All of Grace

Christ vs. Caesar

2010-12-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

We are a generation that is fixated on instant news. Our proclivity to assess our world based on current events is not new. In the first century people found hope or despair based on current news. The Roman Empire was the great western nation. It was ruled by Octavian, the great nephew of Julius Caesar. Octavian was eventually called Caesar Augustus, meaning Revered Emperor. He was the Caesar who brought the Pax Romana (the peace of Rome). He was even referred to on one inscription as the savior of the world. It was this news which informed the people of the first century.

This is the background to Luke’s ironic account of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2. Luke provides us with a news account which focuses our attention in an unlikely place. He gives us news about an insignificant teen girl, in an insignificant town, in an insignificant nation, giving birth to a very significant baby. Luke begins this story with Caesar Augustus’ census which forced Joseph and Mary to return to Bethlehem, demonstrating that the world’s greatest leader was simply a pawn in God’s plan for the birth of Jesus. Luke goes on to tell us this baby, not Caesar, is truly the Revered King, the Savior, and the One who brings peace.

Jesus is the Son of God who was born a man to live perfectly in our place, pay the penalty for our sin on the Cross, and raise from the dead, so that all who turn from sin and trust in him alone will be saved. Luke directly challenges our focus on current news and places it squarely on the good news of Jesus. May this Christmas season remind us that all other news events are merely tangential to the greatest news story ever told!

The Impossibility of Evangelism & Preaching

2010-11-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

Just after preaching the worship service at Sovereign Grace, I went to lunch with an unbelieving man. We had a great conversation and I was able to talk extensively about the gospel. He enjoyed the conversation and was more than happy to engage. He seemed to understand what I was saying conceptually, yet looked at me through the eyes of someone who wasn't connecting to my descriptions of the grace of God in the gospel at all. I enjoyed my time with him and hope to spend a lot more. I also was reminded of some precious biblical truth with regard to the impossibility of evangelism and preaching.

Christianity does not teach that truth is merely conceptual. Truth is personal. It is personal because Jesus is himself the truth. As a result, I can explain the truth and provide biblical descriptions of the truth, but it is impossible for me to describe the truth sufficiently enough for you to actually know the Truth. You can't know a person by hearing a description about him. You must meet and experience him. The problem is that men are not, in and of themselves, able to know the Truth. They can understand the descriptions I provide in preaching and evangelism. They can't, however, taste and see that the Lord is good through my descriptions of him. In the moments when I realize this, I feel like a man trying to describe honey to someone who has never tasted its sweetness.

The Bible is clear that the eyes of unbelievers have been blinded to really knowing and believing the truth. They can't see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:3-4). So, trying to describe the grace of God in Jesus to them is like describing the majesty of a sunset to a blind person. They can't see it based on my descriptions. They must receive sight. The Bible also refers to unbelievers as those who are spiritually deaf. I can sign the greatest description of a symphony to them, but they still don't know the beauty of its sound. So, in one sense evangelism and preaching are an impossible task. Apart from God opening the eyes of the spiritually blind, giving hearing to the spiritually deaf, or giving life to the spiritually dead so they can taste and see that the Lord is good, no man will ever know and trust in the Truth, Jesus Christ our Lord!

This reality drives me to my knees to plead with God to give spiritual sight, hearing, and life to unbelievers. The impossibility of evangelism and preaching in this regard should inform the church's prayer life. We must pray for men to be saved because God must work in them if they are to see and hear and know the Truth. So, I will continue to describe the goodness of the Lord in the gospel to people and I will also continue to pray that God enables them to taste the sweet honey of the gospel.

Oh Taste and See that the Lord is Good!

2010-10-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

"The man whose soul is “growing” takes more interest in spiritual things every year. He does not neglect his duty in the world. He discharges faithfully, diligently, and conscientiously every relation of life, whether at home or abroad. But the things he loves best are spiritual things. The ways, and fashions, and amusements, and recreations of the world have a continually decreasing place in his heart. He does not condemn them as downright sinful, nor say that those who have anything to do with them are going to hell. He only feels that they have a constantly diminishing hold on his own affections, and gradually seem smaller and more trifling in his eyes. Spiritual companions, spiritual occupations, spiritual conversation, appear of ever-increasing value to him. Would any one know if he is growing in grace? Then let him look within for increasing spirituality of taste."

J.C. Ryle, Holiness

HT: Kevin DeYoung

Solomon and the 20th Century, Pt. 2

2010-09-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

Part II: The Wind Cries Vanity

When we come upon the contrast I posited last week between the “Christian worldview” that values order, rationality, and meaning in the universe and the “Secular worldview” in the forms of Existentialism and modern art that values chaos, disorder, and meaninglessness, we must look much deeper than worldview assertions (or “world-interpretations” as I termed it last time). We must interrogate these assertions and ask why people interpret the world the way do. Is it because they begin with different texts to guide their interpretations? Possibly; the Christian interpretation does claim to begin with the Scriptures while the other does not. But we must ask an even deeper question: How do those respective parties each interpret their own text? Regrettably, we do not have the privilege of not interpreting the Bible and saying that these truths we claim merely are. Interpretation is the only game in town, and that means we have some explaining to do. So then, if we’re going to examine the Bible to determine what is Biblical or not in the way of the 20^th Century claims about the world, man, and his existence in this world, where are we going to start?

Last week I suggested we begin with Solomon, and I still think that is a fantastic place to begin our study. God gave Solomon a tremendous amount of wisdom as well as the skill to write it down. However, I can’t seem to begin by ignoring the Beginning of Beginnings. Before we can go into the world Ecclesiastes, we have to briefly scour the beginning of Genesis – the entire Old Testament hinges on those opening chapters; it is after all the beginning. God created the world, and it was good; God formed man and woman, and it was very good – a brief summary of chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 3: big problem! Man disobeys God by eating the fruit God commanded him not to. Here’s where I want us to focus before we get into Solomon. The universe was made by God as very good; this idea of “good” is not a moral “goodness”, but a kind of usefulness and beneficence toward mankind. Creation was designed with man in mind, and all things lent to his good health and prosperity. Yet something goes incredibly wrong. Man, whom God favored as the ruler of all creation, trespassed the one and only command given him as ruler. And what was the consequence?

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return”.
(Gen 3:17-19, emphasis added)

We must be careful to note that God did not curse Adam and Eve, but he did curse the creation, that creation he only recently created for man’s good. The verb used for “cursed” (ארר, for any Hebrew nerds out there) is the strongest in the Old Testament; God is utterly serious about subjecting the creation to this harshest of curses because of the totality, the sheer atrocity Adam’s disobedience in order that man’s life, which was once good and harmonious in the creation, would be one of toil, pain, and death – dust to dust. I don’t think I need to spend any time convincing you that we all live in this cursed place. Growing things to eat out of the ground requires hard work, making a living requires a great deal of toil, our front yards easily fill with thorns and thistles (a fact some of us are conveniently reminded of every weekend) and the most terrifying fact of all, everyone dies. Toil, sweat, and death are all essential parts of our lives after the Tree, no matter how much we may wish to ignore them. We live in a post-fall world, and it is of this world that Solomon speaks. He uses his wisdom to interpret a world integrally affected by Adam’s disobedience in the subsequent curse. So, with this in mind, that it was Adam’s disobedience that brought the curse upon creation, let us descend into the depths of the Preacher’s wisdom.

As we begin looking at Ecclesiastes, let us remind ourselves of the question at hand. Has God placed us in a world that, though fallen, is orderly, has rationality behind it, and operates on a basis of meaningfulness? Or, has God, if we take the basic thesis of Existentialism or modern art seriously on this matter, left us in a world of disorder, irrationality (or better yet non-rationality), and utter meaninglessness? Do our lives have meaning or not? Is there a reason behind this universe? What does life amount to? Just how fallen is this world and our existence in it? Our first introduction to existence in this world, life “under the sun”, from Solomon should be pretty enlightening: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecc. 1:2). Everything is vanity; but what exactly is vanity? Vanity here is not the kind of attitude one may expresses over extended periods of time in front of a mirror. The Hebrew word hevel (הבל), which most Bibles translate as “vanity”, connotes a vaporous or breath-like existence, a perishable nature, nothingness, emptiness, a void. Everything is vanity; everything is a vapor; everything is nothingness; everything is emptiness. Really? Is everything vanity? I think we could all agree that sinful things such as greed, anger, lust, and lies are all vanities, they amount to nothing in the divine scheme, they are pointless and meaningless, but what about our friends and family? What about our work? What about our creativity? What about our love? What about our justice, our happiness, our wisdom, our worship? Are these things vanity too? Doesn’t God value these things in our lives so that they are not empty and vain? Well, if we stay at verse 2, all we can say is “vanity of vanities!” Perhaps the following verses give us some perspective on the extent of this vanity: “And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind.” (1:13-14). Well then, it appears as if Solomon says that indeed everything is vain and empty.

Yet what about wisdom itself? God loves wisdom (Prov. 8) so wisdom must not be vanity. How else could Solomon write this book of wisdom if wisdom where emptiness too? “‘Why then have I been so very wise?’ And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance… How the wise dies just like the fool!” (2:15-16). Solomon, who’s wisdom was far greater than yours and mine, found his wisdom to be nothing but emptiness. We are going to die, and our wisdom will go with us into the dust just like a fool’s folly will accompany him. Both die; none are spared no matter how wise or how foolish. How futile! What’s the point of being wise?

And what about work? God ordained work for man in the garden; surely it must be sacred and meaningful. What about such noble ideas as the “Protestant Work Ethic” and duty? Could those amount to nothingness as well? Of course: “What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity” (2:22-23). Does this remind you of Genesis? Life under the curse is life where work is fully of futile toil. No matter how well you work or how much you accomplish for good or evil it all amounts to the same thing: nothing. You work, you pile up accomplishments, and who gets the benefit of it when you die? The fool that comes after you (2:19). Because of the curse, work in this world is a vexation, it’s painful and tiresome, and there is no end of it. You’ll die before you can find any meaning in it – it’s all vanity. Why work at all then? What’s the point? Why shouldn’t I just quit my job and go begin digging my own grave? (Please don’t be so morbid). Hang on a moment longer.

Solomon brings us to an as yet unprecedented conclusion for the book of Ecclesiastes in the following verse: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil” (2:24). We are supposed to enjoy our work? I thought it was supposed to be vanity? I thought it was cursed? No, “This also… is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (2:24-25). Without God there would be no enjoyment. Yet this brings up a vexing question that cuts to the heart of our concerns. Does enjoyment eliminate the vanity, or are we simply to enjoy in spite of the vanity? Enjoyment is from the hand of God; it is one of the many gifts God gives us in our lives on this earth. Just as we cannot eat without God’s provision, we cannot enjoy without fearing him. But just because we’re enjoying something, does that make it less vain, less of a void? This question crops up over and over throughout Ecclesiastes. Solomon lays out a brutally honest picture of the world in all its emptiness, and then reminds us to be joyful in it. Your work is vain, so enjoy it! How do we do that? Do we take from our joy to acknowledge the emptiness, or do we forget the emptiness to be happy with our lives? Since there is nothing better to do “than to be joyful and to do good as long as [we] live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil – this is God’s gift to man” (3:12-13), why does Solomon even acknowledge, in all his wisdom, the vain nature of our world? Doesn’t that just kill all the joy? Or rather, does enjoying things give them meaning? Does being thankful to God, something we can only do as Christians, reintroduce the meaning that was lost in the fall?

There is one point in the text where I believe Solomon’s answer collides most poignantly with this question. Take a look at Ecclesiastes 9:9: “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he [God] has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun”. Here Solomon goes again: enjoy! “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love”! Thank God for your marriage, enjoy love! Great, that means marriage too has meaning when we can enjoy it the Christian context. But what comes next? “All the days of your vain life…” Enjoy… all the days of your vain life. In other words, enjoy your vain life, the vain life that God gave you. In your empty work, your empty wisdom, your empty romance, in your weary life under the sun where nothing amounts to anything and everything amounts to nothing, be joyful! Life is by nature a vexation, full of weariness for us as we live in a post-fall world, so you better enjoy it. Solomon sees our lives as simultaneous enjoyment and vanity; one does not negate the other, they are both equally part of our existence in this fallen world.

