tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-350794022024-03-14T01:00:14.331+11:00The Blacktown Care Group WeblogBible Studies and Devotional Aides, for Small Groups and Individuals... Giving All the Glory, Honour and Praise to the LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST!ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-92227636716902519722010-10-31T08:46:00.006+11:002012-12-22T00:32:59.919+11:00No DIY Restoration for This Broken Down House<div style="text-align: justify;">
Many thanks to the fine folks at <a href="http://www.sovgraceoz.org/sundaymorning.php">Sovereign Grace Church Sydney</a> for the heads up on the works of Paul David Tripp. Dr Tripp is the president of <a href="http://www.paultrippministries.org/aboutus"><span class="Apple-style-span">Paul Tripp Ministries</span></a>; <a href="http://paultrippministries.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/new-season-of-ministry.html">former Minister</a> at <a href="http://www.tenth.org/index.php?id=8">Tenth Presbyterian Church</a> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Professor of Pastoral Life & Care at <a href="http://www.redeemerseminary.org/faculty/">Redeemer Seminary</a> in Dallas, Texas as well as the Executive Director of the <a href="http://christiancounseling.com/cplc"><span class="Apple-style-span">Center for Pastoral Life & Care</span></a> in Fort Worth. In 2009, his book "<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Broken-Down-House-Paul-David-Tripp/9780981540061">Broken Down House</a>" was published.</div>
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In the short video below, Dr. Tripp describes the broken down house our lives and our world have become as a result of sin, but that Jesus, the Divine Carpenter has entered the house to restore us to a house that God is building. A <a href="http://www.shepherdpress.com/about/">Shepherd Pres</a>s release. A Film by Craig Claudin. 4 min.</div>
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"So one of the things that God's Spirit does... He reveals to us the degree of our own brokenness. God begins to open my eyes to the condition of my own heart: my selfishness, my greediness, my bitterness, my self-righteousness, my lust, my anger. And what He's doing is calling me away from that self-righteousness that tells me, "I'm okay just the way I am."</div>
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"Look, I am the broken down house. I need to be restored. It's not just the world around me.... "</div>
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As Christians, we should be the saddest community on earth... because our eyes should be opened and we should know how broken we are and how broken our world is. But that sadness is harmonized by notes of celebration, because although we realize that we're terribly broken and our world is terribly broken... we know that the Divine carpenter has entered the house with His tools of restoration and there's hope for us and there's hope for our world." - Paul David Tripp<br />
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Author Justin Taylor, an <a href="http://newcbc.org/about/our-elders">Elder at New Covenant Bible Church</a> in Illinois and <a href="http://www.crossway.org/authors/justin-taylor/">Vice President Editorial</a> at Crossway, also shares his thoughts on "Broken Down House," as well as other works by Paul Tripp in his blog <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/06/12/tripp-broken-down-house-and-other/">Between Two Worlds</a>.</div>
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<i>"...Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." - Paul (Philippians 1:6, NIV)</i></div>
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Praise our gracious God for His faithful work in His children!</div>
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Happy Reformation Day! Grace & Peace to you all!</div>
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ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-55150719139867832022010-05-23T12:07:00.011+10:002010-06-29T20:21:53.846+10:00Tim Keller on the Gospel<object width="800" height="476"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3484464&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=e04300&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3484464&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=e04300&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="800" height="476"></embed></object><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/3484464">Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church NY, speaks at NewFrontiers UK, on Preaching the Gospel</a> as opposed to preaching mere religion or morality. The main message lasts for about 43 minutes & 43 seconds. A Q&A session then follows. Posted by <a href="http://vimeo.com/newfrontiers">Newfrontiers</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Adrian Warnock of <a href="http://jubilee-church.org/">Jubilee Church</a> in London posts the same video in his weblog with his notes <a href="http://adrianwarnock.com/2009/03/preach-to-change-them-in-their-seats/">here</a>. (Please right-click on the links for the option to open them in a new window. Many thanks!)</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;">"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." - Luke 18:9-14</div><p></p>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-73371185678539569492010-04-01T23:37:00.011+11:002012-12-22T01:06:48.769+11:00Maundy Thursday meets April Fool's Day: In Awe of God's Amazing "Foolishness"<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<i>"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Isaiah 29:14</i></div>
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<i>"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.</i></div>
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<i>"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written (Jer 9:24): "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." </i><i>- Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 1, verses 18 to 31; New International Version)</i></div>
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"...(T)he gospel centers on the crucified and risen Lord. The gospel we preach is the wisdom of God because it doesn't praise our intellects or advertise our strengths. It causes us to fall on our knees and acknowledge our weakness, our dependence, our terrible need. It causes us to look up to God as the great Savior... The gospel teaches us that our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption and our wisdom are all gifts from God. The message of the gospel scuttles human pride because it reminds us that our life did not start with our choosing God, but His choosing us. Therefore, all the glory is God's."<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">- Excerpts from <i>The Foolishness of the Cross</i> (<a href="http://www.sbts.edu/documents/tschreiner/6.3_editorial.pdf">article in pdf format</a>) by Thomas R. Schreiner (Professor & Associate Dean, <a href="http://www.sbts.edu/theology/faculty/thomas-schreiner/">Southern Baptist Theological Seminary</a>; Preaching Pastor, <a href="http://cliftonbaptist.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=57">Clifton Baptist Church</a> Louisville, Kentucky; Author of <i><a href="http://www.monergismbooks.com/Paul-Apostle-of-Gods-Glory-in-Christ-A-Pauline-Theology-p-16339.html">Paul, The Apostle of God's Glory in Christ</a></i>)</span><br />
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ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-81926235637204563812010-01-30T00:55:00.000+11:002012-12-22T01:00:45.586+11:00The Day John MacArthur Missed the Point<div>
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Please enjoy this article by Pastor John MacArthur from <a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/A274">Grace To You Ministries</a>...</div>
