Christ be treasured.

Piper on Union with Christ

2012-01-25T23:10:00.001-06:00

Pastor John Piper posted today on The Stupendous Reality of Being "in Christ Jesus" Check out the full article, but here is the crux.

In Christ Jesus you were given grace before the world was created. 2 Timothy 1:9, “He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”
In Christ Jesus you were chosen by God before creation. Ephesians 1:4, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.”
In Christ Jesus you are loved by God with an inseparable love. Romans 8:38–39, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ Jesus you were redeemed and forgiven for all your sins. Ephesians 1:7, “In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
In Christ Jesus you are justified before God and the righteousness of God in Christ is imputed to you. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In Christ Jesus you have become a new creation and a son of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Galatians 3:26, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
In Christ Jesus you have been seated in the heavenly places even while he lived on earth. Ephesians 2:6, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ Jesus all the promises of God are Yes for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.”
In Christ Jesus you are being sanctified and made holy. 1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ Jesus everything you really needed will be supplied. Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ Jesus the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ Jesus you have eternal life. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And in Christ Jesus you will be raised from the dead at the coming of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” All those united to Adam in the first humanity die. All those united to Christ in the new humanity rise to live again.

Also, I ran across an old post by Justin Taylor, Union with Christ: A Crash Course, which has been so helpful.

(HT: Jacob Riggs for the heads up)

Luther on Union with Christ

2012-01-24T20:26:00.002-06:00

Through Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians I realized that the Law was one of his mortal enemies. I could feel Luther's pulse rising as he unpacked the undoing of the Law with Christ's death. Luther taught me today that Paul cries, "I have nothing to do with the Law! I don't care for it at all, in fact I am dead to the Law." In Christ, the Law has no place as a barometer of our "okayness." Once we are united with Christ through faith, his unflinching perfection becomes the decisive indicator of our "okayness."

"[Jesus] permitted the Law to accuse Him, sin to condemn Him, and death to take Him, to abolish the Law, to condemn sin, and to destroy death for me." - Martin Luther, on Galatians 2:19

Luther says we live in Christ as we look at Christ, it has its effect.

"When we look at ourselves we find plenty of sin. But when we look at Christ, we have no sin. Whenever we separate the person of Christ from our own person, we live under the Law and not in Christ; we are condemned by the Law, dead before God." - Luther, on Galatians 2:20

Works are necessary, but no more necessary as being united to Christ is to receive all the good of the gospel.

"Good works are not the cause, but the fruit of righteousness. When we have become righteous, then first are we able and willing to do good. The tree makes the apple; the apple does not make the tree." - Luther, on Galatians 2:20

The Core

2012-01-23T13:30:00.001-06:00

What is the essence of Christianity? Personal union with Jesus Christ. Paul uses the picture of being united with Jesus (in Christ, with Christ, united to, one with Christ) 163 times in the New Testament. Pastor Ray Ortlund infers that an idea so frequented would be assumed to be the point of the book.

"We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless." John Calvin, Institutes 3.1.1

Union with Jesus is the essence because from this vital connection flows the very life of God into mortal men. Union with Christ takes the objective gospel and makes it subjectively alive.

This life from God brings about noticeable distinctions in the world of our experience. It goes from Jesus' words on a page to exclaiming with the disciples, "you have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).

Within the mystical realm of our union with the risen Lord we change. We bear fruit. We sin. We repent. We mature. Jesus takes us from dirty to clean, from alienation from God to reconciled, from orphan to child of God, from blind to seeing, from prisoner to free man, from debtor to heir of the world, from dead to alive. All through an irreversible, instantaneous and actual union of the soul with Jesus. This comes about through faith alone by grace alone.

We can't lose sight that the purpose of Christianity is not understanding the gospel. The purpose is not exhibiting a passion for the gospel. And lastly the purpose is not doing deeds in the name of the gospel. The purpose is union with Christ, which is the core producing minds, hearts and hands aflame with the gospel for the glory of God.

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ," (Romans 10:17).

(HT: Dane Ortlund for pointing us to the marvel of this mystery in ITG)

A Bloody Good Book

2012-01-20T15:11:00.001-06:00

Dr. Moore has written my favorite book of the past year. Inhale these words.

"Part of the curse Jesus would bear for us on Golgotha was the taunting and testing by God's enemies. As he drowned in his own blood, the spectators yelled words quite similar to those of Satan in the desert: 'Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe' (Mark 15:32). But he didn't jump down. He didn't ascend to the skies. He just writhed there. And, after it all, the bloated corpse of Jesus hit the ground as he was pulled off the stake, spattering warm blood and water on the faces of the crowd.

That night the religious leaders probably read Deuteronomy 21 to their families, warning them about the curse of God on those who are 'hanged on a tree.' Fathers probably told their sons, 'Watch out that you don't ever wind up like him." Those Roman soldiers probably went home and washed the blood of Jesus from under their fingernails and played with their children in front of the fire before dozing off. This was just one more insurrectionist they had pulled off a cross, one in a line of them dotting the roadside. And this one (what was his name? Joshua?) was just decaying meat now, no threat to the empire at all.
That corpse of Jesus just lay there in the silence of that cave. By all appearances it had been tested and tried, and found wanting. If you'd been there to pull open his bruised eyelids, matted together with mottled blood, you would have looked into blank holes. If you'd lifted his arm, you would have felt no resistance. You would have heard only the thud as it hit the table when you let it go. You might have walked away from that morbid scene muttering to yourself, "The wages of sin is death."

But sometime before dawn on a Sunday morning, a spike-torn hand twitched. A blood-crusted eyelid opened. The breath of God came blowing into that cave, and a new creation flashed into reality. God was not simply delivering Jesus—and with him all of us—from death, he was also vindicating him—and with him all of us. By resurrecting Jesus from the death, God was reaffirming what he had said over the Jordan waters. He was declaring Jesus 'to be the Son of God in power' (Rom. 1:4). This was done, that Scripture says, by 'the Spirit of holiness.' This is the same Spirit who rested on Jesus at his baptism 'like a dove' (Matt. 3:16). As this dovish Spirit alighted on him in the water and in the tomb, could Jesus have thought of the words of the Psalm the Devil would quote in the wilderness: 'He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will fine refuge' (Ps. 91:4)? With that kind of rescue, who needs to be proven right in any other way?"
- p. 124-125 Tempted and Tried by Russell Moore

The Captain

2012-01-18T23:22:00.000-06:00

"And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men." (1 Samuel 22:2)

Men are significant, they are God's strategic plan for the advance of gospel in our city. The gospel is God's means for redeeming broken men into an army of mighty men for his cause of grace. Ray Ortlund has said, "God has given every man a mountain to climb and the question in every man's heart is, do I have what it takes?" Men of distress, debt, and bitterness of the soul are convinced they are useless, but the Lord is gathering these men and breathing life into them with a new captain and king leading the way.

Discouraged men looked king David in the eye and began to change. They were drawn into an atmosphere of grace and redemption. They met a king safe for sinful men to gather around. There was no fear of belittlement or shame. He exhaled encouragement into their brokenness. Men accustomed to hearing you're not strong enough, you're not significant, you're not whole enough to belong became David's mighty men. Four hundred discouraged men in the hands of a redeemer king became a dangerous army. King Jesus is the true and better David.

"And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah." (1 Samuel 23:5)

They See Their Glorious Redeemer

2009-01-16T22:36:00.004-06:00

Jonathan Edwards can make any extrovert into an introvert. This comes from his Sermon "True Saints, When Absent From The Body, Are Present With The LORD." I was brought to tears at the thought of seeing the glory of Christ.

"And in heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect behold his glory. They see the glory of his divine nature, consisting in all the glory of the Godhead, the beauty of all his perfections; his great majesty, almighty power, his infinite wisdom, holiness, and grace, and they see the beauty of his glorified human nature, and the glory which the Father hath given him, as God-man and Mediator. For this end, Christ desired that his saints might, "be with him, that they might behold his glory," (John 17;24) And when the souls of the saints leave their bodies to go to be with Christ, they behold the marvelous glory of that great work of redemption, and of the glorious way of salvation by him; which the angels desire to look into. They have a most clear view of the unfathomable depths of the manifold wisdom and knowledge of God; and the most bright dislays of the infinite purity and holiness of God which appear in that way and work: and see in another manner than the saints do here, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, of the grace and love of Christ, appearing in his redemption. And as they see the unspeakable riches and glory of the attribute of God's grace, so they most clearly behold and understand Christ's eternal and unmeasurable dying love to them in particular. And in short, they see every thing in Christ that tends to kindle, enflame, and gratify love, and every thing that tends to satisfy them: and that in the most clear and glorious manner, without any darkness or delusion, without any impediment or interruption. Now the saints, while in the body, see something of Christ's glory and love as, in the dawning of the morning, we see something of the reflected light of the sun mingled with darkness: but when separated from the body, they see their glorious and loving Redeemer, as we see the sun when risen, and showing his whole disk above the horizon, by his direct beams in a clear hemisphere and with perfect day."

- The Works of Jonathan Edwards Volume 2, page 28

Spurgeon's Spirtual Birth

2009-01-07T00:07:00.002-06:00

Spurgeon retells his conversion.
I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a court and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there might be a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning: snowed up, I suppose. A poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had nothing else to say. The text was, ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.

There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in the text. He began thus: ‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, “Look.” Now that does not take a deal of effort. It ain’t lifting your foot or your finger; it is just “look.” Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man need not be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; a child can look. But this is what the text says. Then it says, “Look unto Me.” ‘Ay,’ said he, in broad Essex, ‘many of ye are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You’ll never find comfort in yourselves.’ Then the good man followed up his text in this way: ‘Look unto Me: I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross. Look: I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O, look to Me! Look to Me!’ When he had got about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes, he was at the length 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. He then said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable.’ Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: ‘And you will always be miserable — miserable in life and miserable in death — if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.’

Then he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist can, ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ.’ 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 moment and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the Precious Blood of Christ.”
HT: Fred Sanders

The God Who Smokes

2009-01-02T23:54:00.001-06:00

I'm going to hunt down this book, and read it. I love this paragraph.

“God really believes that he is the most worthy, most majestic, magnificent, glorious, stunningly beautiful being in the universe. And he is fixated on the certainty that only he deserves worship - that to him alone belong honor, glory, and praise forever and forever. With red-rimmed, stinging eyes and burning hair, all we can say is - he is right. He is astonishingly beautiful, utterly majestic and perfect in the symmetries of justice and righteousness, knowledge, and wisdom. He is as hypnotically compelling as a surging forest fire and ten times as dangerous. He is out of control - ours, not his.” (83) - The God Who Smokes by Timothy J. Stoner

HT: JT

Christ-Saturated Hip Hop

2008-12-29T13:03:00.003-06:00

I have stumbled upon a jewel. Shai Linne's latest album Atonement, stirs my affections for Christ. What a joy to feast on the gospel through all sorts of mediums. Check out his stuff.

"My third and final verse- here’s the situation
Just a couple more things for your consideration
If saving everybody was why Christ came in history
With so many in hell, we’d have to say He failed miserably
So many think He only came to make it possible
Let’s follow this solution to a conclusion that’s logical
What about those who were already in the grave?
The Old Testament wicked- condemned as depraved
Did He die for them? C’mon, behave
But worst of all, you’re saying the cross by itself doesn’t save
That we must do something to give the cross its power
That means, at the end of the day, the glory’s ours
That man-centered thinking is not recommended
The cross will save all for whom it was intended
Because for the elect, God’s wrath was satisfied"
- Mission Accomplished by Shai Linne

Does God Have Two Wills?

2008-12-15T20:08:00.002-06:00

Please stop what you are doing and listen to Matt Chandler preach on the two wills of God.
Download: Does God Have Two Wills? By Matt Chandler

Psalm 119

2008-12-12T12:00:00.002-06:00

"...my heart stands in awe of your words. I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil." (Psalm 119:161-162)

I'm finding language to pray all over Psalm 119, these verses will become a daily plead.

My Time Is God's Time

2008-12-09T16:57:00.000-06:00

C.J. Mahaney excerpts some helpful tips from R.C. Sproul on time management:

Given my propensity to waste time, I have learned a few tricks to help me beat the clock. They may be helpful to some of you.

First, I realize that all of my time is God’s time and all of my time is my time by His delegation. God owns me and my time. Yet, He has given me a measure of time over which I am a steward. I can commit that time to work for other people, visit other people, etc. But it is time for which I must give an account.

Second, time can be redeemed by concentration and focus. One of the greatest wastes of time occurs in the human mind. Our hands may be busy but our minds idle. Likewise, our hands may be idle while our minds are busy. Woolgathering, day-dreaming, and indulging in frivolous fantasy are ways in which thoughts may be wasted in real time. To focus our minds on the task at hand—with fierce concentration—makes for productive use of time.

Third, the mind can redeem valuable time taken up by ordinary or mechanical functions. For example, the mechanics of taking a shower are not difficult. In this setting the mind is free for problem solving, creative thinking, or the composition of themes. Many of my messages and lectures are germinated in the shower. When I used to play a lot of golf, I found that the time I had between shots was a great time for composing messages in my mind.

Fourth, use your leisure time for pursuits that are life enriching. Leisure time is often spent on avocations. Reading is a valuable use of time. It enriches life to read outside of your major field or area of expertise. Augustine once advised believers to learn as much as possible about as many things as possible, since all truth is God’s truth. Other avocations that are enriching include the arts. I like to study the piano and I dabble in painting. No one will ever mistake me for a serious musician or an accomplished artist. But these avocations open up the world of beauty to me that enhances my view of God and His manifold perfections. I also enjoy working cross-word puzzles to warm up the little gray cells and to expand my vista of verbal expression.

