Tag Archives: Christianity

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Reason #2 - I'm not going back

OK - maybe not the whole thing. Taken one piece at a time.

A self-challenge. It just hit me today how comforting it is to believe that God has me. No matter what, who, how, where, when. God HAS ME.

I was listening to Matt Chandler. No matter what things come my way, if God's not in control, what good is suffering? If God cannot make this work out for good, why suffer?

Even if we cannot comprehend what good "this" could be...God does know, He has us in His hands.

Also reading Acts 9. Saul was minding his own business (of persecuting Jesus) when he was knocked on his butt. Not exactly consensual.

Later in the chapter, Peter raised Dorcas from the dead. Was she exercising her "free will"?

I need to touch base with the fundamentals. This challenge will be a cool start.

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Did Moses Write the Pentateuch?

A list of Scriptures that name Moses as the author from True Paradigm

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Bringing Marriage Back to Earth

by Brian Tallman, Ligonier Ministries

Common critiques of contemporary marriage in the West often include the recognition that marriage has become too sentimentalized. In light of Calvin’s comments, I wonder if the church isn’t guilty of making marriage too spiritual.

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50 Things the Holy Spirit Does

What follows are 50 things the Holy Spirit does according to the New Testament. If you find this list helpful, share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Via Adrian Warnock

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Why aren't we calling it the "royal fetus"? by Denny Burk

What is the difference between this “royal baby” and the unborn child in the womb of a mother in the waiting room of an abortion clinic? There’s no intrinsic difference in terms of their humanity. The only difference is that one is wanted and the other is not. Thus, the one gets the status of “baby” and the other is euphemized as a fetus, blastocyst, or blob of cells.

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Microwave Suffering by Mike Leake (Borrowed Light)

It seems to me that some believers—myself included—think that suffering is like the second type of microwave meal. When we are put into the furnace of suffering for a season we assume that we will come through the other end chiseled and no longer in need of suffering. It confuses us when the Master has to toss us around and then put us back into the kiln.

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We owe as much to God the Holy Spirit as we do to God the Son - Charles Spurgeon Quote, via "of First Importance:

Let us ever remember that Christ on the cross is of no value to us, apart from the Holy Spirit in us.

In vain that blood is flowing, unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience; in vain is that garment of righteousness wrought out, unless the Holy Spirit wraps it around us and arrays us in its costly folds.

The river of the water of life cannot quench our thirst, till the Spirit presents the goblet and lifts it to our lips.

All the things which are in the paradise of God could never be blissful to us, so long as we are dead souls — and dead we are, until that heavenly wind comes and breathes upon us, that we may live.

We do not hesitate to say that we owe as much to God the Holy Spirit as we do to God the Son.

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I'm reading "A More Profound Alleluia" and it's worth the read. I have a hard copy somewhere, but bought the Kindle version, plus another to loan out.

This particular volume highlights arguably the most important connections that need to be made for worship to be well grounded - namely, the connections between our liturgical actions and our understanding of the God we worship. After all, as D. A. Carson has observed, "worship" is a transitive verb.'

What is important is not that we worship, but rather that we worship God. For all our talk about "grounding worship in theology,"most Christians (and even Christian leaders) actually spend very little energy working at it. By and large, most of us accept ideas about God, salvation, and the church that are in the cultural air we breathe, and we worship in ways that make us most comfortable.

The distinction between THAT we worship and WHO we worship reminded me of the words of Calvin - the human heart is an idol factory.

What/who do we worship? It's not a matter of whether or not we worship, it's whether we have God as the object of our worship.

How does our worship point to God? I know that our contemporary services don't leave room for "liturgy" - although we certainly have an "order of worship." I had been attending a Lutheran Church and I fell into the liturgy. Every single Sunday, I got the body and blood of Christ, every single Sunday, I said the Lord's Prayer with fellow believers all over the world. Every single Sunday I recited the "Apostles' Creed" with spiritual siblings all over the planet.

There is a solemnity - profundity - in these things that I miss. I love this new church, but I miss the profundity.

The phrase from the quote - "we worship in ways that make us most comfortable,"

we have now been trained to see "7-11" as the norm. Fluff, focus on self. Band "solos." The rape of hymns. I don't know how to get back to where this church was 6 months ago when I first went there. I don't know if I can, or should. I'm tired of feeling like I've been led to a church to be the sand in their eye and I don't want to do that or be that here!