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<i>In 2007, Crossway released a multi-author work entitled </i><a href="http://www.crossway.org/product/1581348282/contents"><i>Preaching the Cross</i></a><i>, for which John MacArthur contributed one chapter. The book, a highly recommended resource, is a call to pastors and church leaders to have ministries that are gospel-centered. Today’s article comes from John’s chapter, and recounts an experience he had early in his ministry which made a lasting impact on him.</i></div>
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The dean of the seminary I attended was Dr. Charles Feinberg, one of the most brilliant and respected men I have ever known. He was Jewish, and after studying for 14 years to be a rabbi, he was converted to Christ. He knew more than thirty languages. He even told me once that he <em>taught himself</em> Dutch because he wanted to read Dutch Reformed theology. He also read through the Bible four times every year. Needless to say, he was exceptional and intense. We were all rightfully in awe of him, and I loved him at the same time.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=35079402" id="more-1036"></a></div>
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In those days, every seminary student had to preach in chapel. When my turn came, I was assigned to preach on 2 Samuel 7, the great text on the Davidic Covenant. My sermon was probably a fine example of structural craftsmanship. It had a zinger for a beginning and a zapper at the end. It would have been a great success, too—if it hadn’t been for my lack of biblical content in the middle section. I preached a “practical” message that was only superficially related to the biblical text. In that passage, Nathan encourages David to build a house for the Lord. And God says, “Wait a minute, you didn’t check in. That’s not the plan.” So I preached about how important it is to not to presume on God.</div>
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When I finished, I felt pretty good. The chapel audience seemed to have followed with interest, and I even thought I heard some murmurs of approval. But I really only cared about the opinion of one man—my mentor, Dr. Feinberg. The faculty sat behind us when we preached in chapel, and they had legal-sized criticism sheets, which they filled out during the student’s sermon. After we were done preaching, we would stand at the door, and the faculty would hand us their sheets as they left the room. I just wanted Dr. Feinberg’s.</div>
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He was at the end of the line, and I could see that he had folded his sheet up very small and very tightly. When he handed it to me, he did not even look up at me. He kept his eyes straight down and walked firmly past. That was not a good sign. So at my first opportunity, I unrolled his paper. I was eager to read his feedback, hoping desperately that he would be impressed with my sermon.</div>
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To be sure, I expected some constructive criticism. But the few bold red words that stared back at me were<em> much</em> worse than anything I had prepared myself for. He had completely ignored all the suggested categories and scoring helps that were printed on the sheet. Instead, he wrote across the page in bold red letters a one-line critique that hit me like a hard punch to the solar plexus: “<em> You missed the whole point of the passage</em> .”</div>
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That is the worst possible mistake any preacher could make—but especially in front of someone like Dr. Feinberg.</div>
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Like many young preachers, I had naively concerned myself with just about everything<em> except</em> getting the meaning of the text right. My preparation was focused on delivery, gestures, anecdotes, the right mix of humor and illustrative material, and the alliteration of my main points. I had actually approached the biblical passage itself almost as an afterthought.</div>
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Later that day, I received a message instructing me to go to Dr. Feinberg’s office. When I got there, he was sitting at his desk, shaking his head in disappointment. </div>
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<i>“How could you? How could you? That passage presents the <a href="http://www.gotquestions.org/Davidic-covenant.html">Davidic Covenant</a> culminating in the Messiah and His glorious kingdom—and you talked about ‘not presuming on God’ in our personal day-to-day choices? </i></blockquote>
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<i>That would have been a fine admonition to preach from Numbers 15:30-31 or Psalm 19:13, but you can’t reduce 2 Samuel 7 to that! </i></blockquote>
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<i>You missed the entire point of the passage, and it’s one of the greatest of all Old Testament passages. Don’t ever do that again.”</i></blockquote>
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He never said another word about it to me, but that incident hit me like a sledgehammer. In fact, it was the deepest single impression I ever received in seminary. </div>
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<em>Never miss the point of the passage.</em> </div>
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To this day, when I come to the text each week and begin to study its richness and depth, I can still hear Dr. Feinberg’s heartfelt admonition ringing in my ears. If you don’t have the <em>meaning</em> of Scripture, you do not have the Word of God at all. If you miss the true sense of what God has said, you are not actually preaching God’s Word! </div>
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That reality has compelled me for nearly 40 years of preaching.</div>
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Available online at: <b><span id="lblLink"><a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/A274">http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/A274</a></span></b><br />COPYRIGHT ©2009 Grace to You</span></div>
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ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-15593962227993580742009-12-26T23:24:00.012+11:002012-12-22T01:01:58.948+11:00A gift to church-planters (and would-be church-planters) in Australia, who need a Push...<div>
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<span style="color: black;"><em>From their website:</em></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What we do</span></h1>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> exists to recruit, coach and unleash church planters on an Australia that is desperately in need of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> provides an expanding collection of reliable online resources for men investigating church planting and Christian leadership in a uniquely Australian context. It offers free contact services to ensure Christian leaders can stay up to date with formative thinking and relevant resources.</span></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> will also run regular national and state-based training and recruitment events involving the best home-grown and international speakers.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Members of </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push </span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">join a national community dedicated to seeing the Gospel go out to unchurched Australians. They have access to the web site's forums and contact list, as well as the ability to engage in 'commented' discussions on the best uses of the site's resources.