The Journeymen

We Have Moved! - http://journeymen.wordpress.com

2006-12-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

Howdy Folks!

We have moved to: http://journeymen.wordpress.com

You should be redirected to the new site in 10 seconds.

Please fix any bookmarks or links you may have set. Thanks.

We love you,
Brother Hank

Wordpress

2006-12-02T10:03:00.000-08:00

The New Journeymen....Maybe?

Friday is for Fire and Brimstone

2006-11-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

(by J. C. Ryle)

Hanging over the brink of the bottomless pit!

"And they said to the mountains and to the rocks,
"Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One
seated on the throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has
come! And who is able to stand?" Revel. 6:16-17

Life is uncertain!

Time is short!

Eternity is near!

Judgment is sure!

Sudden death to the converted sinner, is sudden glory.

Sudden death to the unconverted sinner, is sudden hell.

Unconverted reader! Your danger is far greater
than I can describe!

There is but a step between you and the worm
which never dies, and the fire which is never
quenched! You are literally hanging over the
brink of the bottomless pit!

Escape for your life!

Flee from the wrath to come!"

These childish dissipations!

2006-11-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

(taken from John Newton's Letters)

Writing to a worldling, John Newton says--

"If you were to send me an inventory of your pleasures;
how charmingly your time runs on, and how dexterously
it is divided between the coffee-house, play-house, the
card-table, and tavern, with intervals of balls, concerts,
etc.; I would answer, that most of these I have tried over
and over, and know the utmost they can yield, and have
seen enough of the rest, most heartily to despise them all.

I profess I had rather be a worm crawling on the ground,
than to bear the name of 'man' upon the poor terms of
whiling away my life in an insipid round of such insignificant
and unmanly trifles! Alas! how do you prostitute your talents
and capacity, how far do you act below yourself--if you know
no higher purpose of life than these childish dissipations!"

A Vendetta Against Compromise

2006-11-29T10:15:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get the feeling that sinners must be deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid to continue in their sin? I do.

All the time.

But you know what fascinates me even more? It's those Christians who know their sin, and shortcomings; but turn a complacent eye toward them, and would rather flirt with the darkness than stand fully in the light of the Christian life. I mean, seriously, I know folks who seem like their entire life is about seeing how much of the world they can cram into the Christian life.

How much bad language can I use.....and still be called a Christian?
How many tasteless movies can I watch.....and still be called a Christian?
How immodest can my clothes be.....and still be called a Christian?
How little can I study the Word.....and still be called a Christian?
How little can I go to church....and still be called a Christian?
How much can I party and drink.....and still be called a Christian?
How bad can my life look from the outside....and still be called a Christian?

It seems that the order of the day is "compromise, with a side of Christianity, please". And it irks me to no end. And then to top it off, I catch myself compromising too! Agh! Woe is me! I am undone! What ever happened to being "sanctified", being set apart?

"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" - 1 Peter 2:11

We're NOT content being strangers and pilgrims. Would we much rather be friends with the world, than to be looked upon as "straight-laced strangers". I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "College is the time to get all the 'fun' out of your system". Do what!? Are we willing to yield an entire season of our life unto Satan and his minions for the false hope of 'getting it our of our system'?! God forbid.

"Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you" - 1 Peter 4:4

Spiritual oddities! That's what we are called too! Strangers to the world and it's pleasures. Lost people should look at us and think it odd, that WE DO NOT RUN WITH THEM! Do they look at you as just another one of the guys or girls? I mean, we should be ignorant of Satan's devices, not familiar with every nook and cranny of them.

"I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." - Romans 16:19

And our Christian witness! Oh, what of that?! We don't claim the name of Christ without having the responsibility to reflect His image to the world. Did Jesus eat with sinners? You bet he did! And I praise God for it, because we are those sinners whom Christ dines with. But Christ AFFECTED those sinners, they didn't INFECT Him. Do you see the difference? I mean, we take the knowledge of an ensured eternal salvation - and our own personal relationship with Christ - and walk into a girl's apartment at 9pm, and then don't walk out until 8 in the morning - and expect the world to assume the best!

"Abstain from all appearance of evil." - 1 Thessalonians 5:22

You are not representing yourself any more. You are representing your Lord. My Lord. So forgive me for having a vendetta against compromise, but it's killing our witness!

One foot in hell

2006-11-28T23:51:00.000-08:00

(taken from Horatius Bonar's, "The Three Crosses")

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise." - Luke 23:43

"The saved thief is a specimen of what the cross is appointed
to do. Sin abounding, grace super-abounding.

What is yon cross erected for? To save souls!
See, it saves one of the worst; one who had done
nothing but evil all his days!

What does that blood flow for? To wash away sin!
See, it washes one of the blackest!

What does yon Sufferer die for? To pardon the
guiltiest! Not merely to save from hell, but to open
Paradise to the chief of sinners--to open it at once;
not after years of torment, but "today." Today "with
Me." Yes, Jesus goes back to heaven with a saved
robber at His side! What an efficacy in the cross!
What grace, what glory, what cleansing, what healing,
what blessing--at yonder cross! Even "in weakness"
the Son of God can deliver--can pluck brands from
the burning--can defy and defeat the evil one! Such
is the meaning of the cross! Such is the interpretation
which God puts upon it, by saving that wretched thief.

See how near to hell a man may be--and yet be
saved! That thief, was he not on the very brink of the
burning lake--one foot in hell; almost set on fire by
hell? Yet he is plucked out! He has done nothing but
evil all his days--down to the very last hour of his life;
yet he is saved. He is just about to step into perdition,
when the hand of the Son of God seizes him and lifts
him to Paradise!

Ah, what grace is here!

What boundless love!

What power to save!

Who after this need despair?

Truly Jesus is mighty to save!

See how near a man may be to Christ--and
yet not be saved. The other thief is as near the
Savior as his fellow--yet he perishes. From the
very side of Christ--he goes down to hell. From
the very side of his saved fellow--he passes into
damnation. We see the one going up to heaven
--and the other going down to hell.

This is astonishing--and it is fearful!

Oh, what a lesson--what a sermon is here!"

Prayer and Absolute Predestination

2006-11-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Charles Spurgeon on Predestination in Prayer (commentary on Luke 11:9):
"Another objection has been raised that is very ancient indeed, and it has a great appearance of force. It is raised not so much by skeptics as by those who hold a part of the truth. It is this: prayer can certainly produce no results because the decrees of God have settled everything and those decrees are immutable. Now, we have no desire to deny the assertion that the decrees of God have settle all events. Certainly, it is our full belief that God has foreknown and predestined everything that happens in heaven above or in the earth beneath. I fully believe that the foreknown station of a reed by the river is as fixed as the station of a king, and the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered like the stars in their courses. Predestination embraces the great and the little; it reaches to all things. The question is, Why Pray? Might it not as logically be asked, Why breathe, eat, move, or do anything? We have an answer that satisfies us; namely, our prayers are in the predestination, and God has as much ordained His people's prayers as anything else. So, when we pray, we are producing links in the chain of ordained facts. Destiny decrees that I should pray - I pray. Destiny decrees that I will be answered - the answer comes to me."

(Jerome Zanchius on Absolute Predestination, 1516-1590)

"Without a due sense of predestination, we shall lack the
surest and the most powerful inducement to patience,
resignation and dependence on God under every spiritual
and temporal affliction. How sweet must the following
considerations be to a distressed believer!

(1) There most certainly exists an almighty, all-wise
and infinitely gracious God.

(2) He has given me in times past, and is giving me
at present (if I had but eyes to see it), many and
signal intimations of His love to me--both in a way
of providence and grace.

(3) This love of His is immutable; He never repents
of it nor withdraws it.

(4) Whatever comes to pass in time, is the result
of His will from everlasting, consequently

(5) my afflictions were a part of His original plan,
and are all ordered in number, weight and measure.

(6) The very hairs of my head are (every one) counted
by Him, nor can a single hair fall to the ground but in
consequence of His determination. Hence

(7) my distresses are not the result of chance, accident
or a fortuitous combination of circumstances, but

(8) the providential accomplishment of God's purpose, and

(9) designed to answer some wise and gracious ends, nor

(10) shall my affliction continue a moment longer than
God sees fit.

(11) He who brought me to it, has promised to support
me under it, and to carry me through it.

(12) All shall, most assuredly, work together for His glory
and my good, therefore

(13) "The cup which my heavenly Father has given me to
drink, shall I not drink it?" Yes, I will, in the strength He
imparts, even rejoice in tribulation. I will commit myself
and the event to Him, whose purpose cannot be overthrown,
whose plan cannot be disconcerted; and who, whether I am
resigned or not, will still go on to work all things after the
counsel of His own will."

Tuesday Quote Day? Yeah, Why Not?

2006-11-27T05:09:00.000-08:00

Have a blessed Tuesday folks, and thank God for "this grace wherein we stand" -Romans 5:2.

===============================================

"All I can say is that I'll not be changing. I will go to the grave with the convictions I have." - Ian Paisley

"Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread.
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"We hence learn, that when we find any people prone to this or that vice, it ought to be resisted with greater diligence; for Satan almost always employs this artifice - that when he finds us prone to this or that vice, he directs all his efforts to drive us headlong into it." - John Calvin (Commentaries on Zechariah)

"O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace."
-Charles Wesley

"I...heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands." Revelation 5:11

When I come back like Jordan..

2006-11-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

It’s been a very long time since my last post here. In fact, my name plate was removed from the locker and I’m having to wear a new number since they put mine in the rafters.. or maybe the attic.. whichever. For some reason I felt compelled to post this and since it’s past my bedtime and tomorrow begins a new week of work, I’ll make this intro brief. End scene..

Go ye therefore, making disciples of all nations.. every word in that line is important.. every single one. Something that I am often torn between, at least in how it plays out is the age old debate of Calvinism and Armenianism. That shows up in many different things.

The other day I was having a conversation with a southern Baptist church planter who happened to be getting his car serviced and I remember him saying something I have heard often which is, ‘we should be less concerned with those who have already heard the gospel and more concerned with those who have never heard it’ or something like that. A friend the other day said a few things of similar nature, one being a quote I’ve heard for a while saying ‘we’ve no business sharing the gospel with the same person twice when there are many who have never heard it once.’ (of course they say it takes people in the Asian culture where I traveled an average of 7 times hearing before they believe so I guess we can just skip that billion or so people. Maybe just drop some leaflets) And again, ‘we shouldn’t talk so much about the second coming when there are many who have never heard about the first.’ (though Paul spent two letters talking about it to the church in Thessalonica..)

There is some truth there but there is perhaps greater error (aside from this- if you also think it is possible to lose your salvation as some who are non-Reformed in thinking do, then you are in a bit of a predicament to say that we should not worry so much about those who are already saved so that we might focus on those who have not heard. It brings to mind images of a comedic act in which one makes a batch of cookies, puts them in the oven and upon returning finds they have all been eaten. So, again they make a batch and place them in the oven, but each time they return they find there are more missing than they have made. My mother feels like that frequently when my brothers and I are home for the holidays)

I think the problem here is precisely that we have not heard the full gospel, the true gospel, and we do not understand that which we have heard. If we truly understood it then we could not help but be affected by it in a life altering sort of way. That life alteration would result in us sharing the gospel. I am certain not everyone is called to be a missionary, though perhaps everyone might be called to at some time or season and in saying this I mean missionary in the sense that we commonly think of it and not as it might more accurately be stated. For I cannot deny that we are all called to be missional in our mindset and though that word is not found in the word base of Microsoft it should be on the forefront of every Christian’s mind. We are to be missional in how we live our lives but we are not all called to go overseas.

The great error in those previous statements and many others following that general line of thought is all that matters is whether a person is saved or not. It’s as if we think, and this is more particularly what the church planter I spoke with was discussing though it is not an unfamiliar topic of conversation- it’s as if we think the chief end of God is the salvation of men. The what? It’s as if we think the chief end of God is the salvation of men. But the chief end of men is rather the glory of God (thank you Paul, Luther, Spurgeon, and a great multitude of others including Reedhead and the infamous Ten Shekels and a Shirt sermon).

Truth be told, there are a great many evangelists who are not concerned at all with following the whole great commission. They are only concerned with spreading about seed and perhaps that is not all bad as they are working in accordance with their gifting (one sows, another waters, God provides the increase). The problem comes when that person then believes there is no other way, there is no other right. And I see this most often with evangelists. They are completely unable to understand why everyone is not exactly like them. They tend to value other gifts as something less than theirs and maybe not even in a conscious way. They don’t think that’s what they are doing. They are concerned that people are not sharing their faith with tracts and the ten commandments everywhere they go. There are worse concerns to have. If that were our greatest problem there could be far worse things. But in fact it can lead to a very great problem indeed and one that is very widespread now. And that is one of immaturity and naivety among believers. It is no good for those barely saved to go about as ministers of the Word. They should first know the Word. Not to say that they cannot share. It is certainly a powerful thing to speak of what the Lord has done but that is perhaps all one is able to do when first saved. The eyes have not yet fully adjusted to the Light and many things are still unclear. Yet these are those who represent Christians as a whole. And it is not just those who are young in years but those who are immature in their faith as a general rule. But I’m way off topic here so let me return from my digressions.

God is not a means to man’s end. Man’s salvation is a bi-product of God’s love. God’s glory is the chief end of man. Were it true that the thing of chief importance were man’s salvation then we would indeed be fools to do anything but share the gospel and we may well be fools if we did not sell all our possessions and go elsewhere in the world to speak of a God whom many do not yet know by name. However, Scripture never says anything at all along these lines. It is a heinous crime that we would place ourselves above Christ in such a way. It is God’s glory and that alone for which we must strive and this takes on many different patterns and designs. Our lives as living sacrifices- this is our spiritual act of worship. That looks like a million different things. And besides, the command was never to go forth and simply tell people about Jesus. The command was (and is) to make disciples of all nations. A disciple is much more than a ‘convert.’ The problem is not that we are lacking in people who have heard and even believed The problem is that we have shallow and immature Christians who are not growing and maturing who have no clue what it is they assented to a belief in. Were we to truly make disciples, there would be no issues with a lack of people to go overseas or a lack of people sharing the gospel because they would know what that truly means. Evangelists do little good by simply telling people to share their faith and only telling them one way to do it as if it were the only way. God judges the heart and not the act, but the act can still have consequences and we are certainly seeing those today.

So, press onto maturity for there is an urgent need for growth. There is an urgent need for your growth. Your walk effects me because we are part of the same body. My walk effects you. Let us then press on, being surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses!

goodnight and Godspeed

EP

Avoiding Nonsense in Worship Songs - from WorshipMatters.com

2006-11-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

Ben Arbor, from BelievingJesus.org, recently turned me on to a weblog by Bob Kauflin entitled, Worship Matters - in which Mr. Kauflin comments on finding the grace of God in corporate worship. Upon perusing his archives, a book review that Kauflin wrote caught my eye. The book was called "And Now Let's Move Into a Time of Nonsense: Why Worship Songs are Failing the Church", written by Nick Page. If the title wasn't catchy enough, the book is only 121 pages...whoop! And from quotes like this, it seems like Mr. Page may be on the right track: "Worship songs are not solely vehicles for personal expression, they're invitations to corporate worship. If you want to write stuff that only you can understand then keep a diary, otherwise you have to cut the rest of us some slack; you have to help us understand."

I think on my next stop in to Amazon.com, I may just have to spring for it. I'll let you know what I think (i promise...lol). Until then, check out Kauflin's entire review below, and if you want to, sing along with this jiving corporate worship tune:

"La da da, la da da, la da da" -again!
"La da da, la da da da" -that'a way! one more time!
"La da da, la da da, la da da" -okay, now one more time!
"La da da, la da da da" -yesss. now close your eyes and sing!
"La da da da" -mmmm. Thank you Jesus.

All rights reserved - Lincoln Brewster (c) 2006 Integrity Music

==========================================================

(From WorshipMatters.com - Bob Kauflin)

Avoiding Nonsense in Worship Songs

"I don't even know how I came across a book I read recently called, "And Now Let's Move Into a Time of Nonsense: Why Worship Songs are Failing the Church." It's by Nick Page, a prolific UK author.

What I do know is that I'm not aware of another book on congregational song that is as insightful, humorous, helpful, and brief (a real plus from my perspective). In only 121 pages, Nick covers a brief history of worship music, why the words we sing matter, how modern culture has influenced us, the importance of technique, the problem of language, and helpful suggestions for what we can do. Letters from a fictitious worship leader named Kevin Molecule are scattered throughout the book. If you're familiar at all with the modern worship culture, these letters are at the same time painful and very funny. In fact, the whole book is that way.

Nick explains his reason for writing the book: "I wrote this out of sheer frustration with the quality of the words we sing in church. The book argues that we have bought into a pop-song model of worship songs, where the words are secondary to beat and melody. The result is songs which are filled with a strange semi-Biblical code and which suffer from poor technique. Above all it encourages writers to really think about the words of their songs and whether they really communicate truth about God."

As with most books I read, there are a few points I would nuance, or say differently, or perhaps even disagree with. But the insightful observations and specific applications throughout the book make this a valuable resource for anyone who cares about the songs the church sings.

Here are a few quotes to whet your appetite:

On the words we sing: "This is why the words of worship songs matter. They convey the truth - the truth to which we are supposed to respond. They aren't just sounds to enable us to join in the melody. They are the means by which the mind understand what God has done for us." p. 30

On emotions: "I'm not knocking emotion. As we saw in the last chapter, emotion is part of our response to God. A non-emotional Christian is someone who has forgotten how to feel; but, equally, a completely emotional Christian is someone who has forgotten how to think. Too often worship times are judged, not on whether people were changed or challenged or renewed, but on the response of the crowd, the 'buzz' in the building. This is not a reliable indicator of the presence of God. I frequently feel intense emotions when Watford scores a goal. But I wouldn't claim that God had much to do with it." p. 41

On large Christian events: "I am not knocking these big events. Indeed, hearing God speak to me at a main meeting at Spring Harvest changed my life. I will be forever grateful for that. But we always have to keep checking that, at these big events, people are worshipping God and not just enjoying the band." p. 45

On unclear lyrics: "Worship songs are not solely vehicles for personal expression, they're invitations to corporate worship. If you want to write stuff that only you can understand then keep a diary, otherwise you have to cut the rest of us some slack; you have to help us understand."

I could go on, but I think you get the point. And don't get the idea that the entire book simply bashes modern worship songs. No, Nick is seeking to humbly admonish us to sing and write songs that serve God's purposes for music in the church.

"Done right, hymns and worship songs touch people's hearts. This is beyond the emotional pull that I talked of earlier, it's something far deeper. Make the words right and they will write themselves on people's hearts. Make the words right and they will form part of people's lives. Make the words right and they will open people's eyes to the reality of God. Make the words right and, as they sing them, God will come home to people's hearts." p. 112

My prayer is that God will use this little book to promote the writing of great worship songs for His glory."

Nuff Said....

2006-11-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

Oh wait....one more thing....'BOUT TIME!

Ok, now that's it.

Nice catch Mark Dodge.

Gig'em Ags.

Review of Crowder's "the eschatology of bluegrass"

2006-11-24T18:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, so David Crowder wrote a book. Actually more than one, if you are keeping track. I recently borrowed his latest entitled, "Everybody Wants to go to Heaven, But Nobody Wants to Die - or (the eschatology of bluegrass). I read it in a mere 3 days, which (even though it is only about 250 pages in length) is a nice feat for me - seeing as I rarely ever finish any book, no matter how good, or how short.

Before I get too far, let me give you a little background on Crowder and me. I don't know diddly about him. If we were contestants on the "Newly Weds", I would probably get all of his answers wrong (and be wondering why I'm married to a man, and why this man looks like he escaped from an Austin hippy farm - they have those you know...seriously...). I had heard his name around the Christian bubble for a year or so, but hadn't paid any attention - seeing as he was a "contemp" (murmured with a contemplatory look on my face), and we don't like 'those' kind around these parts. Yeah, yeah, I'm a traditionalist...so shoot me. And while you are at, rather than tell me to put my hands up - play me one of those modern worship songs - cause some where in it, there's got to be the line "raise your hands, and dance around" - and then you can shoot me...I may even be asking for it by then.

That being said, I do try to keep an open mind/heart/ear/eye. I borrowed a few cds and this book from a buddy and started on my journey to come to know the artist/writer known as David Crowder. So on to the book:

The book is not really all about bluegrass. And really, it’s not even all about eschatology. In fact, I'm a little hard pressed to explain to you just "what" it is all about. Crowder, and co-author Mike Hogan do a fantastic job of writing, I'll give them that. The problem is, half the time, you can't tell what there writing about, or what (if anything) this story has to do with that one. I would've stopped reading altogether at the second chapter, if not for one overriding factor - Crowder is a humorous nut-job.

Some would say, "He got jokes". And he does. But he also has problems sticking to a logical progression of ideas - and this makes you want to give somebody a dead arm (perhaps not Crowder, cause you know he doesn't know any better - I mean, he's a musician, not a novelist - but maybe his momma...j/k). By the end of the book, I felt like sitting his publisher down, and explaining why loosely related (if at all) instant messages, emails, and lists do not make for interesting reading material. What held my interest, was the slim hope that sooner or later, he would get to "the eschatology of bluegrass" part of the book. But increasingly, I felt as if, we would never get past the "Crowder". Hey, and he might be a pretty sweet guy - but I didn't plan on reading his own personal diary/minibio/attempt at a research paper, and wanted to hear about bluegrass.

Throughout the book, Crowder progresses through a look at the joint histories of the soul, and bluegrass. Alongside of these, he tells the story of an old woman, a priest, and little boy. Mixed in with this, he sprinkles in a few pages here and there of misc instant messages and off-the-wall footnotes (and oh the footnotes - although many are humorous - most are just, well, intriguing at best, and annoying at worst)...(yay for 5 commas in one sentence...whoop!).

I guess one could come away from this book with a new view on the soul. Maybe. But throughout the book, I came to a greater, and greater awareness that these pages were written - not for strangers - but for fans. That would explain the personal 'rabbit trails' he insisted on following until their end, and perhaps even the assumption that his readers were more interested in him, than eschatology or bluegrass.

Overall -
Crowder fans: eh, it's worth a shot.

Un-Crowder fans: don't look for anything other than a main course of Crowder with a side of music and soul.

And speaking of Crowder's music (if any care): a banjo doesn't make you bluegrass, nor does an affinity for Bill Monroe.

-BH

P.S. - Somebody please break his speak-and-spell

My Lord, I did not choose You

2006-11-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

(A hymn written by Josiah Conder-1836)

"My Lord, I did not choose You,
For that could never be;
My heart would still refuse You,
Had You not chosen me.
You took the sin that stained me,
You cleansed me, made me new;
Of old You have ordained me,
That I should live in You.

Unless Your grace had called me
And taught my op’ning mind,
The world would have enthralled me,
To heav’nly glories blind.
My heart knows none above You;
For Your rich grace I thirst;
I know that if I love You,
You must have loved me first."

An excellent way of commenting upon the Bible

2006-11-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

(Thomas Watson)

"How I love Your teaching! It is my meditation
all day long." Psalm 119:97

"Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden,
every truth is a fragrant flower, which we should
wear, not on our bosom--but in our heart!

David counted the Word "sweeter than honey
and the honeycomb". There is that in Scripture
which may breed delight. It shows us the way . . .
to riches: Deut 28:8, Prov 3:30;
to long life, Psalm 34:42;
to a kingdom, Heb 12:28.

Well then may we count those the sweetest hours
which are spent in reading the holy Scriptures; well
may we say with the prophet, "Your words were
found, and I ate them. Your words became a
delight to me and the joy of my heart."

Conform to Scripture. Let us lead Scripture lives.
Oh that the Bible might be seen printed in our
lives! Do what the Word commands. Obedience is
an excellent way of commenting upon the Bible.
"Teach me Your way, O Lord--and I will walk in Your
truth." Let the Word be the sun-dial by which you
set your life. What are we the better for having the
Scripture--if we do not direct all our speech and
actions according to it? What are we the better for
the rule of the Word--if we do not make use of it,
and regulate our lives by it? What a dishonor is it
to religion--for men to live in contradiction to
Scripture! The Word is called a "light to our feet"
It is not only a light to our eyes to mend our sight
--but to our feet to mend our walk. Oh let us lead
Bible lives!

Be thankful to God for the Scriptures. What a
mercy is it that God has not only acquainted us
what His will is, but that He has made it known
by writing! The Scripture is our pole-star to
direct us to heaven, it shows us every step we
are to take; when we go wrong--it instructs us;
when we go right--it comforts us.

Adore God's distinguishing grace, if you have
felt the power and authority of the Word upon
your conscience; if you can say as David, "Your
word has quickened me." Christian, bless God
that He has not only given you His Word to be
a rule of holiness--but His grace to be a principle
of holiness. Bless God that He has not only written
His Word, but sealed it upon your heart, and made
it effectual. Can you say it is of divine inspiration,
because you have felt it to be of lively operation?
Oh free grace! that God should send out His Word,
and heal you; that He should heal you--and not
others! That the same Scripture which to them is
a dead letter--should be to you a savor of life!"

Are we in bondage to the "liberty" that is found in Christ?

2006-11-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Are we in bondage to the "liberty" that is found in Christ?

Weird question I know, but try and follow...

Take me for example. I don't drink alcohol. What does that make me?

Well, I've heard:

-Legalist
-Teetotaler
-Too-religious
-A Catholic in denial
-A misguided Southern Baptist
-A judgmental, high and mighty hypocrite
-and many others...

But is that true? Does abstaining from alcohol make me a legalist, and so on? And do I hurt my Christian witness by refusing to exercise my Christian liberty to drink?

I say today: No, No, and NO!

Frankly, I'm tired of being philosophically slapped around by those Christians who feel called to consume a 'cold one'. I do not. And attacking my decision on the basis of Christian liberty is a pitiful attempt at good doctrine. Christian liberty is just that - liberty. A sinner in bondage to his sin is set free by the blood of Jesus Christ. But what is this sinner free from? And perhaps, just as importantly,...what is he set free 'unto'?

Every election year, I hear the familiar tag line: "If you don't vote, you have no right to complain." Is that so? Well, tell that to every single one of the founding fathers. None of those men voted for the King of England - and yet by their complaints and Declaration[s] of Independence, we have a country today. Tell that to the millions of women who could not vote before the mid-20th century, and the millions of black Americans that could not vote for the majority of our nation's history. Did they have no right to complain? They did, and they do.

And what about us today? What does it mean to have the right to vote? Countless men and women have fought and died so that we could enjoy this right, right? Wrong. Last time I checked, there weren't too many American wars fought over universal suffrage at the ballot box. Voting is a right, but not a command, nor a compulsory law - rather it is a choice. Not only between candidates, but also between voting altogether. Now, don't get me wrong, I think people should vote - and I vote every chance I get...but it is a choice. The choice to vote is just as viable as the choice to abstain...

Did you catch that parallel? We are at liberty to vote. Not forced into the voting booth at the end of an AK47, but informed with times, registration drives, and candidate forums - and then allowed the opportunity. Men can choose to vote, and like the word liberty implies, they can choose not too. Why is it then, when our brothers and sisters in Christ choose not to drink alcohol they are labeled, maligned, and counted as blind religionists? We think that a reason must immediately be brought forth to validate their choice, and proof-texts must quickly be offered to bolster their cause. This is sinful. We indeed, try to bind their consciences with our own, and our views on what liberty means. And frankly, we've got it all wrong...

If Christian liberty is what it claims to be (and I believe it is), God's grace DOES NOT demand of us to use alcohol. One is not a legalist who uses his Christ-given liberty to abstain from liquor, nor should he be labeled as one. Christians are just as much at liberty to drink, as they are to never drink a drop in their lives. Take heed that your liberty is not used to judge another man's conscience? 1 Corinthian 10:29. A man can enjoy the liberty that is in Christ, just as much with a drink in his hand, as he can without one.

Galatians 5:13
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."