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★★★★★★[relatedratings=null]★★★★★★"If God is Good, Why Do We Hurt?"

Because I'm hurting this was not only a good book to read, it was a hard book to read. I don't like this paint and (even though the doctors believe it's an injury and not an ongoing thing) I'm ready to be done.

Let God show me quickly what He wants me to learn and just get it over with.

Then again...

Whenever we’re tempted to think God has messed up our nice world by interjecting evil and suffering into it, let’s remember that in fact we messed up God’s perfect world by interjecting evil and suffering. Then he suffered evil by our hands so that we could forever be delivered from evil and suffering and death. Rather than blaming or resenting God, we should be overwhelmed with gratitude that because of his work of grace on the cross, our suffering need not be eternal, but only temporary.

I am called to see this pain as a reminder how much He suffered for me.

And he will deliver you through your present suffering, though not always from it. In fact, the Bible assures believers, “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Philippians 1:29). Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33, ESV). Suffering—whether from persecution, accidents, or illnesses—shouldn’t surprise us. God has promised it. And when it comes, people should lose their faith in false doctrine, not in God.

But even now, as you face suffering, God will give you joyful foretastes of living in his presence. That’s his promise as well, and also his instruction: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12–13).

If I take away nothing more than that from this book, it will be well read.

I read a couple of other books on suffering, this one has had more "meat" than the others...

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I'm not writing this to slam the church, because I really, really like it. Rather, I want to 1) rant a bit to get it out of my system and 2) get my thoughts in order before I talk to the pastor.

Last spring I visited a new church (new to me, but new...to everybody; it was a new church plant and I got a flier in the mail)

The preaching was saturated with the Gospel and I was so hungry for that (and still am, on a daily basis)

The singing part of the service was WONDERFUL; full of rich and deep theology, respectful of the writers of the old hymns and completely focused upward. I could leave behind the horizontal and be pulled into the vertical.

One thing happened and I almost didn't go back...but I did go back - and it was equal parts sermon and singing that drew me back.

I spent most of my summer out of town, and I went back to this church in the late summer, early fall. My first time back, was the last day for the (now former) music minister.

Since then, my haven for worship has steadily changed. The preaching is still some of the most Gospel saturated that I have EVER heard.

On the singing...three things have been added, that add up to one huge negative (for me)

1) the insertion of man-centered band playing both at the beginning and middle of a worship song. No matter how theologically rich a song is, if you stop singing in the middle, because the band puts the focus on...well...the band....the focus is now OFF God.

2) More 7-11, less conscience worship. 7-11 singing is the equivalent of the "repetitive prayers" that Jesus said belong to the pagans

3) The utter disrespect for the great people of God whose hymns and songs reflect the pain and faith in their lives, but raping them with the insertion of 7-11 in the middle.

I detest the thievery of old and beautiful hymns by a crop of youngsters to steal the hymns, add a few 7-11 choruses in the middle and slap their own name on them.

4) (and this is a "me thing") when you spend 20 minutes focusing my mind and soul upward toward heaven in worship, don't pull me back into the horizontal with a 10 minute "meet and greet" toward the end of it.

look up, look up, look up...and now for something completely different!

If you want to do the "meet and greet" - do your band and 7-11 early (one or two songs, please) THEN do the meet and greet early, THEN let's do business with God.

I love the preaching, but if the music keeps slipping toward K-FLUFF, I'll reevaluate.

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Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing

This was in my daily reading and it hit me again...without Jesus, I can do nothing, I can accomplish nothing...I AM nothing.

I'm not clean because of the works that I do, the choices that I make. It's not my works, it's the WORD that Jesus has spoken.

Before they (I) even knew..."Already you are clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you."

Sola Scriptura...The Word.

One letter apart...one very small difference...

"...for apart from me you can do nothing"

No longer are my works making me "good enough" - my works are a result of the Word and my gratitude that Jesus spoke.

worK
WorD

yet, such a huge impact on my life. I got off of the works treadmill, to rest gently in the Word.