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click here to </span><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/tgp-resources/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">investigate </span></a><em><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/tgp-resources/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push's </span></a></em><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/tgp-resources/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">online resources</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click here to </span><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/calendar/" style="color: #2a83b6; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">view upcoming national and state events</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click here to </span><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/be-assessed/" style="color: #2a83b6; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">apply for membership of </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Men who are keen to take on the task of church planting are encouraged to apply for assessment of their suitability by </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. This extensive process involves the input of proven, mature Christian leaders and church planters familiar with first-hand experience of working in the Australian culture. Candidates emerge with a detailed understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as well as an evaluation of their church planting goals.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Assessment planters accepted by </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> are also eligible for a wide degree of on-going support, including:</span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Access to </span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">exclusive resources</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> including the </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Church-In-A-Box </span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">starter's kit, containing all of the legal and technical documents necessary for starting a congregation in Australia</span></li>
<li><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On-going one-to-one coaching</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> from a proven Australian church planter</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Support to attend </span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">regular training events</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> run by </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and partner networks</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click here to </span><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/be-assessed/" style="color: #2a83b6; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">apply for assessment by </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">3. Unleash</span></h2>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> works in partnership with networks and denominations across Australia to connect church planters with the regions that desperately need to hear the Gospel.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Assessment planters will have access to an online bulletin board listing opportunities to work with and receive support from a wide range of Christian denominations and networks.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Planters will also have the opportunity to make the same denominations and networks aware of their own availability and desire to work in key growth areas.</span></div>
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<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Geneva Push </span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is committed to raising up a new generation of church planters who aim to evangelise churches into existence across Australia. If God has inspired you to plant a church for Him, we want to help you reach your goal.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We can do more working together than in competition.</span></h2>
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<em>Visit </em><a href="http://www.thegenevapush.com/"><em>The Geneva Push </em></a><em>website to learn more. Many thanks to Pastor RJ & Pastor Dave for the heads up by becoming Geneva Push fans on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/thegenevapush">Facebook</a>. (Please right click on the links for the option to open them in a new window. Many thanks & God bless!)</em></div>
ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-22034857474039220282009-12-25T15:00:00.010+11:002009-12-27T00:09:37.290+11:00Celebrating CHRIST Jesus:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br />Who, being in very nature God,<br />did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,<br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">but made himself nothing,<br />taking the very nature of a servant,<br />being made in human likeness.<br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">And being found in appearance as a man,<br />he humbled himself<br />and became obedient to death—<br />even death on a cross!<br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Therefore God exalted him to the highest place<br />and gave him the name that is above every name,<br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,<br />in heaven and on earth and under the earth,<br />and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,<br />to the glory of God the Father.</span><br /><br /><em><span>-- The Apostle Paul (Philippians 2:6-11, New International Version)</em><br /></span><em></em>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-26605537638769907062009-12-24T23:54:00.007+11:002009-12-26T15:22:10.916+11:00Disturbing Christmas: The Manger and the Horrors of the Crossby C.J. Mahaney<br />President, Sovereign Grace Ministries<br /><a href="http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Disturbing-Christmas-2009.aspx">12/21/2009 10:21:00 AM</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Several years ago <a href="http://www.worldmag.com/index.cfm">WORLD Magazine</a> published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is Disturbing: Any Real Understanding of the Christmas Messages will Disturb Anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />In part, Smith wrote:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Don’t get me wrong—Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />As Smith so fitly concludes his column:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><blockquote>Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.</blockquote><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Amen and Merry Christmas!<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The article above was originally posted by C.J. Mahaney at the <a href="http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Disturbing-Christmas-2009.aspx">Sovereign Grace Ministries Blog</a> and can also be enjoyed at <a href="http://www.christianity.com/Home/Christian%20Living%20Features/11624245/">Christianity.com</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">John MacArthur tackles the same issue in his article (disturbingly) entitled <a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-7">"The Ugliness of Christmas."</a> (Please right-click on the links for the option to open them in a new window. May the LORD continue to open peoples' eyes to how badly we all need The Sovereign Saviour Jesus Christ in our lives. Happy Holidays & God Bless!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-2032257057589844252009-10-10T19:19:00.009+11:002009-10-10T19:42:33.303+11:00A Request for Prayer...