Give me liberty, and give me Life,
BH

The Church

2006-11-18T20:58:00.000-08:00

I'm reading an interesting book right now that is really challenging me on my perspective on "the Church." So what is the Church? I think we really all have the idea of a building with a steeple built into our minds, but I think I can say for certainty that the mandate for a steeple is not in the Bible. And the idea of Church being a building- well, it's really not there either. So what does the Bible say? We are the Church.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't partake in the Church. I think that Church in the traditional sense is probably essential for most people to grow in their faith. But how is this for a though: when ever you are out with some of your other buddies out on Northgate, you're still the Church... so how are people seeing you?

So where am I going with this. Gandhi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world." Now, there is no such thing as the "perfect Church." A church building is made up of imperfect people, and we are all sinners. How could you expect it to be? But rather than chasing after an illusion- finding the perfect church, we should focus on BEING the perfect Church. And if a generation of people take that philosophy, of truly being radical in living out their lives rather than waiting for "the church" to take care of everything, well, the Church would be embracing the lifestyle that I believe is the model of the New Testament.

The early Church was focused on people, on passion, and on the pursuit of a relationship with Jesus and proselytizing that to others. That needs to be our job, wherever that leads us.

The most devouring idol in all the world!

2006-11-16T19:29:00.000-08:00

(Richard Baxter "The Sinfulness of Flesh-Pleasing")

"Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach,
and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly
things." Philippians 3:19

"Flesh-pleasing is the grand idolatry of the world. The flesh
is the greatest idol that ever was set up against God.

That is a man's God, which he . . .
takes for his chief good,
and loves best,
and is most desirous to please.
And this is the flesh, to every sensualist.

He "loves pleasure more than God." He "minds the things
of the flesh," and "lives" for it, and "walks after it." He
"makes provision for it, to satisfy its appetite and lusts."
He "sows to the flesh, and fulfills its lusts."

It is not primarily the bowing of the knee and praying
to a thing--which constitutes idolatry. It is the loving,
and pleasing, and obeying, and seeking, and delighting
in a thing--which is idolatry.

So the loving of the flesh, and pleasing it, and serving
it, and obeying it, and seeking and delighting in its
pleasures--is the grand idolatry--more than if you
offered sacrifices to it!

And so the flesh is God's chief enemy, because it has
the chief love and service which are due to Him. The
flesh robs Him of the hearts of all people who are
carnal and unsanctified. All the Baals, and Jupiters,
and Apollos, and other idols of the world put together,
have not so much of the love and service due to God,
as the flesh alone has. If other things are idolized by
the sensualist, it is but as they subserve his flesh, and
therefore they are made but inferior idols.

The flesh is not only the common idol--but the most
devouring idol in all the world! It has not, as inferior,
flattered idols have--only a knee and compliment, or now
and then a sacrifice or ceremony--but it has the heart,
the tongue, the body to serve it!

The flesh is loved and served by the sensualist, "with all
his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength."
They forsake God for the flesh. They forsake Christ, and
heaven, and their salvation for it. They forsake all the
solid comforts of this life, and all the joys of the life to
come for it. They sell all that they have, and lay down
the price at its feet. Yes, more than all they have, even
all their hopes of what they might have to all eternity!
They suffer in the flames of hell forever, for their flesh!

How vile an idol is the flesh! It is a great a madness to
serve an idol of silver, or gold or stone, or wood. But is
it any better to serve an idol of flesh and blood--which
is full of filth and excrement within, and the skin itself,
the cleanest part, is ashamed to be uncovered? Is this
a god to sacrifice all that we have to? and to give all
our time, and care, and labor, and our souls, and all to?

Consider how impious and horrid an abasement it is of
the eternal God--to prefer so vile a thing before Him!
You say continually by your practice, "This filthy, nasty
flesh, is to be preferred before God--to be more loved,
and obeyed, and served. It deserves more of my time
than God. It is more worthy of my delight and love!"

It is but a few days until all their most adorned, pampered
flesh will be turned into worms' food! A few days will turn . . .
their pleasure into anguish,
their jollity into groans,
their ostentation into lamentation,
all their pride into shame.

When the skull is cast up with the spade, to make room for
a successor--you may see the hole where all the food and
drink went in; but you will see no signs of mirth or pleasure."

How vain are all earthly possessions!

2006-11-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

(William Plumer - 1802-1880)

"Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless!" Ecclesiastes 1:2

How vain are all merely earthly possessions!

How unstable is popular favor!

How uncertain are riches!

How soon our pleasures may be followed by pains!

When parents rejoice at the birth of a child, they
know not how soon they may weep over his dead
body, without an assurance that his soul is saved.

Solomon thoroughly tried the world. His sober inspired
judgment was that all was utterly meaningless! The
sooner we reach this conclusion ourselves—the
wiser shall we be!

"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the
matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this
is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed
into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it
is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Our Sins at the Seminary (Part VI)

2006-11-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)

"Thirdly, I will now proceed to give you a few directions to guard you against the danger which your experience will testify I have not exaggerated.

1. Endeavor to acquire a deep conviction of the necessity of spiritual religion, as an important part of your present and future character. Do, my dear brother, survey the subject on every side; consider it in every point of view; trace it in all its bearings, all its connections. Let no suggestion of Satan, no insinuation of your own depravity—lessen in your estimation the importance of this ministerial qualification. Look at the ministers who most excel—and those who are the most deficient. Think of the glowing ministrations of that great man whose public and private services you found so profitable and delightful during your stay at Romsey. What unction attends all his labors; and oh, what success! I can assure you, there is much truth in Abraham Booth's remark—that it is from a pastor's defects in piety, that his principal deficiencies and his chief dangers arise. For there is no reason to fear, that if tolerably furnished with gifts—that he will be remarkably deficient or negligent in any known branch of pastoral obligation, while his heart is alive to the enjoyments and duties of piety.

2. Impress your mind with the danger arising to personal piety, from the causes I have already specified. Of this object never for a moment lose sight; never think yourself beyond the necessity of caution and watchfulness. Let a holy trembling take possession of your soul. Consider that you have a treasure to preserve among thieves. Exercise an incessant jealousy over your own heart.

3. Consider the guilt of such a defect—yes, the guilt, the guilt! For if it is sinful in a Christian to be lukewarm, how much criminality attaches to such a frame of soul when found in a student or a pastor! The deceitfulness of your own heart will frequently suggest, by way of apology, that it is impossible in such a situation to avoid it, that the rigor of your studies requires relaxation.

My dear brother, nothing can justify the decay of real religion in the soul of anyone, least of all in a student or minister! I do assure you, I can never look back without pain upon my academic years; for though I then endeavored to justify myself under a too considerable declension of piety, now I exclaim "O Lord, you make me to possess the sins of my youth." It is impossible for us to say how many of the trials of our future ministry, are retributive visitations for our sins at the seminary.

4. Be exceedingly strict and conscientious in observing the times, and maintaining the spirit, of personal devotion. In whatever danger a Christian is placed, I have no great apprehension of his safety, when he continues constant in secret prayer. In having separate studies, you posses every advantage for the performance of this momentous duty. Let nothing ever induce you to give up the time, whatever it be that solicits it, which is allotted to this sacred exercise. Be exceedingly careful so to arrange your studies, as to have sufficient time for your visits to the throne of grace. Rather than part with the opportunity for this, and thus incur the frown of God—carry an imperfect lesson to your tutor, though it may bring upon you his censure and the laughter of your fellow-students. And let your prayers ever embrace the subject which I now am endeavoring to impress upon your heart. Your petitions will bind you to fresh watchfulness—and your watchfulness will impel you to fresh prayer.

5. It will greatly assist you to set apart occasional extraordinary seasons of devotion—say one afternoon every month. There is no one circumstance which I find so adapted to check the progress of lukewarmness, and to promote an opposite frame—as this very edifying practice. During the common routine of stated duties, the soul is apt to be lulled into a lethargy from which nothing is so likely to rouse it as a season of extraordinary devotion. On such occasions call your spirit to a reckoning, examine its accounts, reprove it for negligence, and stimulate it to greater diligence. Not one direction which I have yet given deserves so well your serious regard as this. I speak from experience, and do therefore urge it upon you with the utmost importunity.

6. Occasionally select the most holy of your fellow-students for a time of spiritual conversation and prayer. Never mind what their talents are—just so long as they have much piety. Choose such a one for a bosom friend. Converse and pray over your difficulties and dangers.

I must now, my dear brother, leave to your devout attention these few hints. If you needed an admonition to attend to the subject of this letter, I could upon my bended knees beseech you at your very feet—as you valued your own comfort and usefulness, the salvation of sinners, the glory and favor of God—to take the most earnest heed to the piety of your own heart. Happy indeed will your unworthy brother feel, if his loving effort, weak as it is, should contribute to a purpose so important and so desirable.

Commending you to God and the word of his grace, I remain your affectionate brother,
J. A. James."

=====================================================
To this I say, "Amen, and Amen."
- bh

Ours Sins at the Seminary (Part V)

2006-11-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)

"Secondly, I will now, my dear brother, point out those circumstances in your present situation, in which the vigor of personal piety is in danger of being relaxed. It is certainly a melancholy reflection that there should be any circumstance likely to be injurious to piety, in that very situation where it sojourns for a while for the purpose of being better qualified to teach its own nature and enforce its own practice.

Yet so it is. Not, however, that there is anything in academic institutions naturally and essentially unfavorable to it; if there were, the prejudices which many have imbibed against them would be too well founded to be easily overthrown. Still there are circumstances which, through the imperfections of the best men, are likely, unless constantly watched, to issue in this baneful consequence. What these are I will now specify, that being apprised of the source from whence danger may be expected—you may be incited to incessant watchfulness.

1. The first source of danger I shall notice, is in the NATURE of your studies. These will of course be multiform, and by examination it will be found that each, without great watchfulness, may become injurious to piety. Let it be remembered that in an academy, divinity is studied as a science—a hallowed one, it is true, but still a science. Its evidences are canvassed, its terms are categorized, its parts are analyzed, its doctrines are classed. What till now has been treated as a system of facts and maxims—will be treated as a theory of doctrines and sentiments. Instead of listening to the holy converse of Christian friends comparing their experience with the Scriptures of truth, and mutually helping each other forward through all the difficulties of the path to Zion—you will frequently think and speak and read of religion as merely an intellectual study.

The Bible, which you had never read but as a Christian, you will peruse as a student. You will pray—to learn to conduct public prayer with decorum and edification. You will compose sermons, and listen to the composition of others, that you may learn to preach. You will hear the most solemn, the most melting truths of the Word of God mentioned and conversed on, without any of that feeling or that reverence with which you had ever been accustomed to listen to them. You will hear sermons in the academy for the sake of exercising your analytical talents, until you find it difficult to lay aside the academics in the most solemn and serious engagements. Where, without some exceedingly strong counteracting force, all this tends—you have perhaps, my dear brother, felt before now, to your no small distress and humiliation. Where, without incessant vigilance, will such a state of things lead us—but to the most frigid, barren, deathlike regions of lukewarmness itself!

2. The CLOSE APPLICATION which it will be found necessary to pay to your studies, will frequently endanger the prospects of your personal piety. Goaded by the reproofs of your tutors, or impelled by the rivalry of the students—you will carry on your pursuits with a closeness of attention that will sometimes render you deaf to the call of that hour that summons you to the closet of devotion and the mercy-seat of God. In this particular, my dear brother, your danger will be found peculiarly imminent; indeed, still greater by the suggestions of a deceitful heart, that the neglect is excused by the cause of it.

3. The NOVELTY of a great part of your studies will also open a source of danger. Your mind is traveling through a country almost new to you; objects before unseen will be perpetually starting up before you, not only soliciting your attention, but highly deserving of it; and as new situations are always a trial of piety—you will need all the care which it is possible your soul can exercise, to prevent your mind being so occupied with the novelties of your present situation, as to neglect those important concerns—which nothing should be so bright as to eclipse, or so great as to obscure.

4. The COMPANIONS of your studies will render great caution absolutely necessary. Those who ought to be helpmates, will frequently become snares. Some of them, it may be feared, entered the academy with but little personal piety—and have been gradually losing what little they had, since they have been there. Others, with dispositions far more jocular and volatile than is consistent with much seriousness and spirituality, are apt, in unbending the mind after the rigors of a close application to study—to run into an excess of levity and unsanctified hilarity. Amidst such circumstances, it is easy to perceive that fervent piety is endangered.

The student, I acknowledge, must have occasional relaxation from intellectual labor. His health, his spirits, require it; but then even his recreations ought to be those of a man of God—such as fit him for his future work, and not such as disqualify him. Incessant joking, laughter, sarcasm—which I lament to say form the substance of that conversation which is generally maintained within the walls of a seminary—totally unfit the mind of the students for spiritual fellowship with God or each other. I beseech you, my dear brother, be upon your guard! There is something bewitching in the character of a merry fellow, even though it is united with that of a candidate for the pulpit. We love too much to be amused, to be sufficiently alarmed at the danger arising to piety from a jocular and witty disposition."

Our Sins at the Seminary (Part IV)

2006-11-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)

"What I intend at present is, not to prove the self-evident truth—that to teach religion we must first know it ourselves—but to insist on the infinite importance of endeavoring to maintain the vigor and life of godliness, in the midst of academic pursuits.

Whatever be the cause of such a circumstance, it is a fact which innumerable instances will verify—that many candidates for the ministerial office lose in personal piety while at a seminary, more than they gain in mental improvement. What I have seen and heard and felt on this subject, induces on your behalf, my dear brother, a degree of trembling solicitude in my mind, which only the Searcher of hearts can estimate. What I design, therefore, in this letter is,

First, To state the vast importance of your vigilant endeavors to maintain a spiritual and holy frame of mind, during the pursuit of your preparatory studies. To see this in its true light, and feel it in its full force, consider,

1. That except you cultivate such a disposition while a student, you are not likely to excel in it as a minister. I have no need to show you how necessary it is that a Christian teacher should be a spiritually-minded Christian. Much more than knowledge is surely requisite for one whose business it is to proclaim incessantly, "though we have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not love, we are nothing." Talents may make us shine—but piety alone can make us glow. Without the unction which spirituality of mind alone can impart, our most elaborate sermons will be like the cold beams of a wintry moon, falling upon the icy bosom of the frozen lake. If, then, such a frame of mind be of any significance to you in future, the importance of cultivating it now, exceeds all expression. Such as you are in the academy now—such you will be hereafter found within the circle of pastoral engagements. I speak now not only from the dictates of abstract reasoning—but also from observation and experience. In looking round upon those who were the companions of my studies, I observe that they are the most spiritual ministers—who were the most devotional students.

2. Without eminent spirituality of mind, your studies will be in great danger of acquiring a wrong bias. This is the only channel through which your mind will or can voluntarily propel the stream of its own vigor, to the ocean of Jehovah's glory. Without this frame of heart—it is impossible either to understand the nature, perceive the design, or feel the importance of your present engagements. The object I endeavored to hold up to your view in my last letter, can be distinctly seen through no other medium than a spiritual mind. In the absence of this, you will sink into a mere self-seeking orator; or into a dull, uninteresting, philosophic lecturer; or, what is still worse, into a teacher of damnable heresies.

Perhaps it would be the first of these, for when the fervor of religion is gone from the soul, what other object can you propose to yourself in your preparatory studies, but as a qualification to enable you to become a successful candidate for popular applause? That zeal for the Divine glory, and compassion for immortal spirits—which should be the very soul of every minister's exertions—are the offspring of glowing piety, and must cease with the cause that produced them. The power of God and the spiritual welfare of man will be present to the eye, and objects of pursuit—only so long as they are present with the heart as subjects of experience. Lose from the mind the spirituality which it ought to possess, and which, I hope, yours does possess—and that moment your study is converted into the temple of a false deity. Self becomes the idol—vanity the priest—and all the attainments which your vigilance enables you to make, become so many sacrifices and acts of self-worship; while piety, like Jeremiah anticipating the desolation of the Jewish temple—stands weeping at a distance, exclaiming, "How is the gold changed—the fine gold become dim!"

Perhaps you would sink, without spirituality, into a cold, dull, uninteresting stiffness. Whatever attainments you might make, if during the process of acquiring them, devotion should evaporate—they will remain behind a mere useless sediment. Science and literature, to be useful to a minister of Jesus Christ, must be held in solution by eminent piety. Without this they will be very likely to lead us beyond dullness, and conduct us to the regions where the most pernicious errors dwell. This brings me to the third probable result of a decay of spiritual religion in a theological student, that is, an apostasy from scriptural truth. You will soon learn, my dear brother, if you have not already discovered, that during the revolution excited in the human mind by the influence of sin, its faculties were displaced; and the will and the affections, formerly the servants of the understanding, became to a very considerable extent its governors. Hence, many of the intellectual errors of mankind have resulted from the depraved state of their hearts. In ten thousand instances, a lukewarm state of the affections, has been the cause of the most pernicious errors of the judgment! The truth of God is given to us as the instrument of holiness, and when we become indifferent to the end, it is no matter of surprise that we become regardless about the means. Biblical truth is the food of spiritual religion, which, when the appetite is lost—is first disrelished, and then loathed. Were it possible for us to trace the history of their apostasy, we would certainly find that of those who have wandered into the darkest religious errors—by far the greater part commenced their dreadful career from a lukewarm heart!

3. Spirituality of mind would be likely to ensure the blessing of God upon your studies, by urging you to constant and earnest prayer. Let it be remembered that intellectual as well as moral improvement, is dependent on Divine assistance. God is the creator, the preserver, and the benefactor of the human faculties. It is in Him they live, and move, and have their being. It is God alone who can expand the judgment, invigorate the imagination, strengthen the memory, sharpen the penetration. One very considerable cause that produced the vast superiority of mind in the early Nonconformist divines above their successors, was the vast proficiency they made in personal religion.

These ideas, and many others which your own judgment will readily suggest, will tend to unfold and enforce the importance of eminent piety, to a candidate for ministerial employment."

Our Sins at the Seminary (Part III)

2006-11-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)

"If you keep in view as you ought, and as I pray God you may, the proper design of your academic pursuits—if your soul glows with burning zeal for the glory of God, and is penetrated with tender pity for the souls of mankind—you will with the greatest cheerfulness make any sacrifice, however costly, endure any fatigue, however oppressive. I do most earnestly entreat you, my dear brother, to consider well this great design of your residence at Hoxton. There the model of your future character will be framed, the path for your future steps will be indicated. In short, there will your whole future life in all its important results, both to yourself and others, be epitomized.

I can assure you from evidence, that without great watchfulness you will be often in danger of forgetting the precise end for which you study. If you make proficiency in learning—vanity will suggest how pleasing it is to be esteemed as a literary genius. If you should feel a deficiency compared with some of your fellow-students, envy will sometimes spur you on to diligence, with the hope of equaling or excelling these.

If you are superior to many of the others—pride will induce a kind of idolatry of your own talents. Hearing of the applause with which the attainments of some popular favorites are received, you will feel a temptation to give such a turn to your studies as shall be likely to prepare you for a share of public admiration. These and a variety of other feelings will frequently send up a mist that will hide from distinct observation the great object which revelation has already erected for your waymark, and which I have endeavored to point out to your vigilant attention.

Again, before I close this letter, I remind you that the chief design of your academic pursuits is to prepare you more extensively to glorify God in the salvation of sinners. Let this thought be the constant inmate of your soul. Let it rise up with you in the morning and lie down with you at night. Wherever you go, whatever you do, let it attend and direct you.

Reckon the duties of that day but half performed, on which you have never seriously reflected on this vast subject; and impress it upon your spirit, by making it the subject in part of almost every prayer that you present to God. As a means of fastening it more securely on your own heart, talk of it to others. Let it be the matter of conversation with those to whom it is a subject of equal interest and obligation. And be assured, my dear brother, that it will be my fervent and never-ceasing prayer to the God of all grace, that He would grant you that assistance which is necessary to keep this great object ever before your eye, surrounded with all its tremendous importance, and ever impressed upon your conscience with all its beneficial influence."

Our Sins at the Seminary (Part II)

2006-11-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)

"A man who is systematically trained to the terrible art of war is taught some of the modern languages, he is instructed in mathematics, mechanics, geography, history, fortification; not, however, merely for the sake of being a learned soldier—no, but a successful general in the defense of his country and the destruction of its enemies. He is taught to study, as it were, at the foot of a bastion, in the middle of a trench, pointing a cannon, storming a breach, or heading an army—and drives on his scholastic pursuits amidst imaginary shouts of war, the glories of conquest, or the shame of defeat. Fields covered with the slain, cities reduced to ruin, and prisons crowded with captives, are the objects on which he is taught that all his learning must terminate. Similar must be the manner in which your preparation for the work of the ministry is carried forward.

You will not mistake me, and suppose that I am upholding the barbarous idea which many seem to entertain—that learning for a minister of the gospel, is unnecessary. Such a sentiment can only spring from ignorance and envy. No, my brother, I attach the greatest importance to general knowledge, considered as a means subordinate to the great end which I have already specified. Learning is likely to procure respect for its possessor, is calculated not only to screen him from neglect or contempt, but to engage the attention of many who would otherwise treat him with indignant scorn. It has, in innumerable instances, abated the violence of prejudice, and conciliated esteem—where excellence the most sterling, unattended by the polish of education, would have been totally destitute of attraction.

How often have men of taste and intellect been led to hear from the lips of some able preacher the glorious gospel of the blessed God—not from any desire of spiritual edification—but merely to be pleased with the talents of the speaker; and who, when they intended only to admire the abilities of the servant, have returned adoring the grace of his Lord! In this respect, learning is useful to a minister, as it extends the probability of his success. For this end it ought to be pursued; and as this is the best motive to stimulate your mind in its academic engagements, so it is unquestionably the strongest. Who is likely to search for knowledge with the greatest ardor—the man that seeks it merely as its own reward—or he that desires it as a probable means of enlarging his qualifications as a messenger of peace?

The former has little to urge him but the prospect of personal gratification; the latter, in addition to this, has the hope of making his knowledge subservient to the best interests of his fellow-creatures. One is urged forward by selfishness somewhat refined; the other, by a benevolence which knows no limit to the extent of its desires, short of the everlasting happiness of its objects. Such a view as this of the great design of academic pursuits, would not only excite the mind to exertion, but help it to bear with patience—the rigor of intellectual toil. By having determined to arrive at the pulpit only in the regular way of preparatory study—you have undertaken what will often be found a weariness to the flesh.

Your way as a student must necessarily lead you through much which at first will present on every hand, little but alpine hills of difficulty, and desert plains of barren sterility. If you mean to apply closely to study, which I most fervently hope is your determination, there are hastening on to meet you hours and weeks and months of dry and tedious labor. And can your imagination frame one motive so encouraging, so strengthening to the mind—as the recollection that all this toil is to enable you to discharge with ability and success, the arduous and important duties of the ministerial office?"

Our Sins at the Seminary (Part I)

2006-11-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)

"The subject of the present letter is to state the chief end and design with which you should enter on your preparatory studies, and the great importance of ever keeping that end in view.

It is the part of folly to act before the end is chosen or the means of exertion properly arranged.

Right reason suggests to every one entering on a new career this natural inquiry—For what precise object are you about to start? It is to a neglect of this question that we are to attribute that profligate misuse of time and talent which in this world of activity, we are so frequently grieved to witness.

How many active minds, capable of great service to the world, do we see driven at random over the stage of existence, answering no other end but to teach mankind how much exertion may be wasted, for lack of a precise and proper end to guide its progress. Their whole life resembles the evening flight of the bat—a useless flutter amidst darkness and vanity. What wisdom, to say nothing of religion, dictates to you, my dear brother, at the present moment is—to fix with yourself, after serious deliberation, the precise design of your academic career, to divide between many claimants, which has the rightful authority to your supreme reverence and regard. By your preparatory studies you propose to become possessed of learning—you mean to be a minister with some education—you wish to preach with acceptance—you propose to yourself great pleasure in the attainment of knowledge. These are all ends which you may lawfully set before your mind in your present prospect; but woe be to your ill-judging mind, if any of these is your chief end. If this is the case, you will carry a curse with you to the study, and from there to the pulpit, from thence to the grave, from thence to the bar of Christ, and from thence, by a last remove, to the bottomless pit!

I am, however, persuaded better things of you, though I thus speak. Your religion has, before now, fixed this on your heart as the chief design of preparatory studies—"that you might be qualified in the use of appointed means, more fully to glorify God in the salvation of immortal souls." It is not merely to be prepared to preach, nor merely to preach well, nor to preach acceptably—but to preach successfully. And what is successful preaching, short of the conversion of immortal souls?

But what I wish to impress upon your mind is the infinite importance of keeping this great object in view through all, even the most minute of your academic pursuits. Everything is to be viewed by you in connection with this end; and only as it promotes this is anything absolutely momentous. This must remain in the midst of all your feelings and opinions, all your pursuits and exertions—the common centre to which everything by an undeviating law of attraction gravitates.

If you pore over the difficulties of language, if you read the systems of moral philosophy, if you study the accuracies of logic, if you examine the flowers of rhetoric, or demonstrate the problems of mathematics—it must not be ultimately for the purpose of becoming a classic, a philosopher, a logician, an orator, or a mathematician; but that by these means you may, in one way or other, be prepared to demonstrate, explain, and enforce to the conviction of sinners, the truths on the belief of which, their salvation depends. All are to be viewed as giving you in the order of means, a readier access to their minds, a greater power over their hearts."

For a moment of sinful pleasure

2006-11-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

(Lewis Bayly, "The Practice of Piety" 1611)

"O the madness of man, that for a moment of
sinful pleasure will hazard the loss of an eternal
weight of glory!

Better it is to go sickly with Lazarus to heaven;
than full of mirth and pleasure, with the rich man
to hell. Better it is to mourn for a time on earth,
than to be tormented forever with devils.

Without Christ you are but . . .
a slave of sin,
death's vassal,
the food of worms,
whose thoughts are vain,
whose deeds are vile,
whose pleasures have scarcely a beginning,
whose miseries never know an end.

What wise man would incur these hellish torments,
though he might, by living in sin, purchase to himself
for a time the empire of Augustus, the riches of Croesus,
the pleasures of Solomon, the voluptuous fare and fine
apparel of the rich man? For what should it avail a man,
as our Savior says--to win the whole world for a time,
and then to lose his soul in hell forever?"

The Political Christian - Part II of our Series on Politics and Religion

2006-11-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

Gary Ledbetter, Editor of the Southern Baptist Texan, weighed in last week, on the state of the union of Chritianity and Citizenship in America today. He makes some interesting points....

-BH

=============================

How about a fast from citizenship?
Written by Gary Ledbetter, Editor
Posted Monday, October 23, 2006
(Original article found here)

"David Kuo served as deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until he resigned in 2003. He has been critical of the office’s effectiveness since that time but his opinions really made a splash in his recent book, “Tempting Faith.” The book airs some specific criticisms regarding the implementation of the administration’s faith-based initiatives. Anecdotes also highlight the apparent contempt some White House staffers have for evangelicals. He closes by suggesting that Christians should go on a “fast from politics,” in favor of compassionate works.

In an “October surprise” way, the media have made Mr. Kuo their darling in apparent hopes that Christians might be discouraged from voting this November. I have no reason to doubt the sincere intent of the book but many who are praising the work have a highly politicized agenda.

I might add that David Kuo says that he does not mean that Christians should not vote. He also claims to have had no control over the release date of the book. OK, we still find that many who are quoting joyfully from the book are skipping over his Christian testimony and his firm pro-life, conservative assertions, adding instead his “fast from politics” terminology to the chorus of people who have expressed horror at the influence, let’s face it, the existence of biblical Christianity.

His ideas, based on some disillusionment with the nuts and bolts of political influence, are being used by those who will repeat nothing else he says in service of their goal of defeating a political/moral direction they consider dangerous. Maybe this is a misinterpretation of “Tempting Faith,” but the functional difference between a pundit who equates biblical Christianity with the Taliban and an author who suggests that the process of public policy is beneath Christians is uncomfortably slim.