As fallen creates we live east of Eden, and everything east of Eden is nothingness. We live in the once good world that has since been cursed, where everything has become frustrated so that we cannot tell end of something from its beginning – “the wind blows… and on its circuits the wind returns”. The purpose in our lives has been obscured and the only thing predictable about our lives is that we will die. However much we’ve accumulated through toil, however lucid our wisdom, however pleasant our family and friends, it all amounts to nothing; we die and it will all be forgotten, and anyone who remembers us or inherits our possessions will also die and be forgotten: “There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after” (Ecc. 1:11). Everything in this world will fade away like castles made of sand – dust to dust. Everything under the sun is “vanity and striving after wind”, striving after the wind we can never catch; the world is a vapor that extends through us in all of our “meaningful” activities. Vanity of vanities, all in this fallen world is vanity.

If you’re still reading this, even if you’ve been as comfortable as if you were sitting in a bucket of piranhas since everything you’ve ever known or did has been summed up as a bunch of vanity. No, it’s not very pleasant, and it isn’t supposed to be. And like everything uncomfortable, every unpleasant truth, there are always plenty of objections. “How can there be absolutely no meaning in my life? Doesn’t God have a plan for everything? Don’t things amount to something in the end?” I am no scholar of Ecclesiastes and the best I can say is perhaps, but can you know any of that meaning from where you’re sitting now? We don’t have the privilege of seeing the end of something from its beginning – causes do not advertise effects. We have to remember that it was God himself that gets the credit for giving us our vain lives and all the vain things we have to do in them, our vain work, or vain love, our vain wisdom. Vanity is not anti-sovereignty, anti-providence, or anti-God; rather, its sovereignty, providence, and God viewed from the perspective of post-fall human beings, creatures living in a world after Eden. We’re made of dust and we’re going back to dust – dust does not have the right to view things from the heavens. So why do anything? Well, there’s no particular reason to do anything, except that being thankful to God, obeying him, and fearing him will bring us to enjoy what we do. Our alternatives are between doing nothing and being miserable and disobedient to God, and doing nothing and enjoying it in the fear of God with thankfulness and obedience. Solomon is trying to drive us to this point where we cannot rely on those “meaningful” things in life. The utter meaninglessness he brings us to, the abyss he drops us into, leaves us with one option as believers: fear God. We get protective over our "meaning" in life as if there were nothing better, when in fact our meanings are subtle cover-ups for our loss. God has stripped us on our way out of Paradise of whatever we might want to find meaningful, and now nothing is better than to simply enjoy, fear and obey. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

So now, after merely grazing the surface of the Scriptures, how do we esteem our “Christian worldview”? It doesn’t sound like Solomon’s “worldview”, and I would humbly suggest that this is a problem. We cannot very well maintain anything “Christian” that doesn’t quite line up with the Scriptures – although some may try very hard. Our “new” (or should I say “uncovered”?) Christian world-interpretation, which holds nothing of the former’s audacity, extends its footing to the very bedrock of Christian thought: the Scriptures, and from here we have no need to rise any further.

And what about the notions of “order” and “rationality”? Is the universe ordered? Is there a logic behind it? Those two ideas merge together under the single notion that it is God who has made the world, and, since God is orderly and rational, the universe must likewise be rational and orderly. Simple and clear logic, but it belies and leaves untouched an even simpler fact that comes from our Preacher: “[T]hen I saw all the works of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out” (Ecc. 8:17). Maybe God is orderly, maybe God is rational, but he is not rational as we are, not orderly as we are. Our orders are not God’s, nor are our logics. If God is orderly and rational, it is a kind that cannot be discerned. The wise men, scientists, philosophers, and, dare I say, even some theologians may claim to know this wisdom, the wisdom of how God works in this world, but they are only making human approximations (which are vain) – they apply human rationality to a God who is greater than his creatures. We certainly know that he works – of course, but how is a different matter. What about things like mathematics? Didn’t God create math in the universe? Mathematics, as well all scientific and logical systems of knowledge, is not a matter of discovery but invention. We invent things like math to describe a very human kind of order we see in the universe (and we see it not because it is simply there to be seen but because we are all too human). There are no such things as numbers in the world – that’s something we invented to advance our knowledge (which is also vain, by the way). Human order and rationality are not useless; they are incredibly useful, but that does not mean they were any less invented and vain. God has framed the universe beyond our frame of mind – his knowledge is too high for us. Orderly? Maybe. Rational? Possibly. But certainly in no way any man has ever known it, certainly in no way we could represent in any art form.

And that brings us full circle – back to our modern artists. Values of “meaningfulness”, “order”, and “rationality” have found their homes among other such fictions (be they ever so useful); the “Christian worldview” as we knew it in the above respects has been defrocked of its right to speak for Christianity. How then will we engage with 20^th century art and philosophy? Let us allow our interpretation of Solomon to speak. I think you will find he is very capable.

Painting:

"The Queen of Sheba Kneeling Before King Solomon" - J.F.A. Tischbein

Are You Strong Enough to Exult in Monotony?

2010-09-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

"A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Not What My Hands Have Done

2010-09-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers,
And sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,
Can ease this weight of sin
Thy blood alone O Lamb of God,
Can give me peace within.
Thy love to me O God,
Not mine, O Lord, to Thee
Can rid me of
This dark unrest,
And set my spirit free!

Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy power alone O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.
No other work, save Thine,
No other blood will do,
No strength save that,
Which is divine,
Can bear me safely through.

I bless the Christ of God;
I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart,
I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt,
I bury in His tomb
My unbelief,
And all my fear,
Each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace,
I trust His truth and might
He calls me His, I call Him mine,
My God, my joy, my light
’Tis He Who saveth me,
And freely pardon gives
I love because
He loveth me,
I live because He lives!

Horatius Bonar

Unselfishing Ourselves

2010-09-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

“Our self-abnegation is thus not for our own sake but for the sake of others. And thus it is not to mere self-denial that Christ calls us but specifically to self-sacrifice, not to unselfing ourselves but to unselfishing ourselves. Self-denial for its own sake is in its very nature ascetic, monkish. It concentrates our whole attention on self—self-knowledge, self-control—and can therefore eventuate in nothing other than the very apotheosis of selfishness. At best it succeeds only in subjecting the outer self to the inner self or the lower self to the higher self, and only the more surely falls into the slough of self-seeking, that it partially conceals the selfishness of its goal by refining its ideal of self and excluding its grosser and more outward elements. Self-denial, then, drives to the cloister, narrows and contracts the soul, murders within us all innocent desires, dries up all the springs of sympathy, and nurses and coddles our self-importance until we grow so great in our own esteem as to be careless of the trials and sufferings, the joys and aspirations, the strivings and failures and successes of our fellow-men. Self-denial, thus understood, will make us cold, hard, unsympathetic—proud, arrogant, self-esteeming—fanatical, overbearing, cruel. It may make monks and Stoics, it cannot make Christians.”

B. B. Warfield, “Imitating the Incarnation,” in The Person and Work of Christ (Grand Rapids, 1970), page 574.

HT: David Powlison

Have we traded the Gospel for American Prosperity?

2010-09-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck has burst onto the scene of the American right with a religious fervor not rivaled by any of his fellow talk radio or television hosts. He is talented, funny, witty, and smart. He is often a well-informed and passionate voice for many conservative issues. His popular show continues to surge to record numbers. His audience is demonstrably the most committed audience in conservative talk, as evidenced by the enormous turn out at his latest event in Washington DC.

Glenn Beck is also a Mormon. He is not afraid to speak of his Mormon testimony, his belief in who Mormons call Heavenly Father, or his desire to see America return to God. Lately his television shows have been riddled with discussions about God and the need for America to have a revival of sorts. He has spoken to great extent on the need for a Third Great Awakening in America; seemingly positioning himself as one of its leaders.

The First Great Awakening provided much of the religious and moral backbone for the American Revolution and subsequent founding of our country. The Second Great Awakening accomplished the same for the Civil War. Both of these great awakenings occurred as a result of gospel preaching and a deep passion for the Bible in the church. Glenn Beck seems to believe we need a Third Great Awakening in order to launch a war on political progressives and reclaim our country for God-fearing, liberty-loving, constitution-keeping, small-government capitalists. I would argue that on this note Glenn Beck is correct. I agree with De Tocqueville, Montesquieu, and others that unless the people of a nation are a moral people who self-govern their passions, the hope of liberty will fall to the tyranny of big government. I believe the only way this kind of self-governing of passions will occur is if we have a great Christian awakening in America.

However, I am also deeply concerned about Glenn Beck’s call for a Third Great Awakening. I am not primarily concerned with Glenn Beck. I am primarily concerned with the Evangelicals who are passionately looking to his leadership for this kind of revival. I am uneasy about the compromise I see taking place within evangelicalism. Evangelicals seem to be trading the gospel of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, for the gospel of American prosperity. We have become so eager to advance an agenda of just laws for the good of our neighbors that we are beginning to compromise where it is not needed.

Historically, evangelicals have been called such because of their commitment to the “evangel,” or the gospel of Jesus Christ. While we have always had our in-house debates and disagreements, we thoroughly agreed that there were doctrinal parameters for defining the house. Positively defined, our core belief was that the Trinitarian God of the Old and New Testaments sent forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins on the cross, to rise from the dead, and to give the gift of new life and the Holy Spirit to all who believe. We believed the Bible was our sole authority and salvation was through faith alone in Jesus alone. Negatively defined, we were not Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, or any of the cults of Protestantism; Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Apostolic.

It seems we are increasingly abandoning those core doctrines for a different set of core doctrines! When a man who believes in a completely different God calls us to a Third Great Awakening and we come running down the aisle clamoring for that great day, I wonder if we haven’t traded our core doctrine of the “evangel” for the core doctrine of “American prosperity.” When our evangelical leaders come together and link arms with a Mormon broadcaster and pray to “God” alongside him, I become increasingly convinced we have set our hope on the wrong kingdom.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not concerned specifically about Glenn Beck, or the Mormon church. I am thankful for the work they did in fighting to keep marriage between a man and a woman. I am thankful for the Roman Catholic church’s efforts to save the lives of unborn babies. I am not arguing against fighting for just causes alongside anyone who wants to join the fight. Rather, my concern is with evangelicals who are redefining the “evangel” to something less than the Gospel we have historically held to in an effort to reclaim America.

As a minister of the Gospel, and a citizen of the kingdom of God, I would love to see a Third Great Awakening in America. I long for and pray for that day. Yet, I believe that awakening must be thoroughly tied to the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible and professed among historic evangelicals. I do not believe that awakening can be or should be led by a Mormon. I do not believe it is irresponsible to fight alongside Glenn Beck for just causes. I do believe it is irresponsible, and even idolatrous, to link arms in prayer with him and pretend we worship the same God or preach the same gospel.

Solomon and the 20th Century, Pt. 1

2010-09-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

Part I: Why Do So Many Christians Hate Modern Art?

Lately, I’ve been rather surprised to find in recent conversations the extent to which ideas like Existentialism (taken in a very general sense) and concepts like modern art, staples of early 20th century world-war era culture, are widely despised by many Christians, especially those whom I would consider very smart. Their objections to the Existentialists (and there are various “breeds” so the generalization only goes so far), which range from a pithy intellectual dismissal to complete moral indignation and animosity, are very much the same as those they give to modern art – they find it degenerate. To some this could be moral degeneracy, meaning that those ideas have degraded from the older “Judeo-Christian morality” into a degenerate “secular morality”. Some look at the beauty of a Renaissance masterpiece and compare it to, let’s say, a Picasso portrait, and feel completely repulsed by the strangeness, chaos, and deformity of it all. “Secular morality”, they could say, “has perverted the image of man, which is the image of God, into this monstrosity! Clearly this is degenerate, immoral art”. Likewise, when these critics examine works of Existentialist philosophy, say Jean-Paul Sartre for example, they arrive at similar conclusions of the man’s moral degeneracy from the “Judeo-Christian” values (which is all too true) and render the same judgment on all of his philosophical positions. However, others who may be less inclined to the moral generalities consider these 20^th century cultural artifacts as intellectual degeneracy. They view modern art and its philosophical kin Existentialism as intellectually degenerate from the “Judeo-Christian concepts” of order and meaning in the universe. Modern art and Existential thinkers strongly resist the values of order, rationality, and meaning in the universe and in man, values that were placed center-stage in the Enlightenment and all scholarship derived from it. “We cannot hold these views”, I’ve heard Christians argue, “that so clearly go against the Bible’s teachings on man and creation”. I’ve yet to find any book or any Christian thinker who is today taken seriously in Evangelical circles that speaks any more favorably toward either modern art or Existentialism; in my experience there’s been a very consistent negative reaction toward what has been labeled as “secular humanism” – a very dull term that acts more as a bandage for one’s gaping ignorance than a dangerous weapon against today’s culture – where this “secular humanism” finds its most immediate manifestations in art and philosophy, which have always proved historically to be easy targets for culturally resentful people.