<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Times;"><h1 style="font-size: 24px; ">Philippine flood death toll mounts</h1><p class="details" style="font-size: 12px; ">From The Sydney Morning Herald. October 10, 2009 - 5:54PM</p><div id="adSpotIsland" style="width: 300px; float: right; text-align: center; "></div><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Floodwaters from tropical storm Parma receded in much of the northern Philippines on Saturday but the toll from heavy rain rose further as more bodies were recovered, officials said.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">A total of 265 people were confirmed dead in landslides and flooding caused by Parma in the past two days, civil defence and local officials said.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">This brings the death toll from two weeks of killer storms to at least 602 with about 301,000 still crammed into makeshift evacuation centres since tropical storm Ketsana struck two weeks ago, the civil defence office said.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Civil defence spokesman Ernesto Torres said that among the latest fatalities were three firemen who were carrying out rescue operations at the landslide site.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">In the northern Mountain Province, which had been hit hard by landslides, Governor Maximo Dalog made an appeal for medicine, food and sniffing dogs, "so we can find the bodies."</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Dalog said there were 35 dead in his province alone with at least 16 others still missing after heavy rain brought on by Parma caused huge landslides that buried houses late Thursday to Friday.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">The mountain resort city of Baguio remained inaccessible as rockslides had cut off all major roads, said Mayor Peter Rey Bautista.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">"The past two days have been very hard for the whole city and surrounding areas. But we are finally seeing the sunshine," he said in a television interview.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">In the farming region of Pangasinan to the southwest of the provinces where the landslides occurred, floodwaters that had swamped the area had largely gone down but they left a sea of mud that made travel difficult.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Dagupan, a major city in Pangasinan, was still flooded, with people forced to wade through waters, while roads remained impassable to small vehicles.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Parma, which first hit the country as a typhoon on October 3, sat off the northern Philippines for a week before dumping huge rains on the region on Thursday and Friday.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">It finally moved away late Friday and was charted 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of Dagupan on Saturday, slowly moving west into the South China Sea, the government weather station said.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Parma had hit just a week after Ketsana struck the capital and surrounding areas, causing massive floods. Some low-lying areas remain flooded two weeks later.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro was quoted by ABS-CBN television as saying he was halting offensive operations against communist insurgents in the south so the army could concentrate on rescue and relief efforts in the north.</p><p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 14px; ">The succession of storms has overwhelmed government resources and forced the Philippines to ask for more foreign aid.</p><p class="details" style="font-size: 12px; "><i>This story was found at: <b>http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/philippine-flood-death-toll-mounts-20091010-grj0.html</b></i></p></span></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: italic; font-size:18px;">God is our refuge and strength,</span><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">an ever-present help in trouble.</span><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">though its waters roar and foam<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">and the mountains quake with their surging.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Selah<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">the holy place where the Most High dwells.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">God is within her, she will not fall;<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">God will help her at break of day.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">He lifts his voice, the earth melts.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The LORD Almighty is with us;<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">the God of Jacob is our fortress.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Selah<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Come and see the works of the LORD,<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">the desolations He has brought on the earth.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">He breaks the bow and shatters the spear,<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">He burns the shields with fire.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Be still, and know that I am God;<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I will be exalted among the nations,<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I will be exalted in the earth."<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The LORD Almighty is with us;<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">the God of Jacob is our fortress.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Selah<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">-Psalm 46:8-11 (NIV)<br /></div></span></span>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-68920744188204235792009-08-01T13:59:00.006+10:002009-08-13T18:14:09.218+10:00The First of a Series from Matthias Media: Guidebooks for Life<a href="http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/images/uploads/resources/sinnersguide_large.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 225px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 349px" alt="" src="http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/images/uploads/resources/sinnersguide_large.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/life/resources/a_sinners_guide_to_holiness_john_chapman/"><span style="font-size:180%;">A Sinner’s Guide to Holiness<br />by John Chapman</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">As Favourably Reviewed by Kamal Weerakoon...<br /></span></a><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Holiness is one of those topics that’s easy to make people feel guilty about (the other two are prayer and daily Bible reading…!)<br /><br />Because it’s so easy to make Christians feel guilty about holiness, it’s also tempting to offer quick solutions.<br /><br />I’m sure anyone could publish a book titled “ten practical steps to sure-fire holiness”, and the Christian public would gobble it up.<br /><br />John Chapman’s book is nothing like that. He refuses to play the guilt card. Nor does he give you ten easy steps to holiness.<br /><br />This book has four sections.<br /><br />First, Chappo shows us how a life of holiness begins with repentance and faith in Christ.<br /><br />Second, he shows how a life of holiness consists of continued repentance and continued faith in Christ.<br /><br />Third, he gives us the glorious vision of our future with Christ.<br /><br />Hmmm… looks like Chappo thinks that holiness is about Christ.<br /><br />It’s not about our efforts, it’s not about trying harder or going through some second experience of God‘s holiness or anything like that.<br /><br />In the fourth section of the book, Chappo warns us against such attractive short-cuts, and exposes them as dead-ends.<br /><br />Holiness is found in Christ – enjoying his benefits, and becoming more and more like him. If you get nothing else from this book, understand that.<br /><br />This, I think, is the big idea of Chappo’s book: holiness is all about Christ.<br /><br />Chappo has a gift for making complicated things really simple.<br /><br />This book is no exception. It’s short and very easy to read.<br /><br />Chappo writes with his classic easy-going style, with plenty of verbal illustrations and a couple of roll-on-the-floor-laughing stories.<br /><br />One thing, though. This book doesn’t have detailed instructions about how to overcome particular sins or unhelpful habits.<br /><br />It’s full of exhortations, but remains at a fairly general level.<br /><br />So, if you feel trapped in some sin, and you’re discouraged by your own weakness, and you come to this book looking for fast answers… you might be disappointed.<br /><br />It’d be a good thing to have a book that tells us how to deal with particular sins and sinful habits.<br /><br />Vanity, greed, pornography… they need to be discussed, and we need to learn strategies to avoid them.<br /><br />But that’s not what this book sets out to do.<br /><br />It’s meant to give you the broad biblical framework for the subject, and helps you work out for yourself what it means, without pretending to have quick, easy answers.<br /><br />To this end, the book comes with extensive Bible quotes in the text itself, and a discussion guide at the back.<br /><br />The best way to use this book, I think, is to read it with one other Christian brother or sister whom you trust, and discuss frankly with each other what changes the two of you need to make.<br /><br />Husbands and wives, perhaps you could read it together, and think about your family life – what would it mean for the two of you, and your children, to be holy?<br /><br />This is the first of a new series from Matthias Media, Guidebooks for Life.<br /><br />Guidebooks are meant to take you places.<br /><br />This book will take us on an exciting, dangerous journey – a journey of being more and more holy, more and more like Christ.<br /><br />Review taken from:<br /></span><a href="http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/life/resources/a_sinners_guide_to_holiness_john_chapman/">http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/life/resources/a_sinners_guide_to_holiness_john_chapman/</a></div></div></div><br /><br />Enjoy a free sample of John Chapman's book "A Sinners Guide To Holiness," in pdf format by clicking <a href="http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/Samples/sm_grps/sgth_sample.pdf">here</a>. (Kindly right-click for the option to open the link in a new window.) <br /><br />Many thanks to MatthiasMedia.com.auignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-65741861473559911862009-07-11T19:57:00.011+10:002012-12-22T01:29:22.252+11:00Greg Johnson's eye-opening "Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt"<div align="center">
<i>This provocative and challenging article by Greg Johnson is entitled, "Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt".<br /><br />It is not entitled, "Freedom from Quiet Time," and for good reason. Please read it carefully to find out why.<br /><br />May the Lord use this so that we can enjoy more wholeheartedly, the beauty and majesty of Jesus Christ as we discover more of Him in His Word.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: 180%;"><strong><a href="http://gregscouch.homestead.com/files/Quiet_Time_Guilt.htm">Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt </a></strong></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Rare Beauty of Weakness Christianity</span><br />
by Greg Johnson, St. Louis Center for Christian Study<br />
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1. The Diagnosis: Quiet Time Guilt</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I recently watched as a congregation I love was spiritually raped. A Christian ministry came into the church for a three-day program whose purpose was to encourage believers to pray more. During one of the breakout sessions, a man expressed his frustration with unanswered prayer. He had faithfully prayed with and for his daughter for years, and still she was not walking with God. He was broken, depressed, perhaps more than a little ashamed. How does God in his grace speak to this man? A bruised reed was crying out for help.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“You need to try harder. You need to pray more.” That was the message he was given. I was enraged.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Having known this church for many years, I was horrified. What I was hearing was what one seminary professor calls sola bootstrapa. Self-reliance: We pull ourselves up by our own spiritual bootstraps. The teachers who said such things surely meant well. The problem was not a lack of sincerity on their part. The diagnosis is far more severe. The problem was heresy. Any heresy wounds the soul.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When I look upon the evangelical world today, I see millions of sincere believers who are loaded down with false guilt by teachers who fail to grasp the basics of biblical prayer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To sharpen the point slightly, Christ’s sheep have been lied to. They have been told that prayer is a work that we must perform in order to get God to bless us. As heresies go, this one is often subtle. Prayer has become a work rather than a grace. The result has been a loss of joy in prayer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And prayer is not the only grace we’ve turned into a work.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Personal Bible study has become a source of bondage as well. A whole generation of Christians has been told that God will bless them if they read their Bibles every day, as if the act of reading the Scriptures were some kind of magic talisman by which we gain power over God and secure his favor. This is not the religion of the Bible.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This pervasive belief that God gives us grace as a reward for our devotional consistency is antithetical to the religion of Jesus Christ. Prayer and Bible study—what evangelicals for the past century have called the “quiet time” have become dreaded precisely because they have been radically misunderstood.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s ironic, but the Quiet Time has become the number one cause of defeat among Bible-believing Christians today.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">At one time or another, nearly every sincere believer feels a deep sense of failure and the accompanying feelings of guilt and shame because he or she has failed to set aside a separate time for Bible study and prayer. This condition is called Quiet Time Guilt. And it’s a condition with many repercussions. The shame of Quiet Time Guilt manifests itself in even deeper inability to fruitfully and joyfully study Scripture. Prayer becomes a dread; Bible study a burden. The Christian suffering from Quiet Time Guilt then despairs of seeing God work in his or her life, until finally he or she simply gives up. He may continue outward and public Christian commitments like church attendance, but secretly he feels like a hypocrite. What is the root of Quiet Time Guilt?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2. The Culprit: Legalism</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The root of Quiet Time Guilt is legalism. Often when we think of legalism, we think of the petty man-made rules that have so often strangled the churches—rules against dancing or drinking or makeup or ‘secular’ music. But these legalistic rules are merely an outward sign of a deeper legalism of the heart.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When prayer and Bible study are thought of primarily as duties (‘disciplines’) rather than as grace, both prayer and the study of Scripture become unfruitful in our lives.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We put ourselves on a performance treadmill and cease relying on God’s grace to sustain us. We trust in ourselves and our consistency, becoming proud if devotionally successful—or despairing because of our inconsistency. Either way, our spiritual self-reliance short-circuits the inexpressible joy of life in Christ. The quiet time becomes a human work whereby we think we gain—or lose—God’s daily favor. When we’ve started our day with Scripture, we presume that God’s blessing will rest upon us because of it. When we fail in our quest for devotional consistency, we feel we’ve short-circuited God’s grace in our lives. Quiet-Time Guilt.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">If this describes you or anyone you know, the situation is far worse than you think. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this very attitude about Bible study.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yes, that’s what Jesus said. Bible study can be a sin.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Pharisees assumed the Bible was a book of rules or principles for living, but failed to grasp it as a story about God’s love for His people. The quiet time can drive you far from God if you fail to understand that the Scriptures are a story about grace.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scriptures are a story about Jesus Christ, the man of grace. His works—not our works—are the center of the biblical story. And this Jesus gives grace daily to those who fail Him. How you approach the Bible—as needy sinner or as self-reliant Pharisee says a lot about the state of your soul.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Just like Bible study, prayer too can be sinful. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisee and the tax collector. The one saw prayer as a work, the other as an expression of need. The one who merely expressed his neediness to God—the expression of our neediness being the heart of true prayer—that one went home right with God.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Often we assume that if we really had it together and could approach God without sin, without failing, with only pure spiritual successes to offer, then God would somehow delight in our prayer more. The opposite is true. If you approach God in that manner, you approach him as his enemy.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We are all fallen. If we presume to approach him as something more than needy, dependent sons and daughters, God rightly takes offence. There’s nothing more dangerous than the pride of devotional consistency.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">3. The Remedy: Weakness Christianity</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There are two religions calling themselves evangelical Christianity today: Strength Christianity and Weakness Christianity. </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(These are sometimes also referred to as the </span></em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology_of_the_Cross"><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Theology of Glory and the Theology of the Cross</span></em></a><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - Boms)</span></em></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Strength Christianity is that religion which places both feet squarely on the Bible and proclaims, “I am strong. I sought the Lord. I’m a believer. I’ve turned away from sin. I read my Bible and pray every single day. I’m for God!”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Weakness Christianity, by contrast, places both knees squarely on the Bible and says, “I am weak, but the Lord has sought me. I believe, but help now my unbelief. I fail and am broken by my continued sinfulness. Have mercy on me, Lord, and grant me favor, for apart from you I can do nothing.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Those who pursue Strength Christianity will never find joy in God, for they will never find God. Our Father refuses to be approached in that manner. They will find only increasing religious pride and secret hardness of heart. On the outside, they will project a picture of righteousness. They’ll have it all together. They’ll be spiritual. But only on the outside.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For those who stumble across the rare jewel of Weakness Christianity, however, there is provision beyond what we can possibly imagine. Our suffering, our failures, our weaknesses and disappointments all gain an incredible spiritual significance.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">God never says He’ll be glorified in our religious accomplishments. But He does promise that His power will be made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Neediness is the heart of Biblical religion. When we honestly lay our brokenness before God, we’re surprised to see a radically different message in the Bible.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">While we had perhaps expected a to-do list from Holy Writ, a program to make us righteous, or a divinely sanctioned self-help book, we instead see a shocking message that centers on our God and His grace to His broken people, not about us and our performance and expected rewards.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And when we approach God in brokenness—Weakness Christianity—we find a radically different vision for prayer.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Prayer is not something we do—a performance designed to get something from God. Instead, it’s merely a free and honest confession of our neediness to God and our spoken reliance upon Him for each and every blessing. When you stumble upon Weakness Christianity, you realize that true religion is all about God’s grace, not about our devotional consistency.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">4. The Shocker: Grace for the Christian</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This grace is for you right now, now and tonight and tomorrow and next week and forever.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The deadly assumption made too often among those who claim to heed the Scriptures is that grace is only for non-Christians. Grace is what God offers to people who don’t know Christ. Grace is what makes us Christians; but once we’re Christians, we live by our own resources. </span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is why advocates of Strength Christianity so often sound like evangelical Christians. They really do believe that God offers grace to unbelievers who will turn to God through Jesus Christ. And they’re right on that. What they wrongly assume, though, is that the Christian life begins by grace, but continues by human works.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I’ve seen this confusion many times. I found it ironic that the very same prayer program that so hurt the church that I love, included within it an absolutely wonderful children’s program. This at first puzzled me. The children who attended were pointed to Jesus, reassured of God’s love for them, and encouraged to rest in God’s mercy and total acceptance in Christ. In the adult activities, by contrast, people were told to try harder, to persevere, to do better, to be more consistent and to pray more, so that God could bless them. The children heard, “God did it,” while the adults were told, “Just do it.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Why the difference? The difference was simple. These teachers were assuming that the children of the church were not yet Christians (…an assumption I would question). God offers non-Christians grace. The adults, however, were committed Christians. The Christian’s relationship with God rests not upon God’s grace, but upon his or her performance, particularly the performance of the ultimate devotional duty, the daily quiet time. This assumption that "grace isn’t for Christians" is spiritual venom, which is keeping millions of Christians in bondage to self-reliance, guilt, shame, and despair. Quiet Time Guilt is the great epidemic among Bible-believing Christians today.