My question is simple. Why should we take David Kuo’s advice?

I don’t think we can step aside. We are citizens and Christians. Our Christian identity defines our citizenship. We are not free to “sit this one out” to make a point or because our feelings are hurt.

Christians are also called to affect our communities. In our culture, political engagement is one way that we can do that. Our freedom to vote is a rare freedom in the history of the world. God has used our freedom for his glory on countless occasions. One day, the only way we can impact our culture might be by disobeying the law and suffering the consequences. Here and now, we can support or oppose a cause, vote for or against a leader, and make it stick. We should do that as long as we are able.

I don’t think we should step aside. It is not ours to determine effectiveness. Some people quit when they lose the first or third or 30th time. That doesn’t change the right and wrong of an effort. If we believe God wants us to do a thing, we’re wrong to quit just because it doesn’t turn out as we wished. We don’t serve ourselves, a political party, or a candidate.

Compassion is expressed by the climate we help create for all Americans, not just the food we put in their pantry. Some stands we take, including those often-ridiculed stands for life and family, are stands of mercy for the helpless. So are stands against gambling, pornography, and expanded alcohol consumption. Hate the truth of it if you must but being for people means you must be against some things that destroy people.

The thought that we support or withhold support from a cause based on whether the other people involved respect us adequately is repugnant to me. Certainly many in government do not get Christianity. Some in our churches don’t get it either. That’s a petty reason to give up.

I don’t think we need to step aside. As indicated above, compassion and citizenship are not contradictory ideas. Mr. Kuo seems to believe that evangelical Christians typically give to and do more for political causes than they do for people. I reject the dichotomy but even so he is wrong. Those who tithe and make special offerings are far more invested in world evangelism (the greatest compassion, and one David Kuo admires) and hunger relief than we are in political campaigns. Those of us who actually participate in our churches give more time to serving people in a month than we give to assisting a political campaign in a year.

I also reject the notion that working for stronger families and a cultural respect for human life is “merely political.” Politics is the way we accomplish things in relationship with other people. Like anything else (even hunger relief), it becomes wrong and soul-less when our motivation is mercenary.

So long as we can vote for a candidate who can reasonably be judged better than his opponent, we have a real choice and can have a real influence. The possibility that someone with another agenda might be pleased to have our support does not taint the imperative for us to choose.

Consider the presidential election of 1864. Abraham Lincoln’s reelection was not a sure thing. Part of the strategy of the Confederacy was to be successful enough to convince the U.S. to give up or to convince the northern electorate to defeat Lincoln. Much of the impetus behind the Union cause—much of Lincoln’s core support—came from religious leaders who hated slavery and wanted it to end sooner rather than later. Their crusade was partially responsible for a war that had already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. What if they, or Christian soldiers, took a year off in 1864?

What if they turned back to the “basics” of Christian ministry? What if they got tired of being labeled nuts and troublemakers by an administration under siege? What if Lincoln lost and the Union split?

This may not be as crucial a day in American politics as that one. We don’t know that, though. Citizenship by any upright means is a basic of Christian discipleship. It is not our part to judge the importance of one aspect of stewardship over another. We don’t turn aside from evangelism or personal devotion to win an issue any more than we abandon public policy to honor the Lord. We don’t do that weeks before, or after, the election.

The same Lord who saved us located us in a place and time of some influence. To reject an important tool God has placed in our hands is disobedience. In his frustration, I don’t think David Kuo knows what he’s asking of us.

Power can sway us. Access to power is seductive. Some Christian leaders have fallen under its spell to an inappropriate degree. They did not do that because of politics; they did it because they lost sight their call and of appropriate humility.

If “Tempting Faith” had ended with a call for a fast from arrogance and runaway ambition, I’d have to say “amen.” On the other hand, that closing exhortation wouldn’t have landed him on “60 Minutes.”"

Happy Reformation Day!!!

2006-10-31T08:05:00.000-08:00

On this day, in the year 1517, a pious and Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses onto the door of the Wittenberg church. Every pound of the hammer sent ripples through Christendom, and put Luther at odds with the two most powerful men in the world - the pope in Rome, and standing before Charles V. Accused of heresy, he was ordered to recant for the peace and safety of the temporal order. But finally, after long days of struggle with God and his own conscience he said,

"Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture or plain reason, I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen."

If that don't make your spine tingle, you need to check your pulse.
Happy Reformation Day!

-BH

God's Testimony Concerning Man

2006-10-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

( Written by: Rev. Horatius Bonar )

"God knows us. He knows what we are; he knows also what he meant us to be; and upon the difference between these two states he founds his testimony concerning us.

He is too loving to say anything needlessly severe; too true to say anything untrue; nor can he have any motive to misrepresent us; for he loves to tell of the good, not of the evil, that may be found in any of the works of his hands. He declares, them "good", "very good", at first; and if he does not do so now, it is not because he would not, but because he cannot; for "all flesh has corrupted its way upon the earth."

God's testimony concerning man is, that he is a sinner. He bears witness against him, not for him, and testifies that "there is none righteous, no, not one;" that there is "none that doeth good;" none "that understandeth;" none that even seeketh after God, and still more none that loveth him. God speaks of man kindly, but severely; as one yearning over a lost child, yet as one who will make no terms with sin, and will "by no means clear the guilty." He declares man to be a lost one, a stray one, a rebel, nay a "hater of God;" not a sinner occasionally, but a sinner always; not a sinner in part, with many good things about him; but wholly a sinner, with no compensating goodness; evil in heart as well as life, "dead in trespasses and sins;" an evil doer, and therefore under condemnation; an enemy of God, and therefore "under wrath;" a breaker of the righteous law, and therefore under "the curse of the law."

Man has fallen! Not this man or that man, but the whole race. In Adam all have sinned; in Adam all have died. It is not that a few leaves have faded or been shaken down, but the tree has become corrupt, root and branch. The "flesh," or "old man" - that is, each man as he is born into the world, a son of man, a fragment of humanity, a unit in Adam's fallen body, - is "corrupt." He not merely brings forth sin, but he carries it about with him, as his second self; nay, he is a "body" or mass of sin, a "body of death," subject not to the law of God, but to "the law of sin." The Jew, educated under the most perfect of laws, and in the most favorable circumstances, was the best type of humanity, - of civilized, polished, educated humanity; the best specimen of the first Adam's sons; yet God's testimony concerning him is that he is "under sin," that he has gone astray, and that he has "come short of the glory of God."

The outer life of a man is not the man, just as the paint on a piece of timber is not the timber, and as the green moss upon the hard rock is not the rock itself. The picture of a man is not the man; it is but a skillful arrangement of colors which look like the man. The man that loves God with all his heart is in a right state; the man that does not love him thus is in a wrong one. He is a sinner; because his heart is not right with God. He may think his life a good one, and others may think the same; but God counts him guilty, worthy of death and hell. The outward good cannot make up for the inward evil. The good deeds done to his fellow man cannot be set off against his bad thoughts of God. And he must be full of these bad thoughts so long as he does not love this infinitely lovable and infinitely glorious Being with all his strength.

God's testimony then concerning man is, that he does not love God with all his heart; nay, that he does not love him at all. Not to love our neighbor is sin; not to love a parent is greater sin; but not to love God, our divine parent, is greater sin still.

Man need not try to say a good word for himself, or to plead "not guilty," unless he can show that he loves, and has always loved God with his whole heart and soul. If he can truly say this, he is all right, he is not a sinner, and does not need pardon. He will find his way to the kingdom without the cross and without a Saviour. But, if he cannot say this, "his mouth is stopped," and he is "guilty before God." However favorably a good outward life may dispose himself and others to look upon his case just now, the verdict will go against him hereafter. This is man's day, when man's judgments prevail; but God's day is coming, when the case shall be strictly tried upon its real merits. Then the Judge of all the earth shall do right, and the sinner be put to shame.

There is another and yet worse charge against him. He does not believe on the name of the Son of God, nor love the Christ of God. This is his sin of sins. That his heart is not right with God is the first charge against him. That his heart is not right with the Son of God is the second. And it is this second that is the crowning crushing sin, carrying with it more terrible damnation than all other sins together. "He that believeth not is condemned already; because he he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son." "He that believeth not shall be damned." Hence it was that the apostles preached "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And hence it is that the first sin which the Holy Spirit brings home to a man is unbelief; "when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, because they believe not on me."

Such is God's condemnation of man. Of this the whole Bible is full. That great love of God which his word reveals is based on this condemnation. It is love to the condemned. God's testimony to his own grace has no meaning, save as resting on or taking for granted his testimony to man's guilt and ruin. Nor is it against man as merely a being morally diseased or sadly unfortunate that he testifies; but as guilty of death, under wrath, sentenced to the eternal curse; for that crime of crimes, a heart not right with God, and not true to his Incarnate Son.

This is a divine verdict, not a human one. It is God, not man, who condemns, and God is not a man that he should lie. This is God's testimony concerning man, and we know that this witness is true."

WHAT IS COVENANT THEOLOGY?

2006-10-29T20:31:00.000-08:00

For those of you wondering a little about Covenant Theology, Dr. Duncan from "Together for the Gospel" does a nice job explaining the doctrine with this short post.

Enjoy-
BH

======================================================
( written by J. Ligon Duncan III, PhD - Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church )

"Covenant theology is the Gospel set in the context of God’s eternal plan of communion with his people, and its historical outworking in the covenants of works and grace (as well as in the various progressive stages of the covenant of grace). Covenant theology explains the meaning of the death of Christ in light of the fullness of the biblical teaching on the divine covenants, undergirds our understanding of the nature and use of the sacraments, and provides the fullest possible explanation of the grounds of our assurance.

To put it another way, Covenant theology is the Bible’s way of explaining and deepening our understanding of: (1) the atonement [the meaning of the death of Christ]; (2) assurance [the basis of our confidence of communion with God and enjoyment of his promises]; (3) the sacraments [signs and seals of God’s covenant promises — what they are and how they work]; and (4) the continuity of redemptive history [the unified plan of God’s salvation]. Covenant theology is also an hermeneutic, an approach to understanding the Scripture — an approach that attempts to biblically explain the unity of biblical revelation.

When Jesus wanted to explain the significance of His death to His disciples, He went to the doctrine of the covenants (see Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, 1 Corinthians 11). When God wanted to assure Abraham of the certainty of His word of promise, He went to the covenant (Genesis 12, 15, and 17). When God wanted to set apart His people, ingrain His work in their minds, tangibly reveal Himself in love and mercy, and confirm their future inheritance, He gave the covenant signs (Genesis 17, Exodus 12, 17, and 31, Matthew 28, Acts 2, Luke 22). When Luke wanted to show early Christians that Jesus’ life and ministry were the fulfillment of God’s ancient purposes for His chosen people, he went to the covenants and quoted Zacharias’ prophecy which shows that believers in the very earliest days of ‘the Jesus movement’ understood Jesus and His messianic work as a fulfillment (not a ‘Plan B’) of God’s covenant with Abraham (Luke 1:72-73). When the Psalmist and the author of Hebrews want to show how God’s redemptive plan is ordered and on what basis it unfolds in history, they went to the covenants (see Psalm 78, 89, Hebrews 6-10).

Covenant theology is not a response to dispensationalism. It existed long before the rudiments of classical dispensationalism were brought together in the nineteenth century. Covenant theology is not an excuse for baptizing children, nor merely a convention to justify a particular approach to the sacraments (modern paedocommunionism and baptismal regenerationism). Covenant theology is not sectarian, but an ecumenical Reformed approach to understanding the Bible, developed in the wake of the magisterial Reformation, but with roots stretching back to the earliest days of catholic Christianity and historically appreciated in all the various branches of the Reformed community (Baptist, Congregationalist, Independent, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Reformed). Covenant theology cannot be reduced to serving merely as the justification for some particular view of children in the covenant (covenant successionism), or for a certain kind of eschatology, or for a specific philosophy of education (whether it be homeschooling or Christian schools or classical schools). Covenant theology is bigger than that. It is more important than that.

“The doctrine of the covenant lies at the root of all true theology. It has been said that he who well understands the distinction between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, is a master of divinity. I am persuaded that most of the mistakes which men make concerning the doctrines of Scripture, are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the covenant of law and of grace. May God grant us now the power to instruct, and you the grace to receive instruction on this vital subject.” Who said this? C.H. Spurgeon — the great English Baptist preacher! Certainly a man beyond our suspicion of secretly purveying a Presbyterian view of the sacraments to the unsuspecting evangelical masses.

Covenant theology flows from the trinitarian life and work of God. God’s covenant communion with us is modeled on and a reflection of the intra-trinitarian relationships. The shared life, the fellowship of the persons of the Holy Trinity, what theologians call perichoresis or circumincessio, is the archetype of the relationship the gracious covenant God shares with His elect and redeemed people. God’s commitments in the eternal covenant of redemptive find space-time realization in the covenant of grace."

The marks of a true shepherd

2006-10-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

In light of your own personal calling, this could be especially striking:
(Arthur Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, May, 1939)

How diligently should they scrutinize their motives, who think of entering the ministry; for thousands have abused this Divine institution through love of ease, desire for authority and reputation, or love of money--and brought upon themselves "greater damnation" (James 3:1). Thousands have invaded the pastoral office in an unauthorized manner, to fleece sheep rather than feed them, robbing Christ of His honor and starving His people.

Solemn beyond words is it to observe how sternly our Lord denounced these false shepherds of His day. (Matthew 23) As J. C. Ryle rightly said, "Nothing seemed so offensive to Christ as a false teacher of religion, a false prophet, or a false shepherd. Nothing ought to be so much feared by the Church, be so plainly rebuked, opposed and exposed."

What are the marks of a true shepherd, how are God’s people to identify those called and qualified by Him to minister unto His people?

First, the genuine pastor has the doctrine of Christ on his LIPS. The ministers of the new covenant are described as those who had "renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness." Christendom today is infested with men who are full of deceit and hypocrisy, trimming their sails according to whatever direction the breeze of public opinion is blowing.

"We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God." (2 Cor. 4:2). The true servant of Christ holds back nothing which is profitable, no matter how unpalatable it may be unto his hearers. He is one who magnifies not himself, nor his denomination, but Christ--His wondrous Person, His atoning blood, His exacting claims.

Second, the genuine pastor has the Spirit of Christ in his HEART. It is the Spirit who opens to him the mysteries of the Gospel, so that he is "the faithful and wise servant" (Matt. 24:45). It is the Spirit of Christ who gives him a love for His sheep, so that it is his greatest delight to lead them into the green pastures of His Word. It is the Spirit of Christ who enables him to use "great boldness of speech" (2 Cor. 3:12), so that he shuns not to declare all the counsel of God. It is the Spirit of Christ who makes him to be "prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction" (2 Tim. 4:2). It is the Spirit of Christ who gives efficacy to his ministry, making it fruitful according to the sovereign pleasure of God.

Third, the genuine pastor has the example of Christ in his LIFE, which is a conforming of him to the image of his Master. It is true, sadly true, that there is not one of them who does not fall far short both of the inward and outward image of Christ. Yet there are some faint tracings of His image visible in all His true servants. The image of Christ is seen in their words, spirit, actions; otherwise we have no warrant to receive them as God’s servants.

Find a man (no easy task today!) who has the doctrine of Christ on his lips, the Spirit of Christ in his heart, and the example of Christ in his life--and you find one of His genuine ministers--all others are but "thieves and robbers."

Politics and Religion - Oil and Water - or - Sparks and Gasoline (Part Intro.)

2006-10-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

A religious politician - A political religionist. Sound like oxymorons? Some would argue they are. Some would hold that you couldn't be farther from the truth. Who's right? Well throughout this series I hope to take a closer look at that very issue, "Politics and Religion - Oil and Water - or - Sparks and Gasoline?"

Should Churches campaign for candidates? Either openingly or behind closed doors?

Should Churches take up political causes?

Does the Church have a place in politics at all? If so, to what extent?

Preachin' Politicians...biblical? Or not?

Should political theory intersect with religious adherence?

What's the deal with "voting your values"?

Does politics have a place in the Church?

Is politics worth the Christian's time?

I know Southern Baptists get a bad wrap for being too political, both inside and outside the church doors - but what is the solution? Is there one?

The Christian Right - are they just a bunch of fundamentalists?

Hopefully some answers to come,
Bro. Hank <

Clip of Paisley Rejecting the Anglo-Irish Agreement

2006-10-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a primer for you folks, on a discussion to follow about "Politics and Religion - Oil and Water - or - Sparks and Gasoline". Any preemptive comments?

Smiling in ambiguity,
Bro. Hank <

The power of God

2006-10-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

(Stephen Charnock, 1628-1680)

"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.
He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and
the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand
or say to Him--What have You done?" Daniel 4:35

"The power of God is that ability and strength whereby
He can bring to pass whatever He pleases, whatever His
infinite wisdom may direct, and whatever the infinite purity
of His will may resolve. As holiness is the beauty of all God's
attributes; so power is that which gives life and action to all
the perfections of the divine nature. How vain would be the
eternal decrees, if power did not step in to execute them.
Without power--
His mercy would be but feeble pity,
His promises an empty sound,
His threatenings a mere scarecrow.
God's power is like Himself--infinite, eternal,
incomprehensible; it can neither be checked,
restrained, nor frustrated by the creature.

As His essence . . .
is immense--not to be confined in place;
as it is eternal--not to be measured in time;
so it is almighty--not to be limited in regard of action."

============================================

It is good news that God is almighty; for He is a God who loves and redeems sinners! "Lord, I thank you that we can't outrun, outlast, or outwit your grace, nor chide your Love forever - but "All that the Father giveth [you] shall come to [you]" - John 6:37. Thank you Lord for your infinite purity and boundless Love that saves the wretch like me and sets the captives free! 'Tis a beautiful thought when you say, "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not" - Isaiah 65:1. Father, we love you because you FIRST loved us! Don't let us forget it!"

Bro. Hank <

Prayin' for His will

2006-10-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! Don't we serve an AWESOME GOD?! He shall ever be my Rock and my Salvation, and in Him I shall hide my soul. My prayers shall reach His throne, and whatsoever I ask in HIS name - He shall give unto me.

John 14:13
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

Children of the Most High God, I ask you...What more can we ask God in Jesus' Holy name, than for His will to be done in our lives and in our world??? And what greater prayer is there than that? None I say, none! There is nothing greater than being in the will of God, and therefore there is nothing else worthy of prayer -- than for the complete will of God to be done in our lives. After all, is that not what Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, for the Father's will to be done? Should we then not consider it as Christ's example of true prayer? I say it was, and it is.

Pray my brethren. Pray earnestly for the will of God to be done in your lives. And pray my friends, that "the Father may be glorified in the Son."

Amen!

Bro. Hank

============

"Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning oer us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life."

- Henry J. van Dyke

He does whatever He pleases!

2006-10-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

(Arthur Pink, "The Attributes of God")

"He does whatever He pleases!" Job 23:13

"Ah, my reader, the God of Scripture is no make-believe
monarch, no mere imaginary sovereign; but King of kings,
and Lord of lords! To countless thousands, even among
those professing to be Christians, the God of the
Scriptures is quite unknown.

The god of this twentieth century no more resembles
the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ, than does the
dim flickering of a candle, the glory of the midday sun!
The god who is now talked about in the average pulpit,
spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in
much of the religious literature of the day, and preached
in most of the so-called Bible conferences, is the figment of
human imagination, an invention of mushy sentimentality!

The heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form gods
out of wood and stone; while the millions of heathen inside
Christendom manufacture a god out of their own carnal
mind! In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other
possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God,
and no God at all. A god whose will is resisted, whose
designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated,
possesses no title to Deity; and so far from being a fit
object of worship, merits nothing but contempt!"

"Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."
Psalm 115:3

"I know that You can do anything, and no plan of
Yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2

"The Lord does whatever He pleases in heaven and
on earth, in the seas and all the depths." Psalm 135:6

"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!"
Revelation 19:6

Letter to a stricken soul

2006-10-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

(by Arthur Pink)

My dear brother,

My heart goes out to you in sympathy in this dark hour, and I feel my helplessness to comfort you. The loss you have sustained is far greater than any human creature can make up--your suffering is too acute for any fellow-mortal to alleviate. I may endeavor to pour into your sorely-wounded heart something of 'the balm of Gilead,' but only the great Physician can give any efficacy to the same. I can do little more than point you to Him who alone can 'bind up the broken-hearted'. Jesus is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother. Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. Unburden yourself to Him.

May divine grace be given you, so that you shall be enabled to meekly acquiesce unto whatever our all-wise God may appoint. It is in heart-submission to God's providential dealings with us, that true religion largely consists. Your acute sorrow is among the 'all things' which work together for good to those who love God. If the Spirit of God is pleased to sanctify this affliction unto you, it will prove a real blessing in disguise. May I suggest several lines of meditation which, if pursued by you and blessed to you by God, will enable you to improve this affliction.

1. Learn anew the terribleness of sin. 'Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.' (Romans 5:12) Yes, had sin never entered this world, no graves would have ever been dug in it. Every funeral should be a forceful reminder to us of what the Fall has brought in! Every funeral ought to beget in us a deeper hatred of sin. It was sin which necessitated the death of God's beloved Son. Then how we should loathe it, seek grace to resist its evil solicitations, and follow hard after its opposite--holiness.

2. See the great importance of holding all God's temporal mercies with a light hand. The best of them are only loaned us for a season, and we know not how early we shall be called to relinquish them. It is the part of wisdom for us to recognize and remember this while they are in our hands: not to grasp them too tightly, nor to look upon them as ours to enjoy forever in this perishing world. Holy Writ bids us to 'rejoice with trembling', for that which delights my heart this morning may be taken from me before the shadows of night fall. The more I live with this fact before me, the less shall I feel the loss when it comes!

3. Endeavor to get your heart more weaned from this perishing world. 'Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.' (Col. 3:2) But we are slow to heed this exhortation, and often God has to use drastic means to bring us to a compliance with it. It is for our own good as well as His glory, that we do so. It is only heavenly things which abide; then let us seek grace to have our hearts more and more set upon them.

4. Seek to demonstrate the reality of true religion. Only the real child of God is enabled to say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord.' Earnestly seek supernatural help from above, dear brother, that you may be enabled to manifest the sufficiency of Divine grace to strengthen and support--to show you do have a peace and comfort which the Christless are strangers to. Sorrow not as others do, who have no hope. Doubt not the Lord's goodness. "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will support you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken." Psalm 55:22

Yours by God's abounding mercy,
A. W. Pink

On just such husks do the religious swine feed

2006-10-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

(Arthur W. Pink)

"Take heed what you hear." Mark 4:24

"The word hear obviously includes what is read, for
that which is written or printed is addressed to the
ears of our intellect. Few people today realize the
urgent need for 'taking heed' unto what they read.
Just as the natural food which is eaten either helps
or hinders the body; so the mental food we receive
either benefits or injures the mind, and that, in turn,
affects the heart. Now just as it is harmful to listen
to the rubbish and poison which is being served from
the great majority of present-day pulpits, so it is
exceedingly injurious to the soul to read most of
what is now being published. Take heed what you
hear--and read!

"Those who are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh" (Romans 8:5), and are charmed with
oratorical eloquence, catchy sayings, witty allusions,
and jocular displays. On just such husks do the
religious swine feed; but the penitent prodigal
can find no nutriment therein!

Christian reader, if you value the health of your soul,
cease hearing and quit reading all that is lifeless,
unctionless, powerless--no matter what prominent or
popular name is attached thereto. Life is too short
to waste valuable time on that which profits not.

Ninety-nine out of every hundred of the religious books,
booklets, and magazines now being published, are not
worth the paper on which they are printed! Take heed
what you hear--and read!"

They pierce not, they cut not, they fly not

2006-10-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

(taken from Thomas Brook's, THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN 1665)

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much." James 5:16

"Cold prayers call for a denial.

Be fervent, be warm, be importunate with God in all your
closet duties and performances. Certainly, all those usual
phrases of crying, wrestling, and striving with God, which
are scattered up and down in Scripture, strongly show
that holy importunity and sacred violence which the saints
of old have expressed in their addresses to God.

Fervency feathers the wings of prayer, and makes them
fly the swifter to heaven. An arrow, if it be drawn up but
a little way, flies not far; but if it be drawn up to the head,
it will fly far, and pierce deeply. Just so, fervent prayer
flies as high as heaven, and will certainly bring down
blessings from thence.

Look! as in a painted fire there is no heat; so in a cold
prayer there is no heat, no warmth, no omnipotency,
no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are like arrows
without points, as swords without edges, as birds without
wings: they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up
to heaven. Such prayers as have no heavenly fire in them,
do always freeze before they reach as high as heaven.
But fervent prayer is very prevalent with God."

God's Jewels

2006-10-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

(taken from Arthur W. Pink, "God's Jewels")

"And they shall be Mine, says the Lord Almighty, in
that day when I make up My jewels." Malachi 3:17

"It almost surprises one to learn that the great and self-sufficient God has 'jewels,' but our surprise increases to astonishment when we learn that these 'jewels' are living creatures. And astonishment gives place to overwhelming amazement when we discover that these living creatures are fallen and depraved sinners redeemed from among men! Truly, nothing but Divine grace would ever liken such wretched worms of the dust, unto precious jewels! Yet that is the very thing which we find God doing in our text. It is not the unfallen angels, nor the holy seraphim and exalted cherubim who are spoken of as Jehovah's valued treasure--but lost and ruined sinners saved by amazing grace!

The Lord has likened His people to 'jewels' because of their inestimable value in His sight. This is an exceedingly hard thing for the Christian to really grasp, for he feels such a wretched and worthless creature in himself. That the Lord of Glory should deem him of great worth, is difficult to conceive. Yet so it is!

From the earliest times, men have thought much of precious gems, and fabulous prices have been paid for them. With great ardor and toil, do men hunt after gold; but with even greater eagerness and labor will they seek the diamond. Hundreds of men will labor for a whole year in one of the diamond mines of Africa, and the entire result of their efforts may be held in the palm of your hand. Princes have been known to barter their estates in order to obtain some gem of peculiar brilliance and rare excellence.

Yet more desirable still, are His saints in the esteem of the Lord Jesus. The value of a thing in the eyes of its possessor, may be gauged by the price he was willing to pay for it. So valuable was the Church unto Christ that He gave Himself for it, and shed His precious blood to purchase it for Himself. Thus, the saints are likened unto 'jewels' because of the great value which the Lord places upon them.

"You will be a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand, and a royal diadem in the palm of your God." (Isaiah 62:3) What marvelous words are these for faith and hope to lay hold of! Our feeble intellects cannot grasp them! Wondrous is it to think of rough stones, which first look like small pebbles, being found in the mud and mire of earth; then cut and polished until they scintillate with a brilliancy surpassing any earthly object, and being given an honored place in the diadem of a monarch. But infinitely more wonderful is it, that poor lost sinners, saved by sovereign grace, should be among the crown-jewels of the Son of God!"

Four New 'Aints - Did I Forget an "S"?

2006-10-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

This week, the AP reported this:

"Pope Benedict XVI has canonised four new saints on the steps of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, the second such ceremony of his pontificate. The four saints included a Mexican bishop who suffered anti-clerical persecution and an Italian nun who pioneered women's schooling. Thousands of people attended the outdoor ceremony in Rome..."The Church rejoices in the four new saints," Benedict told the crowd. "May their example inspire us and their prayers obtain for us guidance and courage."

Oh yeah, and the AP reported this too:

"Saints fans here [in New Orleans] were just happy there was a plan to rebuild the Louisiana Superdome and bring back a sense of normality by watching a team they had always loved despite four decades of mostly losing seasons.

Next came the hiring of Sean Payton(1), who played up his credentials as a former Bill Parcells assistant but had no prior head coaching experience. His first big move was to urge the team to sign free agent quarterback Drew Brees(2), somewhat of a risk with Brees coming off throwing-shoulder surgery.