Fifth, find ways to cheat the “Sand Man.” Several years ago I had an epiphany about time management. Though my life-long pattern had been to stay up late at night I realized that for me, the hours between 9–12 p.m. were not very productive. I reasoned that if I used those hours to sleep I might secure more time for more productive things. Since then my habit has been to retire between 8–9 p.m. when possible and rise at 4 a.m. This has effected a wonderful revolution for my schedule. The early hours of the day are a time free from distractions and interruptions, a marvelous time for study, writing, and prayer….

Sixth, use drive-time for learning. Driving a car is another mechanical function that allows the mind to be alert to more than what is happening on the roadway. The benefits of audio tape can be put to great use during these times. I can listen to lectures and instructional tapes while driving, thereby redeeming the time.

Finally, in most cases a schedule is more liberating than restricting. Working with a schedule helps enormously to organize our use of time. The schedule should be a friend, not an enemy. I find it freeing in that the schedule can include time for leisure, recreation, and avocation. It helps us find the rhythm for a God-glorifying productive life.

HT: JT

Remember God

2008-12-03T10:30:00.001-06:00

“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 8:11-20)

God has given us redemptive history for a reason, and Deuteronomy 8 constantly calls God's people to remember what He has done. A few of us have been going through The Truth Project and this clip below was shown to reinforce the truth that what we believe about the past dictates our current beliefs in the present.

Our Crucified King

2008-11-28T12:56:00.001-06:00

"The shattered relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the cross provides the basis for our reconciliation. No other relationship ever suffered more than what Father, Son, and Holy Spirit endured when Jesus hung on the cross and cried, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Jesus was willing to be the rejected Son so that our families would know reconciliation. Jesus was willing to become the forsaken friend so that we could have loving friendships. Jesus was willing to be the rejected Lord so that we could live in loving submission to one another. Jesus was willing to be the forsaken brother so that we could have godly relationships. Jesus was willing to be the crucified King so that our communities would experience peace." - Paul David Tripp

(HT: Michael Spare)

Is The Bible About You?

2008-11-13T15:55:00.004-06:00

Thank God for Tim Keller. Here is a quote from a talk he's given numerous times, about preaching Christ from all of Scripture.

"The more fundamental issue is this question: What is the Bible really about? Is the Bible basically about me and what I must do or is it about Jesus and what He has done? Is the Bible about the objective and indicative? Here’s an example. Hermeneutics is important. You can’t just find Jesus in every little twig. And there needs to be a way where you are following the trajectory of the text no matter what that text is to Jesus. You have to show how Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that particular trajectory of the text. You’ve got to be responsible. And yet, like Sinclair said, it’s more like an instinct. It’s not so much just the right hermeneutical principles; it’s an instinct.

Do you believe the Bible is basically about you or basically about Him? Is David and Goliath basically about you and how you can be like David and Goliath or about Him, the One that took on the only giants in life who can kill us? You see. And His victory is imputed on us. Who is this all about? That’s the fundamental question. And when that happens, you start to read the bible anew. Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden. His garden is a much tougher garden and his obedience is imputed on us. Jesus is the true and better Abel, who though innocently slain has blood that cries out: not for our condemnation but for our acquittal.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who answers the call of God, who leaves all the familiar comforts of the world into the void, not knowing where He went. Jesus is the true and better Isaac who is not only offered by his father on the mount but who was truly sacrificed for us all. While God said to Abraham: “Now I know you truly love me, because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” Now we, at the foot of the cross, can say to God: “Now we know you love us because you did not withhold your Son, your only Son, whom you love, from us.” Jesus is the true and better Jacob, who wrestled and took the blows of justice that we deserved so we like Jacob only receive the wounds of grace that wake us up and disciple us. Jesus is the true and better Joseph, who is at the right hand of the king, and forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses, who stands in the gap between the people and the LORD and mediates the new covenant. Jesus is the true and better rock of Moses who struck with the rod of God’s justice now gives us water in the desert. Jesus is the true and better Job, He is the truly innocent sufferer who then intercedes for and saves His stupid friends. Is that a type? That’s not typology. That’s an instinct.

Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes the people’s victory even though they didn’t lift a stone to accomplish it themselves. Jesus is the true and better Esther, who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost ultimately the heavenly one, who didn’t just risk His life but gave His life, who didn’t say if I perish I perish but when I perish, I perish for them . . . to save my people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so we can be brought in. He’s the real Passover Lamb; He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true life, the true bread. The Bible is not about you. And that’s an instinct." - Tim Keller (The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal Excerpts From A Sermon – Spring 2008)

HT: Brett Boyle for his mad ability to remember where everything is on the Internet.

Jesus: The True & Better David

2008-11-12T10:15:00.004-06:00

"He bowed the heavens and came down." (Psalm 18:9)

I'm spending time searching for Christ through David's voice in the Psalms. This morning I was in Psalm 18, which is an eruption of praise for salvation.

"I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help.." (Psalm 18:3-6)

God saved David. The hand of Saul did not crush him and he was spared from his enemies. David trusted and sought refuge in the LORD, and his Lord responded with victory. God was making David into the King of Israel, however his journey to the throne was filled with the threat of defeat at the hand of his enemies.

We need to be like David, we need to trust God with a David-like trust. Our enemies are pursuing us, tempting us and threatening us with comfort and security apart from God. As Tim Keller says, "The only way we'll ever be like David, is to see the One to whom David points to. The real and better David, Jesus."

Jesus took the words of David as his own in the New Testament. Throughout Psalm 18, we hear a calling out to God in distress, crying for help, and then an answer from the LORD.

"From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears ... He bowed the heavens and came down." (Psalm 18:6,9)

We can see Jesus, the real and better David. God made David the King of Israel by rescuing him from his enemies. God enthroned Jesus forever by delivering Him over to the enemy. Just think about how the mocking declaration above the cross "This is the King of the Jews" (Luke 23:38) revealed the reality as Christ sits on David's throne forever.

Jesus trusted his Father completely through death at the hands of his enemies, so that He could rescue his enemies from their sins.

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:10)

In the eyes of God, I am the enemy who wanted to kill David. I need a God who saves the enemy at the expense of the innocent. The gospel of God's grace gives us just that. David's enemies were defeated while David was spared, Christ was slain while His enemies were spared.

"And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

The Face of God

2008-11-11T09:50:00.003-06:00

"Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure, they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness." (Psalm 17:13b-15)

The face of God is what we were created to peer into and be full of satisfying pleasure and un-yielding yearning for more of God. We are creatures specifically for God. We are not His pets. The paradise of Eden and the final consummation of all creation, the new heavens and new earth, will feature a mind-blowing promise fulfilled:

"Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man." (Revelation 21:3)

Arndt, and other German mystics referred this paradise as, Unio Mystica the Mystical Union. God and Man united forevermore during, "the marriage supper of the Lamb." (Revelation 19:9). Here God himself, in all the fullness of Holy-trinitarian-community, will in some mysterious measure dwell with the Church forever. (The Father - The Son - The Holy Spirit) (Jesus Christ - His little shepherds - the flock of saved Christians) God has designed the relationship between Christ and the church to reflect the relationship among God in the trinity. Unio Mystica indeed!

"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)

What a marvelous mystery that is being revealed through the history of redemption. This thread ties everything together. God has given us this marvelous news, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God," (1 Peter 3:18) This is the source of true delight, that in Christ we are being brought back to the paradise of "the face of God." We are returning to the garden where we graciously are able to see God, to know God and righteously reflect God to all of His creation.

Our destination is good, because it is with God. Today, do not miss your opportunity to meet with the "face of God" through His Word. Today by faith, one day "face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12)

God Saves Sinners

2008-10-26T23:06:00.002-05:00

I've come across J.I. Packer quotes in a few different blogs, and he is so helpful in clarifying the ultimate point that is the common thread throughout all five points of Calvinism.

Packer said, "The very act of setting out Calvinistic soteriology [the doctrine of salvation] in the form of five distinct points (a number due, as we saw, merely to the fact that there were five Arminian points for the Synod of Dort to answer) tends to obscure the organic character of Calvinistic thought on this subject. For the five points, though separately stated, are inseparable. They hang together; you cannot reject one without rejecting them all, at least in the sense in which the Synod meant them. For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners.

"God – the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing.

"Saves – does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies.

"Sinners – men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. God saves sinners – and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedalling the sinner’s inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the “five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen."

HT: Acts 29 Blog

The Paradise of God

2008-10-07T09:18:00.002-05:00

"I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary ... To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." (Revelation 2:3,7)

I exist for the sake of God. He has formed me with His own image, given me the gift of existence for His own benefit. As a Christian, there is something profoundly deeper I must know, that I have been re-created for the sake of His name. How deep is this glory, I must grow in the knowledge, experience and taste of this Name that conquered sin and death in my place. Now, I must conquer in response with the strength and hope that only comes from the true Conqueror - Jesus Christ.

What must we conquer? The "god of this world" and all of his temptations to love anything God has created more than our precious Lord Jesus.

To what extent must we conquer?

"Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life ... The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death." (Revelation 2:10)

We must conquer through the first death, "as it is appointed for man to die once, then comes judgement." (Hebrews 9:26) This momentary life is not the end. There is a second death, which is the wrath of God. The only escape from this judgement is to trust in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. Which means that the cross was sufficient to absorb all of the wrath of God against my sin.

I trust Him because He ransomed me. He paid my debt. Oh how I long to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God forever!

Jonathan Edwards

2008-10-06T10:51:00.003-05:00

Happy birthday Jonathan Edwards. By far his writing has shocked me with a God-centered-ness that is completely uncomfortable to the natural mind.

Here is a quote Pastor John posted from Edwards about the danger of the thought that you have a self-determining will.

"By what I have heard, some...think, that if it be really true, that there is no self-determining power in the will...it is of a mischievous tendency to say any thing of it; and that it is best that the truth in this matter should not be known by any means....

I cannot but be of an extremely different mind. On the contrary, I think that the notion of liberty, consisting in a contingent self-determination of the will, as necessary to the morality of men’s dispositions and actions, is almost inconceivably pernicious....

The longer I live, and the more I have to do with the souls of men, in the work of the ministry, the more I see of this. Notions of this sort are one of the main hindrances of the success of the preaching of the word, and other means of grace, in the conversion of sinners....

And with respect to self-flattery and presumption, as to what is future, nothing can possibly be conceived more directly tending to it, than a notion of liberty, at all times possessed, consisting in a power to determine one’s own will to good or evil; which implies a power men have, at all times, to determine them to repent and turn to God.

And what can more effectually encourage the sinner, in present delays and neglects, and embolden him to go on in sin, in a presumption of having his own salvation at all times at his command? And this notion of self-determination and self-dependence, tends to prevent, or enervate, all prayer to God for converting grace; for why should men earnestly cry to God for his grace, to determine their hearts to that which they must be determined to of themselves.

And indeed it destroys the very notion of conversion itself. There can properly be no such thing, or any thing akin to what the Scripture speaks of conversion, renovation of the heart, regeneration, &c. if growing good, by a number of self-determined acts, are all that is required, or to be expected.

Excuse me, Sir, for troubling you with so much on this head. I speak from the fullness of my heart. What I have long seen of the dreadful consequences of these prevalent notions every where, and what I am convinced will still be their consequences so long as they continue to prevail, fills me with concern" - Jonathan Edwards - Letters and Personal Writings.

Uncomfortable Grace

2008-09-30T10:16:00.002-05:00

"God's grace will take you where you do not want to go, to produce in you what you could not on your own." - Paul David Tripp

How To Waste Your Bible

2008-09-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

Fail to see the gospel.

I listened to the sermon, Paradise Lost, by Tim Keller this morning. It was good, then like rays shooting through morning clouds the gospel shone brightly in his message, and it became great. My soul filled with life, because I was staring at the glory of God in the face of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:6). In the spirit of our current sermon series, I think THE Elephant in the church, is gospel-oblivion, gospel-neglect and gospel ignorance. Just try asking someone what the gospel is, and you will see them squirm like a duck.

Reasons for our neglect of the gospel perhaps are many. Too much theology is required, and a practical mindset is pervasive. (Just tell me what to do) Another reason could be is that the gospel has become the door we enter through to receive salvation, and then it is on to practical discipleship.

All I know is that my soul is dead without the gospel. From every verse of the Holy Scriptures, I must arrive at the gospel. Without the gospel I have no life. I have religion or irreligion, and both are void of God.

What does the gospel bring us? The gospel brings us God. It affirms that He is good. That God is trustworthy. That He alone will resurrect the chaos of my soul, by pointing me to the soul-completing promises of God.

So when I say that Keller brought the gospel this morning in his sermon, what do I mean? He unpacked from Genesis 3 the reality that the text pointed to. That Jesus Christ has done everything, and we have failed at everything. He brought me to the point of remembering how the cross became a tree of life for me, because it became a tree of death for Him.

Keller brought the gospel to bear very practically in our daily lives by asking the question, “What do you need to get over the suffering, the pain, the disappointment and dissatisfaction of life?”

You need to know He loves you, you can go to him and he will not cast you out, you need to know he delights in you. How do you know this is true? Look at the cross. You need a God who had to pay to come looking for us in the garden after we ate from the tree. The journey to the cross began in Genesis 3:9 when the LORD called to man, “Where are you?” This is when the grace filled pursuit of God began, and we can follow the thread of salvation by grace all throughout scripture, until we arrive at the cross where Christ died for sins.

If you believe Jesus Christ died for you, and you are saved by grace, you know you are flawed, and yet utterly accepted, we stole the fruit, yet Christ climbed the tree. The tree of death for him became our re-entrance to the tree of life. For us the cost is nothing but gain, yet it cost God his Son. The gospel tells us that we are so flawed and messed up that Christ had to die for us, but that we are so loved and valued that He was glad to die for us. (Keller)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The Morning God Spoke...

2008-09-22T11:04:00.001-05:00

This morning, I heard God speak. It has been months, since it was so crisp and strong, sovereign and frightening. As soon as I awoke this morning an unusual sense flooded my soul. It was the reality that I was a creature, that someone created me and that I resemble Him. I sat down on my couch and heard these words.

“See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.”

Oh my, I have been refusing Him who is speaking. My eyes opened at that moment to the Him who has been speaking. When this One speaks the universe flies into existence, light shines out of darkness, and His voice is like thunder “whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them … Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’”

Then God gave me a reason to receive Him who is speaking, “For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth…”

This voice I hear as I read from Hebrews 12 this morning shook me. This voice warns us from heaven. If it shakes the earth, likewise it will quake the human soul if we have ears to hear. No, I did nothing special to hear God this morning. I simply opened my bible to Hebrews 12 and asked the LORD to give me ears to hear, eyes to see and taste buds to taste the God who is speaking.

This God speaks to us in the bible, and nowhere else. This God affirms everything He has written in the Word through His creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” (Psalm 19:1) The universe will never declare anything outside of the Holy Scriptures.

If we neglect the bible, we are not being ‘bad christians’; we are refusing Him who is speaking. We are ignoring the one true God. This is no good. We cease to remain connected to the Vine as soon as the bible is ignored.

I simply leave us all with an exhortation and a dream. What would happen if we devoted ourselves to the Word of God? If we gave ourselves to understanding the Word of God rightly? If we laid our lives down daily to see, smell and taste the God who is speaking?

Then and only then will the Holy Spirit awaken a revival of radical discipleship, fervent worship, and the obedience of faith that makes Christ look like the treasure He is.

I am hungry to be known by God, to know God and to make this God known. Who will join me?

Christ the Cornerstone

2008-09-18T23:48:00.003-05:00

"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." (Luke 20:17)

-> Christ the stone that was rejected
-> Christ the cornerstone

Two houses are being constructed. One by men, one by God. One will grow into an indestructible structure, whose foundation will withhold the fiercest storm of God's wrath. Fire will only refine the bricks of gold. The other will be swept away with the flood, because its foundation is sand, and when the fire tests this structure the hollow echoes of the praise of men will crumble, the straw walls will disintegrate amidst the flame of the wrath of the Lamb.

What caused the builders to reject the stone?
Their religion was seeking to accomplish the opposite of what God sent Christ to perform. Their religion consisted of Self-salvation, self-exaltation, and inward-corruption. Jesus came with a gospel, not religion. This gospel proclaimed God-wrought salvation by grace, Christ-exaltation through repentance & humility. This gospel enacts inward-renewal through the forgiveness of sins. Christ's gospel brings acceptance from from God at Christ's expense, rather than striving to appease God through keeping the law.

Jewish sin looked different that Gentile sin. Religious sin looks much different than rebellious agnostic sin, yet both alienate and distance us from the Holy God.

Lay yourself upon the rejected One, for He is the cornerstone of God's house. Where do we see & know the rejected stone most fully? Through the cross of Christ. We learn that the stone was rejected for a reason. Christ was not rejected because his message was off target. Christ was rejected for us, instead of us; so that Christ could become the cornerstone of the church.

Adorn the Docrine of God

2008-09-09T10:40:00.002-05:00

“so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:10)

I was reading Titus this morning and this verse has stuck to the roof of my mouth. The Truth of God is not merely something we know, but more gloriously it is something that adorns us as we love and pursue this doctrine. May we put on the truth of God like an extravagant outfit. May the knowledge of Him clothe us with confidence and boldness, strength and humility, love and hope, joy and patience, faithfulness and self control.

The way in which we work, study, play, serve, and engage people says a lot of things to our culture, so are we communicating the knowledge of God in all these areas? Let’s work heartily for the Lord today.

The Grace of Our Lord

2008-08-26T11:51:00.001-05:00

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

The King of kings, Lord of lords became a homeless guy. God became a man. So that by his poverty he might make us rich. This is the grace of our King, the great substitution of God for man. This is the apex of the glory of God, his grace. This is the fullest revelation of his beauty, let’s keep this in our sight, fresh in our minds, constant in our teaching and telling of the gospel.

What compels the King of glory to set it aside to actively save sinners by taking their place?

“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38)

The joy of doing the will of God the father was the spring from which our Salvation overflowed into an abundance of grace for us.

The abundance of joy from doing God’s will was set before the Son of God, and mixed with the perfect obedience and poverty of Jesus Christ a wealth of generosity overflowed with grace for every sinner to be saved. Christ purchased us with his poverty, he rescued us with his weakness, he attracts us with his humiliation, he wins us with his grace.

“to the praise of the glory of his grace…” (Ephesians 1:6)

Grace Given To Zacchaeus

2008-08-18T22:58:00.002-05:00

"And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.' So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. ... 'Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.'" (Luke 19:5,9)

Salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus; Christ came to the house of a lost sinner. Zacchaeus has a name, he is known by God, recognized by the Son of God, elected to taste the grace of God. The Messiah invited himself to the least deserving.

God is saving us from Himself (the wrath of God), and God is simultaneously saving us to Himself (the joy of true life in God). So the trajectory of salvation is away from the consequence of our sin, and towards the reward of true righteousness, the fellowship of God. This salvation came at the expense of Christ's substitution on the cross.

The grace of God makes sinners repent & rejoice, while causing the self-righteous to grumble and sneer. God seeks out the lost sons of Abraham and gives them grace. God's role in all of this is so active. He seeks, He saves, He invites himself in, He gives his presence to Zacchaeus.

What does Zacchaeus do? He seeks to see who Jesus is. "...no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (John 6:65) He obeys Jesus' command and receives the grace of Jesus' company. "So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully." (Luke 19:6) Zacchaeus humbles himself by climbing a sycamore tree to see Jesus. "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:14)

Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus was nothing but sheer grace. Abraham-promised, Cross-purchased, blood-bought, Christ-merited, joy-producing, worship-inducing grace flowing freely to Zacchaeus. When grace floods his soul, Zacchaeus responds. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything. I restore it fourfold." (Luke 19:8)

Christ is teaching us that "Salvations belongs to the LORD!" (Jonah 2:9), and it is "by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8)

Kept in God's Name

2008-08-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:11b)

Jesus asks our “Holy Father” to keep us, to preserve and protect our faith in Him. If Jesus prays for us to be kept, this must mean that we are in some sense in danger and have a need to be protected. The place we are kept is in his name. This is a place, a domain, a refuge where our souls rest, find protection and peace from the world. “In your name” has to do with who God is, His being, His essence.

There are so many things to think about the name of God, Almighty, Healer, Comforter, our Righteousness. Ah, yes, The LORD our provider, he keeps us by drawing us to run into His Name for everything, and then remain in His Name forever.

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

We are protected only when our hearts are trusting and seeking refuge in God through Jesus Christ. May our God keep us abiding in His Name.

-thoughts from Bill Vogler's sermon unpacking John 17:11

Worship The God Who Is Able

2008-08-13T14:29:00.000-05:00

"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith- to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen." (Romans 16:25-27)

Oh, there is so much to love about the last paragraphs of most the letters in the new testament. It is sort of like a glorious sign off, full of incredible worship language. When I read this earlier this morning, it made me want to run and fight for the glory of God.

Our God is able to strengthen us, especially the weakest and downcast souls among us. Those who are tired of running and ready to quit, remember He is able to strengthen us. How does he strengthen us? With the gospel. God gives us strength by reminding us daily the good news that he has saved us from the wrath of God.

The second way that God strengthens us is through the preaching of Jesus Christ. What does this mean? This means unpacking from the old testament the prophesies that point to the promised savior and what he would bring and tying that together with how Christ has fulfilled those promises bringing their precious benefits to us who trust Him.

All that has been unveiled about the glory of God through Jesus has been, "..., according to the command of the eternal God,..." (16:26) God commands that we be strengthened towards the obedience of faith through the news of His Son. When the LORD speaks galaxies come into being, mountains are moved and we are strengthened by the gospel.

To God be the glory!

Oh, The Depths of God

2008-08-08T14:29:00.000-05:00

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33)

Riches - Wisdom - Knowledge - > (God) (!)

These three aspects of God lead Paul to exclaim “Oh, the depth…” of these three, the surface of what we can call to mind of the Riches of God, the Wisdom of God and the Knowledge of God, is but the beginning of an infinite depth below this monumental iceberg of treasure and glory. God’s depth is unsearchable, inexhaustible, never ending, time has not enough capacity to hold this depth. Only eternity can hold such a wondrous God of beauty, mystery and majesty.

Just when we think we’ve begun to see and know the beauty of the riches of God in Christ, let’s remind ourselves of the depth below that we have yet to uncover. When we have begun to wrap our mind around the Wisdom of God in all that he has created, in the ways he has sovereignly worked redemption of His people throughout history, let us humble ourselves at the depth of His wisdom that still lies beneath. When we stand exhausted at the reality that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Mat.10:30), may our minds explode with wonder at the limitless Knowledge of God that lies beneath the revealed surface within the depths of the mind of God.

We will live eternally in the new heavens and earth. Our life that will never end will consist of exploring these unsearchable depths of God. Every day we will discover something new. This will be our joy to plumb the depths of God, He is ever infinite and the newest revelations of His heaven-like grandeur will explode the senses of our new bodies with pleasure and delight at God’s glory.

Don’t waste this life, start the pilgrimage today, read God’s word and erupt like Paul did with worship at what you find.

Our Heavenly Matchmaker

2008-08-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

“The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.

As the second Paraclete, the Spirit leads us constantly to the original Paraclete, who himself draws near through the second Paraclete’s coming to us (John 14:8). Thus, by enabling us to discern the first Paraclete, and by moving us to stretch out our hands to him as he comes from his throne to meet us, the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, according to Christ’s own word.”

- J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 57 - 58.

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Spiritual Cancer - Pride

2008-08-03T17:11:00.003-05:00

"There is no fault which we are more unconscious of ourselves. And the more we have it, the more we dislike it in others. I am talking of Pride or Self-conceit… It is because I want to be the big noise at the party that I am annoyed that someone else is being the big noise… Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind. What you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better looking than others… The sexual impulse may drive two men into competition for the same girl. But a proud man will take your girl from you not because he wants her, but just to prove to himself that he is a better man than you.

Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride… It is far more subtle and deadly. Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy’s pride, or as they call it, self-respect, to make him behave decently. Many have overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath their dignity. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled provided he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride — just as he would be quite content to see [the corns on your foot] cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or common sense.

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that — and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison — you do not know God at all. He wants you to be delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you unhappy and restless all your life. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel we are good — above all, that we are better than someone else — I think we may be sure that we are being acted on not by God but by the devil… If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."

– C.S.Lewis

Prayers of Lamentation

2008-07-26T21:37:00.004-05:00

How do we approach reading Lamentations? Do we see it as a book about the somber worship of God during the darkest and heaviest hours of our lives? It is full of prayers of lament, which give us words of honesty to bring faithfully to our God.

Lamentations addresses three causes of lament:

God (the warrior)
Self (my sin)
Enemies

All throughout the book are images of raw life; honest descriptions of human experience. These images primarily express pain, and more importantly express pain to God (prayer). What is the point? Lament prayers bring us an encounter with God, they are the means of encounter between God and broken humanity.

Lamentations is intriguing because it is not expressing images and feelings of our pain to God in the absence of him, but rather the expressions of pain and suffering in his very presence and even more startling as a direct result of his presence.

"Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus! Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?" (Lamentations 2:20)

As we cry out to God, we carry to him words that know his hand is against us, and we want him to know how it feels. This a gracious gift from our God, to give us words to experience his face, when, "he has made my teeth grind on gravel..." (Lam. 3:16)

Our God comes against us, because He is in covenant with us. When we transgress the covenant he strikes. Let us not forget the ultimate One, who was struck with the LORD's deadly blow, to purchase for us the gift of the new covenant. This covenant has loving blows from the LORD intended to keep us and sustain us from falling away from his precious grace. Praise be to Christ, our Redeemer.

Let us be faithful to lament our sin, and the brokenness of humanity eagerly awaiting a response from the one who subjected the creation to futility in hope that it would be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8:20-21)

"It is immensely easier to suffer with others than to suffer alone. It is immensely easier to suffer openly and honorably than apart and in shame." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Loved This People

(Based on notes from MIQRA Seminar, Lectures on Lamentations by Dr. Heath Thomas)

One Drop of Christ's Blood

2008-07-08T23:41:00.002-05:00

John Bunyan when thinking on the distinctions of one who is coming to Christ...

1. Are you burdened with your sin, recognizing it as an exceedingly bitter thing?
2. Do you run from your sin as you would a deadly serpent?
3. Do you recognize and flee from the insufficiency of your own righteousness in the sight of God.
4. Do you cry to the Lord Jesus to save you?
5. Do you see more worth and merit in one drop of Christ's blood to save you, than in all the sins of the world to condemn you?
6. Are you tender of sinning against Jesus?
7. Is Jesus' name, person, and undertakings more precious to you than the glory of the world?
8. Is faith in Christ precious to you (as a means to connect you to Christ)?
9. Do you savor Christ in his Word, and do you leave all the world for his sake?
10. Are you willing (with God's help) to run in harm's way for his name?
11. Are his saints precious to you?

(HT: Justin Childers)

Repentance Makes Much of Christ

2008-07-04T10:12:00.002-05:00

"No, but I tell you; unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3,5)

Throughout Luke 13 we see a running theme of the necessity of repentance in the gospel Jesus preached. So why was repentance so central to His message?

At the center of the gospel, we have Christ crucified for our sin. At the center of the greatest display of love, we have Christ risen for our justification. At the center of human history we have a man born miraculously of a virgin, who came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. At the center of our planet we have a poor carpenter from the small town of Nazareth, whose message is pervasive and is infiltrating every tribe and language and people and nation with the news of His salvation. At the center of all creation, we have Jesus crowned with glory and honor and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, who is actively upholding the universe by the word of His power. This Christ named Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God Himself, and He is the center of all these things: human history, our planet, the universe, and the gospel. Repentance is mandatory and the door is narrow, because the glory of Christ is the reason why God saves anyone from His wrath. When a sinner repents, he turns away from and let's go of everything and turns to the one supremely satisfying and all sufficient treasure of the universe - Jesus Christ. And this magnifies the worth of Christ in all His fullness and plenty to save. This is how God ordains that man be rescued from Himself.

We were created to display Christ.

May Christ Have Our Hearts

2008-06-19T10:41:00.003-05:00

I will be returning to the feasting blog regularly in July. Here are some great thoughts from a blog I read daily.

Jeremiah Burroughs, a Puritan, wrote a wonderful book called A Treatise of Earthly-Mindedness. He defines "earthly-mindedness" as when a person puts his/her mind and heart primarily on the things and cares of the world. It is as if the things of the world are the most excellent things; as if they are the real treasures of life and so should be sought with all out fervor and energy.

Christians can be earthly-minded; they can be pilgrims without the pilgrim spirit. They can be like Lot who gripped the world and was hesitant to let go. Burroughs provides one way for us to guage our hearts in this matter, and it is quite insightful. He says we need to ask ourselves the following question: what is your heart upon in times of solitude? When you are alone and need not impress anyone, what is it that you place your heart upon? It is at these times that the true nature of our wants and desires are easily discovered.

(HT: Dr. John Currid)

The Glory of the Cross

2008-06-07T11:01:00.002-05:00

"Our deepest need of salvation met, but it has been done in such a way as to bring the most glory to God Himself. It is at the cross where God's law & God's grace are both most brilliantly displayed, where His justice & His mercy are both glorified. But it is also at the cross where we are most humbled. 'We bring nothing to our salvation except our sin that made it necessary.'" - Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life

"Sin is substituting yourself where only God is supposed to be
Salvation is God substituting Himself for you, where only you deserve to be." - Tim Keller

The Gospel assaults the vanity of idolatry within our hearts, and the Gospel brings grace upon grace to complete us within with the fullness of God to worship in its stead. We are sinners who need grace, to be forgiven. When the gospel hits me inside it makes its way to the outside.

"I am accepted by this grace, therefore I obey. Rather than, I obey and therefore God accepts me." - Tim Keller

You shall have no other god's before me (Ex. 20:3), is like saying, You shall have no other justifications before me. Which is another way of commanding us, You must believe the gospel.

O God - Your Name and Your Word

2008-06-02T09:27:00.004-05:00

"I give thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word." (Psalm 138:1-2)

The Name of the LORD. "What is his name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM" (Ex. 3:13-14), and it is exalted above all things. There is 'some things', there is 'few things', there is 'most things' and then there is 'all things'. This Name and this Word that comes from GOD is exalted, magnified, esteemed, valued, and treasured by GOD above all things. God has exalted Himself above everything. He is higher, He is greater, He is superior, He is it.

David is thankful with his whole heart that God values God above everything, and as a result David is no longer worshiping idols, "before the gods I sing your praise", David exults in the God that exalts Himself, because God Himself is the only being worthy of God's supreme worship. Therefore God is the only object worthy of our whole-hearted affection.

Let's give thanks for the infinite riches of God Himself.

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
(Luke 23:43)

God Is The Center

2008-05-21T09:53:00.003-05:00

"Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness ... Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power." (Psalm 106:6,8)

Let's be God-centered lovers of God for His sake and no other.

Fear God

2008-05-19T15:30:00.000-05:00

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:4-7)

There is something we should fear more than being murdered. We have been given something we can lose besides this life, our souls forever in hell. God alone has authority to sentence to hell. Jesus teaches us countless, priceless realities whenever He speaks directly to us from the bible. Jesus teaches us with these words surprisingly that when God is feared for His awesome authority, every worldly fear dissolves beneath His frightening, and awful goodness. This same God who has the authority to sentence every one of us to hell for the sins we have committed today has purchased us with the infinite cost of the blood of His Son Jesus. The God who cares for sparrows, and numbers the hairs on our head, is the only power keeping us from eternal destruction. In light of the mercy of God, we have no one to fear but Him. We are saved from God, by God.

Fearing God and loving His largeness.

Faith That Finds Jesus

2008-05-14T23:59:00.002-05:00

"And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, 'Man, your sins are forgiven you.'" (Luke 5:18-20)

This is immaculate portrait of the gospel. Jesus is in the house. The good news is Jesus. He is here in the flesh, the very fountain of life, the creator of you and me. The house He is in is so crowded these men driven by a faith drawing them near to Christ, climb the roof and lower their friend in through the tiles. What do they find? The grace of God speaking truth to them, forgiving their sins with the authority of God the Father who sent Jesus Christ. This is the faith that saves us, the faith that fights to be united with Jesus for life, it thrives through all costs even unto death because the eyes of this faith are fixed upon Jesus as the reward (Heb. 11:6).

I am so helpless before the gospel of God's grace, and I am fearful because His grace is not an item of consumption but an agent of the power of God to save us from our sin. Keller is making me think about God's grace from a spectators role. When I begin to comprehend the gospel as a reality that is objective, free, beautiful, and completed; this news begins to transform my insides. I must view God's grace like an admirer views a serene display of glory from all angles within God's Word, which is practically an unpacking of Jesus from every angle of every narrative, history, poem or letter in the bible. Christ has worked salvation for all who will look upon Him and believe.

"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:40)

Jesus cried out 'it is finished' as He died on the cross, and now He is seated at the right hand of majesty having made purification for our sins (Heb. 1:3b), He has in a single act perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Heb. 10:14), and consequently now He is able to save to the uttermost, those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25). The grace of God, believe it, come to Christ in need and desperation like men who carry their friends through rooftops, whatever it takes, then you will find our mighty savior ready to forgive our sins. That is the faith that saves us. Let's draw near to Christ.

"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." (John 6:35)

Believe the Gospel

2008-05-13T23:26:00.003-05:00

"He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt... The Pharisee standing by himself, prayed thus, God I thank you that I am not like the other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector... But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other." (Luke 18:9-14)

The gospel according to Jesus is all about Him. I don't think I believe the gospel a majority of the time, and somehow I relapse into a default notion that the good news somehow includes me and my participation in validating its reality in my life. I base my justification on my sanctification. I strive for holiness for all sorts of reasons, but seldom from the sheer joy that Christ is my righteousness. Oh, I understand that conceptually and love to think about it. But do I believe it?

The gospel is not 'I obey therefore I am accepted'. The gospel is 'I am accepted by the grace of God because of all that Jesus Christ is for me, therefore I obey.' Tim Keller has been making this distinction, and more than ever I think he is right. Gospel is leaning on and living in light of the good news proposal from Christ that He is everything for me, He has carried the weight of our sin for us at an infinite cost to Himself. He was stripped of His life, He could not even call out to God as Abba Father, He was merely "My God" (Mark 15:34) to our Christ as He bore the curse of relational separation from the Father.

We must stop reading the bible in search of what we must do in order to be God's people, and we must instead read the bible in search of the Christ who has done everything to purchase us as His people. Look on the Son, and be saved.

"The one who is righteous through faith shall live." (Romans 1:17b)

What Do You Mean He Became A Curse?

2008-05-08T09:27:00.003-05:00

"And when the sixth hour had come there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' ... And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'" (Mark 15:33-34,37-39)

Here we see, and Paul helps us to understand the weight and wonder of what was going on. Back up in your mind to Mark 14:36, when Jesus prays to the Father, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Jesus held the cup of God's curse before Him, and those six hours he hung on a tree He drank the cup and became one cursed by God. This was the Father's will that Jesus submitted Himself to willingly.

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'" (Galatians 3:13)

The Father so turned His Face from His Son, the sun ceased to shine, the land was completely dark, and Jesus' response was not figurative but literal, God forsook His Son. As Sproul says, Jesus did not just bear God's curse for us, Jesus became the curse.

"Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:15-16)

Stay Awake to the Glory of Jesus

2008-05-07T17:28:00.004-05:00

"Therefore stay awake - for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning - lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake." - (Mark 13:35-37)

Our fight is to keep our fix and focus on the awakening lure of the glory of God. When we tire of fighting our body disconnects. Our minds may have a treasury of delight in store, yet with no digestive system to carry the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus to the rest of our body we inevitably grow tired. When our minds and hearts are disconnected our body fills with darkness, and unbelief grows. The lies of the world and our flesh seem so appealing and interesting when our eyes divert and when we grow tired.

How do we stay awake? The Spirit must wield the Word in our hearts. We have to fight to saturate ourselves with bible daily in order to stay awake to the coming of our Lord Jesus. The Word is our only hope to remain awakened to His absolute supremacy in the world we live. Our hope thrives like a garden in our hearts causing the outflow of all our works to scream Jesus is alive and the most important reality in the universe and within my heart, because He died and became the curse for me forever separating me from the punishment of the curse as far as the east is from the west so has He removed my transgressions from me, and this is the sweetest wave of love from God my Father that I cannot help but speak of what I have seen and heard, because He owns me as a Master owns a slave, but He is the greatest LORD this world has ever dreamed of because He spoke this world into existence and He upholds it by the word of His power.

Fighting to stay awake to Jesus.

"Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory , obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:8-9)

Command Us What You Will - Only Grant Them

2008-05-06T11:42:00.004-05:00

"And all my hope is nowhere except in your great mercy. Grant us what you command, and command us what you will. You demand that we should be continent. And when I knew, as it is said, that no man can be continent, unless God give it, this also was a part of wisdom to know whose gift she is. Certainly it is by continence that we are brought together and brought back to the One, after having dissipated ourselves among the Many. For he loves you insufficiently who loves something else with you which he does not love for your sake. O love, ever burning, and never extinguished, charity, my God, set me on fire! You command continence. Grant what you command, and command what you will." - The Confessions of St. Augustine

Grace Before We Began

2008-05-05T23:57:00.002-05:00

"...share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began." (2 Timothy 1:8)

God saved us before He created us. Didn't we have to sin in order for us to need to be saved from that sin? Not if the purpose of God was to create a people that needed grace from the beginning. There was a reason there was a serpent in the garden. Grace is no after thought, grace is the point, the apex of the glory of our salvation is the bestowal of grace to us apart from anything we've done at the infinite cost of the death of the Son of God. The grace of God has been ours as long as our names have been written, "in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain," which was, "written before the foundation of the world" (Rev.13:8b)

Grace can only be given where there is sin. Without sin grace ceases. It blows the mind to think about how God's desire was to display His grace before there was a universe that could house microscopic sinners like you and I.

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:1-4)

Don't neglect to think about the grace of God, after all the sin we've committed, we still live.
Repent and be baptized.

Enter Life - Lose A Limb If You Must

2008-05-05T23:54:00.001-05:00

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:42-48)

Our eternal joy is very serious to Jesus. How seriously do we take our joy? Jesus is so severe and frightening at times, it should make us tremble. There’s something worse than losing a hand, a leg or an eye, and that’s to lose the infinite joy of the presence of Christ forever. The experience of the eternal glory of Christ is so valuable, we must fight like heaven to enter eternal life. The torments of hell are only an echo of the incomparable pleasures of being united to Christ forever and ever. Never ceasing, only increasing experiential knowledge of the glory of the infinitely-inexhaustible God in the face of Jesus Christ - that is heaven. May God’s grace purchased on the cross, flood our hearts with love and energy to fight our sin. Flee from temptation into the truth that your sins were punished on cross of Christ.

Worship - Seeing Jesus

2008-04-30T00:03:00.004-05:00

“And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted." (Matthew 28:17

True worship hinges on seeing Jesus. When they saw Him, worship flowed like a river. Since some doubted, we can know that it was not merely the physical sight of the person of Jesus that caused worship. There is a seeing that happens in the heart, when we realize the reality of the risen Christ before us. The disciples knew the horror of what their Christ endured and it was too much to bear, but the sight of Him resurrected changed everything. There He was, the One whom they watched pummeled, beaten, scourged, whipped, speared, pierced, spit on, cursed at, mocked, flogged, and ultimately cursed by the Father. The bread of His body was separated from the wine of His blood and He died. But now the news had spread, He is alive! Was it true? Could it be? And there Jesus stood, before His chosen disciples and they worshiped the Christ, the Son of the living God. The love of His death hit them with a wave of grace, and now centuries later it hits us and we realized this happened for us. He died for us.

Do you see Jesus? LORD open our eyes. Amen.

The Forgiving One Bore Our Debt

2008-04-29T11:36:00.001-05:00

"Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn't God just forgive us?" This is what many ask, but now we can see that no one "just" forgives, if the evil is serious. Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it, so you can reach out in love to seek your enemy's renewal and change. Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself. Everyone who forgives great evil goes through a death into resurrection, and experiences nails, blood, sweat and tears. Should it surprise us, then, that when God determined to forgive us rather than punish us for all the ways we have wronged him and one another, that he went to the Cross in the person of Jesus Christ and died there? Everyone who forgives someone bears the other's sins. On the Cross we see God doing visibly and cosmically what every human being must do to forgive someone, though on an infinitely greater scale. I would argue, of course, that human forgiveness works this way because we unavoidably reflect the image of our Creator. That is why we should not be surprised that if we sense that the only way to triumph over evil is to go through the suffering of forgiveness, that this would be far more true of God, whose just passion to defeat evil and loving desire to forgive others are both infinitely greater than ours."
Tim Keller - The Reason for God

Jesus Says Have Me

2008-04-28T09:33:00.002-05:00

"Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, 'Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.' But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, 'Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.'" (Matthew 26:6-13)

Jesus is the supreme treasure. Wherever the gospel is taught, so must the supreme value of Jesus be explained. The woman's external act of adorning Jesus' head with expensive ointment, is a sign of an internal reality of worship in her heart. The heart worships that which it understands to be the most valuable. The gospel is bringing us to Jesus.

We must fight our sin, because our unrepentant sin is the only thing that will separate us from God, and the only way to fight our sin is with the beauty of the love of God in Jesus. We fight with gospel that Jesus was buried for our sins. Let's adorn his head with our praise. We will not praise Him unless we are renewing our constantly straying minds with a flood of the wealth of bible. Set your mind on Jesus and your heart will respond to the flood.

"and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

Fools Lie On The Cross

2008-04-26T14:07:00.005-05:00

"And the Lord said to him, 'Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?" (Luke 11:39-40)

God made us with an inside, a soul, an inner-man for a reason, so the whole being would be subject to the existence of God. We are his image, so God has an inside. There is a heart, a core to His being from which emanates all the rays of His glory. The Son is the radiance, the Father is the essence. God is one, His glory is an accurate reflection of His essence. Jesus does not lie, He is not a mask, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature," (Heb.1:3a). Jesus is God. Jesus sees our hypocrisy and call us fools.

Jesus seems to be saying, You were not created to lie to creation about me. You were created to tell the truth about me. The truth is that God is God. There is one God, and you are not God. The truth we tell to the creation is that God is good. God is sufficient. God is holy. God is sovereign. God is righteous. God's name is I Am. He is our source of life, we have fallen short of the glory of God.

There is no greater travesty than one of God's images living like there is no God. God's reaction to that sort cosmic treason against Himself, is nailing His Son to a tree, forsaking Him and allowing Him to die. The Son of God reflected in truth the greatest reality of the Love of God. He died to vindicate the worth of His Father, and spare us from the wrath of God which is coming in awful splendor.

Our soul is a key, fashioned for one home. Our soul finds its purpose by unlocking the magnificent beauties of the Father through the gate of Christ the eternal Son of God. We lie when our hearts neglect the reality that Jesus died for our sins.

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Psalm 53:1)

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)

"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." (John 10:9)

Jesus is the Ultimate End

2008-04-23T10:45:00.004-05:00

"Let not the Lord's dealings seem harsh, rough, or unfatherly, because it is unpleasant. When the Lord's blessed will bloweth across your desires, it is best in humility to strike sail to him and to be willing to be laid any way our Lord pleases: it is a point of denial of yourself, to be as if you had not a will, but had made a free disposition of it to God, and had sold it over to him; and to make use of his will for your own is both true holiness, and your ease and peace."
Samuel Rutherford

If it was Jesus Christ who appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus in blinding light, if it was the authority and splendor of Jesus the Christ that caused the heart of stone to melt within Paul turning his murderous threats into affections for Christ, then it was Jesus Christ who caused the writing of the text below and therefore is full of the same life-altering treasure of Jesus Christ.

"as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:20-21

Jesus Christ is honored in our deaths when we stare at all we are leaving, our wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children, and every other good thing and gasp with our last breaths of air with all Spirit-wrought, Spirit-strengthened heart-felt sincerity Gain! When does Jesus become our gain? When we are converted, when we are saved. The rest of our lives are the growing in the knowledge, confidence, and joy of our gain. This is our sanctification, this is what it means to be made holy.

Longing to know more of Jesus Christ as the End of all existence. He is the Substance, the Point, the Message. Let us know Him for the sake of Himself alone. Jesus is our gain.

The Miracle of Sight

2008-04-22T09:10:00.004-05:00

"And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David! ... And stopping, Jesus called them and said, What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Lord let our eyes be opened, And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him." (Matthew 20:29-34)

These two men were blessed because they knew they were blind. Jesus felt pity, he had compassion on these two sinners. Jesus did not pity them because most babies are born with two eyes that can see light. Why then did Jesus have pity on them? Because He is full of grace and truth (Jn1:14) The grace is from the Father and is bestowed on all the children of God who call upon Jesus as the Christ. The truth is that he, "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt. 20:28) His pity flows from the ransom paid at Golgotha. The exchange of our curse from our backs to His back. His blessing becomes our blessing. It is a miracle that any one of us can see. It is an even greater miracle of faith that any of us can see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in any measure.

"He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."
(Matthew 16:15-17)

O God the Holy Spirit

2008-04-21T09:35:00.004-05:00

Magnify the refulgent glories of God the Son to our hearts. You hovered over the void and formless in the beginning, come order the futile into resplendent vineyards of hope. Till the soil of our wandering hearts to the discovery of the life of Eden, Christ in the abundance of his promises. Kill the rebellion, the self-exalting, the indifference, the lust of lesser gods, and draw us near to our Savior in humility, our Refuge in trembling and our Bridegroom in gratitude. We want to know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you've sent, this is our life for all eternity.

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, ... He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you." (John 16:13-14)

We Are Here For Christ's Sake

2008-04-18T11:17:00.003-05:00

"But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness." (Luke 21:12)

God has an intention behind our suffering. God knows what will happen because he designs what will happen. God designs our suffering like he designs us, for the sake of Christ's name. We exist for Christ. Suffering exists for Christ. Both are designed by God to make Him known as valuable, and when the two come together (us + suffering) an opportunity is born to bear witness. The supreme treasure of our hearts always bears witness when suffering comes, especially if the treasure of our hearts is the supreme treasure of the universe, Jesus Christ. Don't distance God from suffering, pain, disappointment, cancer, natural disaster, the unexpected and all tragedy, because he has ordained them to bring us to repent and grant us opportunity to make much of Jesus by bearing witness to His supreme worth. This is His design.

God Will Complete Us

2008-04-14T23:25:00.002-05:00

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ... And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment." (Philippians 1:6,9)

What doctrine can we drink from this? We can with the highest confidence in every circumstance, through the darkest nights of sin know that God never abandons something He started. God never leaves His work unfinished. He has no deficiency in supply of energy and will part the seas of our sin to pave the path of sanctification during this life. God never changes his mind, because He always knows the highest good, and the most excellent way in which to bring about the most radiant Christ-exalting glory for His name. Christ always saves to the uttermost, and never ministers subtly. Christ was loud and unmistakable. He cast out demons and they ran off a cliff. He rebuked the wind and the waves, and they were silent. He fed 5,000 and picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. And he quenched John the baptist's doubts with the reality that, "the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preach to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me" (Luke 7:22).

Much of the time though, we will be in prison like John wondering how this is the highest, and best way for the Son of God to be glorified. Jesus says we are blessed when we are not offended when the will of God pours our lives out like a man left for dead in a prison and not a soul knows his story but his executioner. But O how our Redeemer knows our plight and will like an infinite wave of pleasure filled delight dine with us in His Father's house and recount our sufferings we shared. O how that communion will overshadow all the comfort this world could provide. Let's go suffer to share the news of our dead Christ and risen King for our eternal joy with Him in his holy presence. He knows our pain, He knows our sorrow, He knows our guilt, He gives us His righteousness.

So we can with confidence echo the Psalmist, "do not forsake the work of your hands" (Psalm 138:8). And with boldness preach, "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me." (Micah 7:8)

May the Kingdom of God Come Upon You

2008-04-11T00:08:00.004-05:00

"Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.'... For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."
(Luke 11:14-20)

The "some" among them charged Jesus as being Satan. There are two kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God's beloved Son (Col.1:13) We are all born into the first. You are either in one or the other. No one escapes the kingdom of this world, where satan has dominion. There must be a rescue, an outside deliverance, a transferral. No one but God can make the delivery, and He has chosen one way, Jesus Christ, because this is God's beloved Son. Jesus seems to be pointing to our spiritual rescue, as He cast out demons "by the finger of God" realizing that the Kingdom of God coming upon one is just like a man possessed by a demon; which is released from his bondage and slavery to the will of his father Satan.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
(Ephesians 2:1-3)

Jesus seems to be giving the litmus test of which kingdom we belong to. The Kingdom of God has come upon you, your pharisee-like rebellion has been conquered, if it is by the finger of God that Jesus rescues men & women from the power of Satan. Seeing, confessing, and treasuring the glory of God in Jesus seems to be the test of whether a rescue within our souls has taken place, and we have been saved (2 Cor. 4:4,6).

Do we see the glory of God in Jesus? When we see the finger of Jesus ministering release from bondage to sin do we profess, "it is by the finger of God"?

Settled, Sought, Shared

2008-04-09T00:11:00.005-05:00

Jesus settled my account

"having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:13b-14)

Jesus is never sought, without being found.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9)

Jesus is known when we share in what He suffering.

"that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death," (Philippians 3:10)
_________________________________________________________________
I was thinking about heaven. Think about the initial glimpse of King Jesus, the anticipation surmounting, the adrenaline overwhelming, and how the pleasure of His presence will ignite like an apollo-rocket the seeking of His being with a pursuit that will exhaust all of our energy. We will have nothing left to burn as we run through the heavens into the very presence of our King Jesus. There has been no race, competition or festal gathering in this world that contains the slightest measure of the prize we seek. Jesus is our prize, and when we peak that final hill, and everything is exhausted and we cannot continue on, He will meet us and there we will be forever united to the energy of the Son, and "they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isa. 40:31)

O to be in His arms, forever settled with the Father of glory, O to gaze into His excellent face, and know that He has been forever found and will never hide from us, O to speak with Him and relate to Him in His sufferings, because "they loved not their lives even unto death."
(Rev. 12:11b)

God in Glory

2008-04-08T23:58:00.004-05:00

My Redeemer Lives

2008-04-07T11:33:00.005-05:00

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!"
(Job 19:23-27)

Doctrine: It is a matter of great comfort and rejoicing to anyone, whatever circumstances he is in, when he can say that he knows that his Redeemer lives. - (Edwards)

Christ to Win Me

2008-04-04T12:27:00.003-05:00

Praise God for John Piper and David Powlison's prostate cancer.
Don't Waste Your Cancer.

Christ be with me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ in quiet,
Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger
(from “I bind unto myself the name”).

Him Whom They Pierced

2008-04-04T10:32:00.002-05:00

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child , and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10)

As we live in God's grace, the overwhelming joy of His presence, should point us, like that blaring "so that", to Him whom they have pierced. The reason God pours out a spirit of grace and pleas of mercy upon us, is not because we are His children, although that is true. Ultimately, it is so that we will see Him in his glory dying for our sins. That we might see His love for the Father as He cried out in the pain of wrath, "My God, Why have you forsaken me?" along the pathway of obedience. Make no mistake Jesus had a joy that was inexpressible and full of glory, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God," (Heb.12:2). His joy was outside of the pain, and shame of the cross. It was to be seated at the right hand of the throne of God, signifying for all time that His work of purchasing and securing us for all eternity was finished. This pleased His Father so much, and that brings the Son joy to please His Father.

"And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one." (Zechariah 14:9)

Humble and Mounted on a Donkey

2008-04-03T10:09:00.003-05:00

Our King has come, and he came without glory but clothed in humility. Instead of mounting himself on a white steed he slumped upon a donkey. The salvation he carried was in the blood flowing through the vessels of his body. God's promise needed the blood of vindication, the Holy Name of the Father was at stake in His very own promise to save his evil people. So on that day God saved his people, by giving them what they needed not what they wanted, to be forgiven by the Father from the coming of His wrath on the day of vengeance.

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

"As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit."

"Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double."

"On that day the LORD their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land."

"For how great is his goodness and how great his beauty!"
(Zechariah 9:9, 11, 12, 16, 17a)

In a single day, Jesus saved us. "I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day." (Zech. 3:9) We are now prisoners of hope, and no longer slaves of despair. What goodness, what beauty is this salvation Jesus carried in His blood.

Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.

Glory in the Morning

2008-03-27T09:14:00.005-05:00

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable,"
(Isaiah 40:28)

Riding on wings of steel through the blankets of thick white clouds sobered me as I thought about the LORD. He makes me so happy, when life is confusing, hard and cold, God still takes my breathe away. Perspective changes subjective reality. My heart's concerns, while 40,000 ft. in the air shifts from trivial to eternal, from self-centered worry to self-less intercession for those I love.

O LORD, give us the gift of an eternal perspective, an infinite perspective, a holy perspective. You are beautiful yet frightening. Remind us of our lost-ness, and whisper the light of the Word in our hearts so that Jesus reigns supremely within our hearts. Bring your kingdom's reign into the depths of our hearts. Tend the garden of our hearts O Holy Spirit, the one who guides us in truth, who declares to us the things that are to come, the one who magnifies Jesus Christ to our minds and delights our hearts with the worth of Jesus.

"but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles;" (Isaiah 40:31a)

Is God the Cause of Evil?