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">If you think the purpose behind this little tract is to absolve you from the call to pray or the need for Scripture, think again.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My purpose is to free you to desire prayer—to desire God. I want you to long for the pure message of the gospel, spelled out on page after page of the Bible, and to find the joyous freedom found in Christ. Prayer is a grace, not a work. It is a confession of our neediness to God, not a proof that our “relationship with God” is going well.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">If you think that God will not bless you today because you missed your quiet time, this has been for you. If subtle legalism has left you in bondage so that you no longer hunger for God’s word or freely call out to him in prayer, then hear this: God has already chosen you, pronounced you righteous, adopted you into his family, and promised to finish his work in you. Perhaps you have been lied to in the past. Now it is time for the truth to set you free. Free to be needy. Free to fail. Free to approach God without dread. Free to delight in him rather than in your performance.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But I have a few more theological reflections to share before you leave. Keep reading.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">5. The Surprise: The Quiet Time is Optional</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Imagine for a moment you’re meeting a Christian friend. “How’s your relationship with God going?” they ask you. “Well, I’m struggling with my attitude about my job—but God is teaching me to be content and to not gossip when people rub me the wrong way.” A silent stare greets the words, your inquisitor’s eyes staring you up and down. After a moment of awkward silence, the question comes again, “But how is your relationship with God?” Hmm. What wrong with this picture?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Perhaps this has never happened to you. But I’ve found contemporary Christians are often more concerned about my ‘relationship with God’ than with my relationship with God. Whose idea was it to define the sum total of my relationship with God as my devotional consistency? Your quiet time is not your relationship with God. Your relationship with God—or, as I prefer to say, God’s relationship with you—is your whole life: your job, your family, your sleep, your play, your relationships, your driving, your everything. The real irony here is that we’ve become accustomed to pigeonholing our entire relationship with God into a brief devotional exercise that is not even commanded in the Bible.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yes. That’s what I said. The daily quiet time—that half hour every morning of Scriptural study and prayer¾is not actually commanded in the Bible. And as a theologian, I can remind us that to bind the conscience where Scripture leaves freedom is a very, very serious crime. It’s legalism rearing its ugly little head again. We’ve become legalistic about a legalistic command. This is serious.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But don't misunderstand what I’m saying. My goal isn’t that we pray and read the Bible less, but that we do so more—and with a free and needy heart.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Does the Bible instruct Christians to call out to God in prayer? Absolutely. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Th 5:16-18). But this isn’t a command to set apart a special half-hour of prayer; it’s instruction to continually call upon God. Elsewhere the Apostle calls us to pray: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7). But notice that the focus here is not on the performance of a devotional duty, but on approaching God for grace—for our heats and minds to be guarded by him. Paul’s burden is that we would rely upon God in every circumstance and therefore have peace, rather than relying on ourselves and finding ourselves captive to the anxiety that accompanies self-reliance.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Does the Bible command us to read our Bibles every day? No. Not really.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What Scripture actually instructs is that we meditate on God’s word all the time. Consider the Godly man in Psalm 1. “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:2). This is not exactly the same thing as reading the Bible every day. Personal Bible reading is one—and only one—way we to meditate upon God’s word.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">At this point it’s helpful to consider the difference between a good idea and a Biblical mandate. A Biblical mandate is something that God explicitly or implicitly commands in Scripture. Loving your neighbor is a Biblical mandate (Mt 5:43). Moving to Philadelphia to work in a homeless shelter, by contrast, is not a biblical mandate. Rather, it’s a good idea, a wonderful possible application of the Biblical mandate to love your neighbor. But moving to Philly isn’t the only way you can love your neighbor. Similarly, meditating on God’s word is a Biblical mandate. The daily quiet time, by contrast, is a good idea, a wonderful possible application of the mandate of Biblical meditation.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It may surprise you to know that the concept of the quiet time as a command is a modern invention. It’s only in recent centuries that Christians have been able to actually own Bibles—the printing press and cheap paper have given us more options so far as Biblical meditation is concerned. But remember that most Christians throughout history have not owned Bibles. They heard the Bible preached during corporate worship. They were taught the Bible in the churches. They memorized the Bible profusely—a first century rabbinic saying stated, “If your rabbi teaches and you have no paper, write it on your sleeve.” But for most Christians through history, Biblical meditation took place when they discussed the Bible with family and friends, when they memorized it, when they listened very carefully to God’s word preached. The concept of sitting still before sunrise with a Bible open would have been very foreign to them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We have so many options today, why do we get hung up on the quiet time? Listen to Christian teaching tapes. Invest your time in a small group Bible study. Have friends over for coffee and Bible discussion. Sing and listen to Scripture songs. Read good theology. Tape memory verses to the dashboard of your car. And pray throughout your day. I always reserve the drive to church on Sundays as a time of uninterrupted prayer for my pastors and elders, for those leading worship, and for the peace and purity of the church. Certain landmarks around town remind me to pray for certain churches, Christians I know, or causes God says are important. I suspect I spend more time praying in my car than on my knees. (Though I love praying on my knees as a concrete display of my dependence on God, I can’t do this in my car without causing an accident.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">If you have a regular quiet time, don’t stop. You’ve found a wonderful way to meditate on Scripture. You’ve set aside a specific time to call upon God in prayer. But if the quiet time doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. You should not feel guilty since you have not broken a commandment. The quiet time is an option, a good idea—not a Biblical mandate. If the quiet time isn’t working for you, there are other options as well.