At the same time, no one could be sure how well Deuce McAllister(3) would come back from reconstructive knee surgery.

But if Payton could handle the job, and if Brees and McAllister came back healthy, this team had a chance to at least be competitive -- especially because the Saints were bound to get at least one immediate contributor with the No. 2 overall draft choice.

Ah, the draft. It seemed exceedingly wishful thinking to hope Houston would pass on Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush(4) and let the Saints have him, didn't it?"

All in all, I'd say its a win-win situation for everyone! Popery has 4 new peeps to pray to, and New Orleans has 4 new peeps to root for. If only every day could be a draft day! I do hope that Pope Ben and his staff did their homework for their new recruits...I would hate to see any prayers go unanswered, or poor folks suffer in purgatory any long than they have to. And ditto for Payton's guys. Afterall, the requirements are almost the same for both parties: 1. be brainwashed into thinking you are doing the right thing, and 2. have a miracle or two attributed to you. Payton and his team of Saints are well on their way....

So in closing - This week gave me four new 'Aints. As in, I 'Aint gonna pray to these guys either, no matter what potenate, or council, or general manager it is that's spouting the proclamation.

My prayers, guidance, and courage are reserved ONLY for the LORD, Jesus Christ!
I pray that yours are as well.

bro. Hank <

J.C. Ryle on Sin

2006-10-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

(taken from J.C. Ryle's "Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots")

"In bringing this mighty subject to a close, I feel that I have only touched the surface of it. It is one which cannot be thoroughly handled in a paper like this. He that would see it treated fully and exhaustively must turn to such masters of experimental theology as Owen, and Burgess, and Manton, and Charnock, and the other giants of the Puritan school. On subjects like this there are no writers to be compared to the Puritans. It only remains for me to point out some practical uses to which the whole doctrine of sin may be profitably turned in the present day.

(a) I say, then, in the first place, that a Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in the present age. It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity now-a-days which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not full measure, good weight, and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably “something about Christ, and something about grace, and something about faith, and something about repentance, and something about holiness”; but it is not the real “thing as it is” in the Bible. Things are out of place, and out of proportion. As old Latimer would have said, it is a kind of “mingle-mangle,” and does no good. It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet. Now I believe the likeliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently the old Scriptural truth about the sinfulness of sin. People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven, and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of hell. Let us all try to revive the old teaching about sin, in nurseries, in schools, in training colleges, in Universities. Let us not forget that “the law is good if we use it lawfully,” and that *’ by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (1 Tim. i. 8; Rom. iii. 20; vii. 7.) Let us bring the law to the front and press it on men’s attention. Let us expound and beat out the Ten Commandments, and show the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of their requirements. This is the way of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot do better than follow His plan. We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.

(b) In the next place, a Scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds, and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatsoever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be.—Everything forsooth is true, and nothing is false! Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved, and nobody is to be lost!—The Atonement and Substitution of Christ, the personality of the devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity, and enable it to keep pace with modern science.—Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned, and a theological fossil! Quote a text, and you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of an ancient Jewish Book, and that free inquiry has found out many things since the Book was completed!—Now, I know nothing so likely to counteract this modern plague as constant clear statements about the nature, reality, vileness, power, and guilt of sin. We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions. We must ask them to lay their hands on their hearts, and tell us whether their favourite opinions comfort them in the day of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying parents, by the grave of beloved wife or child. We must ask them whether a vague earnestness, without definite doctrine, gives them peace at seasons like these. We must challenge them to tell us whether they do not sometimes feel a gnawing “something” within, which all the free inquiry and philosophy and science in the world cannot satisfy. And then we must tell them that this gnawing “something” is the sense of sin, guilt, and corruption, which they are leaving out in their calculations. And, above all, we must tell them that nothing will ever make them feel rest, but submission to the old doctrines of man’s ruin and Christ’s redemption, and simple childlike faith in Jesus.

(c) In the next place, a right view of sin is the best antidote to that sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity, which has swept over England like a flood in the last twenty-five years, and carried away so many before it. I can well believe that there is much that is attractive in this system of religion, to a certain order of minds, so long as the conscience is not fully enlightened. But when that wonderful part of our constitution called conscience is really awake and alive, I find it hard to believe that a sensuous ceremonial Christianity will thoroughly satisfy us. A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys, and dolls, and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. Just so it is with man in the matter of his soul. Music, and flowers, and candles, and incense, and banners, and processions, and beautiful vestments, and confessionals, and man-made ceremonies of a semi-Romish character, may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him “awake and arise from the dead,” and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn triflings, and a waste of time. Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Saviour. He feels stricken with a deadly disease, and nothing will satisfy him but the great Physician. He hungers and thirsts, and he must have nothing less than the bread of life. I may seem bold in what I am about to say; but I fearlessly venture the assertion, that four-fifths of the semi-Romanism of the last quarter of a century would never have existed if English people had been taught more fully and clearly the nature, vileness, and sinfulness of sin.

(d) In the next place, a right view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the overstrained theories of Perfection, of which we hear so much in these times. I shall say but little about this, and in saying it I trust I shall not give offence. If those who press on us perfection mean nothing more than an all-round consistency, and a careful attention to all the graces which make up the Christian character, reason would that we should not only bear with them, but agree with them entirely. By all means let us aim high.—But if men really mean to tell us that here in this world a believer can attain to entire freedom from sin, live for years in unbroken and uninterrupted communion with God, and feel for months together not so much as one evil thought, I must honestly say that such an opinion appears to me very unscriptural.—I go even further. I say that the opinion is very dangerous to him that holds it, and very likely to depress, discourage, and keep back inquirers after salvation. I cannot find the slightest warrant in God’s Word for expecting such perfection as this while we are in the body. I believe the words of our Fifteenth Article are strictly true—that “Christ alone is without sin; and that all we, the rest, though baptized and born again in Christ, offend in many things; and if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”—To use the language of our first Homily, “There be imperfections in our best works: we do not love God so much as we are bound to do, with all our hearts, mind, and power; we do not fear God so much as we ought to do; we do not pray to God but with many and great imperfections. We give, forgive, believe, live, and hope imperfectly; we speak, think, and do imperfectly; we fight against the devil, the world, and the flesh imperfectly. Let us, therefore, not be ashamed to confess plainly our state of imperfections.”—Once more I repeat what I have said, the best preservative against this temporary delusion about perfection which clouds some minds—for such I hope I may call it—is a clear, full, distinct understanding of the nature, sinfulness, and deceitfulness of sin.

(e) In the last place, a Scriptural view of sin will prove an admirable antidote to them low views of personal holiness which are so painfully prevalent in these last days of the Church. This is a very painful and delicate subject, I know; but I dare not turn away from it. It has long been my sorrowful conviction that the standard of daily life among professing Christians in this country has been gradually falling. I am afraid that Christ-like charity, kindness, good-temper, unselfishness, meekness, gentleness, good-nature, self-denial, zeal to do good, and separation from the world, are far less appreciated than they ought to be, and than they used to be in the days of our fathers."

The devil's tennis-ball

2006-10-17T06:01:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Brooks, "The Privy Key of Heaven" 1665)

"Warn those who are idle." 1 Thessalonians 5:14

"Take heed of an idle and slothful spirit. An idle life
and a holy heart are far asunder. By doing nothing
men learn to do evil things. It is easy slipping out
of an idle life into an evil and wicked life. Yes, an
idle life is of itself evil, for man was made to be
active, not to be idle. Idleness is a mother-sin, a
breeding-sin; it is the devil's cushion--on which
he sits; and the devil's anvil--on which he frames
very great and very many sins. Look! as toads and
serpents breed most in standing waters, so sin
thrives most in idle people. Idleness is that which
provokes the Lord to forsake men's bodies, and
the devil to possess their souls.

No man has less means to preserve his body, and
more temptations to infect his soul, than an idle
person. Oh shake off sloth! The sluggish Christian
will be sleeping, or idling, or trifling; when he should
be in his closet a-praying. Sloth is a fatal sickness of
the soul; get it cured--or it will be your eternal bane.
Of all devils, it is the 'idle' devil which keeps men
most out of their closets. There is nothing that gives
the devil so much advantage against us as idleness.

Idleness is the time of temptation. An idle person
is the devil's tennis-ball, tossed around by him
at his pleasure.

The fowler bends his bow and spreads his net for birds
when they are set, not when they are upon the wing.
So Satan shoots his most fiery darts at men, when
they are most idle and slothful.

Slothful and idle people commonly lie so long a-bed,
and spend so much precious time between the comb
and the mirror, and in eating, drinking, sporting, and
trifling; that they can find no time for private prayer.
Certainly such as had rather go sleeping to hell, than
sweating to heaven, will never care much for prayer.
And therefore shun sloth and idleness, as you would
shun a lion in your way, or poison in your food, or
coals in your bosom!"

Picturing The Absurd, from OldTruth.com

2006-10-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

The following was posted by Jim B., over at Oldtruth.com.

I apologize for leaving y'all without any background info on some of these jokes, but I couldn't wait to pass this along...

Enjoy!
bro. Hank <

P.S. - I actually just bought one of those 'infamous' Reformation Study Bible last week! Whoop! I love it!
========================================================
(HT: OldTruth.com - Picturing the Absurd)

"Last week, a convert from Islam, now serving as the seminary President at Jerry Falwell's college, identified a group that he labeled as "worse than Muslims". Who are they? You might be surprised to find out that the Puritans were among them, so was the evangelist George Whitefield, and so was the hymn writer of Amazing Grace. Remember Matthew Henry whose bible commentaries are on most pastor's bookshelves? He's one of them too, as are numerous missionaries and martyrs in church history. If I were Jerry Falwell right about now, I'd be thinking that I have a loose cannon onboard the SS Liberty. This post takes a not-so-politically-correct look at the 'Jihad' that one man brought upon himself with his outrageous behavior.

If you haven't heard about the (now cancelled) formal debate involving
Ergun Caner and James White, you can get caught up by watching the
unofficial video. In the wake of all of that, Ergun Caner of Liberty University posted a set of Q&A's on his blog last week, including this reckless excerpt:

Q: DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT CALVINISTS ARE WORSE THAN MUSLIMS?

A: Yes, absolutely. For a small portion of these people, just daring
to question the Bezian movement is heresy. They will blog and
e-mail incessantly. I call it a "Calvinist Jihad", because just like
Muslims, they believe they are defending the honor of their view.
They can discuss nothing else. I have even had a few call for my
head! Dr. Falwell and I have laughed about it, because they are so
insistent, and they miss the point completely. There are plenty of
schools to which the neo-Calvinists can go, but Liberty will be a
lighthouse for missions and evangelism to the "whosoever wills".
Period. The difference is, Muslims know when to quit -
for these guys, it is the only topic about which they can talk.

The Liberty crew need not be the only ones laughing however, especially amidst the humorously absurd comparisons between Calvinists and Muslims. And lets be honest here, with the world being what it is today, Ergun Caner knows that for most of us - these kind of comparisons are likely to bring to mind these Muslims, and not these. So, what could Ergun Caner possibly be thinking? Perhaps if we could have his thoughts on film, they might look something like this:

"James White is the biggest Jihadist of them all!
He's worse than the most radical Muslims"

"They will stop at nothing short of world domination,
and then they'll prevent Christians everywhere
from reaching out to the whosoever will"

"If we would have had better screening and tighter border security,
we could have kept them out of this land to begin with.
Where was the Coast Guard back in 1620?"

"... but now they've managed to spread their dangerous beliefs,
and labor to pass them on to their children through catechism.
Those poor kids, I can only imagine what they must teach them"

"They only know one way to discuss their
unpopular and outdated views"

"They pedal these Reformation Study Bibles everywhere.
I'm so sick of those study notes reminding us of our
total reliance upon a sovereign God"

"One of them was even called the Prince of Preachers.
A prince is like a dangerous Sultan, right? Whatever!
He was ALWAYS inciting Jihad"

"This one trains pastors to be Lordship-terrorists
at his destructive Shepherds Conference training grounds"

THE END

In all seriousness, and speaking just for myself, I admit that Ergun Caner
got at least one thing right about Calvinists such as myself:

Though it's not all that I talk about (I spend much more time talking about the Church Growth Movement on this blog), I do love to talk about Calvinism. Why? Not because I want to "defend the honor of my view", but because Calvinism is just a nickname for how I understand God's grace. Isn't saving grace worth discussing, and dwelling on, and thinking about?

So to our brothers at Liberty University, I say: You've had a good Lynchburg-laugh; we've laughed too - at the absurdity of being compared to the followers of a volatile false religion. Let's now get back to talking about the grace of God. After all, if our understanding of that is wrong, how can we expect to be right in our missions and evangelism to the whosoever will?"

Thoroughly Post-Modern Biblical Interpretation

2006-10-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Being new to all this interpretation jargon (pre-modern, modern, post-modern), it's difficult for me to comment on much of the debate surrounding the different school of thoughts, but difficulty hasn't stopped me yet - and so we continue.

Check out what ensued at SIF in the discussion about half-truths...

And then check out this piece by Ben Witherington, professor at Asbury Seminary, entitled, "Thoroughly Post-Modern Biblical Interpretation". It helped me shed some well needed light on the issue at hand, and gave me a little hope for Methodists everywhere...

excerpt:

"Why is this important when it comes to the study of the Bible? There is a simple answer--- THIS IS GOD'S WORD. I do not get to decide for myself what God's Word says or means. It would be arrogant for me to think so. It is for me to discover the meaning of the text encoded in the sentences and paragraphs, for it had an objective meaning long before I ever looked at the text or studied the text. God through the vehicle of various inspired human beings put that meaning there. Post-modernism has problems with objective truth claims, especially texts that make claims on us before we can even begin to make claims about them. It likes to use the pejorative term 'foundationalism' when people start talking about objective truth claims. Frankly, this seems to me to be yet one more human ploy to hold the truth claims of the Bible on us all at bay. Put simply most post-modern theory involves an epistemology that violates the whole Biblical theory and reality of 'revelation'-- a truth conveyed by God through human vehicles to us in perspicuous words that involve truths that not merely relative but absolute and makes an absolute claim on us all."

Carry on,
bro. Hank <

More Guns, Not Fewer

2006-10-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

(source PatriotPost.US - Digest)

"While the gun-grabbers of the Left cry out for more gun control in the wake of recent school shootings, The Patriot advocates the exact opposite. The Founders crafted the Second Amendment to mean what it says: "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed" (emphasis added). Citizens were thus granted protection against tyrannical government-among the first priorities of any tyrant is disarming the people-but the logic applies to many other areas.

Let's look at schools. In Joplin, Missouri, this week, a seventh-grader fired a Mac-90 assault rifle in his middle school, though no one was injured. Missouri Governor Matt Blunt used the occasion to advocate a law allowing teachers to carry guns, much like the arming of commercial pilots. We couldn't agree more. While law-enforcement officers have always been very quick to respond when murderers attack schools, armed teachers and staff may have prevented many tragic deaths. As it stands, "gun free zones" only empower the killers.

The White House, meanwhile, hastily organized a conference on preventing violence in schools. Gun-control advocates cried foul because they were uninvited, but considering that their ideas have already been tried and failed, why bother? Better ideas were discussed, such as character education and other prevention techniques, pointing to the need to address the underlying problem, and not simply focus only on the tools of violence. In his 27 May 1999 testimony, none other than Darrell Scott, father of Columbine victim Rachel Scott, pointed to the example of Cain and Abel: 'The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain.' Amen."

=======================================

Imagine that! Perhaps in Washington's push for 'Character Education', someone will make the correlation between the absence of the Ten Commandments and Biblical teaching, and the rise in 'characterless' children...

Who knows?
bro. Hank <

Tom Short on "Marriage: Trusting God for the Right Partner"

2006-10-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

(taken from ShortNotes, by Tom Short)

"Last week, my wife and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary.

Just four days later, I had the privilege of giving my daughter, Christine,
away in marriage. It was a lovely ceremony and we couldn't have
wished for a finer young man than her husband, Jonathan Kimball.
I ask your prayers for them as they begin a new family unto the glory
of God.

Every parent desires to see their child happily and successfully
married. As I contemplated the large number of single people who
read ShortNotes, I couldn't help but have the same desire for you.
Thus, I have included a few random thoughts about marriage that
I hope will be stimulating and edifying to you.

- Marriage is a God-ordained institution. He created it and He knows how it is to operate if it is to be successful. But in our day, the world is trying to co-opt marriage by creating a whole new set of definitions and standards by which marriage is to operate. And the world's way is NOT working. Stick with God's way! Don't let the world defile you with it's ways which are contrary to God's way.

- If you want to know God's plan for marriage, study what the Bible says about it. Begin with the very first marriage - Adam and Eve (found in Genesis 3). Ephesians 5 is a good New Testament reference to marriage. Find an on-line Bible where you can look up every reference to "husband" and "wife." This will take a little bit of work, but it sure beats reading some magazine article in Redbook about how to have a happy marriage!

- Next to coming to Jesus, marriage is the most significant decision you will ever make. Don't enter into it lightly! Seek God's will concerning your potential mate. Pray for God's guidance about your marriage plans. Study the Bible concerning marriage. And seek advice from parents and godly counselors about your readiness for marriage and your compatibility with your potential spouse. In getting advice, don't simply look for someone to confirm your desires, but seek honest input with a sincere willingness to follow their advice even if it is difficult.

- Understand that marriage is about a lot more than "love." Love is certainly a significant part of the equation, but marriage is about two people committing their lives to one another until they die with the objective of starting a family, uniting for a common purpose and sharpening one another in the Lord.

- In my youth, I did not feel I should "seek a wife." Over and over again in Scripture, we are told to "seek the Lord." As I sought the Lord, He brought the right person into my life. I sought the Lord and I found Him, as we as I found the wife the Lord had for me. This is a venture of faith as it is very difficult for us to trust God to meet this most intimate of needs in our lives. But, He will if we
trust Him! Personally, I think an often overlooked key to a happy and successful marriage is to find the spouse GOD wants us to have rather than simply find the spouse I want. I did not marry a woman I could live with - I married a woman I could not live without!

- Now is the time to prepare yourself for marriage: spiritually, emotionally, financially, relationally, etc. People prepared for marriage tend to bring the qualities to a marriage that make it successful. People unprepared tend to be disappointed and encounter overwhelming problems once married.

-Focus on becoming a mature man or woman of God and He will lead a similarly mature man or woman of God into your life. Many young people are on the hunt for the perfect mate. Let me encourage you to focus on becoming the perfect mate. People tend to match with someone of equal maturity. In other words, if you are a "five" -- spiritually, emotionally, socially, etc. you are not likely to marry a "ten," even though you may dream about doing so! If you want to marry a "ten," get serious with God about you becoming a "ten"! If you are content to be a spiritual "five," get used to the idea of marrying a "five." Better yet, repent of your contentment with your spiritual lukewarmness and seek the Lord until you begin to seriously grow in Christ!!!"

Anti-Semitism In Christology?

2006-10-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

Sidney G. Hall, senior pastor of Trinity United Methodist(Austin, Tx.), might just agree. Or, he might say, Paul's theology has 'come off' as anti-semitic down through the centuries. Either way, Hall believes that it must be reconciled. In his book entitled, "Christian Anti-Semitism and Paul's Theology", Hall says this, in his chapter on Christology, Liberation, and the Jewish People:

"The synagogue's major obstacle in embracing the church as a trustworthy friend is Christianity's christology, or doctrine of Christ. Christocentric theology in the church places a wall between Christians and Jews. When christology and theology become doctrinally enmeshed, the church's belief system has no room for God to be active in any other faith community outside Christianity. Christians who adhere to this perspective herald, either intentionally or unintentionally, that non-Christian religious communities are theologically dead. This win-lose mentality presents Christianity as the only living faith, a perspective that diminishes the church's life and integrity."

Do What!?!?!

Sadly, this man is serious. A shining example of Romans 1:22.

So what do y'all think? Should we take the centrality of Christ out of our churches, so that 'other faith communities' won't feel inferior?

Bro. Hank <

p.s. - my new signature is gonna be the "<" sign, rather than the fish "><>". the fish is cool, but the "<" sign reminds me of John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Those Battling Baptists...

2006-10-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well, they do say that "All is fair in Love and War", right? So does this mean war?

Oh, you haven't heard? The forces of Calvinism are sweeping the SBC like a firestorm, and pastors everywhere are sounding the battle cry, "To Arms! To Arm~~inian~~s!" Well, the guys at Fide-O have highlighted a recent skirmish, that serves as a striking reminder of the state of our beloved Convention, in their post Baptist Battles Against Calvinism.

And dare I say, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not human-made weapons, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds? Dare I say that?

Marching On To Zion-
Bro. Hank ><>

A devil at home!

2006-10-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

"The way in which a man lives in his home is vital. It
will not do to be a saint abroad--and a devil at home!
There are some of that kind. They are wonderfully sweet
at a prayer meeting, but they are dreadfully sour to their
wives and children. This will never do! Every genuine
believer should say, and mean it, 'I will walk within my
house with a perfect heart.' It is in the home that
we get the truest proof of godliness!

'What sort of a man is he?' said one to George Whitefield;
and Whitefield answered, 'I cannot say, for I never lived
with him.' That is the way to test a man--to live with him."

(quote from Charles Spurgeon, sermon #2362)

Fillup on "Name It and Claim It"

2006-10-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

Phillip Bethancourt, over at Fillup.org, lays out a well-grounded reflection on the common Christian act of "Name It and Claim It". The post helped settle a few questions in my heart, so if you have the time, I think it'll be well worth your attention...

Bro. Hank ><>

=============================================================
By Phillip Bethancourt (HT:Fillup.org):

"In one of my seminary classes, we recently discussed the question, 'why should God answer our prayers?' Here are some reflections on the topic:

When we pray, we should give God (whether implicitly or explicitly) a biblical reason why He should answer that prayer. This is not an effort at divine arm-twisting, but a means of appealing to God on the basis of His revealed Word for specific answer to prayer. One type of biblical reason for God to answer our prayers is the promises of God contained in scripture.

The Bible is full of promises. If we are going to claim the promises of God as grounds for Him to answer our prayer, then that opens us up to the potential of abusing the system and claiming them incorrectly. There is a right and wrong way to claim the promises of the Bible.

Many people want to just name and claim biblical promises to further their agenda. However, we must come to a realization that not all promises in scripture relate to us the same. We cannot claim every promise in the Bible for ourselves as is. Why? Because not every promise in the Bible was addressed to us as is. So, for instance, a male cannot name and claim for himself the promise of a Virgin Birth given in Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14) in order to substantiate the belief that he will somehow be with child.

The promises of the Bible do not all apply to the same audience. Who the promise was intended for originally impacts how we can interact with that promise before God in prayer:

Some promises in the Bible are for all people in general (Romans 10:13-Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved)
Some promises in the Bible are for all believers in general (Hebrews 13:5-I will never leave you nor forsake you)
Some promises in the Bible are for specific believers (Matthew 1:23-Promise to Mary that she will bear a son whom she is to call Immanuel)

While the first two categories apply directly to those of us who are in Christ, the third category creates a difficult scenario. Why? We can't claim promises that weren't given to us as is. So, what do we do with promises given to other people? Can they serve as grounds for why God should answer our prayers?..." (finish reading the article here)

Lay the Blame Where it is Deserved - Godly separation

2006-10-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

"Divisions and separations are most objectionable in religion. They weaken the cause of true Christianity ...But before we blame people for them, we must be careful that we lay the blame where it is deserved. False doctrine and heresy are even worse than schism. If people separate themselves from teaching that is positively false and unscriptural, they ought to be praised rather than reproved. In such cases separation is a virtue and not a sin." -- J.C. RYLE

"Bad theology will eventually hurt people and dishonor God in proportion to its badness." -- John Piper (A Godward Life Volume Two, pg. 377)

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

I've recently run into a few folks who have questioned my belief of Christian "separation" and the overall "biblicity" of the entire matter. Perhaps it's just the way I come off, but people seem to take offense at my willingness to separate from what I feel is 'bad theology'. Mind you, I don't claim to have omniscience or infallibility in my decisions...but I'm also not deaf, blind, and dumb when it comes to the foundations of the faith. This handbook of Faith that we have (the Bible), is pretty clear about some things...one of them being - SEPARATION.

"If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." - 1 Tim 4:6-8

"As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." - 1 Tim 1:3-5

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." - Col 2:8

Through my conversations about this, the question inevitably comes down to this: 'What constitutes a seperatable offense?' Or to put it differently, 'How far is too far?' And that's what I'm trying to decide. But I care not to decide upon anything by my own feeble intellect, feelings, or emotional responses to peoples or theological systems. My hope is in the Word, and it alone. And those systems that are based 'outside' of scripture (ie. extra-biblical) - are quick to gain my separatist glare. Am I too quick with the Sword? Can you be too quick with the Sword? Call me out, please. Rebuke me to my face, that I may turn and repent -- or join me in praising God for his revelations of Truth in 2 Corinthians 6:17, where the Word exhorts:

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."

So as far as 'bad theology' goes, I don't have it all figured out, but here are some biggies that Monergism highlights: Synergism - Seeker Sensitive - Four-Point Calvinism - Forseen Faith - No Lordship - Legalism - New Perspective on Paul - Open Theism - Religious Pluralism - HyperCalvinism - Finneyism - Oneness Pentecostalism - Word of Faith - Liberal Theology. I will add a footnote here - Not all 'bad theology' requires IMMEDIATE separation. It should definitely be on the list, but "reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16) should be our primary aim. Only when these are rejected, does separation become an option.

What do y'all think? Unity for the sake of unity?

Bro. Hank ><>

P.S. - If you haven't taken this heretic quiz - take a few moments and find out if I need to separate from you...lol.

"Stop, Poor Sinner, Stop and Think"

2006-10-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

A hymn for meditation, from the hand of the man who penned "Amazing Grace". I pray you enjoy it as much as I did! Compare the truths of that hymn, to the one found below...

'Tis true that some will be saved "as if through fire",
and I praise God for that!
Bro. Hank ><>

---------------------------------------------------------
"Stop, Poor Sinner, Stop and Think"
-John Newton

"Stop, poor sinner! stop and think
Before you farther go!
Will you sport upon the brink
Of everlasting woe?
Once again I charge you, stop!
For, unless you warning take,
Ere you are aware, you drop
Into the burning lake!

Say, have you an arm like God,
That you His will oppose?
Fear you not that iron rod
With which He breaks His foes?
Can you stand in that dread day,
When He judgment shall proclaim,
And the earth shall melt away
Like wax before the flame?

Pale faced death will quickly come
To drag you to His bar;
Then to hear your awful doom
Will fill you with despair:
All your sins will round you crowd,
Sins of a blood-crimson dye;
Each for vengeance crying loud,
And what can you reply?

Though your heart be made of steel,
Your forehead lined with brass,
God at length will make you feel,
He will not let you pass:
Sinners then in vain will call,
Though they now despise His grace,
"Rocks and mountains on us fall,
And hide us from His face!"

But as yet there is a hope
You may His mercy know;
Though His arm is lifted up
He still forbears the blow:
'Twas for sinners Jesus died,
Sinners He invites to come;
None who come shall be denied,
He says, "There still is room."

Should the average Christian care about theology?

2006-10-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

J.I. Packer offers a nice insight to the question of the Christian and theology....

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

A fair question! - but there is, I think, a convincing answer to it. The questioner clearly assumes that a study of the nature and character of God will be unpractical and irrelevant for life. In fact, however, it is the most practical project anyone can engage in. Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.

As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.

The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul. (HT: ReformedTheology

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p.17

The Comment Factor

2006-10-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

Centuri0n, over at "...and his ministers a flame of fire" has posted some well timed remarks on the upside of allowing comments to your blog posts. And for a real life example of why comments are good, step on over to our growing comments to "Half-Truths" at Stepping In Faith.

