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Preventing Spiritual Amnesia

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:13:30 -0700

I have yet to come across a student who struggled with, or even abandoned, the faith, who did not, at some early point in their struggle, abandon the mundane routines of the Christian life: regular attendance at the preaching of the word, prayer, etc. etc. Boring they may be, but they are God’s means of preventing amnesia; and we forget them at our peril.

Carl Trueman - Themelios, Issue 34-3

Imagine the Evangelical Church Without The Gospel

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:39:44 -0700

So what might take the place of the gospel in our sermons and books and cassette tapes and Sunday school classes and home Bible studies and, above all, in our hearts?

A number of things, conceivably. An introspective absorption with recovery from past emotional traumas, for example. Or a passionate devotion to the pro-life cause. Or a confident manipulation of modern managerial techniques. Or a drive toward church growth and “success.” Or a deep concern for the institution of the family. Or a fascination with the more unusual gifts of the Spirit. Or a clever appeal to consumerism by offering a sort of cost-free Christianity Lite. Or a sympathetic, empathetic, thickly-honeyed cultivation of interpersonal relationships. Or a determination to take America back to its Christian roots through political power. Or a warm affirmation of self-esteem. The evangelical movement, stripped of the gospel, might fix upon any or several of such concerns to define itself and derive energy for its mission. In other words, evangelicals could marginalize or even lose the gospel and still potter on their way, perhaps even oblivious to their loss.

Read the rest of Ray Ortlund, Jr.’s evangelical manifesto for gospel reform here.

(Found at Evangel via Justin Taylor)

Raising Nerdy Kids

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:44:31 -0700

I really hoped my daughter would grow up to be a cool kid. I wanted her to be part of the popular crowd at school and be considered hip. But when she started sweating pop stars and other little girls in our area started getting into teenage television shows, I had to pause.

I hope I don’t help create one of these sheltered Christian girls that just goes insane when they get to college, but I promise you that I’m going to do everything I can to keep my kids young, out of the loop as far as the world goes and maybe even dorky.

Read the rest here.

Fear Of The Holy

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:55:00 -0700

This is where Freud missed the point. If people are going to invent religion to protect them from the fear of nature, why would they invent a god who is more terrifying than nature itself? Why would they invent a holy god? Fallen creatures, when they make idols, do not make holy idols. We prefer the unholy, the profane, the secular—a god we can control.

R. C. Sproul, Romans: The Righteous Shall Live By Faith, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary

Sinful But Still His Child

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:03:00 -0700

“…when the devil comes and says, ‘You have no standing, you are condemned, you are finished’, you must say, ‘No! my position did not depend upon what I was doing, or not doing; it is always dependant upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Turn to the devil and tell him, ‘My relationship to God is not a variable one. The case is not that I am a child of God, and then again not a child of God. That is not the basis of my standing, that is not the position. When God had mercy upon me, He made me His child, and I remain his child. A very sinful, and a very unworthy one, perhaps, but still his child!

And now, when I fall into sin, I have not sinned against the law, I have sinned against love. Like the prodigal, I will go back to my Father and I will tell Him, “Father, I am not worthy to be called your son.” But He will embrace me, and He will say, “Do not talk nonsense, you are My child,” and He will shower his love upon me! That is the meaning of putting on the breastplate of righteousness! Never allow the devil to get you into a state of condemnation. Never allow a particular sin to call into question your standing before God. That question has been settled.”

Martyn Lloyd Jones, The Christian Soldier

(Found at Paramount Blog via Christ Is Deeper Still)

No Other Gods

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:31:00 -0700

“You are to have no other gods.”

That is, you are to regard me alone as your God. What does this mean, and how is it to be understood? What does “to have a god” mean, or what is God?

Answer: A “god” is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true one. Conversely, where your trust is false and wrong, there you do not have the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.

Martin Luther, Large Catechism

(Found at Andy Naselli’s blog)

The Best Case for Christianity Is Jesus

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:39:00 -0700

Christianity is not first and foremost about a sacred place to pilgrimage to, a philosophical system to ponder, a moral code to live, a religious tradition to honor, or an impersonal god to experience. Rather, Christianity is about a person who claimed to be the only God and said he would prove his unprecedented claim by living without sin, dying for sinners, and conquering death through resurrection.
So, as Christians, our aim is not to convince people of some god in general, but to introduce them to Jesus in particular. And since he created us with the ability to communicate, think, love, and experience, Christians have always valued using every means by which the truth and love of Jesus can be revealed.

Three days later, Jesus rose, conquering sin and death and vindicating his claims. Subsequently, if Jesus is dead, so is Christianity. If Jesus is alive, so is Christianity. And so while there is no “best case” for presenting God, there are false ways of presenting God: as anyone in addition to or other than Jesus Christ. As Christians, our goal is never to lie to people by only telling them what they want to hear, or manipulating them to feel what they want to feel. Instead, we want to respect them enough to tell them the truth, and love them enough to do so in a way that is compassionate. We care more about the truth and the love than having the “best case.” We believe that there is power in the truth about Jesus that can unleash new life in people as they agree with the truth about him.