Yet the objection is not merely aesthetic. What I’ve found is that Christian’s detest the greatest cultural forces of the early 20^th century ultimately because of several prevailing ideas behind them. Perhaps you don’t know exactly what I mean by “Existentialism” or “modern art” (which probably means those terms don’t offend you very much), so for your sakes I will put it simply that what lies underneath things like modern art and philosophies like Existentialism is the idea that the universe is not orderly, not rational, and certainly has no meaning in it. Life is meaningless, the things that happen to you are chaotic, and ultimately, everything is “Absurd”, as the French philosopher Albert Camus put it. For them, the world certainly doesn’t have any moral order, there are no innate laws of nature, and, more importantly, you couldn’t even know them if they did exist. That’s why modern art looks like it doesn’t make any sense; it’s a statement of a world that makes no sense, not a representation through the eyes, as art has been historically viewed, but a stand-alone production as another nonsense thing in a nonsense world, a nonsense thing meant to make you realize the nonsense of the world. In the same way there’s no reason to value the “subject” of the portrait as more important of focus than the background because there’s no inherent values in humanity or nature that privileges one thing over another, which is why background and foreground are often mixed in modern painting. Proportionality and perspective are also things that are “flattened” in modern art. Nature to them is not proportional, perspective is something distinctly human, and painting is supposed to exhibit this too. Essentially, the point of it is not to make a something beautiful, but to make a statement to remind us that the meaning, order, and rationality of life we so often hold on to is just made up – we made the rules of the very game we subject ourselves to. As such, they try and break those rules to allow us a glimpse of the Absurdity and meaninglessness we really live in. It’s as if they were reminding everyone that the delusions of being rich are no cover-up for poverty; it’s as if they were trying to wake us up from our idealistic dreams. Not very pleasant is it. It’s no surprise to me that many Christian’s have an instinctual reaction against things like modern art and Existentialism. Much of Christian thought has been organized around values exactly opposite: beauty, truth, rationality, order, and meaning in life. Almost as if reacting to a physical threat, Christian writers and thinkers repudiate these ideas as anti-Biblical, against the Christian worldview, and altogether worldly.

Yet I believe this reaction is far too philosophical to be of any use – far too metaphysical to matter to a “degenerate” Existentialist. The problem with the answer most Christians give is not in the worldview-propositions or the values themselves, but that they even give them as answers. The battle is not a battle of “worldviews” since these “worldviews” – a spurious term I hate to use – can do nothing but merely restate their founding instincts in manifold forms. If we remain on the level of arguing between worldviews it will become an increasingly redundant debate full of I’m-right’s and You’re-wrong’s. That is not very helpful to anyone. To get to the bottom of it we must go to the bottom. We must become suspicious of both “worldviews”, these two opposing systems of values, and realize that no one simply views the world, as if it were an exhibit in a museum carefully preserved for us to analyze and explain, but rather that we all interpret the world. Things are not so obvious as to be simply viewed. Here then we see two “world-interpretations” coming to the fore each with their own set of rules prescribing the means of interpreting the various “texts” of nature and in one case the Bible (if I may speak in such an accommodating manner since the whole idea of a “text” becomes consumed in the act of interpreting – how can we tell the two apart?). As such, we have to be honest with ourselves; the Christian “worldview” does not have impregnable defenses because it is ultimately an interpretation, and interpretations come from people with biases. With every interpretation, the conclusions come from somewhere, and a little suspicion for until now easily accepted propositions is only warranted. In fact propositions can no longer be seen as weapons to defend from and attack the enemy, they are now merely affects of an interpretation, outward adornments to fit the philosophical dress-code. I am not saying we ought to be suspicious of the Bible, but we have good reason to be suspicious of our interpretation (and who doesn’t interpret the Bible?), and beyond that our interpretation of interpretations which we elevate as “worldviews”. We, and anyone else for that matter, have a right to be suspicious of these values and the pegs they hang on because their truth may be far less than obvious. At this point the argument transforms from moral indictments and hack philosophical propositions about why that view is unbiblical or not, to an honest question: why are we interpreting what we’re interpreting the way we are? Let’s not take our “worldview” for granted – what are the guts of our objections?

Now this isn’t the place to dive into Existential interpretations and valuations – maybe some other time. What I’m more interested in is why Christians hold to such a view that values order, rationality, and meaning, and why they interpret the world this way. All such ideas have their genealogy; let us begin to trace them back. I suppose the easy answer would be to say they come from the Bible, but that would be foolishly reflexive. Where and why do we get these things from the Bible? Even though we believe it to be the truth of God, we still must interpret it and that means applying a set of rules. Where do these rules come from? The text? We often claim these things to be Biblical, and I think it wise to wonder if they really are. If we are going to call ideas like meaninglessness and chaos in the world wrong, we ought to be confident of our rightness. If we’re going to have such a reaction against something so “unbiblical” we better make sure we are being Biblical as objectors. We must make archaeological inquiries into the history of our “Biblical values”. Now, if this is the task we are to give ourselves, where are we to look?

I’ve recently dealt with this issue in a rather involved discussion that, although more broad, kept coming back to the book of Ecclesiastes. The question was whether or not a Christian may view the world as Absurd (in the above Existential sense of meaninglessness and non-sense); do our lives in this world have meaning? Can we truly make sense of it all? Can we take seriously the statement of modern art and Existentialists when they say the world is a chaotic and absurd place where things happen to you that mean nothing at all? Who better to answer this than the Bible’s wise man Solomon? Well, no one's better than Solomon, but he's going to have to wait until the next part.

___________
Paintings in order of appearance:
1. "White Crucifixion", 1938 - Marc Chagall (Notice the painting's atypical representation of an extremely typical Renaissance subject. Is Chagall offering any kind of profane view of Christ?)
2. "Girl Before Mirror" (Detail), 1932 - Pablo Picasso (How many people do you know that look like that? Perhaps Picasso is trying to say something about the human form that traditional representation can't? Notice the "flatness" and lack of depth as opposed to a "traditional" painting.)
3. "Metaphysical Interior with Biscuit", 1916 - Giorgio de Chirico (What is the subject of this painting?)
4. "Disintegration of Persistence", 1954 - Salvador Dali (This is a good example of a Surrealist work which often exhibit extreme anti-realism. Not much traditional order and representation hear. Notice how the watches, things of order, are "disintegrating" into who knows what, maybe Nothingness? Compare this painting to his "Persistence of Memory".)

"Go therefore"

2010-08-26T19:04:00.001-07:00

The following conversation took place between D. L. Moody and a critic:

Critic: “Mr. Moody, I don’t think your approach to evangelism is very effective.”
Moody: “I am certain that it can be improved upon. What method do you use? I would like to learn how to do my work better.”
Critic: “I don’t have any method just now.”
Moody: “Then I will stick to my way for the time being.”

HT: Dr. Lyle Dorsett

Life in the Body

2010-08-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

“The very word membership is of Christian origin, but it has been taken over by the world and emptied of all meaning. It must be most emphatically stated that items included in a homogeneous class are almost the reverse of what St. Paul meant. By members he meant that what we should call organs, things, essentially different from, and complementary to, one another. When we describe a man as ‘a member of the Church’ we usually mean nothing Pauline: we mean only that he is a unit—that he is one more specimen of some kind of things as X and Y.

The society into which the Christian is called at baptism is not a collective but a Body. If anyone came to it with the misconception that membership of the Church was membership in a debased modern sense—a massing together of persons as if they were pennies—he would be corrected at the threshold by the discovery that the head of this Body is so unlike the inferior members that they share no predicate with him save by analogy. We are summoned from the outset to combine as creatures with out Creator, as mortals with immortal, as redeemed sinners with sinless Redeemer. His presence, the interaction between him and us, must always be the overwhelmingly dominant factor in the life we are to lead within the Body; and any conception of Christian fellowship which does not mean primarily fellowship with him is out of court. We are all constantly teaching and learning, forgiving and being forgiven, representing Christ to man, and man to Christ. The sacrifice of selfish privacy which is daily demanded of us is daily repaid a hundredfold in the true growth of personality which the life of the Body encourages. Those who are members of one another become as diverse as the hand and the ear. That is why the worldlings are so monotonously alike compared with the almost fantastic variety of the saints. Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

In Response to the Firestorm about Mormonism...

2010-08-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a brief story:

When I was 14 years old I was part of an irreligious family. My best friend, however, was the son of a Mormon bishop of a ward here in Bakersfield. This is where I first began hearing about Mormonism. He had a great family and lots of friends who I enjoyed hanging out with at their Friday night dances. However, I also began attending a Protestant Christian church and learning their theology. My friend and the church I was attending were saying very different things. So, over time I picked up copies of several Mormon books and began reading them. I also welcomed visits from Mormon missionaries. I eventually came to be a Protestant Christian, and now a full time pastor.

However, during this phase in which I was trying to learn more about Mormonism and historic Christianity, I began asking questions of the Mormon missionaries. I had heard they taught what Randy is claiming. To their credit, they were very clear as to their beliefs when pushed. I had to scale a bit of a language barrier, but I soon got a better understanding of their beliefs. First, it is true that they believe Heavenly Father is the one supreme God for us. However, if you ask them about that ever important "for us" they will admit there are other gods. This is a variation of polytheism called "henotheism." They also admitted it was true that Heavenly Father was at one point a man and that he has not eternally existed! This is quite different than the historic Christian belief about God. Further, I asked about Jesus being a created being (Now, historic Christianity believes Jesus is 2 natures: human and divine. He was created according to his humanity and eternally existed as the Son of God according to his divinity). They were quick to point out to me that Jesus was not eternally preexistent as God, but was in fact the spiritual offspring of Heavenly Father, along with Lucifer and all of us. I asked why the Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches all teach the opposite. They said it was because the church invented the doctrine of the Trinity and the corresponding doctrine of Jesus as fully man and fully God at the council of Nicea in AD325. They went on to tell me that this is where the church became apostate and why Joseph Smith was chosen to restore true Christianity. (I am not going to take the time to correct this completely ahistorical accounting of Nicea and Chalcedon and the fundamental misunderstanding that they are pushing here as my point is just to get at what they said they believe).

So, I realized that their definition of God was different than historic Christianity. They in fact believe in henotheism, not monotheism. They reject Trinitarianism and the full, eternal divinity of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. They also believed that all the church was apostate for almost 2000 years, until Joseph Smith was led to the book of Mormon by the Angel Moroni. They told me the Bible is full of errors and is only part of the story. They told me I needed to also read the book of Mormon and find out the history of how the Jews came to America and how Jesus eventually came to them as well. When I asked what happened to all of those less than Native American looking people, I was instructed that they were cursed for sin and thus became Native American in complexion! This is why when Westerners came to the Americas they did not find people who looked like Jews. They went on to tell me that I need to read the book of Mormon and pray to see whether it is true. Protestants believe the Biblical Canon is closed with the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. Protestants also believe the Bible is true and without error. So, they definitely had a different view of the Bible. Further, their view of history and the accuracy of the book of Mormon rides on the argument Glenn Beck made the other night. He was historically out to lunch! He is welcome to teach whatever he wants on his show. He has freedom of speech. However, we are also welcome to critique his view of history and warn Christians that he has moved from analysis to evangelism for the Mormon cause while disingenuously claiming he is only giving the straight historical story.

This is Mormon theology 101 (if you ask them to define their terms). So the question is, why is it wrong for us to recognize we have different beliefs? Why is it wrong to point out that we believe differently and that we think the other person is wrong? If I believe you are believing in a false god, then I am not loving to leave you in that belief. As a Protestant Christian, I don't believe Jesus came to encourage our idolatry, but to save us from our idolatry! I certainly couldn't claim to be a Protestant and claim it is loving to leave others in idolatry. Someone might say, "who are you to judge? Didn't Jesus hang out with all kinds of sinners?"

