord to plead with the Jews to repent and return to the Lord. He warns of impending judgments from the Lord in response to their sin.

Joel 2:12 reads:

Therefore, also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning [until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored.]

A commentary by Matthew Henry suggests:

Our business therefore on earth must especially be, to secure an interest in our Lord Jesus Christ; and we should seek to be weaned from objects which will soon be torn from all who now make idols of them. There must be outward expressions of sorrow and shame, fasting, weeping, and mourning; tears for trouble must be turned into tears for the sin that caused it. But rending the garments would be vain, except their hearts were rent by abasement and self-abhorrence; by sorrow for their sins, and separation from them.

I began to wonder about my own life. What objects in my life have I made into idols? Are my tears over my own sin or for how now I'm left to deal with the affects of my sin? How often do I fast, weep and mourn for my own sin? How do I rend my heart?

I recognize that Jesus has taken sin away from me by His death on the cross but shouldn't that make me more aware of my own sin? Shouldn't I understand the cost He paid to save me from spending an eternity away from God? Sometimes I wonder if I truly understand it all.

God calls to people all over the world to turn and keep coming to Him with their entire heart. He wants "every hindrance removed" which means that nothing stands in the way of surrendering our life to Him. His greatest desire for us is to have our "broken fellowship" with Him restored.

Spot on. Or, as Martin Luther said, "The whole life of believers should be repentance."

Is the Task of Missions Forgotten? I Pray Not

The Extent of the Atonement

Or, for whom did Christ die? Michael Bird posts responses to this question from three different theologians from three different camps. Of course, I side with Paul Helm, the Calvinist:

‘Definite atonement’ is an improvement on ‘Limited atonement’, but neither phrase clearly captures and expresses the idea, which is not exclusively to do with the atonement. The view is that the Triune God ensures the salvation of men and women, boys and girls. He does not merely make possible their salvation, leaving it to the sinner to make up his own mind. Rather, whom he intends to save, he saves, through the distinct but inseparable work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Augustine puts it in his letter to Simplicianus in AD 396, God’s grace is effectual, effective, actually ensuring that those ordained to eternal life believe, secured by the golden chain of Romans 8.

What is at issue is an estimate of divine grace. The biblical basis for the view does not rest upon a single proof verse, or a few of these, (though verses such as John 6.37 and Acts 13.48 and of course Romans 8 28f should be borne in mind). Rather it is founded on the implications of Scripture’s overall witness to God’s powerful love, to the spiritual death of fallen mankind, and to the actual salvation of countless people.

By contrast, the Arminius-inspired view leaves the outcome of the work of redemption uncertainly suspended upon human choice, even though valiant efforts are made to link it to the divine foreknowledge, though in a weaker-than-biblical sense. And the Amyraldian view is in danger of upsetting the unity of the Trinity, and confounding the work of the preacher, heralding the grace of God indiscriminately to all, with the work of God. Through such means as preaching, God brings his elect to be justified, and to be sanctified, and to be glorified, calling them all out of darkness into his marvellous light.

For BenWitherington's Arminian view, click here.

For Michael Jensen's Amyraldian View, click here.

HT: JT

Christians Are Morally Obligated to Support ObamaCare Because Jesus Would

Good lesson to be learned here on how not to do biblical theology from "Ed":

Dear Ed,

When Jesus comes back, his offer of free, universal healthcare will be off the table.

Sincerely,

R

Sermons Without Christ is Like Bread Without Flour

Does your pastor preach Christ in every sermon? A compilation of quotes from C.H. Spugeron (compiled by Tony Reinke):

The motto of all true servants of God must be, “We preach Christ; and him crucified.” A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching. [Exposition of Acts 13:13-49 published in 1904]

Leave Christ out? O my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ’s name in it, it ought to be his last, certainly the last that any Christian ought to go to hear him preach. [sermon: “A Prayer for the Church” (1867)]

Leave Christ out of the preaching and you shall do nothing. Only advertize it all over London, Mr. Baker, that you are making bread without flour; put it in every paper, “Bread without flour” and you may soon shut up your shop, for your customers will hurry off to other tradesmen. … A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. However grand the language it will be merely much-ado-about-nothing if Christ be not there. And I mean by Christ not merely his example and the ethical precepts of his teaching, but his atoning blood, his wondrous satisfaction made for human sin, and the grand doctrine of “believe and live.” [sermon: “Christ the Glory of His People” (3/22/1868)]

Whole thing.

Without the Gospel

Via TT, Calvin:

Without the gospel everything is useless and vain; without the gospel we are not Christians; without the gospel all riches is poverty, all wisdom folly before God; strength is weakness, and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow townsmen with the saints, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak strong, the fools wise, the sinner justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, and slaves free. It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.

It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone. For, he was sold, to buy us back; captive, to deliver us; condemned, to absolve us; he was made a curse for our blessing, sin offering for our righteousness; marred that we may be made fair; he died for our life; so that by him fury is made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness turned into light, fear reassured, despisal despised, debt canceled, labor lightened, sadness made merry, misfortune made fortunate, difficulty easy, disorder ordered, division united, ignominy ennobled, rebellion subjected, intimidation intimidated, ambush uncovered, assaults assailed, force forced back, combat combated, war warred against, vengeance avenged, torment tormented, damnation damned, the abyss sunk into the abyss, hell transfixed, death dead, mortality made immortal. In short, mercy has swallowed up all misery, and goodness all misfortune. For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit. If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying, O hell, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? it is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us; and we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation [life] is in it; but we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things. And we are comforted in tribulation, joyful in sorrow, glorying under vituperation [verbal abuse], abounding in poverty, warmed in our nakedness, patient amongst evils, living in death. This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.

Security for the Weak are in the Savior's Wounds

Bernard of Clairvaux:

Where, in fact, are safe and firm rest and security for the weak but in the Savior's wounds? The mightier he is to save, the more securely I dwell there. The world menaces, the body weighs us down, the devil sets his snares. I fall not, for I am grounded upon firm rock. I have sinned a grave sin. My conscience is disturbed, but it will not be perturbed because I shall remember the Lord's wounds.

Agony Will Be Turned Into Glory

A friend of mine died this morning. I recalled this quote, from C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce:

They say of suffering that no future bliss can make up for it. But that's not true. For resurrection and eternal life, if once attained, will work backwards and turn even all your agony into glory.

You're with Jesus now, buddy. No more agony. Only glory.

Why Did Jesus Have to Suffer Only Momentary Separation from God?

Or, why must unrepentant sinners suffer eternally when Jesus suffered only momentarily?

Piper is at his best when making theological distinctions: