Friday, April 29, 2011

My First Parable

A certain Reformed pastor went up to the church to pray.

As he crossed the lawn, he happened to glance at the Foursquare church across the street and the carwash they were having to sponsor junior high camp.

"That's not a very good use of their time," he thought as he made his way into the chapel where he was going to meet with God. He began to pray and said, "Father, I thank you that I am not like these Foursquare people and that I believe in the cessation of spiritual gifts. I am so glad that I am a 5 point Calvinist and that I hold strictly to the Lord's Day and the Regulative Principle. I'm about to finish my third book on the Doctrines of Grace and I conduct family worship regularly. In fact, I even home school my children! Thank you, Lord!"

The junior high leader across the street was praying as well and said, "Lord, you know where these kids are at...all 250 of them. I want you to work in their lives and to make them christians. Only you can do this. Please help them."

Which one of these men understands the idea that God changes people and that it is He that is at work to save sinners?

Which one of these men are you?

Recent themes of thought bouncing around in my pea-brain.


1) The need for biblical ecumenicity (if that is the correct word). That is, the need to be open to being friends with others who call themselves Christians who don't believe exactly as I do about the peripheral issues but agree with me on the core tenets of Christianity.

2) The error of being excessively polemical from the pulpit, as if it was our duty to find out and destroy every heresy that raises it's head to oppose the true gospel. I see this as an error of inexperienced preachers.

3) My personal need to believe that I must speak up for the gospel and believe that when I speak, Jesus has promised that "rivers of living water" will flow out from me to influence the unbeliever. Factored into this is the thought that I MUST attend a church that has an outward, missional focus, not one that has "raised the drawbridge" and is putting out the cannons to assume a defensive posture. I want to go to an offensive church.

4) There is some really bland music out there that is very insufficient for use in corporate worship both in its excessive complexity in terms of melodic rhythmn and in its lack of any depth of thought in its content.

5) The Bible is about Jesus. Not about us. That is, every book in the Bible must be preached with this in mind. Jesus is EVERYWHERE in the Bible...sometimes in the shadows, sometimes in the types, sometimes in the ordinances, sometimes displayed in the way that God dealt with the nation of Israel, but it is always about Him! Preaching becomes worship when this is kept in mind. It is mere self-help if He is forgotten. Is David and Goliath about us overcoming our problems? Or is it about the Greater David overcoming our greater problem, namely sin and death, and then us receiving the benefit, although we lifted not a single finger in the battle? Thank you Dr. Tim Keller and Dr. Edmund P. Clowney.

6) Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. These are the 4 major themes in the Scriptures and help to frame the entirety of the Holy Scriptures into an understandable and cohesive unity. I understand now why Dr. Barcellos was able to preach the gospel from Genesis 3:15.

7) Heaven will be the restoration of Pre-fall creation.

8) Grace must frame the entirety of our preaching. Grace to save us from God's wrath and judgement, grace to set us in a right relationship with Him by way of Jesus' death, grace to allow us to obey His law, and grace to forgive us when we don't!

9) The "Emergent" church, although difficult to codify, is jacked-up, and I mean JACKED-UP to the extent that some of them deny the existence of Hell and the real need for salvation from the wrath of God! They sound like Robert Schuller "re-worked". They are coming to a church near you, so HEADS UP! Listen for terms like "NOOMA" videos, Rob Bell, and the "great conversation".

10) Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia.

11) If you have never been to the Shepherds Conference at Grace Community Church, John MacDaddy's church, you are missing out on one of the great gatherings of men who are being raised up to preach God's holy word.

12) The necessity of the community of believers. Who do you pray with? Who do you correct using God's word? Who will bring you meals when you are sick? With whom are you living out a life of radical love in front of unbelievers? Who has corrected you about something in your christian life recently? Who will be all over you if you stray from the faith? Who knows if you miss corporate worship on Sunday 4 weeks in a row? Who knows you aren't reading your Bible? With whom do you counsel when your marriage is in trouble? We need each other is the point, if you haven't got that already.

13) You need to listen to General Session #8 by Steve Lawson from the Shepherds Conference 2009. I was ready to go to seminary and enter the ministry after this sermon.

14) God, wife, kid(s), job, hobby. This is the proper and Biblical priority for life. Funny that if God is not first, you will have no idea where the other ones fit in.

15) I really have no idea if I will ever lead music again in church, although I would really like to.

Alexsandr Solzenhitsyn speaks a real warning to us.

Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."-Alexsandr Solzenhitsyn

The Real Reason For The Civil War, I Think...


Reading on the history of the Civil War. This was as a result of a question from an English writing class I audited last night. One of the questions given as an assignment was to discover what Lincoln was arguing for in the Gettysburg Address. I read it. It is short. Really short. And it seems meaningless, at least when you simply read it out loud. What in the world was he talking about? (By the way, Lincoln declared his speech to be a "failure" right after delivering it. I think this lends a clue as to its emptiness.) I was intrigued to read up on why the Civil war was fought in the first place. I was surprised to find out that it was not really waged over the abolishment of slavery. It seems that this was merely a "cloak" for the actions of the Federal Government against its own people. Rather, it was the Federal North moving to crush the 11 states of the South that had seceded from the Union for very valid reasons; this was the real reason for this outrageous and deeply saddening war. The right to secession/revolution was guaranteed in the language of the Declaration of Independence out of necessity when governments breech their lawful bounds and victimize their subordinates. The states that all issued secession decrees had had their fill of the Federal Governments' increasing control and monopoly of many aspects of their lives. This was the real issue over which the wretched war was fought; many good men gave up their lives for their freedoms in this country and where crushed underfoot by the Feds. Wives and children lost approximately 618,000 husbands and fathers during the 4 year plague. This is very sad. I found it very interesting as well that Texas was recognized as a country by the major nations of the world for a time before being "allowed" into the Union. I had no idea. In light of all this information, the Gettysburg Address seems like just another political speech from another politician; blah, blah, blah. Just like nowadays. Meaningless sentiments...and then "God bless America" to round out the whole thing. Very sad and very hollow.

A Poem In Praise Of The Trinity-For my wonderful mother, one fine December evening...5.5.7.5.5.7.


Praise to the Godhead

Inherent power, union of three and yet One

Marvelous terror

Worlds held in balance, governing planets and suns

Stars in the heavens

Raging with glory, bow at the sight of His face

Let all the heavens

Let all the nations, bring Him the merited praise

Glory to Yahweh

Vast is His power, those who believe He recieves

Love to His people

Has no known boundaries, great is their sorrow relieved

Blessed be Jesus

Highest in merit, bearing my sins before God

Who could accomplish

What He has finished? All of my guilt is now gone

Praise to the Spirit

Bringer of comfort, moving with power and grace

Capturing sinners

Conquering rebels, fitting them to see His face