2008-03-25T23:28:00.004-05:00

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." (Genesis 50:29)

". . . God does harden hearts, and through his prophets he predicts sinful human actions long in advance, indicating that he is in control of human free decisions. Now theologians have found it difficult to formulate in general terms how God acts to bring about those sinful actions. . . . Do we want to say that God is the “cause” of evil? That language is certainly problematic, since we usually associate cause with blame. . . . [I]t seems that if God causes sin and evil, he must be to blame for it." John Frame - The Doctrine of God

Calvin says God cannot be the author of sin, any more than the Sun can be the cause of darkness. The tangle of words do appear to be in response to where blame rests as John Frame points out. Arminian-thinking is quick to charge Reformed-thinking with the "logical" conclusion that God is the author of Sin.

"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (1John 1:5)
"I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." (Isaiah 45:7)

As I find myself in this conversation lately, I am wrestling to biblically decipher my route towards a conclusion. God ordains that evil be. We see this implicitly as God allows the serpent to tempt His creation. God does not react, God acts. There is less glory in reaction, because it implies lack of knowledge. God is incapable of gambling, because He does not know ignorance, He is knowledge. God brings evil about to display the glory of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, but yet He cannot be put to blame. What a wonderful irony. God is light, and by his ordained absence, there is darkness. Yet the darkness cannot come intrinsically from Him as the Son of God emanates from Him as one begotten, since He is light and all that flows from Him is perfect light. God controls the capacity the heart has to perceive light, through hardening and blinding. Yet it is the God of this world that has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.

I'm still wrestling, wrestle with me, don't neglect to stand in awe of the God who intends good from our evil intentions.

Preach Christ Crucified

2008-03-21T11:01:00.002-05:00

Why do I let every verse of the bible lead me to Christ, and Him crucified?

"I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. People have often asked me, "What is the secret of your success?" I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel,—not about the gospel, but the gospel,—the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news. Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon. You remember the story of the old minister who heard a sermon by a young man, and when he was asked by the preacher what he thought of it he was rather slow to answer, but at last he said, "If I must tell you, I did not like it at all; there was no Christ in your sermon." "No," answered the young man, "because I did not see that Christ was in the text." "Oh!" said the old minister, "but do you not know that from every little town and village and tiny hamlet in England there is a road leading to London? Whenever I get hold of a text, I say to myself, 'There is a road from here to Jesus Christ, and I mean to keep on His track till I get to Him.'" "Well," said the young man, "but suppose you are preaching from a text that says nothing about Christ?" "Then I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get at Him." So must we do, brethren; we must have Christ in all our discourses, whatever else is in or not in them. There ought to be enough of the gospel in every sermon to save a soul. Take care that it is so when you are called to preach before Her Majesty the Queen, and if you have to preach to charwomen or chairmen, still always take care that there is the real gospel in every sermon."
-CH Spurgeon, The Soul Winner.

(Hat Tip: Justin Taylor)

Heaven is a World of Love

2008-03-19T09:29:00.003-05:00

"Love never ends..." (1 Corinthians 13:8)

Jonathan Edwards hits you in the face with the glories of heaven in the sermon, Heaven - a World of Love.

"And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that “God is love;” and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and over-flowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love." - Jonathan Edwards

I left the Boyle's ranch last night after reading a snippet of this, and the beauty of heaven was blinding. The reality of heaven was more concrete than the pavement beneath my car, and the lines racing at me. May the reality of this world we live in wake us up to the Creator, and the glory of His inhabitance, called heaven. Heaven is where love reigns in a spectrum beyond our comprehension. There will be no envy, resentment, bitterness or pride. Our joy will feed off others' prosperity in the capacity to experience differing realms of God. May our hearts reside in heaven, where Jesus is.

"...lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
(Matthew 6:20-21)

Studying the Scriptures

2008-03-18T12:36:00.002-05:00

"Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading; often dwelling long on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders."
- Jonathan Edwards

God Strengthens Us With Gospel

2008-03-17T10:50:00.002-05:00

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him."
(1 Thessalonians 5:9-10)

Gospel (grows) Faith (producing) Strength (leading to) Perseverance (ending with) Glory to Jesus (through our salvation). God receives glory by strengthening us with the good news of all that he has accomplished.

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;" (Lamentations 3:22-23)

How do we grow in strength every day? This strength is NOT independence from Jesus, because we sin less. This strength is the Christ-bought hope that the LORD will keep us faithful to Him today. That we will trust His precious promises this morning, with the blood-bought confidence that his mercies are new every morning.

LORD, today, keep me faithful to you, preserve my heart with the infinite treasure of your holy pleasure. "The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him." (Lamentations 3:24) LORD, you are the object of my holy joy, you will be my joy forever and ever, never ceasing, only increasing pleasure in the eternal exploration of the depths of the knowledge of your experiential glory. May we know you, because you have purchased us with the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. We are yours, keeps us saved today, confirm our election with heart-felt obedience to Jesus today. Wuwee!

"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ," (Romans 16:25)

The LORD is Lion-like

2008-03-15T11:27:00.010-05:00

"They shall go after the LORD; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD."
(Hosea 11:10-11)

The LORD's lion-likeness bids us come and return with trembling to his loving protection from Himself. The LORD's lion-like anger is kindled when we forget him and trust in our own way.

"So I am to them like a lion ... I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open." (Hosea 13: 7-8)

So we see that the LORD is a mighty refuge when we gladly submit to Him. He is a roaring Lion that is mighty to protect and provide. And yet those who stray from Him are caught up in his fierce wrath that burns like a consuming fire against sin. All of us who stray from Him as treasure and protection which belittles His worth will answer to the mighty Lion.

"Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity ... I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them ... They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon."
(Hosea 14:1,4-5,7)

His anger anger turns from us as we return to Him.

Edwards On The Blessing of God

2008-03-15T10:36:00.005-05:00

"Then he said, 'Let me go, for the day has broken.' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' And he said to him, 'What is your name?' and he said, 'Jacob' Then he said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for your have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.' Then Jacob asked him, 'Please tell me your name.' But he said, 'Why is it you ask my name.' And there he blessed him." (Genesis 32:26-29)

Doctrine: The way to obtain the blessing of God is not to let God go except he bless us.

"The greatest blessing that here is bestowed is that which God bestows on men when they are converted. This may be called the blessing."
- Edwards

May we not let God go until He gives us the full blessing of Himself, in all His fullness and measure here on earth through a faith that is from Him and clings to Him through the fires of this life, ever-singing the praise of His glory. LORD do it.

Faith In A Christ-Purchased Future

2008-03-11T09:56:00.003-05:00

"For everything that does not proceed from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23b)

What does my heart trust so that the fountain of all my desires, actions and thoughts flow in a directed way that does not offend our Holy Father? This faith trusts that because of the cross, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. This faith delights in all the future orientation of God's promises to work all things together for my infinite happiness, especially my suffering and pain. This faith exposes the deceitfulness of my sin which deceives my mind with lies that promise something other than the fullness of Jesus to make me happy and life more tolerable. This faith delights in God in every avenue of my life. LORD work the miracle of this faith within us through the limitless power of the Holy Spirit, "working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:21)

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Hunger for God

2008-03-10T19:33:00.002-05:00

"while hunger doesn't prove that the particular meal desired will be procured, doesn't the appetite for food in us mean that food exists? Isn't it true that innate desires correspond to real objects that can satisfy them, such as sexual desire (corresponding to sex), physical appetite (corresponding to food), tiredness (corresponding to sleep), and relational desires (corresponding to friendship)?

Doesn't the unfulfillable longing evoked by beauty qualify as an innate desire? We have a longing for joy, love, and beauty that no amount or quality of food, sex, friendship, or success can satisfy. We want something that nothing in this world can fulfill. Isn't that at least a clue that this "something" that we want exists? This unfulfillable longing, then, qualifies as a deep innate human desire, and that makes it a major clue that God is there." The Reason for God by Tim Keller.

Can you sense the reality of God everywhere? Don't neglect the creator.
Can you sense the reality of His cross? Don't neglect the merit that crucified us to the world.

The Cross Is Stained With Jesus

2008-03-10T19:31:00.001-05:00

The Cross is stained with the blood of our shame.
The Cross is stained with the blood of our names.
The Cross is stained with the blood of our gain.
The Cross is stained with the blood of our praise.

Resurrected He now lives forever,
to plead the merit of His life indestructible,
His oblation is sufficient, through constant intercession,
Christ's sheep are now the Father's forever.

No One in Hell Wants Jesus

2008-03-04T16:46:00.005-06:00

“'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and your are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house-- For I have five brothers --so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'" (Luke 16:24-31)

There are two distinctions among descendants of Abraham. One hears Moses and the Prophets and repents of sin, while the other hears their voice and rebels in disobedient unbelief. One hears them and understands, sees and perceives, the other "keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive" (Isa.6:9). Our response to the Word of God is so vital that heaven and hell hangs in the balance.

Tim Keller was unpacking the above passage in his latest book, The Reason for God, and he brought some illumining observations to the nature of our fallen bent that leads a loving God to dispose of us-type sinners to an eternity of fiery torment.

"A common image of hell in the bible is fire. Fire disintegrates. Even in this life we can see the kind of soul disintegration that self-centeredness creates. Selfishness and self-absorption leads to piercing bitterness, nauseating envy, paralyzing anxiety, paranoid thoughts, and mental denials and distortions that accompany them. Hell then, is the trajectory of a soul living a self-absorbed, self-centered life, going on and on forever. ...

When you lose all humility you are out of touch with reality. No one ever asks to leave hell. The very idea of heaven seems to them a sham. The people in hell are miserable. All their humility is gone, and thus so is their sanity. They are utterly, finally locked in a prison of their own self-centeredness, and their pride progressively expands into a bigger and bigger mushroom cloud....

It is a travesty to picture God casting people into a pit who are crying out 'I'm sorry! Let me out!' All God does in the end with people is give them what they most want, including freedom from himself."
- Tim Keller

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,'" (Heb. 3:7)

The Infinite Riches of Christ

2008-02-28T08:29:00.002-06:00

"This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession." (Ezekiel 44:28)

There Jesus stood condemned for we
hung on a tree cursed for we
and now forever free in His arms to be
Our inherited possession forever is He

The Glory Of The LORD Filled The Temple

2008-02-26T13:08:00.003-06:00

"Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, and he said to me, 'Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger. Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever." (Ezekiel 43:1-9)

The Inner Temple of Our Inner Being

2008-02-25T09:16:00.002-06:00

The following came out unexpectedly in an email to Jenn. But I can't stop thinking about it, is any of this coherent?

This morning I read Ezekiel 40 and 41, and it has stuck to the roof of my mouth. Ezekiel has been brought to a very high mountain by the LORD where visions of the new temple is unfolded, and he is told, "Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I show you for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel." (Ezekiel 40:4) I'm reading this and I remember being engaged with what was happening thinking, alright this is going to be good. What ensues is a detailed description of the physical temple, its measurements in cubits, and architectural layout. Eventually we move to the inner temple where the Most Holy Place is constructed and we receive the measurements in its length and breadth. This is the square room where a space is allocated and confined by walls adorned and fit for the presence of the Most Holy to dwell. To imagine a space as tangible as the room we inhabit for God to dwell within, gives me goosebumps. What is this encounter Ezekiel has with the LORD ultimately pointing towards?

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth," (Eph. 3:14-19)

Okay, let's camp out here for a moment. Paul's prayer seems to have in mind the dimensions of the inner temple, the Most Holy Place, not in relation to a physical building but the very dwelling place of Christ in our hearts through faith. What does the faith have to do with the Holy-Spirit-strength-empowering comprehension of the breadth and length and height and depth of this dwelling place in our inner being? I'm not sure exactly. But here I go out on a limb, catch me if I fall : )

Ezekiel 41:3 (above) tells us the rough dimensions and then the most glorious description of all "This is the Most Holy Place.", so I'm not so sure it is the dimensions that are the main point, but that this place is Holy Holy Holy, because God dwells here. The inner room merely contains God's Holy dwelling. So back to what we can learn from Paul's prayer for us, what is Paul really asking from the Father?

He is asking the Almighty and Holy Father to teach our minds through the Holy Spirit what it is that contains, supports and sustains the Most Holy dwelling presence of Christ in our sinful hearts through faith. Christ only dwells in our hearts in direct proportion to the Spirit-wrought faith within our hearts. The Spirit-wrought faith seems to come from the mind comprehending the ground and walls and ceiling of the inner temple which is in our inner being. So what is it that secures, supports and contains the dwelling of Christ in our hearts?

"and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:19)

It is the knowledge of the love of Christ (which is beyond knowledge!) flooding the mind and heart through the Holy Spirit that builds up this faith that ushers in the boldness and confidence that the very dwelling place of Christ is in our hearts, and not in a physical temple. How do we begin to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge? Where is the love of Christ so manifest that, "we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him." (Eph 3:12)? The Cross of Jesus Christ - draws us and unites us in faith-filled union to our Redeemer, where we as called hearers of the gospel perceive and grow in comprehension of the "unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8) flowing irresistibly to us through the river of the Father's grace, "which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight," (Eph. 1:8), through the mercy-driven, wrath-propitiating, substitutionary-exchange of The Cross of Jesus Christ. At The Cross of Jesus Christ, we dig to understand what is, "the breadth and length and height and depth," of the sustaining power of the cross of Jesus to purchase for eternity our presence in the holy glory of God, and His present Most Holy presence in our hearts through faith empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have a sin-issue that must be resolved in order for the fullness of God to fill us. This only happens when faith trusts the unsearchable riches of Jesus dying for our sins.

Supremacy of God in Preaching

2008-02-21T10:57:00.002-06:00

This morning I was reading The Supremacy Of God In Preaching by Piper, and these quotes have arrested me.

What is the aim of preaching but, "to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God." - James Stewart, Heralds of God

I have been sensing an irresistibly subjective call to be a minister of the Word, a herald of Truth, a laborer for the Light of right understanding. Am I being called into the ministry of the Word? Spurgeon's conviction for the subjective evidence for the calling is, "an intense all-absorbing desire for the work."