Read the rest of Mark Driscoll’s article here.

How Are You Righteous Before God?

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:15:00 -0700

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.

Question 60 of the Heidelberg Catechism

(found at Of First Importance)

An Agnostic At His Mother's Deathbed

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:37:09 -0700

From Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir, by Christopher Buckley

I stammered out my thanks to Joe for everything he’d done for her. He asked, “Do you want to leave the respirator in or let nature take its course?” I said, “Let’s remove the respirator.”

I’d brought with me a pocket copy of the Book of Ecclesiastes. The line in Moby-Dick had lodged long ago in my mind: “The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe.” I’d grabbed it off my bookshelf on the way to Virginia, figuring that a little fine-hammered steel would probably be a good thing to have on this trip. I’m agnostic now, but I haven’t quite reached the point of reading aloud from Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion at the deathbed of a loved one.

Damning people to hell with what they love as fallen people

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:37:54 -0700

John Piper and Thabiti Anyabwile address a flawed gospel.

The appeal to the carnal desires of men (wealth, ownership, influence, etc.) as the basis, evidence, and goal of worship of God is, to put it mildly, soul destroying.

But the biblical gospel is “Turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, to be reconciled to the True God, to escape the wrath to come, and live eternally in His love.” That’s good news and precious treasure whether or not we ever find wealth, comfort, ease, or get our lives in some moralistic order. The ‘prosperity gospel’ displaces this good news with a lesser news, “free stuff.”

(found at Pure Church)

iSix:5

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:36:40 -0700

Christian rap from Tempe, Arizona.

Download songs here and here.

(found at owenstrachan.com)

Kevin DeYoung Interview

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:33:41 -0700

Mark Dever interviews Kevin DeYoung, co-author of Why We’re Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church, about baptism, the emerging church, orthodoxy, finding the will of God, and more.

Listen here.

Christ As Lord Sermon Jam

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:57:19 -0700

Ravi Zacharias set to a beat.

Death is dead! Death is dead!

Free New Testament Audiobook

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:51:38 -0700

The free audiobook download for September from ChristianAudio.com is God’s Word Heard!

It’s the unabridged New Testament audio of the God’s Word translation.

Get it here.

O Love Incomprehensible!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:12:45 -0700

See, God’s hands are nailed, they cannot strike thee; his feet also, he cannot run from thee: his arms are wide open to embrace thee; his head hangs down to kiss thee; his very heart is open! So that therein see, search, look, spy; and you shall see nothing therein but love, love, love, love to thee.

John Bradford (via Tony Reinke)

Kristian Stanfill - Jesus Paid It All

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:04:20 -0700

Kristian Stanfill - Jesus Paid It All

Don't Neglect Your Family

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:45:01 -0700

What good is it if you make disciples of your neighbors, co-workers, and friends, yet neglect to disciple your own family? This is what Paul meant when he said, “If a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?” (1 Tim. 3:5). This Scripture is not just for pastors, but is also applicable for all Christian parents. The reality is that we are not putting enough focus on discipling our own families, and instead we tend to leave the responsibility to the church.

The call to “make disciples” begins in our homes first. It is our spiritual responsibility as parents to teach our children about the faith. The Bible tells parents, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). As Christian parents, we should desire for our children to have a firm foundation and grow up to love Jesus and know what the Bible says about their lives.

Read the rest of Discipleship Starts at Home - Part 1, by Winfield Bevins.

Work In Your Hearts a Hatred of Sin

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:48:11 -0700

Work in your hearts a hatred of sin… If a man had killed your friend, or father, or mother, how would you hate him! You would not endure the sight of him, but follow the law upon him. Send out the avenger of blood with a hue and cry after thy sin; bring it afore God’s judgment seat, arraign it, accuse it, spit on it, condemn it and thyself for it, have it to the cross, nail it there, if it cry I thirst, give it vinegar, stretch the body of sins upon his cross, stretch every vein of it, make the heart strings crack; and then when it hangs there, triumph over the dying of it, show it no pity, laugh at its destruction, say, Thou hast been a bloody sin to me and my husband, hang there and rot. And when thou art tempted to it [sin], and art very thirsty after the pleasure of it, say of that opportunity to enjoy it, It is the price of Christ’s blood, and pour it upon the ground. … Shall I live upon that which was Christ’s death? Shall I please myself in that which was his pain? Shall I be so dishonest, so unkind, as to enjoy the pleasure for which he endured the smart?”

Thomas Goodwin (from Tony Reinke)

Lecrae and Tadashi perform the song ‘Send Me’ live...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:06:00 -0700

Lecrae and Tadashi perform the song ‘Send Me’ live with Red Letter at Mars Hill Church.

The Face of Lincoln - presents Professor Merrell Gage, retired...

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:25:34 -0700

The Face of Lincoln - presents Professor Merrell Gage, retired head of the Department of Sculpture at the University of Southern California, describing the life and career of Abraham Lincoln as he sculpts a lifelike bust of the 16th President, making physical changes in the subject’s hair, beard and expression to correspond to events in Lincoln’s life.