Yes, Jesus did hang out with all kinds of sinners! Yes, Jesus did warn us that with the measure we judge, we will also be judged! However, we need to understand those passages. Jesus did harshly judge false religious teachers (see Matthew 23). Jesus also commanded us to judge those who claim to be prophets (see Matthew 7). So, we are supposed to judge truth from error. We are supposed to do so for the sake of seeing all men saved by and delighting in Jesus Christ. We are not supposed to be condescending and holier than thou. However, our modesty is not supposed to fall on the organ of conviction! Our modesty is to fall on the organ of self! We have this completely backwards in our culture, so that now the greatest good is to have strong self-confidence and the greatest sin is to confidently assert that one set of beliefs is true and another is incorrect. Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles did not take this approach. They judged and condemned false teaching. they commanded the church to do the same. However, they loved and were gracious to lost people. They desired to see them saved and recognized that their false religious beliefs were damning (see Paul's desire that the Jews would be saved in Romans 9:1-5, 10:1-3).

I am friends with a man named, Mike Spence. Mike was President of CRA and a Mormon bishop. I talked to Mike about his Mormonism and he never denied we had fundamentally different ideas about God, Jesus, or the Bible. However, we shared the desire to see the unborn live, to see marriage stay between a man and a woman, to see taxes low, and government small. We never had to pretend we had the same views, and I never pretended that I thought Mike was going anywhere but Hell. I wanted to see him saved through the true Jesus. He knew this. He thought I was wrong as well. We were frank about it. Yet, we all had the maturity to move forward together in the political realm where we agreed. My job as a pastor is to teach my congregation sound doctrine and refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9), as Randy was doing on our church blog. My job as a citizen of the USA is to fight for and support just laws, which is why I have worked beside a guy who I would warn my congregation not to follow when it comes to theology.

Now a word from Randy (author of the original post):

Let me tell you how this all started. Years ago, maybe 15, two very nice Mormon missionaries showed up at my door. I started talking to them, and eventually they came in. We talked for a while and they asked if they could come back and teach me about their church. I said yes.

I don't remember which meeting it was (we had several). But at some point they got to Joseph Smith's vision. This is where it got real interesting.

They told me how the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph and told him that all of the Christian churches had become apostate and corrupt, and that their creeds were an abomination, and how he (Joseph) ha been chosen to restore (not reform, an important distinction) the Christian Gospel to the Earth.

This was interesting to me because I was a Christian, and here were these nice young guys telling me (in a nice way) that I was an apostate, and my church was a fraud. Those are serious charges!

What's interesting is that I didn't fire the first shot in this battle - they did! They came to my house to tell me my faith was corrupt, and they had the answer. So the idea of ME picking on Mormons is kind of silly. So silly that part of me wants to say, "They started it".

Well, I take my faith very seriously, and of course I want to believe the correct stuff, like everyone, I suppose. So we discussed it.

Now, never, not even a little bit, did they mention the stuff I wrote about. It may have been in later lessons, but I never got that far. They kept insisting that I go "kneel and pray" and ask God to confirm the truth of the Book of Mormon. If I did that, they assured me I would get some kind of confirmation.

Well, I'm a "primary sources" kind of guy, so I never did that. I believe what I believe about Christianity because of what God revealed to us in the Bible, not because of any subjective "feeling" I may or may not have. Feelings can be deceptive, and I wasn't willing to hang an eternity in Hell on some arbitrary quiver in my liver. I want objective truth, not subjective feelings.

They left, but I continued my investigation. That is where I got the information I wrote about.

Several of the LDS folks have encouraged all of us to go to the Mormon church's website. Well, when I went through this, there was no Internet so I had to use books.

It may interest you to know I have a rather large collection of LDS theology books for a non-Mormon. I own all of the Standard Works (Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants). I also have copies of most, if not all of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young's sermons. They were written down verbatim for posterity since they were preaching in the role of prophet, and their words were considered to be equal to or greater than the scriptures. I also own Doctrines of Salvation by Joseph Fielding Smith (I believe, it's been a while) and Mormon Doctrine by Bruce R. McConkie. There are also various other books and LDS publications in my library as well.

Everything that I said about Mormon theology in that blog is 100% true. It is all taken directly from the LDS church's own publications and the sermons and writings of their prophets. You are welcome to buy these books, they are all on Amazon (another thing which didn't exist when I started this journey. I had to go to an actual LDS bookstore to get my copies) and do the research yourselves.

Now this isn't Mormonism 101, in that the Missionaries don't jump right in with Jesus and Satan are brothers. Obviously this wouldn't sit well with the nice little Baptist lady they are talking to. But it IS their theology. By the time a church member gets their temple recommend and goes through the endowment ceremony they are hip to this stuff. In fact, there's even a short play they watch in the temple that takes place in the Garden of Eden where the whole Jesus/Satan thing is acted out. Jesus, the firstborn of Heavenly Father wants to play nice and Lucifer wants to be the bad guy and force folks to believe, etc, etc. But it's in there.

The idea of God being a former man? That's legit, too. I quoted the guy who said it. The 5th president of the church. "As man is,God once was. As God is, man may become". I didn't just make this stuff up. The Mormon church teaches that there are many gods, although there is only one that we on Earth have anything to do with. This god, was once a man, and through his faithfulness to Mormonism, he was granted godhood. He now lives in heaven, with all of the wives he had when he was a man (this is why polygamy was a big part of early Mormonism) and that he was sealed to in the temple. Their new job is to procreate forever, creating spirit babies to send down to their planet and inhabit bodies so the cycle of eternal progression can continue (endless celestial sex, no?). This is actual Mormon doctrine, folks. Again, I got this from their own books, and prophets.

Now, I'm sure that really "hacked some people off" as Beck is fond of saying. So, do I hate Mormons? No. I don't. I have many Mormon friends and I love them dearly. They know what I believe, and I know what they believe. We have had this very discussion face to face and no blood was shed (don't get me started on the Mormon doctrine of blood atonement).

So if I don't hate Mormons, why would I write such things?

Because there is such a thing as "truth", and Mormonism isn't it. The LDS church whether out of ignorance or malicious intent is deceiving people. This isn't the kind of deception that leads to a better seat at the ball game. It leads to an eternity in Hell. That's a big deal to me. Not only that, but the Mormon church is carrying this false gospel to the doorstep, and now into the living rooms of Christians across this country every single day. Day after day they peel off the weak and suck them into their system of false beliefs. The Mormons are the ones attacking the Christian church in a massive way, not the other way around.

It is my job, as an elder (little e) in the church to protect the flock against wolves. I am commanded to do so in the Bible.

I wrote that post for publication on my church's blog, to protect the flock in my care and warn them about Glenn Beck's sudden departure into a Mormon worldview. That's my job.

Mormonism is very deceptive. As you can read above Mormons use many of the same words Christians use, but when you peel back the layers of the onion you find out they are defining them differently. This is what makes it so dangerous. Christians are fooled by the language into thinking that they are talking about the same Jesus, God, Etc. When in fact, they are not the same at all.

If you dig, they will eventually come out with it but they want very badly to be thought of as just another denomination of Christianity.

Up until yesterday, I was a big Glenn Beck fan. Sure I knew he was Mormon, but I agreed with him on a lot of the political issues, and never really heard him teaching any Mormon doctrine, so I was cool with it. That all changed yesterday when he spent an entire hour laying out the Mormon version of the history of North America. At that point, I had to speak against it because politics are fun, but hell is serious.

Thanks to all the LDS folks who gave their opinions here. But I did notice that other than the issue of the authorship of the BoM, not one person challenged a single point I made with a specific rebuttal. Please do!

You could also tell me where I got it wrong in this post as well.

Or, if you prefer, we can cut right to the chase with some simple yes or no questions:

The Bible teaches that there is only one God and that there were none before Him and will be none after Him, and that He is eternally self-existent having no beginning, and no end. Do Mormons believe this? Not "one god for this planet" or "one god that we have anything to do with" but one God, period. Forever and everywhere.

Do Mormons believe (as I stated) that Jesus is the firstborn of Heavenly Father and Mother and that Lucifer is His younger sibling? That's pretty straightforward, isn't it?

You see, if you get the person and work of Christ wrong, then you get the Gospel wrong. If you get the gospel wrong, then you are damned. So this is pretty important stuff. We can't both be right. One of us is believing a false Gospel.

Glenn Beck's Mormon Infomercial

2010-08-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

The following is a post from Randy Lovegreen, an elder of Sovereign Grace Church:

Glenn Beck is a popular guy. His show on Fox News is one of the highest rated shows on cable news. Millions of people watch him every day. More importantly, many Christians watch him every day. Most know that he is a Mormon, as he is open about his LDS faith on his show. Most don’t care.

Should we?

Well, until the show which aired on August 18th, 2010, I didn’t. Sure, I knew he was a member of the Mormon church, but other than a few language oddities such as his constant reference to “Heavenly Father” and his consistent use of the phrase “the scriptures” instead of the Bible, I never really saw much LDS theology in his show.

That all changed yesterday.

Now, my point in writing this isn’t to go out of my way to pick a fight with the Mormon Church, but my role as an Elder in a Christian church compels me to defend the flock against wolves, and in this case, Beck has crossed the line into “wolfdom.” Because so many Christians watch and enjoy his show, including many in my own church, I was forced to offer a response.

The premise of his August 18th show was this:

“The Native Americans were descended from an ancient civilization that existed on this continent in pre-historic and Biblical times. This civilization, had large cities and a very advanced culture, including a writing system and higher religious thought”

Beck went so far as to say, “The ancient Indians actually had religious writings which were a proto-Hebrew Bible”. He also offered the “fact” that the Native Americans were descended from the Jews.

He went on to cite various “scholars”, “experts” and “archaeologists” who support this claim.

Not only that, but he mentioned a “shocking DVD”, a documentary, that tells us the true story, a story that has been covered up by mainstream science for political reasons. He even gave the web address for the DVD he was talking about. If history is any indication, he just made those filmmakers very wealthy.

This is powerful stuff. Where have I heard this before?

These are the beliefs held by the Mormon Church, and written about by Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon.

What Beck didn’t mention in his show, and what caused me to speak out, was the fact that he presented this as if it were settled scientific fact. He also failed to mention that every single one of his experts, scholars and archaeologists were Mormon apologists.

Rick Stout, the filmmaker that produced the DVD, screens his films at - wait for it - The LDS Film Festival.

Beck also failed to mention that the 19th Century scientists he referenced with regard to the “Block Hebrew” writing found on this continent have been thoroughly debunked, and not one single scientific body accepts their thesis. Not only that, but there is not one shred of evidence that there were “cities as large as Los Angeles, Boston or London” on this continent in pre-historic times as Beck claims.

So what? Why does it matter if he teaches this, or Christians buy into this?

Here’s why.

The entire Mormon belief system is built on the idea that one of the twelve tribes of Israel came to North America in the years before Christ. They settled here, and developed these “advanced civilizations”. Because of this, Christ, when He finished his work with the Apostles, actually came to America to share the “gospel” with this lost tribe. This visit, along with the “true gospel,” was recorded on golden tablets, which laid buried until the angel Moroni told Joseph Smith where to find them. The reason for the angel’s revelation? Christianity had become apostate, and all of their creeds were corrupt, and all of their followers were deceived. Therefore, it fell to Smith not to “reform” the Christian church, but to “restore” it.

So are Mormons Christian, or not?

Well, they claim to be. In fact, Beck claims to be. But lets compare what they believe with orthodox Christianity on three key issues.

On God:

The orthodox Christian view is that there is one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

The Mormon view is that there is one god FOR THIS PLANET, and that this god is but one of many, many gods who are each overseeing their own planet. The Mormon god is not eternally self-existent, but is nothing more than a man, who through “eternal progression” achieved godhood and was rewarded with a planet of his own. The Mormons believe that they may one day become gods themselves, get their own planet, and spend eternity having endless celestial sex with their many wives for the purpose of populating their planet with future gods. The fifth president of the LDS church, Lorenzo Snow famously said, “As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.”

On Jesus:

The orthodox Christian view is that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus, Israel’s promised Messiah, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.

The Mormon view is that Jesus is not eternally self existent, but that he is the first of the children of the Mormon god. They also believe that Satan was the second of this god’s children, making Jesus and Lucifer spirit brothers. In Mormon theology, Jesus was created, and is not in fact, divine.

The Bible:

The orthodox Christian view is that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

The Mormon view is that the Bible is the Word of God in so far as it is translated correctly. The Mormons also believe that the Bible is only ONE of the several ways that God has spoken to his people. Included with the Bible is the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. These four books are known to the LDS church as the “Standard Works”. The Mormons also believe that God has spoken, and continues to speak today through his prophet. Where the pronouncements of the prophet contradict the writings in their scriptures, they hold to the teachings of the prophet.

It is clear from looking at just these three issues that Mormonism and Christianity are incompatible. If you don’t believe in the God of the Bible, you don’t believe in God at all. If you get Jesus wrong, you miss the Gospel completely. Mormonism is particularly insidious because it SOUNDS so much like Christianity. Remember, we may use the same words, but we are using different dictionaries.

This is why Glenn Beck’s stealth Mormon apologetics are so dangerous. No doubt thousands of Christians will order that DVD. Many will believe what they say, and will do so without realizing that not only is it scientifically inaccurate, but it is laying the groundwork for a false Gospel.

Beck is using his show to break the ice for Mormon theology, and promoting a worldview that supports the beliefs of his church. His hour long infomercial for Mormon history only makes it easier for those well groomed young men on bicycles to strike up a conversation, and lead folks astray.

We must all be praying for Mr. Beck. We must pray that God would open his eyes to the truth, and change his heart so he might see the glorious Gospel of Grace.

Beck wields enormous influence in the conservative Christian community, therefore, it is important that we are aware of the origins of the things he is teaching as “fact”.

On this same show, Beck spent five minutes talking about how Satan is a deceiver, and how he uses subtle lies to subvert the truth and lead people astray. Irony.

As Christians, we must constantly be on guard against anything which may seek to corrupt our faith. This includes charming conservative talk show hosts, even if they are on Fox News.

Nothing in my Hands

2010-08-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

"The gate of Mercy is opened, and over the door it is written, ‘This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.‘ Between that word ‘save’ and the next word ‘sinners,’ there is no adjective. It does not say, ‘penitent sinners,’ ‘awakened sinners,’ ‘sensible sinners,’ ‘grieving sinners’ or ‘alarmed sinners.’ No, it only says, ‘sinners.’ And I know this, that when I come, I come to Christ today, for I feel it is as much a necessity of my life to come to the cross of Christ today as it was to come ten years ago—when I come to him, I dare not come as a conscious sinner or an awakened sinner, but I have to come still as a sinner with nothing in my hands.”

C.H. Spurgeon

HT: Dane Ortlund

How do we know God exists?

2010-08-14T09:15:00.001-07:00

Tell Me Something New, Devil!

2010-08-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

"When I awoke last night, the Devil came and wanted to debate with me; he rebuked and reproached me, arguing that I was a sinner. To this I replied: 'Tell me something new, Devil! I already knew that perfectly well; I have committed many a solid and real sin. Indeed there must be good honest sins–not fabricated and invented ones–for God to forgive for His beloved Son’s sake, who took all my sins upon Him so that now the sins I have committed are no longer mine but belong to Christ.'"

Martin Luther

HT: Justin Taylor

Clasped by the Wooden Cross

2010-07-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

"Homer once sang of his Hellenes and Trojans
and Vergil composed verse about the descendants of Romulus;
Let us sing about the kindly deeds of the king of Heaven
whom the world never ceases joyously to praise.
Homer and Vergil took pleasure in speaking about the flames that brought
sudden destruction to Troy and about the struggles of their heroes,
but our delight is to sing of Christ
drenched in blood after vanquishing the prince of this world.
They were both learned in how to compose falsehoods
with an appearance of truth and how to deceive an Arcadian verse;
we prefer to sing hymns of fine praise
to the power of the Father and His true wisdom.
Let us therefore hold the supreme victories of Christ
as brilliant stars in our minds.
Behold the four corners of the world are clasped by the wooden cross."

John Scotus (A.D. 810-877)

Hast Thou No Scar?

2010-07-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

"Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;

I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,

Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent

By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.

Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?

Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,

And pierced are the feet that follow Me.

But thine are whole; can he have followed far

Who hast no wound or scar?"

Amy Carmichael

Spurgeon's Account of His Conversion

2010-07-19T10:25:00.001-07:00

"I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Church. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved….

The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was—“LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED,ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH” (Isa. 45:22)

He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in that text.

The preacher began thus: “This is a very simple text indeed. It says ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. It aint liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look.

“But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!” he said in broad Essex, “many on ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some say look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some on ye say ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ ”

Then the good man followed up his text in this way: “Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me, I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!”

When he had … managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger.

Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, “And you will always be miserable—miserable in life and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!”

I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought … I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.

There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, “Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.” Yet it was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say—

“E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. . .”

That happy day when I found the Saviour, and learned to cling to His dear feet, was a day never to be forgotten by me … I listened to the Word of God and that precious text led me to the cross of Christ. I can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. I could have leaped, I could have danced; there was no expression, however fanatical, which would have been out of keeping with the joy of that hour. Many days of Christian experience have passed since then, but there has never been one which has had the full exhilaration, the sparkling delight which that first day had.

I thought I could have sprung from the seat in which I sat, and have called out with the wildest of those Methodist brethren … “I am forgiven! I am forgiven! A monument of grace! A sinner saved by blood!”

My spirit saw its chains broken to pieces, I felt that I was an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, a forgiven one, accepted in Jesus Christ, plucked out of the miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my goings established … .

Between half-past ten o’clock, when I entered that chapel, and half-past twelve o’clock, when I was back again at home, what a change had taken place in me! Simply by looking to Jesus I had been delivered from despair, and I was brought into such a joyous state of mind that, when they saw me at home, they said to me, “Something wonderful has happened to you,” and I was eager to tell them all about it. Oh! there was joy in the household that day, when all heard that the eldest son had found the Saviour and knew himself to be forgiven."

C.H. Spurgeon

HT: Tim Challies

Is it okay to be angry toward God?

2010-07-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

"What are we to say to people who are desperately hurting and feel that God has let them down or is even against them? Is it okay to be angry toward God? Most pop psychology would answer yes. 'Just vent your feelings toward God.' I've even read the statement, 'It's okay to be angry with God. He's a big boy. He can handle it.' In my judgment, that is sheer blasphemy.

Let me make a statement loud and clear. It is never okay to be angry at God. Anger is moral judgment, and in the case of God, it accuses Him of wrongdoing. It accuses God of sinning against us by neglecting us or in some way treating us unfairly. It also is often a response to our thinking that God owes us a better deal in life than we are getting. As a result, we put God in the dock of our own courtroom. I think of a man who, as his mother was dying of cancer, said, 'After all she's done for God, this is the thanks she gets.' Never mind that Jesus suffered untold agony to pay for her sins so she would not spend eternity in hell, this man thought that God also owed her a better life on this earth.

I acknowledge that believers can and do have momentary flashes of anger at God. I have experienced this myself. But we should quickly recognize those occurrences as the sins that they are and repent of them.

How, then, can we deal with our temptation to be angry at God? Must we just 'stuff' our feelings and live in some degree of alienation from God? No, that is not the biblical solution. The answer lies, first of all, in a well-grounded trust in the sovereignty, wisdom, and love of God. Second, we should bring our confusions and perplexity to God in a humble, trusting way. We can pray somewhat in the following fashion:

God, I know that You love me, and I also know that Your ways are often beyond my understanding. I admit that I am confused at this time because I do not see the evidence of Your love toward me. Help me, by the power of Your Spirit, to trust You and not give in to the temptation to be angry at You.

Remember also that our God is a forgiving God. Even our anger toward Him, which I consider a grievous sin, was paid for by Christ in His death on the cross. So if you have anger in your heart toward God, I invite you - no, I urge you - to come to Him in repentance and experience the cleansing power of Christ's blood, shed on the cross for you."

Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate

Faith will Discover a Hidden Beauty

2010-07-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

"So faith will discover a hidden beauty in it [suffering], under a very unsightly outward appearance, perceiving the suitableness thereof to the infinite goodness, love, and wisdom of God, and to the real and most valuable interests of the party; by which means one comes to take pleasure, and that a most refined pleasure, in distresses (2 Cor. 12:10)."

Thomas Boston, Crook in the Lot

He Who Grows in Grace

2010-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

‎"He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it. When our virtues become more mature, we shall not be more tolerant of evil; but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms."

C.H. Spurgeon

A special thanks for Michael McClain for bringing this quotation to my attention.

To Love at all is to be Vulnerable

2010-07-09T14:49:00.001-07:00

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they shall break, so be it."

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Crooked Things

2010-07-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

"In every disciple's life there are crooked things, unpleasant and unwelcome, which God uses to test us, strengthen us, humble us, correct us, teach us lessons, further our self-knowledge, repentance, and sanctity, shield us from greater evils, and thus bring us blessing, grievous as at first sight the crooked things seem to be."

J.I. Packer

Blessed Assurance Indeed!

2010-07-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

"When I know that Christ is the one real sacrifice for my sins, that His work on my behalf has been accepted by God, that He is my heavenly Intercessor - then His blood is the antidote to the poison of the voices that echo in my conscience, condemning me for my many failures. Indeed, Christ's shed blood chokes them into silence.

Thus, knowing that Jesus Christ is my Savior delivers me from my anxious fears and brings me joy and wonderful assurance. I am condemned no more - not even by my own conscience. Jesus is mine. Blessed assurance indeed!"

Sinclair Ferguson

Gospel-shaped Lenses

2010-07-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Do you have Gospel-shaped lenses through which you view the body of Christ? Do you look for evidences of God's grace in others? I was listening to Pastor Mark Driscoll discuss 3 types of people who are in the church: positives, negatives, and neutrals. My endeavor is to expand on this concept a bit and challenge you to assess how you view the body of Christ.

Positives are people who have a gospel mind-set about the church. They see other believers through a lens of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Positives are for the body of Christ and default to trusting and giving the benefit of the doubt to others. In other words, Positives look for and expect the Holy Spirit's work in other people. Positives do not overlook your sin, nor are they unrealistically optimistic. Rather, they are those who are looking for the grace of God in your life. Positives are those who confront you for sin, but always in the context of seeing evidences of grace in your life. They do not keep a record of wrongs over time that they hang over your head and threaten to end your relationship over. Instead, Positives keep a record of God's grace in your life in an effort to always pursue reconciliation. Positives expect grace to prevail and the Holy Spirit to win the war with the flesh!

Neutrals are people who are still growing in their understanding of the gospel, but have not become strongly rooted in a gospel mind-set. Neutrals are not defined as those looking for sin in others, nor are they looking for evidences of grace. Neutrals may be emphasizing either of these aspects depending on the company they are keeping. If Neutrals are spending time with and being influenced by Positives, then they tend to see evidences of grace in others. If Neutrals are spending time with and being influenced by Negatives, then they tend to see sin and failures in others. Neutrals lack the gospel maturity to dismiss slanderous reports they hear about others and often give ear to gossip. Neutrals are the largest group of people in the church and they will tend to follow the culture of the church.

Negatives are people who have either an over-developed sense of human depravity or an under-developed sense of sanctifying grace, or both. Of course, a negative would rightly point out that since humanity is deeply wicked they could hardly be over-developed in their sense of human depravity. However, I would contend that they wrongly assume "total depravity" means men are as wicked as they can be, rather than they are fallen in every faculty. Further, I would argue they really do have an under-developed sense of sanctifying grace. Negatives are those who are expecting sin to trip others up and who notice it as soon as it happens. Negatives default to believing bad reports they hear about brothers. Negatives share those same bad reports with other people. Negatives see the sin in brothers far more than they see the evidences of grace. Negatives are quick to accuse and slow to defend. They are quick to assume the worst and slow to give the benefit of the doubt. Negatives are not people who expect the gospel to change others over time. They are those who keep records of wrongs. Negatives are those who are keeping a record of sin over time in order to present a full case to you of your sins and why they can no longer maintain a relationship with you. Negatives suffer from the fundamental flaw in their functional theology that the flesh will defeat the Spirit and that sin will conquer grace!