Piper outlines how preaching really is the means of ministering GOD in the labor of the gospel.

The Goal of Preaching: the Glory of God.
The Ground of Preaching: the Cross of Christ.
The Gift of Preaching: the Power of the Holy Spirit.

"Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD." (Hosea 6:3)

Adorare Mente

2008-02-20T00:34:00.002-06:00

Adorare Mente is as of this hour my new favorite word outside the bible. It means to worship with the mind. "Worship is at its peak when the mind and heart flow together," this is a new journal from southern seminary.

Justin Taylor also has a great post for those thinking about seminary.

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen" (2 Peter 3:18).

Hosanna In The Highest

2008-02-19T10:45:00.004-06:00

"Hosanna" means save us or deliver us we pray. It is directly related to the name of our Messiah, Jesus or Yeshua which means the LORD saves or YHWH delivers. Hosanna is the verb tense of the word "to save", which Yeshua is the noun form of the hebrew word "to save" - YASHA. Sweet eh?

"And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:9)

The Blood That Brings Us Nigh

2008-02-18T23:33:00.002-06:00

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." (Ephesians 2:14-16)

The blood of Jesus brings us near to God. Jesus is our peace, in as much as we are united to him, drawn into his refuge, drawing near to God through him. Jesus killed the hostility of the Father's wrath, by absorbing the hostility. The hostility was so absolved that we are clothed with peace now in relationship to the Father. The one new man in place of the two - what a picture of the imputation of Christ's righteousness! We stand in Him, and all the riches of the Father's pleasure is now flowing to us through the gospel of Jesus, His grace, His mind, His almighty power, His enduring strength, His satisfying heavenly-wealth, His patience, His kindness, His Fatherly attention and affection, His sovereign beauty; are all now behind us bringing us to glory. All these riches are found in Christ and bring about the end of knowing GOD forever in the new heavens and new earth. The chief end of our salvation is to glorify Christ by enjoying Him forever.

Here is Owen again unpacking the complexities of all that the death of Christ intended to bring about.

"according to the will and counsel of his Father , namely, to "save sinners;" - not to open a door for them to come in if they will or can; not to make a way passable, that they may be saved; not to purchase reconciliation and pardon of his Father, which perhaps they shall never enjoy; but actually to save them from all the guilt and power of sin, and from the wrath of God for sin: which, if he doth not accomplish, he fails of the end of his coming [to save sinners] and if that ought not to be affirmed, surely he came for no more than towards whom that effect is procured." - John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, p. 97

Christ Is Preeminent

2008-02-17T23:20:00.002-06:00

"And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." (Colossians 1:18)

Worship begins with the head. Knowledge flows through Words into the mind. The mind of Christ interceding on behalf of our blinded-fallen minds, lifts the veil of misunderstanding and the light of comprehension fills the heart with the glory of Christ who is the image of God. This light-wrought heat affects the heart with a proper response of adoration. This may be a hint of what it looks like for the preeminence of Christ to take root in our souls: worship.

Christ has supremacy, or first place in everything. In all things created He is better. How is your heart displaying this truth? Does the risen Christ Jesus have preeminence in your affections? In your thoughts? In your priorities? In your leisure time? In all your relationships? In your passions? In your prayers? Is Jesus preeminent in your bible? "that in everything he might be preeminent."

This is the eternal purpose behind all divine revelation; the display of the Son of God dead on the cross for the wages of sin due to us, He bore. There He stood, condemned for me. My pleasure came at the price of His pain. The preeminent-one dead, to save us supremely to the uttermost, from His infinite wrath against our infinite offense. Jesus is worthy of the first place of all our affections. Love Jesus.

Jesus Never Changes

2008-02-17T17:49:00.005-06:00

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

The Merit of Christ's Death

2008-02-13T21:09:00.003-06:00

" He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13)

Let us think about all that Christ merited in dying. What did Jesus Christ purchase with his perfected obedience through suffering? He was not learning obedience for his own sake, "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." This does not mean that he secured the ability to give salvation to all those who merit it by obeying him. It means that he merited a possession, a people for his Father, and he learned obedience through suffering and perfected the flesh that surrounded the exact imprint of God's nature, for a specific people. Who are his people? The salvation is qualified as for all who obey him, those are the chosen ones who the source of eternal salvation was secured for. That may sound like merit if you neglect the rest of the bible. Christ purchased our release from the power of sin, and it will be brought to effect in every child of God chosen from before the foundation of the world.

That which has merit, or is meritorious secures the object merited. I won the race, therefore I merit the medal. To believe that Christ's death on the cross merely opened the door or option for all whoever happen upon the door and find it lovely enough to enter into salvation entirely demeans the very meaning of merit as a word, and empties Christ of His merit achieved through his death. (Okay, enough of me, hear this much more radiantly from John Owen)

"If the end of the death of Christ were to acquire a right to his Father, that notwithstanding his justice he might save sinners, then did he die to redeem a liberty unto God [rather] than a liberty from evil unto us, - that his Father might be enlarged from that estate wherein it was impossible for him to do that which he desired, and which his nature inclined him to, and not that we might be freed from that condition wherein, without this freedom purchased, it could not be but we perish ... Is God or are men made the immediate subject of good attained unto by this oblation [outpouring of blood] ... that which is truly meritorious indeed deserves that the thing merited, or procured and obtained by it, shall be done, or ought to be bestowed, and not only that it may be done." - John Owen The Death of Death in the Death of Christ p.94

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." (John 6:37)

Be to the Praise of His Glory

2008-02-12T23:55:00.005-06:00

"In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight... so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:5-8,12)

What was the grace given to us in the gospel? God himself. This produces insurmountable joy when you know your sin. The sin that causes a continual ongoing grieving within the heart level in the light of Holiness. Oh what comfort the gospel brings, yet what a hunger it effects for all that is to come. All the beauty we will behold; to captivate our hearts completely and allure our new bodies to the never ceasing intricacies and grandeur of the glory of Christ Jesus in all that has been, all that is, and all that ever will be.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

We will tremble before his might, so full of splendor and majesty. His enemies a footstool, broken with a rod of iron, dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel (Psalm 2). This we tremble before the awe of His election, knowing we were enemies before we were ever ransomed and reconciled.

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more , now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:10)

So, do you hunger for God? Are you fine with this life by faith?

"Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry." (Luke 6:25)

Don't miss the eternal Wealth, the eternal Feast, the eternal Joy, the eternal Bridegroom, the eternal High Priest, the eternal Life for this vapor of a life. Treasure the King.

We Have A King

2008-02-12T00:21:00.000-06:00

"As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." (Psalm 2:6)

Politics have been a topic of general interest as of late. I just wanted to point you all to an article that has profoundly shaped the way I think about the fundamentals of character.

John Piper - One Issue Politics

Here is an excellent post to churn your thoughts from another vantage point.

Joe Thorn - Politics and the Christian

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom - (Derek Webb)

"Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." (Psalm 2:10-12)

Cherish The Christ

2008-02-11T00:19:00.000-06:00

"And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, 'Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.' Jesus answered, 'O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here." (Luke 9:38-41)

Why does this man beg Jesus to heal his son? He is his only child. The pain is probably unbearable to watch him suffer. Having already tried to have the disciples cast it out without success, Jesus is his last resort. He loves his son. So, why wouldn't this please Jesus?

Here standing before them is the eternal Son of God, the Christ, the promised seed of Eve, anointed to destroy the one with power over death by dying for his sheep, bearing the Father's wrath, that he might bring us to God. He does this by marriage, here is our promised Bridegroom and the people are coming to Him as they would come to an aspirin bottle, to meet their needs. When all he is to us is a magical pharmacy, His glory is belittled; because He is not cherished. Aspirin is never cherished, bridegrooms are cherished, but only by the bride.

See the Bridegroom, cherish the Christ.

Christ Our Wealth

2008-02-09T23:27:00.000-06:00

"We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." (2 Corinthians 4:8)

Brett Boyle and I have been wrestling with the tensions between a God-centered theology-saturated gospel-oriented passion, and the allure of a purely social justice gospel. How do we think about the warranted criticisms in books such as, Irresistible Revolution? Here are some thoughts.

My first gut reaction is that 2 Cor. 8 is our biblical source to start thinking about. I see in that chapter the fruit of the grace of God brought about an overflowing wealth of generosity. Notice this was a "social justice" directed to their fellow saints, not unbelievers in the hope of winning them to Christ. I don't know how significant this is, but Heb. 10:34 as another picture of Christ-exalting love involved suffering for the sake of loving their fellow brothers and sisters in prison.

What drove Paul? It was definitely an eternal perspective with the eternal worth of Christ (knowing Christ) in his heart, mind, hand and mouth. He bled the worth of Christ, and so shall we. This was the grace given to him, to make known to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. When one has obtained the grace of the unsearchable riches of Christ they respond to Christian needs like the saints in Macedonia (2cor8).

A huge root problem is that we don't know what we need. There is something more significant than my next meal, and every soul starving to death in the Sudan.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John13:35)

Just as he loved us! This is huge, because there is no one more God-exalting than Jesus. We must honor the father by dying for each other. There is no exceptions, even our enemies. Our deaths should point towards and LORD willing usher in gospel-wrought life. Just as Christ's death brought us every good thing from the Father.

Sometimes I feel like the conversation is like this silly analogy. I am a ridiculously creative and hip dude. I see a beautiful and extravagant flower adorned with more beauty than Solomon in all his glory. I am floored by my newest passion in life, I have received my calling I am now going to spend my life as a gardener so I can create these ridiculous flowers that are so beautiful. Instead of talking with a real gardener, or reading books on the techniques of gardening, I go to the store and buy everything I can find that can be assembled together to produce what I desire. You look at me with wisdom and say Nate, take it easy brother. You give me some seeds, and some water, and then God gives me some patience. God then grows a flower that reflects his glory, because He made it grow. He is God.

Let's not assault those who want to make imitation flowers. Let's point them to the gospel, and connect for them how planting the gospel will produce, LORD willing, the love they desire to see in themselves and the church around them. Then its time to go plant, and water with self-dying Christ-like love that will win affections and desires towards the source of life God.

Let's start with each other, love your brothers and sisters, man-centered as we may be. LORD have mercy!

Our Treasure His Knowledge

2008-02-08T23:06:00.000-06:00

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." (2 Corinthians 4:7)

What is the treasure that we have? A heart illumined with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Or a heart made alive to "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8) This knowledge teaches the fallen human heart all about the worth of the glory of God. How shall we know when this divine act of salvation has occurred? There is a sign that a transferral has taken place within the heart; A transfer of a treasure. Paul used to treasure "all things" except the glory of God in Jesus. Now he forsakes all things that he may have one thing, Christ as the treasure of his heart. The treasured-pleasure of his heart. The worth of God Himself, is his treasure.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21)

So back to what 2 Corinthians 4:7 teaches us the treasure is housed in. Jars of clay, earthen vessels, clay pots, or as MacArthur describes as waste pots, pots that disposed of human waste. What a parallel to what Paul once highly esteemed as his treasure (all things), he now counts as rubbish or dung. This treasure of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has invaded the darkness of the waste places of these weak fallen bodies so naturally talented at treasuring dung, and the transferral of dung for the eternal worth of God in Jesus takes root. We must suffer the loss of all things. We must treasure the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Make him look as he is, satisfying.

Our Treasure His Glory

2008-02-07T18:42:00.000-06:00

"Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see (light*) and be satisfied ; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities... yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:11-12)

"Behold the oblation!", says John Owen when staring at this verse. John is at this very moment experiencing the ecstasy of the fruition of our treasure: the glory of God in heaven. Oblation is a great word meaning the outpouring of blood, namely Jesus' blood spilled on the cross. Where do we behold the oblation of Christ? "he shall bear their iniquities, he bore the sin of many" Stare at that glory. Our iniquity, our abominations, our heart's whoring and misplaced affection, -- this he bore-- and what effect did that bring about? The cross. The bloodiest massacre this universe has ever witnessed. The wages of sin is death indeed.

Look at the connecting "and" of the last part of verse 12 linking the glory of the outpouring of blood to the glory of His intercession He now makes through it for us transgressors.

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1Corinthians 2:2)

My breath is taken away when thinking about the centrality of God. What a joyful relief it is to stand on the center of the universe. To entertain our minds with the highest and greatest truth among all that exists. How important is Jesus Christ and him crucified? Paul needed to know nothing else.

Stare at the Christ on the cross, behold the oblation!

Bunyan

2008-01-08T10:54:00.000-06:00

"But one day, as I was passing into the field, and that, too, with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, 'Thy righteousness, is in heaven.' And methought withal I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me He wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, 'the same yesterday, and today, and forever.' (Hebrews 13:8)" p.94 Grace Abounding

Come February this blog will be transitioning to daily use. I move to Wichita February 2nd, and begin a new season of this vapor-of-a-life.

Some new books came in the mail yesterday: An Old Testament Theology by Bruce Waltke, Communion with a Triune God by John Owen, The Loveliness of Christ by Samuel Rutherford, The Apostle's Doctrine of the Atonement by George Smeaton, The Pleasures of God & A Hunger for God by John Piper. I read the preface of Waltke's OT textbook and it was such a smooth and stretching opening that it has me very excited to dig into it.

Feast-on.