Have you made your comment today?

bro. Hank
===========================================
"de annotatibus"
By Centuri0n:

"I have no idea why the question of whether or not there ought to be comments allowed on Christian blogs is even a question. I have no idea why anyone would bother to even have a blog if they planned to keep the comments section closed.
However, Ergun Caner has said this about the topic of blog comments (I'll bet: because he doesn't allow them), and I got a good laugh out of his remarks. However, because he doesn't allow comments (apparently for the sake of following Christ -- if someone who reads that post can explain it to me I'd be much obliged; I'm a little puzzled at his omission of the "like ministry" punchline), I really don't have an opportunity to share the joy with him.

For those of you who are curious, here are my top reasons for keeping comments open on this blog:

[5] Because it's possible I might be wrong. If you don't think about this topic any further than "comments are a vital method of self-correction", you will have done well. You know: when someone has the audacity to call people who reject Santa "jerks", he ought to keep the door open to some level of criticism which is at about the same altitude as the comment he originally made.

[4] Because it's possible that somebody might learn something. There is at least one baptist reading this blog today who, after reading my various elaborations on the differences between Presbyterian paedobaptism and other forms of paedobaptism and the credobaptist position of all God-fearing men since John (the Baptist) (that's a joke, folks: laugh and move on), he learned something. It's also possible that I have learned one or two things by interacting with the people who have a strong enough constitution to read this blog from time to time and leave a comment.

[3] Because it builds community. Notice -- not "church" but "community". My wife thinks it's a little weird to make friends over the internet, but that's because she likes to talk and not to write. I like to write and to read. Nice to meet you, too.

[2] Because it foils those who want to call names. The proof, of course, is in the pudding. The meta is a fine record of whatever it is that I am, and while I have made my share of mistakes I don't pretend that I'm not that person by means of historically revisionistic anathemas.

[1] Stats. If you leave a comment, you'll probably come back. It's like potato chips.

And my other opinion for the day is that people who do not turn on comments fall into two categories:

Those who have an ardent following of torch-and-pitchfork wielding villagers who will stop at nothing to start a lynching

Those who cannot defend themselves and perceive everyone who criticizes them as torch-and-pitchfork wielding villagers who will stop at nothing to start a lynching

We will not include a list for either of those categories. You apply the paradigm as far as it is useful to you in your daily life.
_______________________________________________

As a side note, I really love the Google toolbar spell-checker. If you install it, you will, too."

GOD LOVES QUITTERS

2006-10-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

By Sean Dietrich

"I used to try and try and try. When I first began following Jesus, I would try and try to do the things that were said in the bible. I would desperately try to do the things that my other brothers and sisters told me I should be doing. I tried to follow a strict set of moral guidelines, and I always came up short! Nothing worked. I read more books, prayed more prayers and things never panned out for me. I can tell you, I felt like Paul felt when he said, "Woe is me..."

I remember coming home one day from a worship service on a Sunday afternoon. I opened up my front door and fell face forward on my couch and just cried. Nothing was happening in my spiritual life at all at the time. I was dry. It was that simple. This was unacceptable for me. I was a music minister. I was supposed to be an example! However, the self-imposed burden of full-time ministry did nothing to push me into this flawless life of following Jesus. I was hopeless. The more I tried the more I failed.

How did I plan on solving my problem? By trying harder of course! The only conclusion I could come to in my all failings, was that I was slacking. After all, Jesus said if we love him we would keep his commandments. So what does that really mean?

...AND THAT'S A PROMISE

Jesus said if we love him, we would obey his teaching.

Before I shed my "works" mentality, I used to envision Jesus saying this in an irritated state. I really believed that Jesus was actually saying: "The more you do for me, the more you will prove your love for me." But then I had a revelation. I can't explain how it happened, and I can't detail the exact process of events that led up to it. But what brand new life it brought!

All at once, Jesus revealed to me that if I sought the love found in him instead of seeking the commandments, I would end up keeping obeying his teachings without even trying. I began to see that Jesus' statement was actually a promise! Jesus was telling me that if I would just learn to love with him, the commandments would wind up be kept. He was promising it to me. What a promise.

I can remember finally getting it. I am referring to the moment when I finally had a revelation of his love. It was something I had yearned for in the deepest chambers of my heart for so long. Suddenly all the years of work that Jesus had been doing inside me began to show up externally. I was giving up my own efforts and resting in the total love he had for me.

QUIT BUT STILL WIN?

I remember vocalizing out-loud to God, "Lord, I give up." It felt so good giving up too! What freedom! I could finally see that he never really expected me to "try" and live the perfect life to begin with. Instead, he wanted me to "love" him, and "abide" in him. He would take care of all the rest if I would just learn to love and trust him. The pressure is off!

The beautiful thing for me is: the more I willingly give up, the more fruit he produces through me. All of the sudden I'm living on the pages of the bible. I was now free from the law of sin and death! Not just intellectually free. Really free! Now I too finally experience the awesome life found in the New Testament. It's an amazingly beautiful way to live.

I can definitely live life this way. Thanks Jesus."

=========================

Bro. Sean, that New Testament life is an "amazingly beautiful way to live". I praise God for his grace, that he did not leave us at Mt. Sinai, but brought us on to Mt. Calvary, so that he could bring us home to Mt. Zion.

O' to be free indeed!

Bro. Hank

Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

What binds the conciences of men?

2006-10-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Due to some recent conversations here in cyberspace, I felt it was fitting to post an excerpt from the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy" as well as some comments by R.C. Sproul, found in his book, Scripture Alone.

===========
Article II of the Chicago Statement reads:

"We affirm that the Scriptures are the supreme written norm by which God binds the conscience, and that the authority of the church is subordinate to that of Scripture. We deny that church creeds, councils, or declarations have authority greater than or equal to the authority of the Bible."

Sproul writes:

"The question at this point dealt with the fact that other written documents are important to the life of the church. For example, church creeds and confessions form the basis of subscription and unity of faith in many different Christian denominations and communities. Such creeds and confessions have a kind of normative authority within a given Christian body and have the effect of binding consciences within that particular context. However, it is a classic tenet of Protestantism to recognize that all such creeds and confessions are fallible and connot fully and finally bind the conscience of an individual believer. Only the Word of God has the kind of authority that can bind the conscience of men forever...Our consciences are justly bound to lesser authorities only when and if they are in conformity to the Word of God."

Divine guidance

2006-10-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

(taken from John Newton's Letters)

"In general, God guides and directs His people, by affording
them, in answer to prayer, the light of His Holy Spirit, who
enables them to understand and to love the Scriptures.

The word of God furnishes us with just principles, and right
apprehensions, to regulate our judgments and affections, and
thereby to influence and direct our conduct. Those who study
the Scriptures, in a humble dependence upon Divine teaching,
are taught to make a true estimate of everything around them,
and are gradually formed into a spirit of submission to the will
of God. They thereby discover the nature and duties of their
several situations and relations in life, and the snares and
temptations to which they are exposed.

The word of God dwelling richly in them, is a preservative from
error, a light to their feet, and a spring of strength and consolation.
By treasuring up the doctrines, precepts, promises, examples, and
exhortations of Scripture, in their minds, and daily comparing
themselves with the rule by which they walk, they grow into a
habitual frame of spiritual wisdom, and acquire a gracious taste,
which enables them to judge of right and wrong with a degree of
readiness and certainty, as a musical ear judges of sounds. And
they are seldom mistaken, because they are influenced by the
love of Christ, which rules in their hearts, and a regard to the
glory of God, which is the great object they have in view.

The Lord, whom they serve, does not disappoint their expectations.
He leads them by a right way, preserves them from a thousand snares,
and satisfies them that He is and will be their guide even unto death."

True Religion is Born From Knowledge of Truth

2006-10-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield on truth in religion:

"The grounds of religion must be taught and learned as truly as the grounds of anything else. Let us make no mistake here. Religion does not come of itself; it is always a matter of instruction. The emotions of the heart, in which many seem to think religion is too exclusively to consist, always follow the movements of thought. Passion for service cannot take the place of passion for truth, or safely outrun the acquisition of truth, for it is dreadfully possible to navigate sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, to find we have made him only a "son of hell".

This is why God establishes and extends his Church by the ordinance of preaching; it is why we have Sunday schools and Bible classes. This is why God has grounded his church in revelation. He does not content Himself with sending His Spirit into the world to turn men to Him. He sends His Word into the world as well. Because it is from knowledge of the truth, and only from the knowledge of the truth, that under the quickening influence of the Spirit true religion can be born."

From The Chief End of Man (book intro, 19th century)

On CT Studd...

2006-10-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

From the Spurgeon Underground:

"CT Studd has been one of my heroes since I was a boy. Revisiting some of his writing and his biolgraphy recently has refreshed my mind about this great man of God.

If you do not know who CT Studd is, then you must learn about him! Read about him. He was a famous cricket player who left the sport for the mission field and gave his inherited family fortune away to fund missions. He served first with Hudson Taylor and China Inland Missions, then served in India, and then founded a mission agency and went as a missionary to Africa."

Here are a few quotes from his writing:

"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."

"The best training for a soldier of Christ is not merely a theological college. They always seem to turn out sausages of varying lengths, tied at each end, without the glorious freedom a Christian ought to abound and rejoice in. You see, when in hand-to-hand conflict with the world and the devil, neat little biblical confectionery is like shooting lions with a pea-shooter: one needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost."

"Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands. "

"Our recruits come out from home vastly raw and are largely parrots. They have been crammed with religion as though for an examination, and seem to come out to carry on their education rather than finish it. So many are just taught doctrines without ever having thought them out or searched the Scriptures for themselves. They come out like infants with pop guns. They need to be trained into soldiers with real devil-defying weapons. Some arrive thinking they are the last thing in high-class Christianity and have to find out they know little. That is why I keep the newcomers here at base for a time till I can make them really think out things and settle questions, not from hearsay but from Bible-say."

"How could I spend the best years of my life in living for the honours of this world, when thousands of souls are perishing every day? "

"If you don't want the Devil to hit you, hit him first, and hit him with all your might, so that he may be too crippled to hit back. 'Preach the Word' is the rod the Devil fears and hates."

"Three of the Devil's dogs with which he hunts us are: Swelled head, Laziness, Cupidity."

"Don't go into the study to prepare a sermon -- that's nonsense. Go into your study to God and get so fiery that your tongue is like a burning coal and you have got to speak."

"The "romance" of a missionary is often made up of monotony and drudgery; there often is no glamour in it; it doesn't stir a man's spirit or blood. So don't come out to be a missionary as an experiment, it is useless and dangerous. Only come if you feel you would rather die than not come. Lord Wolsey was right: "A missionary ought to be a fanatic or he encumbers the ground." There are many trials and hardships. Disappointments are numerous and the time of learning the language is especially trying. Don't come if you want to make a great name or want to live long. Come if you feel there is no greater honour, after living for Christ, than to die for Him. That does the trick in the end. It's not the flash in the pan but the steady giving forth of light, it's shining on and on that we need out here. Our job is to make all hear the Word. God's job is to give penetration to His Word. "

"I can easily see why the folks at home want to eliminate Hell from their theology, preaching and thought. Hell is indeed awful unless its preaching is joined to a life laid down by the preacher. How can a man believe in Hell unless he throws away his life to rescue others from its torment? If there is no Hell, the Bible is a lie."

"I am getting desperately afraid of going to heaven for I have had the vision of the shame I shall suffer as I get my first glimpse of the Lord Jesus; His majesty, power and marvellous love for me, who treated Him so meanly and shabbily on earth, and acted as though I did Him a favour in serving Him! No wonder God shall have to wipe away the tears off all faces, for we shall be broken-hearted when we see the depth of His love and the shallowness of ours. "

"God has called me to go, and I will go. I will blaze the trail though my grave may only become a stepping stone that younger men may follow."

Some things are true and some things are false...

2006-10-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sayings is "Absolutely not!" Don't ask me why, but that's just fun for me to say. No matter if the answer is really yes, or no - if I'm feeling uppity, I'm liable to bust out with an "Absolutely not!" But that statement shadows a little of my spiritual beliefs as well.

I believe in absolutes.

When debating, discussing, or dividing truth - we are often confronted with the question of "Are there such things as ABSOLUTE truths?"

Why, absolutely! In fact, to make the statement that "There is no such thing as absolutes", you are speaking absolutely, and thereby negating your entire argument.

When God speaks, he speaks absolutely. Let me pause here to define our term:
Absolute:
1 a : free from imperfection : PERFECT, b : free from mixture, c : OUTRIGHT, UNMITIGATED
2 : being, governed by, or characteristic of a ruler or authority completely free from constitutional or other restraint
3 : having no restriction, exception, or qualification
4 : POSITIVE, UNQUESTIONABLE
5 a : independent of arbitrary standards of measurement
6 : FUNDAMENTAL, ULTIMATE
7 : perfectly embodying the nature of a thing
8 : being self-sufficient and free of external references or relationships

Do those definitions sound like God's word? I would say so. In fact, they sound like God himself! You could say we serve an Absolute God.

And not only does God speak absolutely, but he calls us to speak absolutely:
"But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." - Matthew 5:37, James 5:12

Spurgeon highlights these same ideals in "A Need For Decision":

"Some things are true and some things are false. I regard that as an axiom; but there are many persons who evidently do not believe it. The current principle of the present age seems to be, "Some things are either true or false, according to the point of view from which you look at them. Black is white, and white is black according to circumstances; and it does not particularly matter which you call it. Truth of course is true, but it would be rude to say that the opposite is a lie; we must not be bigoted, but remember the motto, 'So many men, so many minds.'" Our forefathers were particular about maintaining landmarks; they had strong notions about fixed points of revealed doctrine, and were very tenacious of what they believed to be scriptural; their fields were protected by hedges and ditches, but their sons have grubbed up the hedges, filled up the ditches, laid all level, and played at leap-frog with the boundary stones. The school of modern thought laughs at the ridiculous positiveness of Reformers and Puritans; it is advancing in glorious liberality, and before long will publish a grand alliance between heaven and hell, or, rather, an amalgamation of the two establishments upon terms of mutual concession, allowing falsehood and truth to lie side by side, like the lion with the lamb. Still, for all that, my firm old-fashioned belief is that some doctrines are true, and that statements which are diametrically opposite to them are not true, - that when "No" is the fact, "Yes" is out of court, and that when "Yes" can be justified, "No" must be abandoned."

Be deliberate,

Bro. Hank

What do you think?

True religion

2006-10-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

(J. A. James, "The Young Man Leaving Home" 1844)

"True religion is . . .
personal,
experimental,
practical.

It is a thing of the heart and not merely
external religious forms.

True religion is a living principle in the soul . . .
influencing the mind,
alluring the affections,
guiding the will,
directing and enlightening the conscience.

True religion is a supreme-not a subordinate matter.
It demands and obtains the throne of the soul. It guides
the whole character-and requires the whole man and all
his conduct to be in subordination.

True religion is not an occasional thing-but habitual.
It takes up its abode in the heart-and not merely
visits it at certain times and at particular seasons.

True religion is not a partial thing but universal.
It does not confine itself to certain times, places,
and occasions-but forms an integral part of the
character-and blends with everything we do.

True religion is noble and lofty-not an abject,
servile, and groveling thing. It communes . . .
with God,
with truth,
with holiness,
with heaven,
with eternity,
with infinity!

True religion is a happy-and not a melancholy thing.
It gives peace that passes understanding, and joy that
is unspeakable, and full of glory!

True religion is a durable-and not a transient thing. It . . .
passes with us through life,
lies down with us on the pillow of death,
rises with us at the last day, and
dwells in our souls in heaven as the very element of eternal life!

Such is true religion-the most sublime thing in the
world-sent down to be our comforter on earth-and our
guide to everlasting life through all this gloomy valley!"

Is Truth Worth Contending?

2006-10-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

This entry was posted by Travis over at Stepping In Faith:

"I believe knowing something halfway can be worse than not knowing something at all. Don't get me wrong - I agree that discernment is probably most poignantly expressed by a person's ability to sift through life's 'gold and pyrite' until only 'gold' is left. But I also believe it would be a fearful thing to decide a person's fate with only half the story made available, for it is my opinion that errors in judgment are most often made not because the facts were mishandled, but because the whole of them were never surfaced. Add in a dash of presupposition with your half-truth and you may well have concocted a bowl of self-deception of the worst kind. Better is it for a man to know nothing at all than to know something all wrong."

Here is what followed:
Nick Says:
September 30th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

This very reason is why I'm not really willing to debate many issues I previously would discuss:

-soteriology (ie calvinism vs armenianism)
-can you fall away?
-inerrancy
-alcohol

and every other contraversial doctrine...

What's the point. Does any side of the debate really have all the answers? In humility, I have had to admit that really and truly I don't know how it works. I can't even say with a great measure of certainty what the Bible teaches. I can only say what I percieve it to teach.

Realizing this very thing, that I do no know the "FULL TRUTH" about any contraversial issues does wonders to mix in a few gallons of humility. Who am I to say I have the answers to many of the tough questions we pose. It also helps me value someone whom I may not totally agree with, because I realize that niether of us have all the answers. We are all just speculating really (in regards to debateable issues such as those listed above).

Great thought.

-nt

Bro. Hank Says:

Nick-

I feel where you are coming from with the controversial issues, but I will exhort you not to recoil at difficult and complex doctrinal issues just on the basis that humans are fallible. The Bible, and church history as a whole, is replete with men and women who came to the Word, sought out it's truths by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and then stood upon their convictions. John Wesley once said, "On every occasion of uneasiness we should retire to prayer, that we may give place to the grace and light of God, and then form our resolutions, without being in any pain about what success they may have." Wesley is, without a doubt, a prime example of a 'man of convictions'. He spoke on what he believed the bible taught about soteriology, apostasy, inerrancy, alcohol and many other difficult issues - and made no apologies for it. Protestant history is full of similar stories. Men seek answers to these questions, and for the most part, God speaks on them in His word. Alcohol aside, those are some tremendously important theological issues - and have, with good reason, produced many a heated debate. But are we not called to "study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" and "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" ? -2 Timothy 2:15, Jude 1:3. These verses seem to encourage us to seek out that "full-truth", regardless of our shortcomings.

I grant that God's omniscience, in comparison to our meager knowledge is a humbling fact indeed. However; we stand without excuse - if we refuse to use the revelation that God has given us in favor of a pursuit of uncontroversial peace. As Luther said, "Peace if possible, but Truth at any rate".

blessings,
Bro. Hank

I would like to pose this question to you all:

Is biblical truth contendable?

So that's a loaded questions, I know. With it comes questions like, "What is biblical truth?", "What makes a truth biblical?", "Can man know biblical truth?, "Can he preach biblical truths?", "Do those biblical truths change through time?", "Are ALL biblical truths contendable?", "Are Christians called to contend for the truth at all?", "How long are they called to contend?", "What does contending look like?", "Is truth relative?", "Is contending relative?" and many more.

First, I submit to you some more background on our discussion thus far in the blogring:

The 'Half-Truth'
--check out the entire flow of comments here

A Call to Relevance
--Nick speaks to confrontationalism

And then Meghan from Redemption Now provides, what I think, is a tremendously insightful description of our discussion: "There is a need for both mercy and justice, for both grace and boldness, for Truth uncompromised."

God's truth is immutable, uncompromisable. Therefore, should we not preach it that way? That's what we'll take a look at...

For today's post however, I will just prime the discussion with a little bit o' Spurgeon:

"Don't go about the world with your fist doubled up for fighting, carrying a theological revolver in the leg of your trousers. There is no sense in being a sort of doctrinal game-cock, to be carried about to show your spirit, or a terrier of orthodoxy, ready to tackle heterodox rats by the score. Practice the suaviter in modo, as well as the fortiter in re. Be prepared to fight, and always have your sword buckled on your thigh, but wear a scabbard; there can be no sense in waving your weapon about before everybody's eyes to provoke conflict, after the manner of our beloved friends of the Emerald Isle, who are said to take their coats off at Donnybrook Fair, and drag them along the ground, crying out, while they flourish their shillelahs, "Will any gentleman be so good as to tread on the tail of my coat?" There are theologians of such warm, generous blood, that they are never at peace till they are fully engaged in war.

If you really believe the gospel, you will be decided for it in more sensible ways. Your very tone will betray your sincerity; you will speak like a man who has something to say, which he knows to be true. Have you ever watched a rogue when he is about to tell a falsehood? Have you noticed the way in which he has mouthed it? It takes a long time to be able to tell a lie well, for the facial organs were not originally constituted and adapted for the complacent delivery of falsehood. When a man knows he is telling you the truth, everything about him corroborates his sincerity. Any accomplished cross-examining lawyer knows within a little whether a witness is genuine or a deceiver. Truth has her own air and manner, her own tone and emphasis. Yonder is a blundering, ignorant country fellow in the witness box; the counsel tries to bamboozle and confuse him, if possible, but all the while he feels that he is an honest witness, and he says to himself, "I should like to shake this fellow's evidence, for it will greatly damage my side of the question." There ought to be always that same air of truth about the Christian minister; only as he is not only bearing witness to the truth, but wants other people to feel that truth and own the power of it, he ought to have more decision in his tone than a mere witness who is stating facts which may be believed or not without any serious consequences following either way. Luther was the man for decision. Nobody doubted that he believed what he spoke. He spoke with thunder, for there was lightning in his faith. The man preached all over, for his entire nature believed. You felt, "Well, he may be mad, or he may be altogether mistaken, but he assuredly believes what he says. He is the incarnation of faith; his heart is running over at his lips."

One sin lived in and indulged....

2006-10-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Brooks, "Touchstone of Sincerity")

"Satan knows that one sin lived in and indulged,
will as certainly damn a man as many sins; as one
disease, one ulcerous part, may as certainly kill a
man as many diseases.

O sirs! remember that as one hole in a ship will sink
it; and as one stab at the heart will kill a man; and
as one glass of poison will poison a man--so one sin
lived in and indulged will damn a man forever.

One wound strikes Goliath dead, as well as 23 did
Caesar; one Delilah will do Samson as much mischief
as all the Philistines; one vein's bleeding will let out
all the vitals; one bitter herb will spoil all the pottage.

One Achan was a trouble to all Israel; one Jonah was
too heavy for a whole ship; so one sin lived in and
indulged, is enough to make a man miserable forever.

One millstone will sink a man to the bottom of the
sea as well as a hundred; so one sin lived in and
indulged will sink a man to the bottom of hell as
well as a hundred. "

Want to know who Muhammed is?

2006-09-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I was walking around campus this week and came across the "Fast-a-thon" tables, and "Muhammed Awareness" tables near the student center. Nearly everytime I passed by, I saw a Christian or two, in conversation with them. When I saw the tables, I was reminded of that movie "Dogma" for some reason (don't ask why - and if you haven't seen it, don't waste your time or prostitute your morals to sit through it - it's pretty crude, and any movie that has George Carlin playing a priest has got problems). Anyways, ever since that 'Popish remark fiasco' by 'benedict the bachelor', I've been thinking about what our 'Christian' leaders of today have to say about islam's so called prophet...and how it is totally counter to what the theologians of old had to say:

Thomas Aquinas--

Speaking of Muhammed: "The truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrine of the greatest falsity . . . Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Muhammed forced others to become his followers by the violence of his arms".

Martin Luther--

He likened Muhammed to "the warring horses of the Book of Revelation that bring great destruction to Christians", and described him as "course and filthy" and "an uncouth blockhead and ass". Luther also wrote that "the spirit of lies had taken possession of Mohammed, and the devil had murdered men's souls with his Koran and had destroyed the faith of Christians", as well as, "We are fighting that the Turk may not put his devilish filth and blasphemous Muhammed in the place of our dear Lord, Jesus Christ".

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." - Romans 1:22-23

Poor Mohammed just can't measure up to our Lord, no matter how many information tables you set up, or how many 'Christian' leaders you corrupt....

There is NONE BUT JESUS!
Bro. Hank

P.S. - None means none. That goes for Mohammed, John Smith, David Koresh, and all the rest of those lying prophets of baal.

It's All His Fault! - Do Guys Have It All Wrong...?

2006-09-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

What would a discussion on relationships be without playing the blame game? I mean, somebody is to blame, right? Well...

The purpose of this post is not to 'call out' guys in the relationship, or to remove all the responsibility of girls -- but rather highlight what I see is sorely lacking in college relationships, and where exactly guys have fallen short in their roles as godly boyfriends.

I'll sum up the duties of the guy in '07 parts (whoop!) spelled out as R.E.A.L. M.E.N:

Recognize: Guys, you have to recognize where the girl is in her walk with Christ. As much as you would like to 'think you know' by how often she goes to church, or how many Christian t-shirts she wears -- you must not presume that she's earnestly seeking the Lord's will, if you haven't even taken the time to ask. You can't gauge your relationship with Christ by those outer workings of religiosity, so don't think that you can judge your girlfriend by them either. Recognizing and openly discussing your respective walks will do much for the future of any relationship.

Engage: As I mentioned above, engagement is a crucial aspect of dating. I'm not speaking here of the diamond ringers and one knee-ers... but of engaging in challenging conversations about your relationship with Christ and with each other. A relationship built on a shallow understanding of each other's strengths and weakness, victories and defeats, is a relationship built upon shifting sand. Engagement is imperative for health and growth, and we have no excuse for overlooking it.

Adhere: Guys, stick to your guns. Dating is not an experiment in Christian liberty, nor is it any easier for a dating Christian to 'be ye holy for I AM holy' - 1Peter 1:16. Temptation will come, you can bet your boots, it will come.* (this comment does not in anyway endorse gambling, or support the gambling industry in any way, shape, or form) I have found however; that guys that come into a relationship with clear moral standards, are far less likely to regret aspects of their relationships later on. Fluidity in morals is not a virtue, and traditional beliefs on dating are not a vice. Know what the Bible teaches before hand, and then stand that ground, come hell or high water...

Lead: Wow. This is huge. And soo many guys totally fail at it. It is the man's responsibility to lead the relationship, to set the tone so to speak. Now don't mistake this point for tyranny. A successful leader will never lose sight of his followers, their needs, their shortcomings, and their desires...however, at the end of the day, the decision falls to them. Decisions planted in the Word, and watered in prayer, will be reaped in love. Men must have a spiritual vision for the relationship, unwavering values for its foundation, and unconditional love for its means.

Monitor: In addition to recognizing, engaging, and leading, guys need to monitor themselves, the girl, as well as the relationship as a whole. By this, I don't mean that weekly evaluation questionnaires need to be completed, or that progress reports need to be issued -- but a serious commitment to monitoring the emotional, spiritual, and relational health would be a wise endeavor. Oftentimes I'll hear guys say, "She was fine last week, I don't know what her deal is today." Although I admit that omniscience in the relationship is out of the question (unless you are the girl, and you assume that guys know 'exactly what you mean' and 'exactly what you are thinking'), men have the responsibility to monitor the situation. Again, ignorance in this case is certainly not bliss....at least not for long.

Ecourage: Just like everyone else, sometimes girls need encouragement. Your girlfriend is no different. Beware however, that you do not turn your girlfriend into a 'compliment addict'. Simple encouragement, especially for girls that are insecure, can turn into in unquenchable addiction for greater and greater acknowledge of beauty, success, etc. I know guys, that we like making girls feel good about themselves, and that has it's place. But take great care to base that encouragement upon biblical principles and not worldly ideals of what makes her a good girlfriend (i.e. immodest outfits, popularity, etc). God's grace and love can encourage a girl infinitely better than any carnal encouragement we can come up.

Never forget your first love: "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." - Rev. 2:4. Ok, she's beautiful. She's fun. She's smart. She may be 'the one'. But she pales in comparison to 'our first love', namely Jesus Christ. Mind your prayers. Take heed that 'she' does not take up the focus of your spirituality. Praying for her, and with her is great! But don't neglect "so great a salvation" in your pursuit of relational completeness. Trust that God will grow you both over time, and keep ETERNITY stamped on your eyeballs.