Now, I want to challenge you to assess whether you are a Positive, Neutral, or Negative. I spent a good portion of my life as a Negative. By the grace of God, I eventually moved from that mind-set through neutrality to being a Positive. I want to include a self-assement for determining where you fall with regard to these categories in two important relationships in your life:

Your Marriage (assuming you are both Christians)

1. Do you assume the best or worst about your spouse? When your spouse does something that looks remarkably similar to a past sin or failing, do you jump to the conclusion that they are in fact sinning in this manner again, or do you expect it may be just a misunderstanding?

2. Do you have an easier time listing marital irritations, sins your spouse has committed and failures in their lives; or do you have an easier time listing evidences of God's grace in changing them?

3. Would your spouse report that you are generally expressing thankfulness for the way God is working in their life; or that you are generally disappointed and nagging them about the ways in which they are failing? Ask them!

4. Would your friends say that your speech about your spouse reflects your thankfulness for what God is doing, or your complaints about what is lacking? Ask them!

Your Church Leaders (assuming they are Christians:))

1. Do you assume the best or the worst about your leaders? When your church leaders do something that looks remarkably similar to a past sin or failing, do you jump to the conclusion that they are in fact sinning in this manner again, or do you expect it may be just a misunderstanding?

2. Do you have an easier time listing bad decisions, sins leaders have committed and failures in their lives; or do you have an easier time listing evidences of God's grace in changing them?

3. Would your church leaders report that you are generally expressing thankfulness for the way God is working in the church, or that you generally seem disappointed and complain to them about the ways in which the church could be better? Do your pastors get a knot in their stomach when they see an email from you in their inbox, or do they anticipate great encouragement? Ask them.

4. Would your friends say that your speech about your church leaders reflects your thankfulness for what God is doing, or your complaints about what is lacking? Ask them.

5. Are you often participating in and entertaining gossip about leaders at your church, or are you known for not tolerating it? If others in the body feel comfortable telling you their complaints about the church leaders, then you have your answer!

Sadly, when we are a Negative toward others we are generally being defeated regularly by sin ourselves. We are being defeated because we are not constantly meditating on the Gospel, and it is not our constant motivation. We are defeated because the Gospel is the power to save and to sanctify and we aren't trusting in it! We need to remember that both our positional and practical holiness before God come by grace.

The major breakthrough for me came when I was considering Paul's view of the church at Corinth. Corinth was a church that was riddled with division over leaders, sexual immorality, lawsuits, idolatry, unholy practice of communion, an incorrect understanding of the role of women, and the abuse of spiritual gifts in the church. Yes, the apostle Paul rebuked and corrected this sin in the church. However, Paul began his letter saying something astounding about them:

⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— ⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I pray that we can be as gospel-minded as the apostle!

To watch Mark Driscoll's sermon on Positives, Negatives, and Neutrals, watch here.

Look to Christ

2010-06-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

"Look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry to Christ, just as you are; confess your sin, your impenitence, your unbelief, and cast yourself on His mercy; ask Him to give you a new heart, working in you true repentance and firm faith; ask Him to take away your evil heart of unbelief and to write His law within you, that you may never henceforth stray from Him."

J.I. Packer

Wings to Fly

2010-06-09T11:33:00.001-07:00

"Ask the man who is in the flesh to engage in truly spiritual exercises, and he eventually collapses in exhaustion or despair. Reading Scripture, singing praises, spending time in prayer, giving ready obedience to the commandments - these are burdens that break him, not (as they become for the regenerate) wings that enable him to fly."

Sinclair Ferguson

Just Politics or Life Lessons?

2010-06-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

Running for political office can seem a very unusual and foreign experience. Recognizing that there are political battles that need to be fought and won is not necessarily unusual. Deciding you should be the person who leads the troops in the political battle is another matter. Placing yourself before the public and appealing to them to allow you to lead them is the kind of role that definitely requires a sense of calling.

In 2004, I believed God had called me to run for school board. I had no idea the saga that would play out from that initial decision to run. I did not recognize the many ups and downs that would ensue. I did not recognize the multiple victories, popularity, accolades, and new friends I would gain. I also did not recognize the many misunderstandings, the notoriety, the gossip, and the new enemies I would gain. In the sheer magnitude of life events that surround political involvement, I would agree that it is definitely unusual. Being well known and adored and hated with a high level of intensity by people you have never met is definitely unusual.

I would not agree, however, that the life lessons from politics are foreign or unusual at all. The lessons may be painted on a public canvas, but they are not lessons that apply only in politics. My goal is to list some lessons I have learned after 6 years of crazy ups and downs in political life that I believe have universal application:

1. Don't believe your own press

Success in political endeavors inevitably brings good press coverage. Winning the approval of voters and having people speak exceedingly well of you is a powerfully intoxicating experience. This carries over into everyday human existence. There are few cups as addicting to drink from as the cup of human approval. We find great personal happiness drinking deep from the cup of our own adoration. We love men to love us. Apart from the grace of God graciously bursting into our lives, we are incurable self-worshippers. We believe our own good press because it affirms what we already want to believe about ourselves.

The primary problem with believing your own press is that we often don't raise our gaze above the headlines and look to the Cross. When the press we are getting is good we get carried away with self-exaltation and lose sight of the truth that we are sinners. When the press is bad we get lost in self-pity and lose sight of the truth that we are Christ's. The truth is that we are no more and no less than someone for whom Christ gave his life that we might be saved! Yet, drinking up man's approval can be so terribly addicting. The Bible says that wine is a mocker; so too is the cup of human approval.

2. Thank God for bruising you as needed

In my time in politics I have watched my friends lose many elections. Providentially, I have only lost one small election, but I have felt the pain of the losses of others. I have reflected much on how political losses are not terribly different than any other kind of suffering. It can be exceedingly painful and humiliating to lose politically. When a politician loses a political race it can also cause an identity crisis. These are realities that apply to every other kind of suffering. For example, when a marriage falls apart it is also painful, humiliating, and can cause an identity crisis. How do we handle this kind of suffering?

I would contend we need to be thankful for all forms of suffering. Suffering is God's gracious work of bringing an end to an idol in our lives. I am not suggesting that God directly acts to bring suffering in our lives. However, I am arguing that God so purposes and superintends all circumstances so that he guarantees the suffering we are enduring. He does this so that we will come to an end of ourselves, utterly repent of all idolatry, and joyfully look to Him in faith. He brings suffering into our lives so that we recognize our continual need for Him, which is our good! The Puritan divine, Richard Sibbes, has said that "God bruises a reed so he will know that he is not an oak." Suffering is the gracious bruising God brings into our lives so we know we are not oaks! This temporary, faith-building, joy-inducing, and praiseworthy bruising is God's gracious design for our lives. We should not despise the bruising but be thankful for it.

3. Be careful with fair-weather friends

I remember my first campaign for political office quite well. I ran in 1998 for a central committee seat and I lost horribly. No one endorsed me and even less people voted for me. I also remember my second campaign. I ran in 2004 for a school board seat. I gained little support from any political establishment. I had no significant endorsements, little money, and according to pundits little likelihood of winning. Yet, in a shocking turn of events I overwhelmingly won the election. I was amazed at all the new friends I gained. Suddenly, people who would not give me the time of day wanted to go to lunch. I was now a hot commodity politically.

I remember saying to one of my friends the night I won that this new found popularity is fleeting. I told him we need to note those who stood by us before victory because they would be the ones left after defeat. Proverbs 19:4 says, "wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend." The fact is that we all love to run with those who have money and power. We love to sit near the seat of power. We are also a people who love the taste of the words of a gossip (Prov. 26:22). So, when the political winds shift the chatter begins. When the popularity wanes we dine on the reputation of our friend.

Thus, we should be warned that we must be exceedingly careful with fair-weather friends. Loyal friends are hard to find. How do you know the difference between loyal friends and fair-weather friends? I think you can apply two tests:

a. Who are your friends before victory? Who was there when you were still poor and who is only around now that you are rich?

b. Who are your friends who tell you the truth, rather than just flatter you? We love the profuse kisses of our enemies and don't always care for the wounds of our friends. However, the wounds of a friend are faithful.

4. Courageously pursue your calling and not outcomes

On a rainy evening in the Spring of 2004 I stood quietly dejected with a group of friends in a parking lot. We had just lost a battle over what we considered an important moral issue and had been betrayed by people we supported. We were stunned and defeated (Incidentally, this is a scene I see portrayed every couple of election cycles).

As we stood there wondering how such injustice could happen and wondering where we go from here, I heard wisdom that I strive to live by everyday. An older Christian lady said to us, "Tonight we lost. But, we did not come out here to fight because we knew we would win. We came out here to fight because we believe the cause is just! Tonight we lost. But, tomorrow we will get up and fight again because the cause is just. Whether we win or lose we will continue to get up each day and fight because the cause is just!"

Whether the calling God has put in your life is politics or something else, you get up everyday and fulfill your calling because it is what He has given you to do. It is right to give God glory by vigorously pursuing your calling, regardless of whether you receive the outcome you hope for in doing so. I fulfill my pastoral calling because God has called me to it. I let God take care of the outcomes. I believe God has given me a mission to water and sow. I believe God will give the increase. This same principle follows in every area of our lives. We know what God calls us to but we don't know what outcome will occur. Our responsibility is to simply get up everyday and do it because it is right. So, I encourage you to take courage and fulfill your calling no matter what the outcome is each individual day.

As the Spring Rains that Water the Earth

2010-06-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

"Come, let us return to the LORD;

for He has torn us, that He may heal us;

He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.

Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD;

His going out is sure as the dawn;

He will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth."

Hosea 6:1, 3

The Father's Pruning Knife

2010-06-07T11:04:00.001-07:00

"In Christ, we are safe under the Father's pruning knife."

Sinclair Ferguson

Rightly Dipleased with Self

2010-06-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

"Plato sometimes says that the life of a philosopher is a meditation upon death; but we may more truly say that the life of a Christian man is a continual effort and exercise in the mortification of the flesh, till it is utterly slain, and God’s Spirit reigns in us. Therefore, I think he has profited greatly who has learned to be very much displeased with himself, not so as to stick fast in this mire and progress no farther, but rather to hasten to God and yearn for him in order that, having been engrafted into the life and death of Christ, he may give attention to continual repentance. Truly, they who are held by a real loathing of sin cannot do otherwise. For no one every hates sin unless he has previously been seized with a love of righteousness."

John Calvin

HT: Kevin DeYoung

We Were Made for God

2010-06-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

"We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like Him, only by being a manifestation of His beauty, loving-kindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly Beloved excited our love. It is not that we have loved them too much, but that we did not quite understand what we were loving. It is not that we shall be asked to turn from them, so dearly familiar, to a Stranger. When we see the face of God we shall know that we have always known it. He has been party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love. All that was true love in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His. In Heaven there will be no anguish and no duty of turning away from our earthly Beloveds. First, because we shall have turned already; from the portraits to the Original, from the rivulets to the Fountain, from the creatures He made lovable to Love Himself. But secondly, because we shall find them all in Him. By loving Him more than them we shall love them more than we now do."

C.S. Lewis

Not Merely Pitied, but Delighted In

2010-06-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

"To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son - it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is."

C.S. Lewis

Be Killing Sin or Sin will be Killing You

2010-06-02T09:56:00.001-07:00

"I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot, and I'll fight it as long as I've got a fist. I'll butt it as long as I've got a head. I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth. And when I'm old and fistless and footless and tootheless, I'll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition!"

Billy Sunday

HT: Tim Challies

The Need to Read

2010-05-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 2 Timothy 4:13

"We will look at Paul’s books. We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them.

Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra-Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot and talks any quantity of nonsense is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains – oh, that is the preacher!

How rebuked they are by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching for at least thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet wants books!

He had been caught up into the Third Heaven and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy, and so he says to every preacher, “Give attendance to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13).

The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers and expositions of the Bible."

C.H. Spurgeon

HT: Trevin Wax

Prayer for the Lord's Day

2010-05-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

"We ask especially, that we may be in the Spirit, and know the fulness of His quickening power. May we do nothing after the dead manner of formality. May there be no dead hymn, nor dead prayer. Lord, give the preacher life. Oh, give the hearers life. Oh, may this be living worship this morning, the bowing not of heads alone, but of hearts, and the closing not alone of the eyes to things that can be seen, but the closing of the eyelids of the thought to everything worldly."