Supremacy of Christ - by John Piper

2007-11-30T00:37:00.001-06:00

Oh, that the risen, living Christ, therefore, would come to us (even now) by his Spirit and through his Word and reveal to us

—the supremacy of his deity, equal with God the Father in all his attributes—the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature, infinite, boundless in all his excellencies;

—the supremacy of his eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was; sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to his all-defining, ever-existing substance;

—the supremacy of his never-changing constancy in all his virtues and all his character and all his commitments—the same yesterday, today, and forever;

—the supremacy of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox, and all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940’s farmers almanac, and quantum physics—and everything Stephen Hawking ever dreamed—seem like a first-grade reader;

—the supremacy of his wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled the wisest of men;

—the supremacy of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings; does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; so none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

—the supremacy of his providence without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the furthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white;

—the supremacy of his word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic world we have never yet dreamed of;

—the supremacy of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers and heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise, with a single word, or even a thought;

—the supremacy of his purity never to sin, or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought;

—the supremacy of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground;

—the supremacy of his justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;

—the supremacy of his patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; and to hold back his final judgment on this land and on the world, that many might repent;

—the supremacy of his sovereign, servant obedience to keep his Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;

—the supremacy of his meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick;

—the supremacy of his wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb;

—the supremacy of his grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and wakens faith in hell-bound haters of God, and justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness;

—the supremacy of his love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners and frees us for the ever-increasing joy in making much of him forever;

—the supremacy of his own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint;

And if he would grant us to know him like this, it would be but the outskirts of his supremacy. Time would fail to speak of the supremacy of his severity, and invincibility, and dignity, and simplicity, and complexity, and resoluteness, and calmness, and depth, and courage. If there is anything admirable, if there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.

He is supreme in every admirable way over everything:

over galaxies and endless reaches of space;

over the earth from the top of Mount Everest 29,000 feet up, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench;

He is supreme over all plants and animals, from the peaceful Blue Whale to the microscopic killer viruses;

over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet;

over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.

He is supreme over all countries and all governments and all armies;

over Al Qaeda and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and beheadings;

over bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi;

over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea.

He is supreme over all politics and elections;

over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure;

and over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research;

and over all business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation;

and over all the internet and information systems.

As Abraham Kuyper used to say, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”[1] And rule with absolute supremacy. And though it may not seem so now, it is only a matter of time until he is revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give relief to those who trust him and righteous vengeance on those who don’t.

An Italian Feast

2007-11-19T11:29:00.000-06:00

Brett Boyle is magnifying Jesus in Italy

And now some feasting thoughts from the past couple weeks…………

-1 Corinthians 15 is packed with glorious resurrection promises. When reading it, initially these words hit me like brick wall “Wake up from your stupor….For some have no knowledge of God, I say this to your shame.” The need I see and feel to be hungry for YAHWEH and for kingdom building is great. We, need, I need gospel-oriented taste buds that turn into God glorifying actions. As Piper so adequately put, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” The passage does not stop there, Paul writes sweet words that were such an encouragement to me as I have wanted to seek with my whole heart, but haven’t, wanted to be wholly holy, but I am far from. His words of support and promise for this old body, “What is raised is imperishable…it is raised in glory…..it is raised in power…..we shall bear the image of the man of heaven.” This hope, Paul then uses as the reason for our call to labor in verse 58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, ALWAYS abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” With you, I long for the day when we will be like him, because we will see him as he really is (1 John 3:2)

-After listening to the Conversational Apologetics sermon from New Attitude (thank you Kyle) and listening to Piper and struggling with communicating to my roommate the need to come to grips with at least the possibility of having to reckon with a supreme and objective truth in the universe, I wrote down these thoughts: The Holy Spirit regenerates (1 Peter 1:3; Titus 3:5-7), and God calls people to himself (John 6:44,65; Eph. 4:1). But he uses people as the means (Romans 10:14; John 17:20). However, just as he uses people as a means, he also has appointed the use of reason, logic and persuasion also as a means (often the means) for his supernatural work to be carried out in the salvation of people. Thus as we live among the people, and we live differently (because we do), we should (if we desire to be faithful to the King) be prepared to give a reason or defense for our great hope. As in 1 Peter 3:15, the inspired pen of Peter commands, “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason.” The Greek word apologia for the English word defense literally means a plea and defense, a clearing of self as if you were defending yourself in the court of law. And reason is the Greek word logos where we get the word logic. Too often my evangelism is telling people to accept Christ who died for their sins and they will be saved and go to heaven, when in their minds they have no infrastructure to properly understand those precious truths. To reach the people of our times, with must be faithful to filling our minds with intelligent, persuasive arguments for the logical and reasonable validity of the Christian faith. We should not use apologetics to justify our intelligence and saneness in the sight of the world, but as a means to glorify God through the salvation of souls. I think I must, we must, utilize this means of fulfilling the Great Commission in our culture, or we will not be obedient to scripture. This means stretching our minds to understand and to seek knowledge to communicate. Paul reasoned daily in the temples and the forums of the cities he visited. May we, boldly and gently with a great love for Christ faithfully imitate Paul (I Corinth. 11:1).

-1 John 2:28 served as a great challenge and exhortation for me this week. “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink back from him in shame at his coming.” When Christ returns in all his glory, am I going to be ashamed because I did not abide in him as I should have joyfully done? Will I shrink back because my mind and heart were always set on other things? I don’t want Christ to come back and all I have to show him is a bunch of useless knowledge about sports, cool clothes, a prestigious job, or anything else that does not increase my joy in him.

Eternal Purpose Realized in Christ

2007-10-31T11:07:00.000-05:00

"Of this gospel I was made a minister ... to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches (infinite treasure) of Christ, ... This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him." - Ephesians 3:7-12

I have been arrested by a single phrase in this chunk of delightful news. "the eternal purpose" I think we have some concept of eternal. It means that it had no beginning. Purpose, the word flows in interpretation from the root πρόθεσις (prothesis G4286). It is a wonderful interpretation which declares to us the very intention of God Almighty. We must have an act of God to think about in order to ponder his intention. God has to do something before we can ask the question, "why did you do that, God?" Well, what has God done that we should peer into the infinite intention behind his Holy action?

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

"For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist..." - Hebrews 2:10

"For from him and through him and to him are all things." - Romans 11:36

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth...nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." - Acts 17:24

"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." - Revelation 4:11

What does this phrase teach us about our God? God is intentional in all he does. He has a very great purpose that had no beginning, and will have no end. His intention moves us to conclude he is a great sovereign designer to fulfill all that he purposes. Does anything occur in all of life that does not move creation to fulfill all that he intends? I contend emphatically, no.

So, now let's begin to unfold this eternal purpose of God. What is it? Where does the text point us? Look at verse 4, "you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,". Then move to verse 9, "to bring to light for everyone [gentiles] what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things," and now he unveils the mystery of the eternal purpose explicitly in verse 11, "This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Look at Christ, and be amazed at the eternal purpose of God which has come into the light for us Gentiles to marvel at.

Amen.

Thoue Lovely Source of True Delight

2007-10-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

Thou Lovely Source of True Delight

Thou lovely source of true delight
Whom I unseen adore
Unveil Thy beauties to my sight
That I might love Thee more,
Oh that I might love Thee more.

Thy glory o’er creation shines
But in Thy sacred Word
I read in fairer, brighter lines
My bleeding, dying Lord,
See my bleeding, dying Lord

’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop
And sin and sorrow rise
Thy love with cheering beams of hope
My fainting heart supplies,
My fainting heart’s supplied

But ah! Too soon the pleasing scene
Is clouded o’er with pain
My gloomy fears rise dark between
And I again complain,
Oh and I again complain

Jesus, my Lord, my life, my light
Oh come with blissful ray
Break radiant through the shades of night
And chase my fears away,
Won’t You chase my fears away

Then shall my soul with rapture trace
The wonders of Thy love
But the full glories of Thy face
Are only known above,
They are only known above

Hebrews is Christ-Exalting Worship

2007-10-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

I can sense an immense reality of grace that has been fueling my life lately, and I cannot help but link it (subjectively) to staring at the God of Hebrews for the past three months. We just finished chapter two this past Friday night and all I can say is that we have stood in awe. Here are some glory-filled realities to feast our minds upon.

Jesus is not an angel (Heb.1:4). Jesus is worshiped by angels (Heb.1:6). Jesus is in himself God (Heb.1:8). Jesus communicates to us the name of the father as God's final decisive word to the world in these last days (Heb.1:2,2:12). Jesus is the great God-revealing, God-expressing Son. He is the radiance of his glory (Heb. 1:3).

Christ is the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). Christ created the world, and He is our origin (Heb. 1:2). Christ is the exact representation of God's nature (Heb. 1:3). Christ upholds the universe by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3). Christ made (past tense) purification for sins once for all(Heb. 1:3). Christ sat down at the right hand of the Majesty of God in heaven, where he reigns today until all his enemies are put under his feet (Heb. 1:3,13).

Angels exist to serve us, who are to inherit salvation, they are used to protect and uphold us from the dominion of Jesus' enemies (Heb. 1:14).

Two Commandments Flow From the Immensity of Chapter. 1 (the glory of Christ).
Pay much closer attention to what we have heard. Do not neglect such a great salvation (to come) (Heb. 2:1,3).

The burden of these commands are not heavy, but oh are they weighty. Listen to Jesus. Don't drift. Fix your listening ears to the God of Chp.1, he has something to say about Jesus.
The great salvation the author pleads us not to neglect is unpacked in verses 5-18. He embarks by awakening us to the reality of Man's destiny seen in Psalm 8, which was lost in Adam when he fell, and reclaimed by the second Adam, namely Jesus (Heb. 2:9). This destiny is filled with glory and honor, ruling and reigning over all Christ has created in righteousness. It is all subjected to us in the world to come, because we are gathered, rescued, united, and one nature with Christ. The reality that we are ruling and reigning with Christ now by faith in prayer, but in the world to come face to face, is one huge implication of Chapter 2.

Jesus became a man (Heb. 2:14). So that he could die (Heb. 2:14). So that he could suffer(Heb. 2:9). All to bring many sons to the glory of Psalm 8 (Heb. 2:10). Christ is our Captain, Leader, Founder, Forerunner into glory (Heb. 2:10). Christ is our big brother (Heb. 2:11). Jesus destroyed the power of death, by drinking the wrath of the father for his brothers, and thereby rendering the devil powerless (Heb. 2:14). Jesus subjected himself to every human affection (Heb. 2:17).

A Foundation for Substitutionary Atonement (the link between 2:14 & 2:17)

Christ became a man (partook of flesh and blood 2:14)(made like his brothers in every respect 2:17) [so that] (through death 2:14)(to make propitiation for the sins of the people 2:17).

Both vs. 14 & 17 begin with the eternal Son subjecting himself to the humility of a man for two different but gloriously related reasons. One to die, and the other to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Directly related? I lay my life upon it.

Christ is able to help us the "tempted ones" as Owen refers to Christians, because he suffered everything. Christ was the supreme magnification of the God, for whom and by whom all things exist (Heb.1:10), because when he experienced every ranging degree of pain that was unmerited and on our behalf (his name is Love) he never blamed God, accused God, questioned God's will of suffering, or doubted that God was supremely valuable, good, wise, just, and all-satisfying.

"looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

Praise God for Tears

2007-10-04T10:56:00.001-05:00

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations." - Deuteronomy 7:9

Tears are beautiful, can you feel Him? I don't know why not-everyone is able to sense the beautiful reality scripture paints for all five of our senses. Thank you Jesus for your healing Spirit who, "has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1Peter1:3)."

Tears are filled with reality, Let us tearfully look ahead to the God who will, "wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev.21:4)." Let's cling to each other in times of darkness. I'll cry for you, while I can.

Let angels sing for
sinners repenting,
prodigals restored,
backsliders reclaimed,
Satan's captives released,
blind eyes opened,
broken hearts bound up,
the despondent cheered,
the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies,
the ignorant enlightened,
and saints built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God. (Puritan prayers)

"In joy and pain, in sun and rain, Your the same, You never let go." - DCB

Feasting With Giants

2007-10-03T12:05:00.001-05:00

Right before hearing J-Pipe bring the Word.

I love these men. (and that logo)

The Righteous - Never Moved

2007-10-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

"For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD." - Psalm 112:6

Three days of worship, rejoicing in the perseverance of the saints because it magnifies the worth of God. Quite possibly the best 3 days in September of my life. There is something so sweet about being there as opposed to merely consuming the messages online. Looking around you at all these sweet people who have walked with Jesus through different trials and adversities, makes their gray hairs so attractive. Anyways, here are some notes that stuck to the roof of my mouth.

Calling seems to flow most authoritatively from within the context of the local church. Do what you love, and may those around you confirm your calling as blessing them. Submit to the church, and allow the Holy Spirit guide among and within the body of Christ.

Paul uses the Greek word Doulos (G1401) to refer to his relationship to Christ, it is most faithfully rendered in meaning as slave, not servant as it most commonly appears in every English translation with the exception of one. A Lord, or master, always has slaves. Slaves are owned, purchased, property of their Lord, who commands all rights and freedom to within his dominion. The Greeks understood the dynamic between Kurios (G2962) and Doulos, master and slave. This was the most demeaning term of the time, and Christians happily identify themselves as this. Servants are paid. Slaves obey and are available, their lives are subjected to an alien will. They are dependent on the Master for protection, food, and all reward. Slavery displays the perfect relationship between us and Christ.

How does this go over among the African American church? John Macarthur put it into perspective, "For you slavery may be a memory of the past, for the New Testament Greeks this was a present reality, they did not want to associate themselves with such a lowly term."

The only dignity slaves get is that of their Master, and that is all the dignity we have - the glory of Christ.

"So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy slaves [doulos], we have only done what was our duty.'" - Luke 17:10