Cream of blog 1.25.12
January 25, 2012
Here are some links worth reading and thoughts worth thinking…
- Sobering words from John Piper: 15 things to consider about abortion.
- From Reformed Theological Seminary: Tinker, tailor, soldier…pastor: how two Cold War foes became pastoral friends.
- Two hundred million girls are “missing.” A new documentary, It’s a Girl! The Three Deadliest Words in the World, explores the systematic gendercide taking place in India, China, and other areas of South Asia. Watch the trailer.
- Tim Challies releases the second in a series of helpful, visual graphics explaining basic frameworks of systematic theology. This is one is a visual graphic of the attributes of God. The first in the series was on the ordo salutis.
- Chris Koelle, artist and member of Downtown PCA in Greenville, South Carolina (pastored by my friend Brian Habig), has been creating a graphic novel adaptation of the Revelation. It is delivered through an app called “The Book of Revelation App” for iPad and iPhone. Here is Tim Challies’ interview with Chris.
Cream of blog 12.15.11
December 15, 2011
Scotty Smith, with “An Advent Prayer for Our Children and Grandchildren”
Gene Edward Veith shares a brother’s sharp view on whose job it is to “keep Christ in Christmas.”
The Resurgence tempts you to consider the lesson we can learn about God’s law from kids and forbidden marshmallows.
Cream of blog 12.5.11
December 5, 2011
Make a PLAN
November 16, 2011
From Kevin DeYoung’s blog:
A PLAN for Giving Generously
P – Pray for a generous heart. Make people a priority over prosperity. Don’t think: “How much do I have to give away in order to be obedient?” Ask: “Give me opportunities to sow.”
L – Lifestyle cap. As we earn more, we should give more. If you are wealthier than you used to be, have you done more to increase your standard of living or your standard of giving?
A – Accountability. Set goals and find someone you can trust who won’t be threatened by talking frankly about finances. Sex and money–we don’t talk about them nearly as much as Jesus did.
N – No less than a tithe. Whether the Old Testament requirement is a binding prescription or not, I find it hard to imagine that Western Christians who have seen the glory of God in the face of Christ and enjoy great prosperity, would want to give less than was required of the poorest Israelite. Statistics consistently show that Protestants give less than 3% of their income to their churches. A tithe, for most churchgoers, would be a huge step in the right direction.
Death=love=>life applied to parents
July 18, 2011
Here’s another sphere of application, courtesy of Rachel Jankovic at Desiring God (read the entire article here).
We should run to to the cross. To death. So lay down your hopes. Lay down your future. Lay down your petty annoyances. Lay down your desire to be recognized. Lay down your fussiness at your children. Lay down your perfectly clean house. Lay down your grievances about the life you are living. Lay down the imaginary life you could have had by yourself. Let it go.
Death to yourself is not the end of the story. We, of all people, ought to know what follows death. The Christian life is resurrection life, life that cannot be contained by death, the kind of life that is only possible when you have been to the cross and back.
The Bible is clear about the value of children. Jesus loved them, and we are commanded to love them, to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. We are to imitate God and take pleasure in our children.
The question here is not whether you are representing the gospel, it is how you are representing it. Have you given your life to your children resentfully? Do you tally every thing you do for them like a loan shark tallies debts? Or do you give them life the way God gave it to us—freely?
It isn’t enough to pretend. You might fool a few people. That person in line at the store might believe you when you plaster on a fake smile, but your children won’t. They know exactly where they stand with you. They know the things that you rate above them. They know everything you resent and hold against them. They know that you faked a cheerful answer to that lady, only to whisper threats or bark at them in the car.
Children know the difference between a mother who is saving face to a stranger and a mother who defends their life and their worth with her smile, her love, and her absolute loyalty.
When my little girl told me, “Your hands are full!” I was so thankful that she already knew what my answer would be. It was the same one that I always gave: “Yes they are—full of good things!”
Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.
Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone.
Love=death=>life
July 18, 2011
The Sweet Dropper has been quiet for a while. The silence ends today…
Here are the bullet points from the end of yesterday’s sermon.