C.H. Spurgeon

The Tyranny of 'Sensitivity'

2010-05-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

“Did we pretend to be ‘hurt’ in our sensitive and tender feelings (fine natures like ours are so vulnerable) when envy, ungratified vanity, or thwarted self-will was our real problem? Such tactics often succeed. The other parties give in. They give in not because they don’t know what is really wrong with us, but because they have long known it only too well, and that sleeping dog can be roused, that skeleton brought out of its cupboard, only at the cost of imperiling their whole relationship with us. It needs surgery which they know we will never face. And so we win; by cheating. But the unfairness is very deeply felt. Indeed what is commonly called ‘sensitiveness’ is the most powerful engine of domestic tyranny, sometimes a lifelong tyranny. How we should deal with it in others I am not sure; but we should be merciless to its first appearances in ourselves.”

C.S. Lewis

A Personal Liturgy of Confession

2010-05-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

"When I counsel with people who struggle with deep feelings of shame, guilt, and regret, I sometimes suggest that they design a personalized liturgy. In what follows, I walk through the example of a woman who has had an abortion, and all that led up to that choice, and all that follows in someone whose conscience is alive. But you can tailor it to whatever struggle you or another person needs to deal with. Where is your struggle? Is it temper or bitterness? Sexual immorality? Amnesia toward God? Gluttony, laziness or greed? Judgmental words or thoughts? Gossip? Obsessive worrying? God welcomes all who are weary with sin.

Designing your own liturgy of confession will help you to think through exactly what you need to bring to God, and what you need from God. It will give you serious words to express your sorrow, regret, guilt and pain over ______. It will lead you by the hand to God’s mercy and to his washing away of your sin and guilt. The parts of this liturgy in italics are taken and adapted from the General Confession of Sin in The Book of Common Prayer. Even when your thoughts and feelings are chaotic, these words can serve as your guide. They are a channel for honesty. Instead of wallowing in misery and failure, these words help you to plan how you will walk in the direction of honesty, mercy, gratitude, and freedom."

Read it online here or download and print it as a PDF.

David Powlison

HT: Justin Taylor

Where Christ Sets Up His Throne

2010-05-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

"[Christians] are not only taught that they should love, fear and obey, but they are taught love itself, and fear and obedience themselves. Christ sets up his throne in the very heart and alters its direction, so making his subjects good, together with teaching them to be good. Other princes can make good laws, but they cannot write them in their people's hearts."

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

HT: Tim Challies

Reconciliation on a Daily Basis

2010-05-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

"Spouses need to be reconciled to each other and to God on a daily basis. Since we're always sinners married to sinners, reconciliation isn't just the right response in moments of failure. It must be the lifestyle of any healthy marriage."

Paul David Tripp

HT: Tim Challies

The Great Master Gardener

2010-05-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

"The great master gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with His own hand, planted me here, where by His grace, in this part of His vineyard, I grow; and here I will abide till the great Master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me."

Samuel Rutherford

The Lord's Day

2010-05-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

"Welcome, sweet day of rest,

That saw the Lord arise;

Welcome to this reviving breast,

And these rejoicing eyes!

The King Himself comes near,

And feasts His saints today;

Here we may sit, and see Him here,

And love, and praise, and pray.

One day amid the place

Where my dear God hath been,

Is sweeter than ten thousand days

Of pleasurable sin.

My willing soul would stay

In such a frame as this,

And sit, and sing herself away

To everlasting bliss."

Isaac Watts

Pray as You Receive the Word

2010-05-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

"Pray for the coming of the Spirit in the Word. Come from your knees to the sermon, and come from the sermon to your knees. The sermon does not prosper because it is not watered by prayers and tears, nor covered by meditation."

Joseph Alleine

Spiritual Pride

2010-05-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

“Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment. It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.

Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself.”

Jonathan Edwards

HT: Ray Ortlund

An Awful Weapon in the Hands of God

2010-05-14T13:26:00.001-07:00

"A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God."

Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Let God be a Giver

2010-05-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

"Given my finite limitations, I have to think about the gifts God gives to me a lot. I have to think about the fact that my feet are not cold anymore, that it is time for dinner, that one of my shoulder blades itches, and so on. To use Lewis’ conceit from the toolshed, I have to spend a lot of time looking at the sunbeams, and a fraction of my time is set aside for direct worship of God, looking along the sunbeam. The temptation we have is that of treating all this as a zero-sum game, assuming that any time spent on the gifts is necessarily time away from the Giver. But though this sometimes happens, it does not need to happen. Rightly handled, a gift is never detached from the one who gave it. Wrongly handled, a gift can be the occasion of selfishness, which is a common problem. But it can also be the occasion of a higher form of selfishness, one which pretends to be above the whole tawdry field of “gifts in themselves.”

Picture a particularly “pious” little child who was impossible to give gifts to, because he would always unwrap it, abandon it immediately, and run up to his parent and say, “But what really counts is my relationship withyou!” A selfish child playing with a toy ungratefully is forgetting the giver. This pious form of selfishness is refusing to let the giver even be a giver.

We should not assume that in the resurrection, when we have finally learned how to look along that beam, in pure worship, that our bodies will then be superfluous. God will not have given us eternal and everlasting bodies because we finally got to such a point of spiritual maturity that we are able to ignore them. In the resurrection, we will have learned something we currently struggle with, which is how to live integrated lives. If God is the one in whom we live and move and have our being, it should not be necessary, in order to glorify God, to drop everything. We shouldn’t have to keep these things in separate compartments.

Incidentally, this kind of integration will prevent dislocations from arising in families that are sold out to the glory of God. Integration will keep our neighbor (or wife, or husband, or kids) from feeling like a means to an end. There is a delicate balance here, but God is most glorified in me when I love what He has given to me, for its own sake. This is teleologically related to the macro-point of God’s glory being over all, of course, but we still have to enjoy what He gives, flat out, period, stop. Otherwise, in the resurrection, God will be looking at all the billions of His resurrected saints, standing there contentedly, looking at Him, and He will say, “You know, you people are impossible to shop for.” Which is, of course, absurd and impossible. In the resurrection, it will be possible for us to be absorbed by God’s gifts in ways that are impossible to conceive of now."

Douglas Wilson

HT: Justin Taylor

In Christ all Perfections of Love and Mercy Meet

2010-05-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

"If the sweetness of all flowers were in one, how sweet must that flower be? In Christ all perfections of mercy and love meet. How great then must that mercy be that lodges in so gracious a heart? Whatever tenderness is scattered in husband, father, brother, head, all is but a beam from him; it is in him in the most eminent manner. We are weak, but we are his; we are deformed, but yet carry his image upon us. A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child as at his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is his own in us. He sees his own nature in us: we are diseased, but yet his members."

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

HT: Tim Challies

In Acceptance Lieth Peace

2010-05-12T20:15:00.001-07:00

“I know you are all wondering how I am getting along. I can only say that the peace I have literally passes all possible understanding. . . . ‘The Lord Jehovah is my strength and song.’ I have learned, I believe, the lesson which Amy Carmichael speaks of in her poem — ‘In acceptance lieth peace.’ How true. I accept, gratefully, from the hand of God, this experience. . . . I think again of the lovely prayer of Phillips Brooks, given me by Grandpa years ago, ‘Lord, by all Thy dealings with us, whether of joy or pain (and this is both), of light or darkness, let us be brought to Thee.’”

Elisabeth Elliot, in a letter to her parents, shortly after her husband Jim was murdered, with four other missionaries, in 1956.

HT: Ray Ortlund

Like a Weaned Child

2010-05-12T11:18:00.001-07:00

"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore."

Psalm 131

Spurgeon Reflects on Motherhood

2010-05-08T12:45:00.001-07:00

"Most men are what their mothers made them. The father is away from home all day, and has not half the influence over the children that the mother has. The cow has most to do with the calf. If a ragged colt grows into a good horse, we know who it is that combed him. A mother is therefore a very responsible woman, even though she may be the poorest in the land, for the bad or the good of her boys and girls very much depends upon her. As is the gardener such is the garden, as is the wife such is the family. Samuel’s mother made him a little coat every year, but she had done a deal for him before that : Samuel would not have been Samuel if Hannah had not been Hannah. We shall never see a better set of men till the mothers are better. We must have Sarahs and Rebekahs before we shall see Isaacs and Jacobs. Grace does not run in the blood, but we generally find that the Timothies have mothers of a godly sort.

Little children give their mother the headache, but if she lets them have their own way, when they grow up to be great children they will give her the heartache. Foolish fondness spoils many, and letting faults alone spoils more. Gardens that are never weeded will grow very little worth gathering ; all watering and no hoeing will make a bad crop. A child may have too much of its mother’s love, and in the long run it may turn out that it had too little. Soft-hearted mothers rear soft-headed children ; they hurt them for life because they are afraid of hurting them when they are young. Coddle your children, and they will turn out noodles. You may sugar a child till everybody is sick of it. Boys’ jackets need a little dusting every now and then, and girls’ dresses are all the better for occasional trimming. Children without chastisement are fields without ploughing. The very best colts want breaking in. Not that we like severity; cruel mothers are not mothers, and those who are always flogging and fault-finding ought to be flogged themselves. There is reason in all things, as the madman said when he cut off his nose.

Good mothers are very dear to their children. There’s no mother in the world like our own mother. My friend Sanders, from Glasgow, says, “The mither’s breath is aye sweet.” Every woman is a handsome woman to her own son. That man is not worth hanging who does not love his mother. When good women lead their little ones to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus blesses not only the children, but their mothers as well. Happy are they among women who see their sons and their daughters walking in the truth.

He who thinks it easy to bring up a family never had one of his own. A mother who trains her children aright had need be wiser than Solomon, for his son turned out a fool. Some children are perverse from their infancy ; none are born perfect, but some have a double share of imperfections. Do what you will with some children, they don’t improve. Wash a dog, comb a dog, still a dog is but a dog : trouble seems thrown away on some children. Such cases are meant to drive us to God, for he can turn blackamoors white, and cleanse out the leopard’s spots. It is clear that whatever faults our children have, we are their parents, and we cannot find fault with the stock they came of. Wild geese do not lay tame eggs. That which is born of a hen will be sure to scratch in the dust. The child of a cat will hunt after mice. Every creature follows its kind. If we are black, we cannot blame our offspring if they are dark too. Let us do our best with them, and pray the Mighty Lord to put his hand to the work. Children of prayer will grow up to be children of praise; mothers who have wept before God for their sons, will one day sing a new song over them. Some colts often break the halter, and yet become quiet in harness. God can make those new whom we cannot mend, therefore let mothers never despair of their children as long as they live. Are they away from you across the sea? Remember, the Lord is there as well as here. Prodigals may wander, but they are never out of sight of the Great Father, even though they may be ” a great way off.’

Let mothers labor to make home the happiest place in the world. If they are always nagging and grumbling they will lose their hold of their children, and the boys will be tempted to spend their evenings away from home. Home is the best place for boys and men, and a good mother is the soul of home. The smile of a mother’s face has enticed many into the right path, and the fear of bringing a tear into her eye has called off many a man from evil ways. The boy may have a heart of iron, but his mother can hold him like a magnet. The devil never reckons a man to be lost so long as he has a good mother alive. O woman, great is thy power! See to it that it be used for him who thought of his mother even in the agonies of death."

C.H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Practical Wisdom (or Plain Advice for Plain People)

The Gospel is the A-through-Z of Christianity

2010-05-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

"I once assumed the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, but after they believe it, they advance to deeper theological waters.

Jonah helped me realize that the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths but more like the hub in a wheel of truth.

As Tim Keller explains it, the gospel isn’t simply the ABCs of Christianity, but the A-through-Z.

The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christians going every day.

Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it.

After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel."

Tullian Tchividjian’s Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels

HT: Justin Taylor

The Gospel Isn't the Just for the Beginning of the Journey

2010-05-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

"Christ is not only the Way on which we must begin our journey, but He is also the right and safe Way we must walk to the end. Christ wants to say: 'When you have apprehended Me in faith, you are on the right way, which is reliable and does not mislead you. But only see that you remain and continue on it.' Christ wants to tear and turn our hearts from all trust in anything else and pin them to Himself alone."