Come on guys, let's be REAL MEN...
Bro. Hank ><>

The Modern-day Circuit Rider

2006-09-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you familiar with campus evangelism, I don't have to introduce Tom Short to you. Doubtless you have your opinions about him, his style, his tactics, and his divisiveness; but none can question his heart for sharing the gospel of Christ at college campuses all over the United States. He'll be coming to A&M soon, and I'll be sure to give you all a heads up....

Bro. Hank ><>
============================
Traveling preacher shares experiences
Short continues campus evangelism after 26 years
Written by: Tony Gutierrez

"Pastor Tom Short, who spoke on behalf of the Hope Campus Fellowship movement, often quoted passages from his Bible when questioned by students last Monday afternoon at the free speech area on campus green.

Pastor Tom Short, who spoke on behalf of the Hope Campus Fellowship movement, interacted with students about various religious topics last Monday afternoon at the free speech area on the campus green.

After two days of inciting controversial theological discussion in the free speech area, Tom Short invited those still around to join him in a prayer. Around 30 students circled Short as he led them in singing "Amazing Grace" while others heckled him. "Come over to God's side," Short said. "I'm on God's side, and it's not over there," someone from the crowd responded. Short finished his prayer and then left for Missouri, where he will continue his 26-year-old ministry as a modern-day circuit rider, stopping at campuses all over the country.

"I realize when I come on campuses that I am presenting truths that are unpopular and do challenge commonly held beliefs in the university, so I realize some people will react to that," Short said. "It is not my goal to upset people, but if a person hears God's truth and won't turn to it, it will be upsetting. We see that throughout the entire Bible where people are being persecuted for standing up for God and for truth." Short said while he preaches on campus, he encounters three types of people: Those who love what he says, those who hate what he says and those who don't know where they stand.

"I think here in Denton, far more people support me than oppose me, but those who oppose me are far more vocal," he said. Short said he wasn't always the fiery preacher people see him as. When he became a Christian in high school, he said he used to view people like his present self as ignorant or weird. It wasn't until he read the New Testament that he accepted what he now believes. "I said, 'Wow! I believe this - this is what I've been looking for,'" Short said. Short never finished college. He said his denomination, the Great Commission Association of Churches, does not ordain based on seminary education, but rather on the minister's relationship with God.

"Personally, that's where we [GCAC] think a lot of churches are weak because they don't have an example of people living as Christian leaders," he said. "We'd say American Christianity has cluttered what it means to be a pastor and a simple calling." Short said the authority to preach does not come from ordination but from the Bible, and added that there were no seminaries in the New Testament church.
Short was ordained in 1978 in Solid Rock Church [now Linworth Road Community Church] in Columbus, Ohio.

"Most of what I've learned, I learned because I was stumped by somebody, and I was determined to go find the answers," he said. "I firmly believe Christianity has the answers." Short began preaching on campuses in 1980 while he was stationed at a church in College Park, Md. "When we went to the University of Maryland, it was a very hard campus to talk to people about Jesus, and we felt we had to do something to make an interest in spiritual things," he said. "In spring of 1980, we just went out in front of the library and people began to listen. Within a year, the campus was talking about Jesus a lot." Shortly after, Christian leaders from other schools invited Short to speak at their campuses.

While his circuit ministry was growing, Short moved to a pastor position in Georgia and later in San Diego. He returned to his hometown of Columbus before he resigned as a full-time pastor and dedicated himself to the traveling ministry in 1996. Short funds his ministry through church donations, 10 percent of which come from Linworth.
"This is where people are supposed to be thinking about these things," he said. "The campus is the marketplace of ideas. Often, when students leave campus their mind is made up on things like this, and I see this as a last chance to get them to think of issues of life like this."

Short said his family has supported him throughout his time in his ministry.
"I thought it was something he ought to do," said his wife, Rosalyn Short. "I felt he was gifted in speaking." Rosalyn said Short comes home on the weekends to unwind.
"We had strong support from the community of churches and friends and believing what he does, I'm as convinced as he is that this is a good thing," Rosalyn said.
Short has five grown children. Tim, the youngest, travels with Short but was unable to come to NT.

"I just graduated from high school and there's nothing else I rather would have done for my first semester out of high school," Tim said. "Because I'm being challenged I'm having to re-learn the details of why I believe what I believe. It's just to the point where I've matured naturally as a person and in my faith."
While traveling with Short, Tim said he listens to his father half the time and shares his faith half the time.

"I went to a Christian high school, so I wasn't exposed a lot to these different ideas," Tim said. "Everyone has a unique opinion. There's so many ridiculous ideas, but some are the same beliefs, also. I didn't question my faith."
While most of his children are devout Christians, Short said one of his sons is still searching for what he believes.
"We pray for him," Short said. "We know a relationship with Christ is essential in life, and we honestly want him to have a solid relationship with Christ. As part of our family, we love him. He's included in all we do."

Some people, such as Mary Luna-Wolfe, senior pastor for Harvest Metropolitan Community Church, have accused Short of being condemnatory. "I was there for the better part of the first day and the only thing I heard from him was, 'You have to, you should, you're going to hell if you don't,'" Luna-Wolfe said. "I think if you focus on that part of Christianity, just the punishment, you've bypassed what the Gospels talk about. We're talking about a God who sent his only son to die because he loved us not because he had nothing better to do than stand on a campus and scream at us."

While Short denounced homosexuality when he spoke at NT, Harvest MCC does not consider it a sin. Luna-Wolfe said biblical passages do not refer to homosexuality as it is known today. "Based on Christian scholarship and academic work I've done, I do not believe that homosexuality is a sin," Luna-Wolfe said. "I do preach repentance of sin. I just don't believe homosexuality is a sin, but I do preach cultural behavior, social justice, being a part of the community." Members of Harvest MCC offered another interpretation of Christianity at a table across the sidewalk from Short, but Luna-Wolfe asked them not to engage in a debate with Short because she did not want to add to the "ruckus."

"I think they [members of Harvest MCC] distorted Christ's message because they don't call people to repent from their sinfulness," Short said. "They affirm a person to continue in your sinfulness. Jesus' forgiveness is truly offered to all people who repent, and believe, but you have to repent." Short has been cussed at and spit on, but never physically assaulted since most people would consider violence over the line, he said. "One of the most common comments I get is 'How do you stay so patient when people say these things to you?' and I really think it is God's grace," Short said. "Jesus was the most loving human being ever, and yet people hated him. They twisted his words, they accused him of being possessed by demons, they asked questions to test him and ultimately they got angry enough to kill him. No one can even say Jesus wasn't loving, but he got all those types of responses, and I do as well."" (find the originial article here)
============================

What Love is this..

2006-09-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

This will probably not be systematically presented. I am using this as more of a grounds to gather in a rough way my thoughts on certain subjects so that they might later be presented in a more systematic format. For the moment I'm going to talk about the preparation one should embrace before entering into a relationship.. Check that.. first I'll address something else.

This is a main point found in the introduction of C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves, which had a profound influence on my understanding of the love between the sexes in a very personally applicable way. He says there is a difference between 'nearness by likeness' and 'nearness by approach.' It means this: I can put on an authentic hand stitched uniform, a replica helmet, menacing eye black, cleats, thigh pads, hip pads, shoulder pads, even a cowboy collar and I will look very much like a football player. I am very near by likeness. However, I am no closer to getting into the NFL by parading myself around in such a way at the local stadium or sports bar than the man selling nachos. This is one type of nearness. There is another. It is nearness by approach. There may be a man who goes out after working his long hours into the dead of night and runs sprints, who works with weights, who in fact may very well sell nachos at the stadium. He is in training. He sees the end and does not seek to imitate in appearance but in approach. This man is very near his goal, very near his dream though he does not look the part.

It is the same with love. Let me be extremely personal and speak on my own experiences for a moment. I was once in love with someone. It was not based on lust, neither was it based on Christ. She was my best friend, my closest confidant, and someone I was intimately attached to. Of her I wrote poetry and wrote songs. She was in my thoughts, in my heart, and I would have in an instant given my life for her. It was that grand sort of feeling from which country songs and sappy romantic comedies pour forth. That is the well I drank of and it was indeed real. Yet it was not from God and so it was brought to a crashing end, for which I am each day grateful and each day regretful for my sin in its pursuit. So, let me ask you this..

Do you think that the lost man loves his wife less? Do you think the lost woman loves her child less? Does not the sacrifice of the lost man for his family look a great deal like Christ’s sacrifice? Does the sacrificial love of that mother not resemble in so deep, so natural a way, that love that God the Father has for His sons and daughters? Thus also the Christian may be in love, may share a love that is very like Christ’s but is not from Christ. It is a temptation for those in such a position to say, ‘oh, but I could not feel a love this true if it were not from God.’ This is only partly true. No man could feel any love so true were we not created in the image of God. We know love in the same way we know wisdom, truth, beauty, and justice; we know them because we were created by a God who embodies those characteristics, in whom they are defined. Do not be deceived by some current of noble sentiment. Do not be overwhelmed by such emotional tides for they will carry you no closer to Christ. They are the waves that ripple out from that true Fount and it is at that Fount where all good things lie.

Next time I’ll address what I intended to talk about in this post.. maybe.. and that is the preparation of a man to love and be loved.

With Love,
EP

Jesus is the monopolizer of all loveliness

2006-09-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

From Charles Spurgeon's sermon, "THE BEST BELOVED"

"No words can ever express the gratitude we owe to Him who
loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.

The love of Jesus is unutterably precious,
and worthy of daily praise.

No songs can ever fitly celebrate the triumphs of that
salvation which he wrought single-handed on our behalf.

The work of Jesus is glorious beyond all comparison, and
all the harps of angels fall short of its worthy honor.

We prize his bounty to us, but we worship HIM.

His gifts are valued, but he himself is adored.

While we contemplate, with mingled feelings of awe,
admiration, and thankfulness, his atonement, his resurrection,
his glory in heaven, and his second coming, still it is Christ
himself, stupendous in his dignity as the Son of God,
and superbly beautiful as the Son of man, who sheds an
incomparable charm on all those wonderful achievements,
wherein his might and his merit, his goodness and his
grace appear so conspicuous.

For HIM let our choicest spices be reserved,
and to HIM let our sweetest anthems be raised.

Our choicest ointment must be poured upon his head, and for his
own self alone our most costly alabaster boxes must be broken.

"He is altogether lovely."

Not only is his teaching attractive, his doctrine persuasive,
his life irreproachable, his character enchanting, and his work
a self-denying labor for the common good of all his people,
but he himself is altogether lovely.

Do not look for anything lovely outside of Jesus,
for he has all the loveliness.

All perfections are in him making up one consummate
perfection; and all the loveliness which is to be seen
elsewhere is but a reflection of his own unrivalled charms.

Jesus is the monopolizer of all loveliness.

He is the engrosser of all that is admirable in the entire universe."

What's Love Got To Do With It?

2006-09-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

There is something stirring in our little corner of the blogosphere...

And it deals not with high theology, nor politics, nor church discipline, nor is it difficult to explain...

Okay, well perhaps it IS difficult to explain. And perhaps it does have some theological strings attached, and may effect some political ideals, and weigh in on some aspects of church discipline......alright, okay, I give up! Let me tell you...

Our little niche of cyberspace is abuzz with LOVE! Love is in the proverbial air, shall we say. Questions are brewing like, "What is it?", "Who are we to 'feel' it for?", "Is it predominately a 'feeling' or is it mostly a 'mindset'?", "Is it a question that can be tackled, this question of love?", and frankly - "WHERE DO WE BEGIN?" And to be clear from the outset - primarily, the question thus far has dealt with 'ooey gooey' love, otherwise known as romantic love. You know, that kinda of love that Hollywood makes into some idol for all "meaningful" relationships to worship. Romantic love, in and of itself, is not idolatrous in all expressions. However, much of what masquerades as love today...is just that...a masquerade. What we are seeking here is the essense of love, the purpose that God intended it to bear for men and women, and our responsibilty to live out that purpose in a biblical manner.

Paul said in Romans 11:36, speaking of God, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." To do justice to our question of love, and give due diligence to our answer, this discussion must flow "from him, through him, and to him". The gift of love is certainly not the same as the gift of faith. And the gift of hope is most definately not the same as the gift of faith. But the foundation of them all, the mighty river of which these streams emit is God himself. "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." - Revelation 22:1

Man..."a pure river of water of life"! Talk about crazy awesome! Okay, so where am I going with all this? Love, rightly expressed and spiritually centered, should flow from God, through God, and to God...just like everything else. And like it's counterparts, faith and hope, there are somethings about love that are unexplainable apart from the mighty workings of God himself. That being said, I think it is well worth the time and effort to seek out God's plan for love in our lives; it's past applications (spiritually in justification), it's present implications (spiritually in sanctification), and it's future ramifications(spiritually in glorification).

EP began tackling some greek definitions of love and its effect on our discussion in his previous post, and Travis at Stepping In Faith has been leading his own study into this heavenly gift of God.

All in all, it looks to be a good series...

I'm excited to see what the Lord does with it,
Bro. Hank ><>

To Love or not to Love.. Is that a Question?

2006-09-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'm writing about this topic because my interest was peaked by Travis' recent post over at steppinginfaith. I'll be dealing with this issue in some depth next month in the gospel of the kingdom class so this will be a good little precursor.

Love is a crazy, captivating sort of thing and those who have been in love before are well aware of the emotional roller coaster ride it can and often does entail. This is a massive subject. Let's see where we go in this post..

First, there are different kinds of love. The Greek texts give us four different words for what we commonly refer to as 'love.'

Agape- this word is used to denote a sacrifical sort of love and we are familiar with it in NT usage in such passages as John 3:16 and the like

Eros- associated with a passionate love, a desiring or longing. the root for our word 'erotic'

Philia- friendship affection

Storge- typically used for family relationships

It always helps to define the terms. C.S. Lewis takes these four Greek words and speaks on them in one of my favorite books, The Four Loves. I would highly recommend it. The introduction is a bit difficult as it challenges some conceptual misconceptions we have but it is really great reading. That being said, the type of love Travis was discussing in his opening paragraph is not strictly within any one of these categories. That is the difficulty. However, if we understand these well it is much easier to discern where the weight of our true feelings lies. However there's not really space for that here.

The love we may feel towards a person of the opposite sex may be purely eros. We call that lust. It's fairly easy to spot. It may be purely Philia where we just have friends of the opposite sex who, though attractive, we are not attracted to. We often have agape love for our closest friends whom we would do anything for and these too we are pretty aware of. These are the people who we would willingly give our lives for (Jesus gave His for everyone, I'm not quite there yet honestly) and we probably know who they are. Storge, we love our family, that should be a given. The thing that makes it complicated is that the person you marry, you will love in ALL of these ways. You will love them sacrificially, you will love them passionately, you will love them as your deepest friend, and they will be with you as one flesh, closest family.

Love is difficult to describe (this is in a movie, but I can't think of it) because when you are in it, you can't explain it and when you aren't you either don't want to think about it or it doesn't make any sense. But, I've thought about it quite a bit, both in and out of it because I can't help thinking about things; it's just how I work.

Philia, Storge, and Agape have their own sort of traps and confusions, but honestly, for a single person, we don't have too many sleepless nights over them. I don't really lay awake at night thinking about how much I love my enemies or how much I love my friends and family or my dog. It's when you throw in eros that everything gets confusing because it overwhelms the senses, reason, and often our better judgment. Eros can make you do stupid things by itself but when combined with the other loves it becomes even more hazardous (potentially more beautiful if God's grace reigns). It is of great importance to recognize this.

Travis makes the point that 'thinking' you are in love is not the same as 'thinking you are a Calvinist' or 'thinking you are about six feet tall' or 'thinking the sun is hot.' I understand his point and it's a good one. But in some ways, thinking you are in love is exactly the same as those things. You think you are a Calvinist because you aren't completely sure of what that means or how it works. You think you are about six feet tall because you don't have something immediately at hand to compare it to (i.e. a tape measure). You think the sun is hot because that's what you were told, but you haven't been there so you just aren't sure. In fact, you think all of those things for different reasons (factual, experiential, perceived value) and you can think you are in love for many different reasons. If you are thinking that, then you are almost certainly in one of the four categories of love above. When we say 'in love' we usually mean eros plus. Being in love often confuses us emotionally and perplexes us mentally so we are unsure of what our true feelings are, thus we may well 'think' we are in love.

I might post some more on this later. It's an interesting topic and I did little to breach it in this short diatribe.

Until next time,
EP

J.B. Gambrell on the kind of preaching we need

2006-09-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

Posted by Founders Ministries

J. B. Gambrell was Southern Baptist leader whose life spanned the War Between the States and the First World War. He served as editor of two state Baptist newspapers as well as teacher at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Corresponding Secretary of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and 3 terms (1917-1920) as President of the Southern Baptist Convention. His call for a certain kind of preaching is more needed today than it was when he originally issued it.

"We may invigorate our faith and renew our courage by reflecting that divine power has always attended the preaching of doctrine, when done in the true spirit of preaching. Great revivals have accompanied the heroic preaching of the doctrines of grace, predestination, election, and that whole lofty mountain range of doctrines upon which Jehovah sits enthroned, sovereign in grace as in all things else. God honors the preaching that honors him. There is entirely too much milk-sop preaching nowadays trying to cajole sinners to enter upon a truce with their Maker, quit sinning and join the church. The situation does not call for a truce, but for a surrender. Let us bring out the heavy artillery of heaven, and thunder away at this stuck-up age as Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon, and Paul did and there will be many slain in the Lord raised up to walk in newness of life."

"Behold, I Am Vile!"

2006-09-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Brooks, "Heaven on Earth" 1667)

"You will remember your conduct and all the actions by
which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe
yourselves for all the evil you have done." Ezekiel 20:43

True repentance includes a loathing and abhorring of sin,
and of ourselves for sin.

The sincere penitent loathes his sins, and be loathes himself
also because of his sins. He cries out, "Oh these wanton eyes!
Oh these wicked hands! Oh this deceitful tongue! Oh this
crooked will! Oh this corrupt heart! Oh how do I loathe my
sins, how do I loathe myself! My sins are a burden to me, and
they make me a burden to myself! My sins are an abhorrent
to me, and they make me abhor myself in dust and ashes!"

A true penitent has not only low thoughts of himself, but
loathsome thoughts of himself. None can think or speak
so vilely of a Christian--as he thinks and speaks so vilely
of himself. "Behold, I am vile!" Job 40:4

"They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done
and for all their detestable practices." Ezekiel 6:9

Prayer, in answer

2006-09-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

Look, I don't have any advanced theological training or hundreds of thousands of people who read what I write, a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew or really much of anything that qualifies me for addressing most any topic, except the Word of God and the Spirit of God. That being said.. I want to look at a couple of things from the post on prayer from Brother Dan Phillips over at the Pyro Blog Brother Hank put up and requested people leave some feedback on.

1. "Prayer is not a dialogue. Prayer is not a conversation. Prayer has no intrinsic power, whatever."What?! Heresy!"Show me from the Bible. In the Bible, what I say to God is prayer, what He says to me is revelation, it is prophecy. If I am a Christian, I talk to Him. If He talks directly to me, unmediated, I am a prophet, or a seer. And I'm neither; nor are you."

I agree prayer, by definition, is not a dialogue. It is a one way communication to God. I'm all about being clear and defining terms so I won't take issue with that. I will say that there IS communication between man and God (prayer) as well as communication between God and man. While prayer is not a conversation, I can have conversations with God and He does speak to me through the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, Luke 21:15). And to say that prayer has no intrinsic power is both right and wrong. It's right that prayer to a false god or prayer from a false heart has no power. BUT, and I repeat BUT 'proper' prayer does have intrinsic value because God has given it intrinsic value. It's God's power, God's ability, I completely agree but prayer has power because God gave it power. He said, 'whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you," (John 16:23) and "You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7) and "they ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1), and 2 Thess. 1:11 "to this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power." Old Testament? "Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you, and all who are yours" (Gen. 20:7), and 2 Chron. 7:14, "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." and on, and on and on. Prayer has power intrinsically, specifically because God gave it that power. He is compelled by it, not by man's volition but by His own.

I also don't appreciate the final comment quoted above especially if I have interpreted his meaning correctly. If there's one thing I dislike almost as strongly as the denial of the Sovereignty of God or the Exclusivity of Christ, it's cessationism. Get your dadgum head out of a book. That's all I've got to say (Acts 2:17- Peter is exegeting the OT, we might want to listen- And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days will I pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy..) People prophesied in the Bible, through revelation from God who were not apostles and that continues today. It's a different standard. It's not inerrant or infallible, rather it is to be judged according to the Word (1 Thess. 5:20-21, Do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good). Let me just quote one more verse on this, 1 Cor. 14:6, "Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues (gasp), how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?" Goodness, is that not clear enough? I'm with Tozer on this one when he said, paraphrasing, 'the church would be radically different if people would spend as much time seeking to be filled with the Spirit as they do trying to prove that you can't be.'

It's like this: If I'm walking along one day with a friend and I say, 'hey, you know I heard people can actually fly.' And he says, 'no, no that's not possible. That's just an old wives tale. People a long time ago maybe could, but not anymore, those things don't happen. We're living in a 'ground only' dispensation.' So, I say, 'oh, ok..' But then.. I look up into the sky and I see people flying, and I'm like.. what the? But I thought? And then they swoop down and shout out, 'hey you should really be up here instead of just hanging out on the ground man.' So.. who do I believe? Do I believe the person who tells me from lack of experience that something is not possible, or do I believe the person who from experience, and Scripture points to something else. Not a tough call for me. I've seen a demon cast out. 'But that doesn't happen anymore.' Umm.. I beg to differ. I've seen people afflicted or temporarily possessed or some weird something too. I've heard people speak in tongues with interpretation. I've seen people prophesy and know things no one knew about a person without ever having met them. I've been in the presence of healings. I hate to.. no, I LOVE to tell you, that the New Testament promises of the Spirit and its power still apply to us today. I'm not some crazy snake holding charasmatic. I go to a Southern Baptist church. I'm also a doctrine of the elect, reformed type of person. And I believe in the Biblical use, validity and importance of ALL of the gifts.. Moving on..

2. "But the weapon isn't prayer (Ephesians 6:18). That's just us talking to God. Our words are without intrinsic power. I don't think that us talking, per se, scares demons. In fact, I'm pretty sure that sometimes it cracks them up."

Umm... Well, define 'weapon.' It's my communication with God, so yeah, it's kind of like a flare gun. But we do have power through the work of Christ, through the Holy Spirit within us to drive out darkness where we find it so those words we speak are a weapon. Those words are not 'prayer' in so much as they are not directed to God but from God, through His Spirit in us. However, if my prayer, in line with the will of God is like Hezekiah's prayer in 1 Kings 19. "
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. " In answer to that prayer, the Lord sent an angel who wiped out 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night. That's a pretty powerful weapon. My view is much more that we are the weapon or tool in the hand of God and not vice versa though He does equip us for battle. Nevertheless God does grant us, according to His will and divine purpose, power in the nature of prayer.

I completely agree that the devil is not too concerned about what we can or can't do or our own perceived power because we have NONE. Sure, us talking doesn't scare demons at all. Us talking to God.. about their destruction? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that might get them riled up a little.

I'll close with this, from Charles Spurgeon on prayer. (just so I don't get any 'you must only read charasmatic, pentecostal authors' comments). From a message delivered May 9th 1880, found here.

"Samuel’s prayers were so prevalent that the very elements were controlled by him. Oh, the power of prayer! It has been ridiculed: it has been represented as an unscientific and an unpractical thing, but we who daily try it know that its power cannot be exaggerated, and do not feel even a shadow of doubt concerning it. There is such power in prayer that it “moves the arm that moves the world.” We have but to know how to pray, and the thunder shall lift up its voice in answer to our cry, and Jehovah’s arrows shall be scattered abroad to the overthrowing of his adversaries. How should those be able to judge of prayer who never ask at all, or never ask in faith? Let those bear witness to whom prayer is a familiar exercise, and to whom answers from God are as common as the day. Over a father’s heart no power has so great a control as his child’s necessity, and in the case of our Father who is in heaven it is especially so. He must hear prayer, for he cannot dishonor his own name, or forget his own children. "

Signing Off,
EP

What prayer is and isn't

2006-09-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Dan Phillips from over at the Pyromaniacs just posted this insightful/digging post on "What prayer is and isn't". Let me know what y'all think...

Bro. Hank ><>

======================
What prayer is and isn't
by Dan Phillips

Preface: with all of yesterday's hilarity, I feel like some dour, prunefaced prig coming in with this serious-subject post. But Frank has decided Thursday's my day, so if I sit on it, he'll mock me. But then again, if I post it, he'll mock me, so... oh well, once more into the breach.

The minefield that is prayer. I can't think of one specific doctrine, offhand, which is more tradition-laden, and buried under sentimentality, than that of prayer.

For that very reason, it's a risky topic. Step in any direction, and you land on someone's toes. Worse, diverge from the "party line," and it's as if you're insulting Mom. Only a fool, or someone with nothing to lose, would knowingly poke a stick at that particular venerated bovine. (Say, why are you looking at me like that?)

Christianoid notions. Common Christian coinage describes prayer as a conversation, declares that "there is power in prayer," makes prayer out to be the be-all and end-all of Christian living. Prayer is "the greatest power on earth," we're told. Is this Scriptural thinking?

Think of Frank Peretti's Darkness books. I read one or two. I thought them imaginative and fast-moving, but neither great theology nor great literature.

In his imagination, Peretti pulls the curtain aside on the spiritual battle that Scripture describes. He shows demons and angels alike in action, makes up their dialogue, fantasizes their attempts to ruin or protect human beings.

Here's what sticks in my mind. What do you suppose strikes terror into Peretti's demons? When does everything start to turn around, for the demons' defeat and the saints' victory? It's when the saints pray. Nothing scares fallen angels, apparently, like praying Christians.

Now, it strikes me that all of this is backwards at worst, sideways at best.

Biblical teaching. What is prayer, in the Bible? It's one thing, and one thing only: prayer is talking to God. Period. That's it. It might be talking in the form of praise, petition, confession, supplication, exclamation, or a host of other forms. It might be talking to God while happy (Psalm 43:4), sad (Psalm 42:9), mad (Psalm 10:15), hurried (Nehemiah 2:4), guilty (Psalm 51:1), busy and distracted (Nehemiah 4:9), or near death (Acts 7:59-60). But it all boils down to that one irreducible: prayer is what you say to God.

No arguments so far? Great. Now fasten your seatbelts, and consider this:...(click here for the rest)

The Cross, The Proof

2006-09-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

By: A. A. Hodge

==========================
"I think the first essential mark of the difference between true and false assurance is to be found in the fact that the true works humility. There is nothing in the world that works such satanic, profound, God-defiant pride as false assurance; nothing works such utter humility, or brings to such utter self-emptiness, as the child-like spirit of true assurance. Surely this can be known. If a person is self-confident, there is self-assurance; if there is any evidence of pride in connection with his claim, it is a most deadly mark- it is the plague-spot which marks death and corruption. But if there is utter humility, you have the sign of the true spirit.
This will manifest itself in connection with another mark. If one is really united to Christ in a union so established that Christ is indeed in possession of the soul, the whole consciousness will be taken up with what I would call Christ-consciousness, and there will be no self-consciousness. Little children are very prompt to show their character. There is a great difference in them. Bring a child into a room. She comes thinking about nothing in particular, looking at her mother, then looking at the guests or anything that objectively strikes her, not thinking of herself. That is pure, sweet, and lovely. She grows older, and she comes to think of herself and what people think of her, and her manner has lost its unconsciousness. A great deal of what you call bashfulness is rottenness at the heart; it is self-consciousness. Nothing in the world so tends to defile the imagination, to pervert the affections, and to corrupt the morals, as self-consciousness. You know it is connected with every diseased and morbid action of the body.