• Being long-suffering means dying to the desire for an untroubled life.
• Having no jealousy means dying to the desire for unshared affection.
• Not boasting means dying to the desire to call attention to our successes.
• Not acting unbecomingly means dying to the desire to express our freedom offensively.
• Not seeking our own way means dying to the dominance of our own preferences.
• Not being easily provoked means dying to the need for no frustrations.
• Not taking account of wrongs means dying to the desire for revenge.
• Bearing all things and enduring all things means dying to the desire to run away from the pain of obedience.
Cream of blog 11.03.21
March 21, 2011
Here are some niceties:
- Photos and brief introductions to the ten oldest surviving church buildings in the world.
- Great biographical introduction to Patrick, written by Mark Driscoll. I didn’t know Patrick was never canonized by the Church of Rome.
- “A Prayer about God’s Sovereignty and Our Sanity” by Scotty Smith. Does watching FoxNews or MSNBC make you nervous or angry? If so, meditate on this.
Erskine on law and gospel
March 1, 2011
Here’s an old and helpful hymn on the law and the gospel from a true Scots worthy, Ralph Erskine (1685-1752):
The law supposing I have all,
Does ever for perfection call;
The gospel suits my total want,
And all the law can seek does grant.
The law could promise life to me,
If my obedience perfect be;
But grace does promise life upon
My Lord’s obedience alone.
The law says, Do, and life you’ll win;
But grace says, Live, for all is done;
The former cannot ease my grief,
The latter yields me full relief.
The law will not abate a mite,
The gospel all the sum will quit;
There God in thret’nings is array’d
But here in promises display’d.
The law excludes not boasting vain,
But rather feeds it to my bane;
But gospel grace allows no boasts,
Save in the King, the Lord of Hosts.
Lo! in the law Jehovah dwells,
But Jesus is conceal’d;
Whereas the gospel’s nothing else
But Jesus Christ reveal’d.
Unhindered
February 25, 2011
Here some thoughts from 2006, on my mind as I head to Highlands PCA to speak at their Missions Festival…
Unhindered. The word is the final word of the book of Acts. Paul is in Rome, under house arrest, just coming off a rather unsuccessful meeting with the local Jewish leadership. We know from history that this about the time that Nero begins his rampage to ‘cleanse’ the city from the blight of Christianity. Paul will soon be a victim himself. Yet Luke describes Paul as preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.
Unhindered (Greek, akolutos) seems a strange word to describe the situation. The situation of Acts 28 sounds pretty hindered to me. But does this not tell us something about the kingdom of God? Does it not tell us that we judge things wrongly if we judge by what we see, that what we consider hindrances to the gospel’s advance do not really constitute hindrances? I think of Paul writing to Timothy, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory [2 Timothy 2:8-13]. The Word of God is not bound! Christ cannot be contained! The gospel cannot be silenced! The salvation of sinners cannot be stopped! This message is for everyone!
We look at obstacles: lack of laborers and money, uncertainty about vision and purpose, resistance and barriers in the community, hostile governments and religions. In the closing service I realized that the real hindrance is inside of me. I need the kingdom of God to get inside of me more and more so that unhindered becomes a reality in my life: content and relaxed, confident and humble, ready to spend and be spent, welcoming and bold, self-forgetting and Christ-remembering. Oh, that this would be the mark of our fellowship to increasing degrees! Oh, that we would see more of all openness, unhindered among us. Oh, that Christ would open our hearts, our mouths, our homes, our checkbooks, and our fellowship.
Thomas Brooks on prayer
February 8, 2011
From Thomas Brooks (Works 2:256):
God looks not at the elegancy of your prayers, to see how neat they are;
nor yet at the geometry of your prayers, to see how long they are;
nor yet at the arithmetic of your prayers, to see how many they are;
nor yet at the music of your prayers, nor yet at the sweetness of your voice, nor yet at the logic of your prayers;
but at the sincerity of your prayers, how hearty they are.