Martin Luther

Our Father

2010-05-06T10:43:00.001-07:00

"Every time we say the Lord's Prayer, every time we open our mouths and say, "Our Father," we should be reminded of our adoption, that we have been grafted into Christ and have been placed in this intimate relationship with God, a relationship that we did not have by nature. It is a relationship that has been won for us by the perfect obedience of the Son, who received an inheritance that was promised to Him from the foundation of the world, which inheritance He shares with His brothers and sisters who are in Him."

R.C. Sproul, The Lord's Prayer

Tend Your Little Flock

2010-05-05T17:51:00.000-07:00

“Did you know that Calvin and many of the Reformers wanted daily preaching? After 50 or 60 years it became apparent that there was not going to be daily preaching regularly attended in Protestant churches so Matthew Henry and others recognized that they had to make every home a local church. If we do not attend to family religion it will contradict what happens every Lord’s Day as we preach the Word.”

Ligon Duncan

HT: Justin Taylor

We Need No Other Resources

2010-05-05T10:48:00.001-07:00

"Underline this thought: assurance, peace, access to God, knowledge that He is our Father, and strength to overcome temptation all depend on this - the Son of God took our flesh and bore our sins in such a way that further sacrifice for sin is both unnecessary and unintelligible. Christ died our death, and now in His resurrection He continues to wear our nature forever, and in it He lives for us before the face of God. He could not do more for us than He has done; we need no other resources to enable us to walk through this world into the next.

You and I need a Savior who is near us, is one with us, understands us. All of this the Lord Jesus is, Hebrews affirms. Fix your gaze on this Christ and your whole Christian life will be transformed."

Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone

If Satan Controlled a City

2010-05-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

"What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.

Michael Horton, Christless Christianity

He Stoops to Conquer

2010-05-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

"Our Lord's self-humbling is not merely exemplary (although it is that, too, John 13:14-15); it is saving. Jesus does not stoop merely in order to shame the disciples, but to show them that the only way of salvation is through His washing away the filth of their sins by His self-emptying on the cross. Only those who are washed can have any part in Jesus (John 13:8)."

Sinclair Ferguson on John 13:1-17 and Philippians 2:5-11

God Crowns His Own Gifts, Not Your Virtues

2010-05-01T09:45:00.001-07:00

"The Pelagians say that the only grace that is not given according to our virtues is the grace by which a person’s sins are forgiven, but that the final grace of eternal life is given as a reward to our preceding virtues. They must not be allowed to go without an answer. If, indeed, they understand and acknowledge our virtues to be the gifts of God too, then their opinion would not deserve condemnation. But since they preach human virtues by declaring that a person has them from his own self, then most rightly the apostle replies: ‘Who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if thou received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?’ (1 Cor.4:7) To a person who holds such views, it is perfect truth to say: It is His own gifts that God crowns, not your virtues. If your virtues come from your own self, not from God, then they are evil, and God does not crown them. But if they are good, they are God’s gifts, because, as the Apostle James says, ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights’ (Jam.1:17). In accordance with this John the Lord’s forerunner also declares: ‘A man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from heaven’ (Jn.3:27) — from heaven, of course, because from there came also the Holy Spirit, when Jesus ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. If, then, your good virtues are God’s gifts, God does not crown them as your virtues, but as His own gifts."

Saint Augustine, On Grace and Free Will

Luther on the Noble Art of Music

2010-04-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

"I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ!

I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God.

The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them.... In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits...

Our dear fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music be always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms.

This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God.

However, when man's natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace.

A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs."

Martin Luther's foreword to Georg Rhau's Collection, "Symphoniae iucundae".

Jesus Gives Understanding Itself

2010-04-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

"It is no great matter how dull the scholar be when Christ takes upon him to be the teacher, who, as he prescribes what to understand, so he gives understanding itself, even to the simplest."

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

I Will Remember Your Sins No More

2010-04-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

“God frees us from our bankruptcy only by paying our debts on Christ’s cross. More than that. He has not only cancelled the debt, but also destroyed the document on which it was recorded.”

John Stott on Colossians 2:13-15

Whatsoever is Good

2010-04-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

"Whatsoever is good for God's children they shall have it, for all is theirs to further them to heaven; therefore, if poverty be good, they shall have it; if disgrace be good, they shall have it; if crosses be good, they shall have them; if misery be good, they shall have it; for all is ours, to serve for our greatest good."

Richard Sibbes

All of Grace

2010-04-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here are the words to the hymn I read on Sunday by Isaac Watts. One of our musicians has written a new melody for this hymn and is recording it for a record to soon be released.

All of Grace

Lord, we confess our many faults,

How great our guilt has been!

Our thoughts were vain and full of pride

And all our lives were sin.

But praise our God, forever praise,

Forever love His name,

Who turns our feet from dangerous ways

Of folly, sin, and shame.

He raised us from the depths of sin,

The gates of gaping hell,

And fixed our standing more secure

Than ’twas before we fell.

The arms of everlasting love

Beneath our souls He placed;

And on the Rock of Ages set

Our slippery footsteps fast.

It’s all of grace, by Your sov’reign hand,

Through His death which long before was planned

That we can come before Your throne

And in Your presence stand,

It’s all of Grace.

It’s not by works of righteousness

Which our own hands have done;

But we are saved by sovereign grace

Abounding through His son.

It’s from the mercy of our God

That all our hopes begin;

It’s by the water and the blood

Our souls are washed from sin.

It’s through the purchase of His death

Who hung upon the cross

The Spirit is sent down to breathe

On such dry bones as us.

Raised from the dead, we live anew;

And, justified by grace

We will appear in glory too,

And see our Father’s face.

First to Wound, Then to Heal

2010-04-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

“Christ will not break the bruised reed. Let this support us when we feel ourselves bruised. Christ’s way is first to wound, then to heal. No sound, whole soul shall ever enter into heaven. Think when in temptation, Christ was tempted for me; according to my trials will be my graces and comforts. If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair, nor yield myself over to the roaring lion, Satan, to break me in pieces.”

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

What is true faith?

2010-04-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

True faith is
not only a knowledge and conviction
that everything God reveals in his Word is true;
it is also a deep-rooted assurance,
created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel,
that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ,
not only others, but I too,
have had my sins forgiven,
have been made forever right with God,
and have been granted salvation.

Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 21

Jesus Saves, Not Faith

2010-04-10T00:57:00.000-07:00

“It is to be remembered that the efficacy of faith does not reside in itself. Faith is not something that merits the favor of God. All the efficacy unto salvation resides in the Savior. As one has aptly and truly stated the case, it is not faith that saves but faith in Jesus Christ; strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves but Christ that saves through faith…. The specific character of faith is that it looks away from itself and finds its whole interest and object in Christ. He is the absorbing preoccupation of faith.”

John Murray

Jesus: The Man of Sorrows, the Suffering Servant

2010-04-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

"Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors."

Isaiah 53

Passion Week--Part 6

2010-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

Friday:

Today Jesus was arrested while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane in the wee hours of the morning. He was tried when day came by Jewish and Roman authorities. He was crucified about 9am and died about 3pm. He was speared and certified as dead. He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. (Matthew 26:47-27:66; Mark 14:43-15:47; Luke 22:47-23-56; John 18:2-19:42).

Jesus paid our penalty on the Cross. When he cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," he cried it in our place. This is the eternal cry we should be giving from Hell, but Jesus cried it on the Cross so we can eternally sing, "Holy is the Lamb who was slain." Jesus paid it all, all to him we owe!

Sunday:

On Sunday, the women disciples visit the tomb and find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. The tomb is also found empty by Peter and John. Christ has Risen! He appears to Mary, the other women, then to various disciples. He eats with them, allows them to touch him, and enters and leaves rooms without the use of a door. One week later he appears to the disciples and doubting Thomas. Then he appears to over 500 disciples over the ensuing weeks, and eventually to the Apostle Paul. (Matthew 28:9-20; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:13-49; John 20:11-21:25).

This resurrection was not expected! Jesus made allusions to it, but there was nothing in Jewish thought, Roman thought, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, or Greek religion to prepare them for the idea of a personal physical resurrection of the Messiah. They certainly looked forward to a resurrection of the dead, but did not conceive of this event until it happened. Jesus arose and changed all of history, providing spiritual resurrection for our dead souls, and giving us a foretaste of our coming physical resurrection! Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!

Source for Chronology: Robert Thomas.

Passion Week--Part 5

2010-04-01T11:39:00.002-07:00

Thursday: Today marks the day in which Jesus celebrated the Passover feast. He announced to the disciples that the bread is his body broken for them and the wine is his blood poured out for their sins. This is the inaugural dinner of the New Covenant! He also washed his disciples' feet, identified Judas as his betrayer, predicted Peter's denials, taught extensively about his destination and the Holy Spirit's coming and ministry, and prayed for his people. (Matthew 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-20; John 13:1-38; John 14:1-17:26).

Source for chronology is Robert Thomas' Charts of the Gospels and the Life of Christ.

Passion Week--Part 4

2010-04-01T11:39:00.001-07:00

Wednesday: Today is often called silent Wednesday because there is little to no recorded activity on the part of Jesus. However, today is the day that the Sanhedrin plotted to arrest and kill Jesus (Matthew 26:1-5; Mark 14:1-2; Luke 21:37-22:2). Today is also the day that Judas agreed to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6).

Source: Robert Thomas' Charts of the Gospels and the Life of Christ.

Passion Week--Part 3

2010-03-30T10:17:00.001-07:00

Hopefully, you are catching some of this review on 1180AM from about 11:00am-12:00pm.

Tuesday: This is Jesus' biggest teaching day of the Passion week, outside of perhaps Thursday. He teaches on the cursed fig tree, is challenged by the religious authorities, and teaches the famous Olivet Discourse. (Matthew 21b-25:46; Mark 11:19-13:37; Luke 20:1-21:36).

Source for all materials taken from Robert Thomas, Charts of the Gospels and the Life of Christ.

What is your only comfort in life and death?

2010-03-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

"That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yes, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him." The Heidelberg Catechism Q1

Passion Week--Part 2

2010-03-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Jesus returned to Jerusalem from Bethany and the following happened:

Monday: Cursing of the Fig Tree (Matt. 21:18-19a; Mark 11:12-14). Jesus cleansed the Temple and healed the blind and lame (Mark 11:11; Matt. 21:12-13).

Spend time reflecting on these passages with your family.

Passion Week--Part 1

2010-03-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

This week I am going to present the events of each day of the passion week. I encourage you to read the passages with your family and discuss Jesus' last week. I want to start with a review of the weekend:

Friday: In the evening he arrived in Bethany at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Some scholars think this may have occurred on Saturday (John 12:1).

Saturday: In the evening they had dinner in the house of Simon the Leper (Mark 14:3; John 12:2 cf. John 12:12). Mary anointed him with perfume valued approximately at 300 days wages (probably enough to feed about 15,000 adults and their children). (John 12:2-8, Mark 14:3-9, Matt. 26:6-13). Large crowds began to gather because of Jesus and Lazarus (John 12:9)

Sunday: The Triumphal Entry (John 12:12-19; Mark 11:1-11; Matt 21:1-11, 14-17; Luke 19:27-44).

Mind Your Savior More Than Your Sin

2010-03-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

"The first device that Satan has to keep souls in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition, and so making their life a hell, is by causing them to mind their sins more than their Savior. Their eyes are so fixed upon their disease, that they cannot see the remedy. He who minds not Christ more than his sin, can never be thankful and fruitful as he should." Thomas Brooks

Severe Mercies

2010-03-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

"He is not poor nor much enticed,

Who loses everything but Christ.

It won’t be long before the rod,

Becomes the tender kiss of God."

John Piper

"Affliction is the Best Bit of Furniture in my House"

2010-03-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

"I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable. Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister's library." C.H. Spurgeon

The Cross Before the Crown

2010-03-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

"At this hour the church expects to walk in sympathy with her Lord along a thorny road; through much tribulation she is forcing her way to the crown. To bear the cross is her office, and to be scorned and counted an alien by her mother's children is her lot; and yet the church has a deep well of joy, of which none can drink but her own children. Exiles though we be, we rejoice in our King." C.H. Spurgeon