Maybe I'll start counting...Reason #1; I'm Not Going Back

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“A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower , and leased it to tenants and went into another country . When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard . And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty- handed . Again he sent to them another servant , and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully . And he sent another , and him they killed . And so with many others : some they beat , and some they killed . He had still one other, a beloved son . Finally he sent him to them , saying , ‘They will respect my son .’ But those tenants said to one another , ‘ This is the heir . Come , let us kill him , and the inheritance will be ours .’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard . What will the owner of the vineyard do ? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others .

Have you not read this Scripture :
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone ;
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes ’?”

How do Dispensationalists deal with the "others"?

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Will there be a backlash from the more conservative parts of the African-American community, since President Obama came out in support of gay "marriage" - and since the DNC officially added gay "marriage" to its platform?

It's nice to think so, but I think, in the end, African-Americans will rally around the skin color.

The issue is heating up, and heating up quickly.

The "tolerant left" simply cannot tolerate that Christians have a moral code that differs from theirs and that Christians may dare to want to live by that code.

Chick-fil-a. Nuff said.

Now, there's Lakewood, CO

Threats of boycotts, death threats, petitions...etc.

Death threats. Really? because of a cake? Grow up.

From another paper:

All we wanted was a cake. We didn't want him to put on a rainbow shirt and march in the gay pride parade. This is me standing up for my community's rights

This is them, standing up for their "right" to force Christians to violate their conscience.

This wasn't a plain old wedding cake...oh, no.

the couple was "hoping to get a rainbow-layered cake with teal and red frosting"

rainbow - hmmm...stand for something? Like being gay? And then getting all pissy when the Christians don't roll over and play dead?

We'll be seeing mre.

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Tim Keller on Evangelism Best Practices...

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R.C.Sproul - What is the Rapture?

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On the "crime" of circumcision:

This is a bearing on another conversation I'm listening in on about infant baptism...this paragraph:

Along with many other religious people, they regard children as members of a community that precedes individual decisions and outlasts them — a community created by a covenant, not a choice. Circumcision is the outward sign of this spiritual reality.

Denny Burk adds:

Modern liberalism is upside down. On the one hand, it supports the right of a woman to kill her unborn child in utero for whatever reason or no reason at all. On the other hand, it opposes a parent’s prerogative to have their baby undergo a safe procedure that incorporates them into a community of faith. Does that make sense to you? Me either.

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Women as "Kingdom Warriors, Too..."

If Adam must think, decide, protect, and provide for the woman, she actually becomes a burden on him – not much help when you think about it. The kind of help the man needs demands full deployment of her strength, her gifts, and the best she has to offer. His life will change for the better because of what she contributes to his life. Together they will daily prove in countless and surprising ways that two are better than one. (pg 114-115).

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What Does Your Church’s Statement of Faith Protect?

 As we discussed the statement Saturday, the conversation turned to the importance of the statement of faith in protecting various aspects of the church and its ministry.  As I’ve noodled on that conversation, it seems to me that a local church’s statement of faith should protect five important things...

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"We Are at a Turning Point" by Judge Andrew Napolitano

Hence, we have laws that force us to be charitable to those whom the government designates as worthy of our charity, that limit the amount of salt that restaurants can put into our food, that permit the government to watch us on street corners and subways and in the lobbies of buildings, that let the president fight wars of opportunity, that permit the Federal Reserve to print money with no value and inflate prices and destroy savings, that allow the government to listen to us on our cellphones and use those phones to follow us wherever we go, and, according to CIA Director David Petraeus, that let the government anticipate our movements inside our homes.

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★★★★★★I think this is one I'll go through here (spiritual discipline, perhaps?)

As I was reading this book, the first part seemed like it is full of "white guilt" - expanding the sin of racism to all white people in the USA by virtue of the color of their skin.

After that, Piper explores individual sins on both sides of the issue - "both" because the reality is (at this point, anyway) the big divide seems greatest between African-Americans and Americans of European descent.  There is plenty of sin to go around.

When Piper gets into the meat of the topic - WHY it is a sin and why it matters, this is an excellent book.  I also broadened to topic to include "favoritism" (not just the race kind) and it became more excellent.

by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation, (Rev. 5:9)

From chapter 6 on, the book is steeped in the Gospel.  We are all created in the image of God - to practice favoritism in any way strikes at the image.

I'm giving this 4 stars (also working on a star system... 😉