A young woman told me that she wanted the witness of the Spirit, and she talked about it everlastingly; she wanted to tell her own experience and feelings always. I told her she must forget herself, not think of her own feelings. The man who is talking about his love unceasingly has no love; the man who is talking about his faith unceasingly has no faith: the two things cannot go together. When you love, what are you thinking about? Are you not thinking about the object of your love? And when you believe, what are you thinking about? Why, the object that you believe. Suppose you ask yourself, 'Am I believing?' Why, of course you are not believing when you are thinking of believing. No human being believes except when he thinks about Christ. Am I loving? Of course I am not loving when I am thinking about loving. No human being loves except when he is thinking about Christ as the object of his love.

In Virginia I once saw one human being in whom there was the perfect work of grace, as far as I could see as her pastor, and I was intimate with her six years. Even on earth she was one of those who had made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb, and she seemed always to walk upon the verge of heaven. I never heard her speak of any one particular of her character or of her own graces. I have come out of the pulpit when the congregation had gone, and have found her upon her knees in her pew, absolutely unconscious of all external objects, so far was she absorbed in worship. When I roused her from her trance, she cried instantly, 'Is He not holy? Is He not glorious? Is He not beautiful? is He not infinite?' She did not speak of her own love or of her feelings.

A great deal of Perfectionism is rotten to the core. All self-consciousness is of the very essence and nature of sin. Then, again, true confidence leads necessarily to strong desires for more knowledge and more holiness, for unceasing advances of grace.

I was told once, in a congregation where I preached, that I need not tell a certain young man anything about religion; he had finished it - that is, that, having finished it, he found nothing else to do. That is what the word 'perfect' means. Now, when a man has finished eternal life, when he has finished learning all the revelation of God, when he has experienced all the infinite benefits of Christ's redemption, when he has finished all the mysterious work of the Holy Ghost in his heart, he ought to be annihilated. There is no place in heaven or on earth for such a man.

But a man who really has the love of God in his heart is always reaching forward to the things which are before. The more he loves, the more he wants to love; the more he is consecrated, the more consecration he longs for. He has grand ideas and grand aims, but they lie beyond him in heaven."

Quote Tracker

2006-09-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Travis Mitchell from Stepping In Faith:

"Someone might say bad doctrine is primarily the individual’s fault and secondarily the institution’s, but to that assertion I ask the question, “from where does good doctrine come, if not from institutionalized instruction?” Our culture – in all its privatized glory – has pitched us the idea that we learn best what we figure out ourselves, and the church has bought it. While to some degree this statement rings true, there is another, more biblical approach with which we must recon ourselves to. It is called discipleship; teaching; instruction. The bible calls it all of these things and more. Did Paul not command Timothy, his disciple, to take what he had been taught and entrust it to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2)? Did Jesus not commission his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19)? I am afraid that much of modern missions is centered around the idea of evangelizing the nations. Jesus, rather, said to indoctrinate the nations! Therefore, beloved, I plead with you to be disciple-makers. For God’s sake, be disciple-makers. If we will not heed this Scriptural mandate, the church will surely fall to the cults. For they, you can be assured, disciple well."

Grace, grace!

2006-09-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Brooks, "Heaven on Earth" 1667)

"That no flesh should glory in His presence." 1 Corinthians 1:29

"God does not look for any goodness or merit in the creature to draw His love--but He will justify, pardon, and save for His name's sake. All the motives which move God to show mercy are in His own bosom.

Salvation is only from free grace, and not from anything good in us, or done by us.

God is free to bestow His promises upon whomever He pleases.
He often steps over the rich, and chooses the poor;
He often steps over the learned, and chooses the ignorant;
He often steps over the strong, and chooses the weak;
He often steps over the sweet nature, and chooses the wicked nature;
He often steps over the noble, and chooses the vile; etc.,
that no flesh may glory, and that all may shout out "Grace, grace!"

"By the grace of God I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10"
=================

Did you catch that? By HIS grace! Not by our grace, not by our attainment are we what we are today. No, we are here today reading this post because of the mighty GRACE of GOD. In fact, we ARE ... because of the GRACE of GOD. Our physical presence here at the computer screen is due only to God's GRACE. Our spirituality is because of the GRACE of God. Our edifying gifts are ours, only in as much as they were given to us by the GRACE of GOD for their use to exhibit HIS GRACE to the body of believers, called to be HIS church. We literally, physically, spiritually, metaphorically, figuratively ARE... ONLY because of GOD'S fantastic GRACE. What's more, all that we posses, both physically and spiritually is only by the GRACE of GOD. Do you see the importance here? This is not something that can be glazed over in order to "get to the heart of the gospel"....God's grace IS THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL. What is more GRACE-FULL than the King of Kings, coming down from His throne to redeem those that were lost? What can be closer to the heart of the gospel than that?

With all this being said, we can unashamedly and truthfully say, that without God's grace, we would be base men, bondmen, beggarly men, blind men, deformed men, disconsolate men, dead men, and damned men. But God's GRACE came down! God's grace was and is preeminent and preemptive in all matters of the salvation of men. Before the foundations of the world, GOD'S GRACE was in action (Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 9:26, 1 Peter 1:20). What man can boast that he sought salvation for himself, "before the foundation of the world"? No, not one, so "that no flesh should glory in His presence." 1 Corinthians 1:29.

Quit your glorying in the flesh, and recognize and rejoice that Jehovah God SOUGHT YOU! That 'good news' is enough to lift even the heaviest of spirits, and lighten the heaviest of loads.

Grace, Grace!
Bro. Hank ><>

The Indecency of Assisted Suicide

2006-09-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

By Peter A. Lillback president of Westminster Theological Seminary

"Death is universal. Apart from the intervention of the second advent of Christ, every human being will die. But how humans should die is a point of keen debate in the history of ethics.

Christians and non-Christians have deeply disagreed over the ethical validity of “non-natural” means of human death, namely suicide, abortion, infanticide, capital punishment, war, and euthanasia. And even among Christians there have been deep disagreements over whether these means of human death are ever legitimate. Specifically, then, what should a Christian think about the surging interest in euthanasia in our largely non-Christian culture?

For a host of reasons including advancements in medical technology, the aging of America, and the increasing impact of the secularization of our society, the concept of “quality of life” continues to supplant the concept of “sanctity of life.” Not surprisingly, the practice of euthanasia, simply translated as “the good death,” is a topic of increasing interest and concern.

The stories of Karen Ann Quinlan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Hemlock Society, and most recently Terri Shiavo have filled the news. “Death with dignity,” “mercy killing,” “the right to die,” or “physician assisted suicide” identify some of the claims of the advocates of euthanasia. As recently as May 12, 2006, CNN International.com reported the debate in Britain’s House of Lords over a right-to-die law.

To consider the issues surrounding euthanasia, or the alleged “good death,” it is essential to understand how we, as a society, have arrived at the point where legislators are discussing not how we are to live, but how we are to die..." (read the rest of this article here)

A Thousand Wounds

2006-09-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Brooks, "Heaven on Earth" 1667)

"For I know my transgressions, and my
sin is always before me." Psalm 51:3

Sin most afflicts a gracious soul.

The deer, feeling within her the working of the serpent's
poison--runs through the thorns and thickets, and runs
over the green and pleasant pastures--that she may drink
of the fountain and be cured.

Just so, gracious souls, being sensible of the poison and
venom of sin, run from the creatures, which are but as
thorns and thickets; and run over their own duties and
righteousness, which are but as pleasant pastures--to
come to Christ the fountain of life--that they may drink
of those waters of consolation, of those wells of salvation
which are in Him, and cast up and cast out their spiritual
poison, and be cured forever.

Believers know that their sins do most pierce and grieve
the Lord. The sins of God's people, provoke Him most, and
sadden Him most--and this makes them sigh and groan it
out, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from
this body of death?" Romans 7:24

If a snake were to sting your dearly beloved spouse to
death--would you preserve it alive, warm it by the fire,
and hug it in your bosom? Would you not rather stab it
with a thousand wounds?

===============

What grace we have been preserved with!

Bro. Hank ><>

Media and Earnest Preaching

2006-09-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

By Tony S. Reinke (orignal post)

"We don’t live in the Stone Age or Bronze Age, our era is rightly called the Information Age. We are buried alive in books, blogs, emails, websites, magazines, etc. And so are the hearers of our sermons. So why is the message of the Bible more important than the latest war headline from CNN? The listeners to our sermons may not see a big difference between the two, especially as the Middle East is birthing the next world war and gas prices close in on $4 a gallon. And those seem to have more ‘real’ impact today on sinners then dangers of a spiritually loose life now and eternity to come. What is needed (no, required!) in the Information Age is earnest preaching. Long before blogs and websites John Angell James wrote the following:

“Will anyone deny that we want an earnest ministry to break in some degree the spell, and leave the soul at liberty for the affairs of the kingdom which is not of this world? When politics have come upon the minds, hearts, and imaginations of the people, for six days out of the seven, invested with the charms of eloquence, and decked with the colors of party; when the orator and the writer have both thrown the witchery of genius over the soul; how can it be expected that tame, spiritless, vapid common-places from the pulpit, sermons coming neither from the head nor the heart, having neither weight of matter, nor grace of manner; neither genius to compensate for the want of taste, nor taste to compensate for the want of genius; and what is still worse, having no unction of evangelical truth, no impress of eternity, no radiance from heaven, no terror from hell; in short, no adaptation to awaken reflection, to produce conviction, or to save the soul; how can it be expected, I say, that such sermons can be useful to accomplish the purposes for which the gospel is to be preached? What chance have such preachers, amidst the tumult, to be heard or felt, or what hold have they upon public attention, amidst the high excitement of the times in which we live? Their hearers too often feel, that listening to their sermons on the Sabbath, after what they have heard or read during the week, is as if they were turning from brilliant gas-light to the dim and smoking spark of tallow and rush [a candle].”

- John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times (Banner of Truth, 1847/1993) pp. 194-195.

“And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:3-5, ESV)."

Psalm 14:1 – "No God"

2006-09-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

From "The Shepherds Scrapbook" by Tony S. Reinke

"I think many of us know Psalm 14:1 by heart: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" But apparently I did not know the meaning of this verse by heart. Actually the two words, "there is" are not in the Hebrew text. The verse should more accurately be translated: "The fool says in his heart, 'No God.'" It's not that the fool does not believe in God’s existence but that for him/her God is unnecessary. As Lawson writes,

"The term is a synonym for sinner, and it describes everyone who has no place for God in his or her life. The fool's problem is that his heart refuses the knowledge of God. To be sure, he is not an intellectual atheist, denying the existence of God, but a practical atheist, living as if there were no God (Pss. 53:1; 74:18,22; Isa. 32:6)." [Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 1-75, p. 75]"

The Proof is in the Pudding..so to speak

2006-09-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

That history of that phrase is available here; suffice it to say it means the true quality of something is found when it is put to the test.

From an AP article found here:

"An al-Qaida-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters returned to the streets across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence."

"The pope on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his speech last week in which he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."

"The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."

So we've probably all heard about the huge outcry the Pope's comments last week have caused throughout the Muslim community, very similiar to the outrage expressed last year with the Danish cartoons. Am I the only one that reads these stories and laughs out loud? The headline could read "Islamic protestors threaten violence over comments made naming Islam as a violent religion." Honestly, that's exactly what the article says. Why were they upset and burning churches and burning the pope in effigy, burning American flags, etc? Because the Pope said 20 words in a 5,000 word address that portrayed Islam in a negative light. Oh, Islam is not violent and just for saying that, we're going to kill you. Way to make your point guys. Anger and outrage are great ways to show the world how peaceful your religion is.

Maybe I'll post about Islam more extensively another day because it will be something we will deal with a lot in the years to come and it will help to be knowledgeable about it. The truth is the follower of Islam is simply blind the same way the follower of any other religion other than Christianity is. Goodness that's not a very tolerant or inclusive comment is it? But it is true. It's a religion with the worship of a false god, a different god than the true God of the Bible. This whole 'inter-faith' movement is really not at all something I want us to progress toward. I don't want us to work hand in hand, uniting with other religions. That seems like a terrible idea. Not that we should have a separist mentality in our lifestyle, but we shoud have that mentality in our beliefs. The truth is Islam and Christianity CANNOT peacefully co-exist nor will they ever be able to unless each reinterpret their belief system. Luther said the fact that we have these conflicts is a sure sign that the kingdom of God is at work against the kingdom of darkness. God help us if we ever see peace on earth prior to Christ's return.

Signing Off,
EP

*disclaimer: I am not saying Christians and Muslims cannot peacefully co-exist, though that may be tenable as well, I'm saying the ideologies cannot co-exist because they are at irreconcilable odds with each other. This post was about the belief systems and not the individuals who hold those beliefs.

The Lighter Side

2006-09-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, if you haven't seen this, I think you'll be mildly entertained...

or cut&paste the link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5267894961075966307&q=baby+got+book

especially for you Christian rappers out there, this guy's got some competetion for you...lol

And a couple of comics I got from Pastorway:

Enjoy your weekends, and this Lord's Day, glory in the cross of Christ!
Bro. Hank ><>

Baptist Covenant Theologians

2006-09-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

By Jason E. Robertson of "Fide-O"

What Covenant Theology is not:

--It is not a response to dispensationalism, for dispensationalism, in fact, did not even exist until the nineteenth century.
--It does not teach paedobaptism, covenant successionism, paedocommunionism, or baptismal regenerationism.
--It does not teach any particular kind of eschatology.
--It does not teach any kind of philosophy of education such as homeschooling or Christian schools.
--It is not sectarian, but has roots from the early church to all the branches of the Reformed church.
--It is not anti-Semitic nor “replacement theology”, but CT teaches the fulfillment of the promises to Israel in the person and the work of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, who established the church in organic continuity with Israel, not a separate replacement entity.
--Covenant theology is a system of theology that explains the entire Bible in one systematized story organized around three great covenants (Redemption, Works, Grace). CT is a hermeneutic, an approach to understanding Scripture, biblically explaining the unity of biblical revelation...

(check out the rest of this awesome post here)

(and for more Fide-O info on Covenant Theology go here!)

Musician Theologians! Oxymoron????

2006-09-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

By Scott Hill of "Fide-O"

"Blogging for me sometimes has an interesting dynamic. The reason I blog is to force myself to think through some of my own theology and philosophy of ministry and its consequences in my own life. It also gives you the readers a chance to agree, disagree, or say “this doesn’t interest me which is another check and balance. This is the benefit that I appreciate most about the blogging dynamic. However, sometimes being forced to carry out your thoughts is not pleasant. I can find I am wrong and have been for years. I can find I am right and no one cares. I can also discover that in a particular area I am right, yet it has such far reaching implications I might have been happier in ignorance. For sometimes truly ignorance is bliss.

That is the way I feel about today’s subject. After studying the bible, church history, and great pastors of the past I have finally decided that a person who takes on the responsibility for the corporate worship in our churches needs to be theologically trained and ordained. Hear me clearly. I am not saying that the person standing on the stage playing or leading the music must be this way. I am saying that the person responsible for what takes place in corporate worship, the person who carries the burden, from what is sung to how the offering is taken should be theologically trained and ordained.

For the last 50 or 60 years our corporate worship services have been turned over to musicians; men and women who have training in instrumentation and vocals, but not in theology. This has resulted in shallow theology being sung by our churches, which has resulted in shallow theology being advocated in our everyday lives. I believe we are seeing the fruit of this problem today in our church culture and the Christian music industry and its lunge feet first into secularism. Music at some point became about something other than the church. It developed into entertainment, which I don’t believe the music of the church was ever intended to be. This has carried over into the spectator model of corporate worship that so many churches embrace these days.

Another result is the fact that the word “worship” and “music” became synonymous in churches. Worship is relegated to 35 minutes once a week. The corporate worship service is no longer the singing of hymns, reading of scripture, testimony to God, exposition of the word. The worship service is the music and then we also have preaching. How can a musician pick songs with theologically sound lyrics if they really know theology?

Also, I believe they should be ordained. I have been thinking about this a lot lately since hearing Bob Kauflins seminar on Corporate Worship as Pastoral Care. I believe it takes someone with the heart and calling of a Pastor to take on the responsibility of corporate worship. Music only affects people emotionally. It does not affect them morally. The Word of God does that. The person taking on the responsibility for corporate worship must keep in mind that there is are bigger things taking place in that Sunday service than making people feel the right thing. It takes the heart of a shepherd to keep that focus from week to week and disciple people in spite of their opinions and preferences. Musicians focus on one thing, the music. Which is not a bad thing, but it is an extreme limitation on what is needed in corporate worship.

I know the crisis that some of you are in. This puts me at odds with some close friends of mine who are in this exact category. There are Pastors and musicians reading this who have the exact scenario I described as wrong in your church right now. You can either agree or disagree, but either way there are ramifications. I have friends who will read this and get mad at me and email me. I say go ahead and get mad, just don’t stop there. Consider what I say and if you believe I am right then make changes. (By the way I am right)."

Is Singing More Important Than Preaching?

2006-09-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

By Scott Hill of "Fide-O"

"Is singing more important than preaching? The answer to the question in the title is obviously no. Paul didn’t say it is through the foolishness of singing that men will get saved. Yet, just how important is our time of corporate singing?

I have heard 1000’s of sermons in my life. In fact there is the possibility I have heard over 6000 sermons in my 34 years of life. How many of them do I specifically remember? How many of them do I think about on occasion and reapply the teaching? I don’t know, maybe 50 or 60. Maybe more if something jogs my memory. Yet, how many songs do I know every word to. 1000’s! Now I have a strange ability to remember lyrics and melody lines after one or two hearings of a song, but still most people remember 100’s of songs more than they remember sermons. I know this frustrates those of you that preach every Sunday, but the cold hard facts are its true. At least in our modern times.

I don’t believe this diminishes the importance of preaching. I believe it raises the level of responsibility for those of us who choose what our congregations sing from week to week. I get to use a format that attaches emotions to words through music. I also, unlike preachers, get to sing these words over and over again for decades solidifying them in the memories of the congregation. This brings with it a high level of accountability to those of us who choose congregational songs.

To sing songs in corporate worship for any other reason, other than the desire to teach the great truths of scripture, edify one another, and testify to what God has done for a congregation is a dangerous, dangerous game. Picking a song because of its popularity or its ease of use has no place in corporate worship. To flippantly choose a song without thoroughly checking its accuracy is no different than stepping to the mic to preach error. If you choose a song that teaches error then you have just taught that same error to your congregation. Do you think God will hold you responsible? I do.

To those of us who are responsible for the first half of our corporate worship services it is high time we see our responsibility and begin to take it seriously. We are teachers of the whole body and we will be held responsible for what is taught."

My King

2006-09-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

written by Dr. S. M. Lockridge

My King was born King. The Bible says He’s a Seven Way King. He’s the King of the Jews – that’s a racial King. He’s the King of Israel – that’s a National King. He’s the King of righteousness. He’s the King of the ages. He’s the King of Heaven. He’s the King of glory. He’s the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. Now that’s my King. Well I wonder if you know Him. Do you know Him? Don’t try to mislead me. Do you know my King? David said the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show His handiwork. My King is the only one whom there are no means of measure can define His limitless love. No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shore of supplies. No barriers can hinder Him from pouring out His blessing. Well, well, He’s enduringly strong. He’s entirely sincere. He’s eternally steadfast. He’s immortally graceful. He’s imperially powerful. He’s impartially merciful. That’s my King. He’s God’s Son. He’s the sinner’s saviour. He’s the centrepiece of civilization. He stands alone in Himself. He’s honest. He’s unique. He’s unparalleled. He’s unprecedented. He’s supreme. He’s pre-eminent. Well, He’s the grandest idea in literature. He’s the highest personality in philosophy. He’s the supreme problem in high criticism. He’s the fundamental doctrine of proved theology. He’s the carnal necessity of spiritual religion. That’s my King. He’s the miracle of the age. He’s the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him. Well, He’s the only one able to supply all of our needs simultaneously. He supplies strength for the weak. He’s available for the tempted and the tried. He sympathizes and He saves. He’s strong God and He guides. He heals the sick. He cleanses the lepers. He forgives sinners. He discharged debtors. He delivers the captives. He defends the feeble. He blesses the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He rewards the diligent and He beautifies the meek. Do you know Him? Well, my King is a King of knowledge. He’s the wellspring of wisdom. He’s the doorway of deliverance. He’s the pathway of peace. He’s the roadway of righteousness. He’s the highway of holiness. He’s the gateway of glory. He’s the master of the mighty. He’s the captain of the conquerors. He’s the head of the heroes. He’s the leader of the legislatures. He’s the overseer of the overcomers. He’s the governor of governors. He’s the prince of princes. He’s the King of kings and He’s the Lord of lords. That’s my King. Yeah. Yeah. That’s my King. My King, yeah. His office is manifold. His promise is sure. His light is matchless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His Word is enough. His grace is sufficient. His reign is righteous. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Well. I wish I could describe Him to you, but He’s indescribable. He’s indescribable. Yes. He’s incomprehensible. He’s invincible. He’s irresistible. I’m coming to tell you, the heavens of heavens cannot contain Him, let alone a man explaining Him. You can’t get Him out of your mind. You can’t get Him off of your hands. You can’t outlive Him and you can’t live without Him. Well, Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found out they couldn’t stop Him. Pilot couldn’t find any fault in Him. The witnesses couldn’t get their testimonies to agree. Herod couldn’t kill Him. Death couldn’t handle Him and the grave couldn’t hold Him. That’s my King. Yeah. He always has been and He always will be. I’m talking about He had no predecessor and He’ll have no successor. There’s nobody before Him and there’ll be nobody after Him. You can’t impeach Him and He’s not going to resign. That’s my King! That’s my King! Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Well, all the power belongs to my King. We’re around here talking about black power and white power and green power, but it’s God’s power. Thine is the power. Yeah. And the glory. We try to get prestige and honour and glory for ourselves, but the glory is all His. Yes. Thine is the Kingdom and the power and glory, forever and ever and ever and ever. How long is that? And ever and ever and ever and ever. And when you get through with all of the evers, then, Amen.

What is Success??

2006-09-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, while I am in a writing mood, I figured I'd tackle this one. Especially since some of the more difficult questions, like "What is Love?" was already answered so eloquently by the philosopher known as Haddaway...(come on- give a shout out to the 80's).

So what is success?? Well, let's first look at what is isn't. I'm an accounting and finance major, so I can tell you what message I get bombarded with: Power, Position, Prestige, and Paychecks. So many chase their lives in vain after such goals only to find nothing. Look at an example of some who did:

A popular story recounts a meeting that took place at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago in 1923. Attending this meeting were nine of the richest men in the world at that time: (1) Charles Schwab, President of the world's largest independent steel company; (2) Samuel Insull, President of the world's largest utility company; (3) Howard Hopson, President of the largest gas firm; (4) Arthur Cutten, the greatest wheat speculator; (5) Richard Whitney, President of the New York Stock Exchange; (6) Albert Fall, member of the President's Cabinet; (7) Leon Frazier, President of the Bank of International Settlements; (8) Jessie Livermore, the greatest speculator in the Stock Market; and (9) Ivar Kreuger, head of the company with the most widely distributed securities in the world.

Twenty-five years later, (1) Charles Schwab had died in bankruptcy, having lived on borrowed money for five years before his death. (2) Samuel Insull had died virtually penniless after spending some time as a fugitive from justice. (3) Howard Hopson was insane. (4) Arthur Cutten died overseas, broke. (5) Richard Whitney had spent time in Sing-Sing. (6) Albert Fall was released from prison so he could die at home. (7) Leon Fraizer, (8) Jessie Livermore, and (9) Ivar Kreuger each died by suicide. Measured by wealth and power these men achieved success, at least temporarily. Making a lot of money may be an acceptable goal, but money most assuredly does not guarantee a truly successful life. Check out the article that wrote these facts if you want to learn more here.

So what is success? Is it being happy or the new phrase of the 21th century, being "self actualized?" Is it volunteering at a soup kitchen, providing for your family, coaching a kids soccer league.... But no.

Success has nothing to do with anything you can do. Success has everything to do with God. Because you could lose everything and be a bum on a street corner. And if you know the Lord, you're a lot more successful than Bill Gates. Know the Lord. Really know Him. Don't know about Him. Know Him. And you never know someone if you don't spend time with Him. Someone once humbled me about my Bible reading by asking, "Jesus gave His life for you. Can't you give Him 15 minutes a day??" Read His word; it's the truth. In a world where everyone says everything is a matter of opinion, know the TRUTH. And as the saying goes, "the truth will set you free! Why, because it's the Gospel- it's Good News. Spend time with Him. Pray with Him. Pray continuously. And listen. Really listen to what He has to say. What would have happened if Abraham had obediently brought Isaac to the altar to sacrifice him, and then in his understanding brokenness, not listened to an angel of the Lord?? Christ came through Isaac.

And just as important, make Him known! Don't hold it inside. Would you cure cancer and not share it? Of course not. The Great Commission: Go unto all the world and what?? Preach the Gospel. Romans 10:14-15: "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!'" And y'all- This shouldn't be a burden! John 14:15, "If you will love me, you will obey my commandments." Listen to Jeremiah in 20:8, "But if I say, 'I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot." If we don't want to share His word, we need to test ourselves. We need to test ourselves and see if we are in the faith.

I feel like I'm shouting here, but bear with me a little longer. These are fundamental things that we are called to do. Things that we are so blessed to get to do. How great is it that Our Father loved us so much to send His Son to die for us, all so we could have a relationship and be reconciled to Him. That's good y'all. That's good. Jesus is part of the Trinity, so God died for us. And if you are one of the chosen, God dwells in you with the Holy Spirit. That's incredible. So why don't we live like that? I mean, really, why?

Are you successful? Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? Have you realized His grand purpose for you? Because if so, that's what matters- that's successful. Successful is being content in all your circumstances. Paul first wrote that and he had a lot of things happen to him in his life that don't foster living a life of content in the Lord. But he did. Success is knowing the Lord and making Him known. Success is making yourself a slave to Christ only to realize that you find a freedom you had never known in His grace and His love. Success is living a radical faith because God loves us radically and calls us to do so. We are called to be SOLD OUT to Christ. So whether that is in the corporate boardroom, the fields of Africa, or preaching to the penguins in Antartica, go with God. Submit yourself to Him... that is success. Period.

Solomon had it all. He had wisdom the world had never known. A kingdom that was unrivaled in power. Wives (and concubines) galore. He lived a life pursuing pleasure. He had it all, right? You know he realized? All of those things were to him- it was all "chasing after the wind." It was worthless. So what is the conclusion of the wisest man ever: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
That is success....

The Lord Reigns...

2006-09-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

(William S. Plumer, "The Rock of Our Salvation" 1867)

"The Lord reigns! He is robed in majesty!" Psalm 93:1

"The Lord reigns! Let the nations tremble!" Psalm 99:1

Jesus Christ is--
Lord,
Master,
Governor,
Ruler,
Shepherd,
Prince,
Prince and Savior,
the great Prince,
the Prince of Life,
the Prince of Peace,
the Prince of princes,
the Prince of the kings of the earth,
a King,
the King,
the King of kings and Lord of lords!

He is God over all, blessed forever!

Christ's kingdom is universal. It includes all worlds,
all creatures, all causes. Nothing in heaven, nothing
in earth--is outside of it. His saints praise Him. The
angels adore Him. The devils are subject to Him. The
king's heart is in His hands, and He turns it wherever
He will. His kingdom rules over all.

His kingdom is supreme. Nothing can shake it. Worms
cannot spit their venom so as to reach the stars in their
course. Nor can puny mortals reach the person or the
power of our glorious Immanuel.

Christ's kingdom is omnipotent. By His own divine
efficiency He carries on His government. He upholds
all things by His powerful word. He does His will in
heaven and in earth. Not an empire rises or sinks,
but by His will. Not a sparrow falls to the ground,
without His notice. Every change on earth is by His
providence. He gives no account of any of His matters.

His work on His people is mighty.
He subdues them to Himself.
He reigns as their Lord and Master.
He chains their great adversary.
He subdues their iniquities.
He strips the world of its fatal fascinations.
He makes them willing in the day of His power.
He leads them into all necessary truth.

"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!"
Revelation 19:6
=======================================

Have you praised the Lord today for His work in your life? Or for His work among the nations? Indeed, even today, the Spirit of God is moving mightily over the face of the waters, and bringing light to those who have known only darkness and sin. Praise Him today! Our God is doing a GREAT work among His people, and we have been given the sight to see it...so let us not fail to use our spiritual eyes to praise the Lord, for His will is a PERFECT will; and His power is a LIFE CHANGING, SIN FORGIVING, EYE OPENING, JUSTIFYING, SANCTIFYING, GLORIFYING POWER!!! - ><> Bro. Hank

"Praise to God Who reigns above,
Binding earth and Heav’n in love;
All the armies of the sky
Worship His dread sovereignty.

Seraphim His praises sing,
Cherubim on fourfold wing,
Thrones, dominions, princes, powers,
Marshaled might that never cowers.

Speeds th’archangel from His face,
Bearing messages of grace;
Angel hosts His words fulfill,
Ruling nature by His will.

Yet on man they joy to wait,
All that bright celestial state,
For in man their Lord they see,
Christ, th’incarnate Deity.

On the throne their Lord Who died
Sits in manhood glorified;
Where His people faint below
Angels count it joy to go.

Now in faith, in hope, in love,
We will join the choirs above,
Praising, with the heav’nly host,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost." - Richard M. Benson, in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861.

Want to be the next Dr. Phil??

2006-09-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

So I seem to be giving a lot of relationship advice lately. It seems pretty much everyone I know that is in a relationship is either a) getting engaged or b) breaking up. In just the past week, I have had several friends in the latter category. As such, I've found myself being asked to give relationship advice, life advice, an inspiring message, etc. I've tried to keep the advice as Biblically based as I can and take as little credit as I can, but even I am aware of my shortcomings, which are so numerous it's only through the Grace of God that any good may come out of the ramblings that come out of my mouth as advice. But I stumbled across the blog of a Godly man I used to go to Church with back in high school and he seemed to be on a similar page. Here is what he had to say about it based on scripture from Matthew 3.

When I started doing counseling I was overcome with a sense of unworthiness. I thought: "Man, I have serious issues myself, but you are coming to me to help you fix yours?" Looking back on it, I think that sense of unworthiness may have been my best attribute as a counselor. It does not seem to help people when you give them all the answers. May be we all wish we could have Dr. Phil give us the answer to our problems, but in practice it does not seem to work.

John the Baptist was not going around giving out answers. Instead, he was taking confessions and asking people to repent before God. He knew that he was not worthy to give out answers, but that God had sent his Son to give us answers.

I have been around a little while and I have learned a few things about life. God has taught me my own lessons, which may be entirely different from someone else's lessons. Because of only learning my lessons, I am not really worthy to tell you what God has in store for you. But I can tell you that God has the answers; he is the teacher.

So while it may not be what you want to hear in the short run, trust that God has the answers revealed to you in His word and through quiet time in communion with Him. So stop wasting your time with Dr. Phil, Oprah, Dr. Laura or whatever Radio/TV personality captures your attention the most and be captivated by the One who gave His life up for you, to reconcile you to Himself, so that He could have a relationship with us. And that, my friends, means advice and a whole lot more.

“The Religious Life of Theological Students” by B. B. Warfield

2006-09-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

“We are frequently told, indeed, that the great danger of the theological student lies precisely in his constant contact with divine things. They may come to seem common to him, because they are customary… The words which tell you of God’s terrible majesty or of his glorious goodness may come to be mere words to you, Hebrew and Greek words, with etymologies, and inflections, and connections in sentences… It is your great danger. But it is your great danger, only because it is your great privilege. Think of what your privilege is when your greatest danger is that the great things of religion may become common to you! Other men, oppressed by the hard conditions of life, sunk in the daily struggle for bread perhaps, distracted at any rate by the dreadful drag of the world upon them and the awful rush of the world’s work, find it hard to get time and opportunity so much as to pause and consider whether there be such things as God, and religion, and salvation from the sin that compasses them about and holds them captive. The very atmosphere of your life is these things; you breathe them in at every pore; they surround you, encompass you, press in upon you from every side. It is all in danger of becoming common to you! God forgive you, you are in danger of becoming weary of God! Do you know what this danger is? Or, rather, let us turn the question- Are you alive to what your privileges are? Are you making full use of them? Are you, by this constant contact with divine things, growing in holiness, becoming every day more and more men of God? If not, you are hardening! And I am here today to warn you to take seriously your theological study, not merely as a duty, done for God’s sake and therefore made divine, but as a religious exercise, itself charged with religious blessing to you; as fitted by its very nature to fill all your mind and heart and soul and life with divine thoughts and feelings and aspirations and achievements.”

–Benjamin B. Warfield, “The Religious Life of Theological Students.” Originally an address delivered by Warfield at the Autumn Conference at Princeton Theological Seminary on October 4, 1911.

-----------------
May God's Word, not become mere words to us; and may we not get so close to the trees, that we fail to see the forest...

Majesty......worship His Majesty!!!
Bro. Hank ><>

Hang your pride upon the gallows

2006-09-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

"Who made you to differ?

It is grace, free, sovereign grace, which has made you to differ!

Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of
God, imagine that there is some reason "in them" why they
should have been chosen, let them know, that as yet they are in
the dark, concerning the first principles of grace, and have not
yet learned the gospel.

If ever they had known the gospel, they would, on the other
hand, confess that they were less than the least- the offscouring
of all things- unworthy, ill-deserving, undeserving, and hell-
deserving, and ascribe it all to distinguishing grace, which has made them to differ; and to discriminating love, which has
chosen them out from the rest of the world.

Great Christian, you would have been a great sinner
if God had not made you to differ!

O! you who are valiant for truth, you would have been
as valiant for the devil if grace had not laid hold of you!

A seat in heaven shall one day be yours; but a chain in hell
would have been yours if grace had not changed you!

You can now sing his love; but a licentious song might have been
on your lips, if grace had not washed you in the blood of Jesus!

You are now sanctified, you are quickened, you are justified;
but what would you have been today if it had not been for the
interposition of the divine hand?

There is not a crime you might not have committed;
there is not a folly into which you might not have run.
Even murder itself you might have committed
if grace had not kept you.

You shall be like the angels; but you would have been like the
devil if you had not been changed by grace!

Therefore, never be proud- all the garments you have
are from above; rags were your only heritage.

Never be proud, though you now have a wide domain of grace;
you had once not a single thing to call yours own, except your
sin and misery.

You are now wrapped up in the golden righteousness of the
Savior, and accepted in the garments of the beloved!
But you would have been buried under the black mountain of
sin, and clothed with the filthy rags of unrighteousness,
if he had not changed you!

And are you proud?

Do you exalt yourself?

O! strange mystery, that you, who have borrowed everything,
should exalt yourself; that you, who have nothing of your own,
but have still to draw upon grace, should be proud- a poor
dependent pensioner upon the bounty of your Savior, and yet
proud; one who has a life which can only live by fresh streams of
life from Jesus, and yet proud!

Go, hang your pride upon the gallows, as high as Haman!
Hang it there to rot, and you stand beneath, and execrate it to all
eternity; for sure of all things most to be cursed and despised is
the pride of a Christian.

He, of all men, has ten thousand times more reason than any
other to be humble, and walk lowly with his God, and kindly and
humbly toward his fellow-creatures."
--
From Spurgeon's sermon, "The Fruitless Vine" delivered March 22, 1857.

There's no 'I' in 'me'

2006-09-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

(link to above A-Team pic found here)

A couple of things before we start in.. Hank has really been digging up some gems as of late so I hope everyone else has gotten as much out of them as I have. Thanks for continually sharing what the Lord is showing you; all those things lost from 'hoary antiquity' as Spurgeon would call it. The post about love was right on and something we need to understand as we work out our salvation.

There are a couple of things I really want to get to but I might spread them out in a couple of posts; we'll see..

We've all heard the saying "there's no 'I' in T-E-A-M" right? The idea is that as participants on a team we are supposed to do what is in the best interest of the team and not in the best interest of ourselves. In fact, often what is in the best interest of the team will be in our best interest as well. I was watching ESPN a couple weeks ago during hurricane Katrina remembrance week and they were telling the story of one of last years Lousiana state champion basketball teams. The team was made up of guys from several different schools who had been displaced by the storm but because of the situation they were allowed to play as one team. Of course at first these players did not get along very well at all. Many had been stars at their respective schools and were unwilling to relinquish that role here. One player in particular believed himself to be of much greater value than the team and took it upon himself to do everything. The coach did a very interesting thing one day in practice. He gave that young man the ball and then had him play 1 on 5 against the rest of the team. The coach made his point. Up to then his stats were great but his team had been losing. After that lesson the team united and they went on to win the state championship (anyone want to speculate on how long it will be 'til they make a movie out of that one?). Obviously it was in that players best interests to play team basketball because in so doing they won the championship and he had a great season.

You can pick that moral out of just about every sports movie ( Remember the Titans, The Mighty Ducks, Finding Forrester, etc.). The clear truth is that what is best for the team is also, in most cases, best for you. The maxim 'there's no 'I' in 'team' ' is really a maxim against selfishness. Being selfish is rarely in one's long term best interest. It may work for a while, but eventually it will catch up with you for many reasons, but that's a rabbit trail.. back to the path.

Where could this truth be more important than in application of the kingdom life? I had a long post a week or so ago about our 'self' and in it I stated the importance of our 'selves' passing from memory. I want to continue that discussion for a moment...

As Christians we have been saved by the grace of God for the purpose of glorifying Him. There are good works He has prepared in advance for us to do, He knows the plans He has for His kingdom, He directs our steps, He guides us in the path of righteousness, He provides for our physical needs and our spiritual, emotional, intellectual, et. al. needs, He calls us for a purpose and works all things for our good and His glory. He trains us, He disciplines us, He instructs us, He prepares us. We are like a student enrolled in a lifelong course of training under the greatest instructor in and outside the universe. I say these things to stress the idea that we are God's creation, we are His servants, we are to seek His will, we are to be led by Him. Could I say that in a few more ways? This is God's universe, this is God's redemptive plan, this is God's eternal plan, this is God's restorative plan, this is God's perfect plan, this is God's kingdom. I am God's child by some miracle of grace called salvation..

I say ALL of that to reinforce the idea that my 'self' in all its nobility and grace and wonder (we do think that about ourselves sometimes don't we) and in all it's rottenness and wickedness and paltriness (apparent to a candid observer) has no place in the service of God. Ask yourself this question as I ask myself the same: What can I add to God?

I believe we often, very genuinely, very honestly, very intentionally go about doing God's work without God. If that's the case, then let's do some simple math:

God's work - God = work

Hmm.. well, that's not really that appealing is it... That's not what we were thinking when we heard the yoke was easy and the burden light. The God we worship is not a bedridden invalid. He is the Sovereign Lord of the universe. But so many people burn out, so many people leave the church, so many people get worn out serving and they implode. Why? Because it's their work, not God's work. Sure, the actions are often the same, but the root is completely different; it springs from a different place. I could duct tape apples to a dead apple tree and it wouldn't make the tree come back to life. Or I could tape apples in an orange tree and it wouldn't make the orange tree bear apples. Two things there:

1. Our work, our ministry, will cause us to implode and literally break down if it is not a product of God's work in our lives

2. If God is calling me to serve in a particular area, but I don't feel it's really spiritual enough or good enough for me so I do something 'bigger and better' it will not have the powerful impact I intended. If I am not a pastor but I decide I want to pastor, I will still not be a pastor. If I'm a businessman but I decide I want to be an astronaut, I am not an astronaut. I could pass it off for a while, but when I actually have to do something the truth will come out.

Many people, myself included, are in a rush to do awesome things for the kingdom of God. We are in a rush to mature, in a rush to be more Christlike, in a rush to know more, in a rush for the church to 'be the church' (whatever that means), in a rush for things to change, and that's great. We need to live life urgently because it's short, it's a vapor and I understand that. But at the same time, what happens when the apprentice decides he knows what's best? What happens when the sword bearer for the great knight decides, if he can carry the sword, he can also wield it? What happens? In a great act of valor and courage, the camera frames slow, the valiant young man (or woman) rushes out into battle, they raise the sword, they raise a yell and... they get killed. As almost an afterthought or accidental strike by the blade of an experience foe, they get leveled. All that training, all that time, and now.. broken.. dead. That's not what's best for the team. That's not what's best for the kingdom of God, it's not what's best for the church and it certainly isn't what's best for you (for me). Our passion must be towards God and not for God. I was watching a video from the resurgence conference
by Dr. Tim Keller and he said a major problem with Christians is this:

We base our Justification on our Sanctification meaning we live with the mistaken notion that:

-we are accepted because we obey, instead of
-we obey because we are accepted

If I may speak so boldly as to say what is in the Lord's interest and what is not, then I tell you: it is not in the best interest of the Lord for his leaders in training to take off their training wheels and ride off the precipice. We should press into the kingdom, into the Lord, being passionate about Him and then, at the appointed time, He will send us out. In the meantime let us endeavor to be faithful as David was while in the territory of the Philistines, while though waiting for the Lord to raise him up as king, did not sit idly but rather served and expanded the Lord's kingdom in whatever ways the Lord allowed him. Let us be eternally thankful there is an 'I' in 'CHRIST.'

p.s. I in no means mean to imply that God's work is not 'work.' Half of the equation is still work and that means trying and difficult, but it is also backed by the inexhaustible resources of God.

In the Perfector of our Faith,

Keeping the 'family' in "Family Worship"

2006-09-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

A few words on "Family Worship", compiled by Phillip Way of the Spurgeon Underground...

========================

John Bunyan - Duties of Fathers and Parents

"As touching the spiritual state of his family; he ought to be very diligent and circumspect, doing his utmost endeavour both to increase faith where it is begun, and to begin it where it is not. Wherefore, to this end, he ought diligently and frequently to lay before his household such things of God, out of his word, as are suitable for each particular.

Thy children have souls, and they must be begotten of God as well as of thee, or they perish. And know also, that unless thou be very circumspect in thy behavior to and before them, they may perish through thee: the thoughts of which should provoke thee, both to instruct, and also to correct them."

Matthew Henry – Commentary

"Masters of families, who preside in the other affairs of the house, must go before their households in the things of God. They must be as prophets, priests, and kings in their own families; and as such they must keep up family-doctrine, family-worship, and family-discipline: then is there a church in the house, and this is the family religion I am persuading you to. You must read the scriptures to your families, in a solemn manner, requiring their attendance on your reading, and their attention to it: and inquiring sometimes whether they understand what you read? Those masters of families who make conscience of doing this daily, morning and evening, reckoning it part of that which the duty of every day requires, -- I am sure they have comfort and satisfaction in so doing, and find it contributes much to their own improvement in Christian knowledge, and the edification of those that dwell under their shadow"

George Whitefield – Morning and Evening, Part 2

"Would then the present generation have their posterity be true lovers and honorers of God; masters and parents must take Solomon's good advice, and train up and catechize their respective households in the way wherein they should go. I am aware but of one objection, that can, with any show of reason, be urged against what has been advanced; which is, that such a procedure as this will take up too much time, and hinder families too long from their worldly business. But it is much to be questioned, whether persons that start such an objection, are not of the same hypocritical spirit as the traitor Judas, who had indignation against devout Mary, for being so profuse of her ointment, in anointing our blessed Lord, and asked why it might not be sold for two hundred pence, and given to the poor. For has God given us so much time to work for ourselves, and shall we not allow some small pittance of it, morning and evening, to be devoted to his more immediate worship and service? Have not people read, that it is God who gives men power to get wealth, and therefore that the best way to prosper in the world, is to secure his favor? And has not our blessed Lord himself promised, that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all outward necessaries shall be added unto us?"

What is Love to Christ?

2006-09-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

by Thomas Doolitle (1630-1707)

"Love shows the true character of a man, according to the object which he loves more than anything else: for as is the love, so is the man. According to his love, so might you confidently designate the man. If he is a lover of honour, he is an ambitious man; a lover of pleasure, a sensual man; and if he chiefly love the world, he is a covetous man. If a man loves righteousness, he is a religious man; if the things above, a heavenly-minded man; and if he love Christ with a pre-eminent love, he is a sincere man: "Rightly do they love you.," Song of Songs 1:4.

If Christ has our love, he has our all; and Christ never has what he deserves from us, till he has our love. True love withholds nothing from Christ, when it is sincerely set upon him. If we actually love him, he will have our time, and he will have our service, and he will have the use of all our resources, and gifts, and graces; indeed, then he shall have our possessions, freedom, and our very lives, whenever he calls for them. In the same way, when God loves any of us, he will withhold nothing from us that is good for us. He does not hold back his own only begotten Son, Rom.8:32. When Christ loves us, he gives us everything we need-- his merits to justify us, his Spirit to sanctify us, his grace to adorn us, and his glory to crown us. Therefore, when any of us love Christ sincerely, we lay everything down at his feet, and give up all to be at his command and service: "And they loved not their lives unto the death," Rev. 12:11." (HT: PastorWay)

Only God...

2006-09-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've often heard people say, "only God can judge me". Well, to those people I say, "tis true. And He has already judged you, and you stand at His feet, condemned to die in your sins; but for the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ." I fear it is one's guilty conscience that precedes a statement such as that - and there is but one place that such a conscience and such a soul can be cleansed...and it is not in the depths of self-righteousness, nor is it in using Christian liberty as a cloak for maliciousness...but it is in the humble 'bowing of the knee' to any pretense of pride in practice of works and deeds, and crying out as the psalmist did, "If you Lord, shoudest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

Genesis 18:25,
Bro. Hank

Where Faith Must Be..

2006-09-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

This present age is so full, so overflowing with false ideas, pagan ideologies, godless worship, and spiritual confusion it seems at times quite hopeless. Truly there is no man that I can place my faith in, no man I can trust without question, no man I can believe without hesitation. There is no one to trust, save Christ. Many began with noble intentions and right motives and went far astray; why should I expect this to change? Man is always fallible, always subject to error, always subject to temptation. I do not mean to paint a picture of despair, only a picture of reality. There is only one thing to hold onto in this life, and that is 'Christ in you, the hope of glory.' All else can be stripped, all else can fade, and all else will. If my faith is in men of God, they will go astray or die. If my faith is in wealth, it will be taken. If my faith is in a relationship, it may be lost. If my faith is in myself, it is sure to crumble. If my faith is in family, it will come to ruins. If my faith is in success, I shall find I can never attain. If my faith is placed in any object, any person, any belief, any idea, any organization or institution, anything but Christ, then I shall come to ruin. There is but one who never fails. Let us press into the kingdom brethren. Let us search the Word and know it. Let us seek God that we might find Him. Let us pour out ourselves that we might be filled with Him. Let us pray that by grace we might experience an even greater measure of Grace, a greater measure of Mercy, a greater measure of Faith, a greater measure of God. That portion will fill, that vision will satisfy, that truth will set us free.

In Hope,
EP

S.O.L. warns of 'inclusivism'.

2006-09-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Below is an article from Slice of Laodicea on the ultimate end of the emergent church theology, and it's proponents. It reminded me once again that "there is no new thing under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

><> Bro. Hank
===================================

Emergent Inclusivism And Brian McLaren
"One of the most prominent leaders within the Ecumenical Church of Deceit is Emergent leader Brian McLaren. McLaren is slated as plenary speaker at Going Forward Together: Third Millennium Christianity taking place November 16-19, 2006 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.

I have been trying to warn the Body of Christ about the Hollow Men of the Emergent Church who are attempting to bring inclusivism into the Lord's Church. The "Mission Document" of this coming event states: "Christians today wrestle with the question of authority." But as I point out in this article no authentic Christians "wrestle" with "the question of authority" because the Holy Spirit within us gives us a love and reverence for the Bible as we bring glory to God when we willingly obey Jesus Christ.

What we are witnessing right now is a new evangelicalism begining to be pumped into the hollow shell of Christianity left after the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church and mainline denominations - killed by the original liberal theology of their forebears - have pumped out all of the true meaning of our terminology.

And as they do evangelical leaders only stand there watching as the "religious polarization" of "a new common ground is emerging where deeper religious understanding and broader engagement" with apostate denominations and pagan religions which will ultimately lead to their openly preaching universalism together."

A cleaner way to hell

2006-09-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

(Thomas Brooks, "The Privy Key of Heaven" 1665)

"I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get."
Luke 18:12

Take heed of trusting in religious duties. These duties
rested in, will as eternally undo a man--as the greatest
and foulest enormities.

Open wickedness slays her thousands--but a secret
resting upon duties slays her ten thousands!

Open profaneness is the broad dirty way which leads
to hell--but trusting in religious duties is a sure way,
though a cleaner way to hell.

Profane people and formal professors shall meet
at last in the same hell.

You know, in Noah's flood all that were not in the
ark, though they climbed up the tallest trees, and
the highest mountains and hills--yet were drowned!
So let men climb up to this duty and that--yet, if
they don't get into Christ, they will be damned!

It is as natural to a man to rest in his duties, as it
is for him to rest in his bed. It is not your duties,
but your Christ, that must save you. Many shining
professors burn themselves by resting in their
duties and services.

Oh, rest not on anything but Jesus Christ! It is His
free grace, it is His special mercy, it is His infinite love
--which is your resting-place! It is the bosom of Christ,
the favor of Christ, the satisfaction of Christ, and the
pure, perfect, spotless, matchless, and glorious
righteousness of Christ--which is your resting-place!

It was the saying of a precious saint, that "He was
more afraid of his religious duties, than of his sins.
For his duties often made him proud; his sins always
made him humble."

====================
May we be humbled more and more as the day approaches,

Bro. Hank

What about me?

2006-09-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

What EP brought up in his post Self-help, self-serve, self-less?? Less-self, really highlighted some critical issues within the Christian walk.

But let's face it, being 'selfless' goes against every fiber of our sinful human nature. The most recent generation has not been the only "ME" generation in the history of the human-race. No, that generation traces all the way back to Adam and Eve. And even through thousands of years, and countless examples of the damaging outcomes of selfishness - WE STILL DON'T GET THE POINT.

Edmund touched on the reasoning behind that fact, and I'll elaborate even further. We don't get the idea that sinful self-centeredness hurts us and our brothers and sisters, because it is cloaked in yet more sin. It is almost as if satan gives us a trojan-horse of worldly satisfaction. Let me attempt to explain:

When we live our lives (Christians not excluded) in service to self, we open the gates of our hearts to sin and satan. Ephesians 6:12 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." When we set up ourselves as idols in our own hearts, be it our future, or our desires, or our career, or our family, or our boyfriend or girlfriend, we are coveting the very thing that Jesus Christ himself laid aside...
Lets look back to the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, Matthew 4: 1-11, and then Gethsemane Matthew 26:38-39:

1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

And in the garden of Gethsemane:
38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

These few verses in Matthew tell us many things. First of all, we get a fantastic insight in how the devil works in believers' lives. Each time that satan tempted Christ, he twists and mishandles the Word of God; just like he did to Eve in the garden of Eden. Secondly, we see how Christ combats those lies and temptations: He does it with the true Word of God. Do you see in those passages, the lies that Christ rejected? He rejected substinence for his own hunger's sake, he rejected the temptation to 'prove God', and he rejected WORLDLY SATISFACTION.

And are we naive enough to believe that satan is not still tempting us with the very same things today? He is and he does. But be ye not deceived, satisfaction with the world and self - is dissatisfaction with God and His Son. Either we are satisfied in Him, and presented perfectly in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28), or we are not! Either Christ is the Head or He is not. God plays no games, and pulls no punches when it comes to the estimation of Christ in our hearts. What the beloved disciple stated in John 3:30, was not a mere opinion, nor was it merely a "secret to prosperity" or happiness or whatever else Joel Osteen tells you that it was..."He must increase, but I must decrease" are LIFE ALTERING, Spirit-inspired words. Those words strike at the sinfilled heart of selfish man. They pierce a sinner's soul and leave "nothing but the Blood" to fill the gap. Christ MUST increase in our hearts, and He WILL, but we MUST decrease. We have no other options. Like the gunslingers in those old westerns..."this town ain't big enough for the both of us"....and our hearts aren't either.

Take a moment now to read these short excerpts from Ten Shekels and a Shirt, preached by Paris Reidhead:

"And so it had gotten down to the place where salvation was nothing more than an assent to a scheme or a formula. And the end of this salvation was the happiness of man because humanism has penetrated. And so if you were to analyze the fundamentalism in contrast to liberalism of a hundred years ago, as it developed, it’d be like this:

The liberal says the end of religion is to make man happy while he's alive.

And the fundamentalist says the end of religion is to make man happy when he dies.

Until we find it something like this;
"Accept Jesus so you can go to Heaven, you don't want to go to that old, filthy, nasty, burning hell when there's a beautiful Heaven up there. Now come to Jesus so that you can go to Heaven."
And the appeal could be as much to selfishness as a couple of men sitting in a coffee shop deciding they are going to rob a bank to get something for nothing.

Becomes so subtle ... it goes everywhere. What is it?
In essence it is this: that this philosophical postulate at the end of all being is the happiness of man has been a sort of, covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in Heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the Angels exist in the... Everything is for the happiness of man!

And I submit to you that this is un-Christian!

Christianity says... "The end of all being is the glory of God."

Humanism says, "The end of all being is the happiness of man."

This is the betrayal of the ages!!

And it's the betrayal in which we live and I don't see how God can revive it!
Until we come back to Christianity.

Isn't man happy?
And God intend to make you happy? But as a byproduct and not a prime product.

Now I ask you, what is the philosophy of mission? What is the philosophy of evangelism? What is the philosophy of a Christian? If you’ll ask me why I went to Africa, I’ll tell you I went primarily, to improve on the justice of God. I didn’t think it was right for anybody to go to hell without a chance to be saved. And so I went to give poor sinners a chance to go to Heaven.

No, I hadn’t put it in so many words. But if you’ll analyze what I just told you, do you know what it is? It’s humanism. But I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ as a means to improve upon human conditions of suffering and misery.

And when I got to Africa, I discovered that they weren’t poor, ignorant, little heathen running around in the woods, waiting for, looking for someone to tell them how to go to Heaven. That they were a monsters of iniquity. They were living in utter and total defiance, of far more knowledge of God than I ever dreamed they had. They deserved hell because they utterly refused to walk in the light of their conscience and the light of the law written upon their heart and the testimony of nature and the truth they knew.

And when I found that out, I assure you, I was so angry with God that one occasion in prayer, I told him that it was a mighty, little thing He’d done, sending me out there to reach these people that were waiting to be told how to go to Heaven. When I got there I found out they knew about Heaven, didn’t wanna go there. And they (were) loved their sin and wanted to stay in it.
I went out there motivated by humanism. I’d seen pictures of lepers. I’d seen pictures of ulcers. I’d see pictures of native funerals. And I didn’t want my fellow human beings to suffer in hell eternally, after such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there in Africa that God began to tear through the overlay of this humanism.

And it was that day in my bedroom, with the door locked, that I wrestled with God. For here was...was I coming to grips with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and wanted to know how to go to Heaven, and were saying “someone come and teach us” actually didn’t wanna take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no interest in the bible and no interest in Christ. And they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I was to the place at that time where I felt the whole thing was a sham and a mockery and I’d been sold a bill of goods. And I wanted to come home.

And there alone in my bedroom as I faced God honestly with what my heart felt, it seemed to me I heard Him say, “Yes, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they’re going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel. They’re going to go to hell because they are sinners who loved... their ..sin.. and because they deserved hell. But, I didn’t send you out there for them, I didn't send you out there for their sakes."

And I heard as clearly as I’ve ever heard though it wasn’t with physical voice but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its way into an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day something like this:

“I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen. I sent you to Africa for My sake. They deserved hell but I love them and I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for Me. Do I not deserve the reward of My suffering? Don't I deserve those for whom I died?”

And it reversed it all. It changed it all and righted it all. And I wasn't any longer working for my cup and ten shekels and a shirt but I was serving the living God."

Get over yourself,
><>Bro. Hank