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The key is to rely on God to accomplish His plans, a reliance expressed in prayer and fed in Scripture. You have all kinds of opportunities to call upon God in prayer and to meditate upon His Word. He loves you and delights in your expressions of weakness and dependence. He is glorified in your weakness.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">6. The Theology of Prayer: Means of Grace</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So what exactly does prayer do? That’s the question I’m often asked. There are several wrong answers to this question. Some assume that prayer furnishes God with the information he lacks. God doesn’t view it that way. He not only knows what’s going on now, he knows what will be going on next week. Indeed, he even ordained what will be going on next week¾the Bible speaks of “the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Neither is prayer an attempt to convince God to do what he wouldn’t otherwise do. He will grant our requests only insofar as they accord with his eternal purpose—his will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And I hope we’ve dismissed the idea that prayer shows God how much we love Him! It’s not a work, but a grace! But often we think that prayer is something we do to obligate God to bless us. This is the subtlest of errors, for it resembles the Biblical teaching. Indeed, it is a caricature of the Biblical picture of prayer. Grace-empowered, grace-motivated prayer does bring blessing, but prayer isn’t a work we do that obligates God to give blessing. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. Prayer is a means of grace, not a work to merit grace.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Theologians have classically called prayer and Scripture (along with the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper) means of grace—highways along which the Holy Spirit tends to travel. The means of grace are the normal instruments God uses to accomplish His saving work in and through us. Does prayer change things? Yes, because God changes things, and prayer is an expression of our reliance upon Him to accomplish his purposes.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I remember about six months ago calling upon God in prayer about my finances. Starting a not-for-profit teaching ministry is hard work, and church missions committees would often rather support a missionary doing evangelism than one who is training believers. One evening I called out to God with great urgency. After a year of support raising and teaching, I could still only afford to teach half-time while working another job, and even the funds that had enabled that year of half-teaching were almost all gone. “Father, this is your ministry, not mine. If you have raised me up for this, then something must change. I cannot go without food. I cannot fail to pay my rent. If you wish me to teach, you must grant the resources to do this. If you do not enable me to teach, I will not teach. Apart from you I can do nothing.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Was I manipulating God by threatening to stop teaching? No. And being a sovereign God, He wouldn’t have been impressed. Rather, I was confessing to God my utter and total dependence on Him to fund my work.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The next day, after eight months without any new support, a new friend took me out for coffee and told me he felt compelled to support me at $100/month. That same day, I received a note from an old friend in another part of the country pledging monthly financial support. When I checked my email, I had received a message from a member of my church who had since moved away, telling me a $1200 check was in the mail.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Did my prayer force God’s hand? No. All of this was already in the works long before I prayed. But when I confessed my neediness to God, He was pleased to provide for me. Prayer was the means of grace, not a work I offered for reward. And God was glorified in my weakness.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">God is faithful to hear our prayers, and He delights in answering them. Prayer is one of the basic freedoms Christians have, and freedoms aren’t given to leave us in bondage. There is a cure for Quiet Time Guilt. That cure is the Gospel of Christ, in whom we have redemption. Gospel—our need and God’s provision—is the heart of Biblical prayer. God will care for us. We belong to Him.</span></div>
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<br /><i>Pls enjoy more of Greg Johnson's work at </i><a href="http://gregscouch.homestead.com/bibleandtheology.html"><i>GregsCouch</i></a><i><br /><br />Author Tim Challies also wrote an article entitled "Quiet Time Performance" (citing Greg Johnson) which can be enjoyed </i><a href="http://www.challies.com/archives/christian-living/the-quiet-time-performance.php"><i>here</i></a><i>. Many thanks and God bless! </i></div>
ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-85473695351018388442009-07-11T16:24:00.004+10:002012-12-22T01:30:58.109+11:00Sanctification through Christ Alone, in Christ Alone<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Sanctification via Union With Christ by John Hendryx</span></span><br />
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(Please see the original post along with any comments at <a href="http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/04/sanctification_via_union_with.php">ReformationTheology.com</a>. Thank you!)<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1 Cor 1:28-31)</span></div>
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I often think that our sanctification is very much like our original conversion experience. The more we grow in grace, the more we lose all confidence in ourselves. It seems, somewhat ironically, that as Christ works sanctification in us, the greater is our recognition of our own sinfulness. And it seems this is done for a purpose, for as we come face to face with our own corruption, we are driven to Christ as our righteousness, holiness and redemption, our all in all...our only hope before God. So sanctification is not so much about our own spirituality as it is about Christ and Him becoming greater. </div>
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Christ commanded us to partake of Communion "till He come" and perhaps the reason for this is to continually focus our eyes less on what we do for Him, and more on what He has done for us and relish it. What we do in response to Him is only penultimate or secondary. </div>
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The most critical error we make as believers is to look in ourselves for something that can only be found in Christ.</div>
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The principal means of the believer’s sanctification is union with Christ. </div>
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We are united to Christ in his death and resurrection in which He, as its first fruits, inaugurated the new creation. The Age to come presses in to this Age in such a way as to bring kingdom benefits to those united to Him. We do not grow in our sanctification when we are overly focused on our own spirituality. It comes as we gaze on the beauty and excellency of Christ. We are united to Him in such a way that his death is viewed as our death and his resurrection ours. (Rom 6:1-11) The identification is complete in Christ, who is our life! We must, therefore, never separate the Benefactor (Jesus Christ) from benefits of redemption, including our sanctification.</div>
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Dr. Sinclair Ferguson explains that "Union with Christ in his death and resurrection is the element of union which Paul most extensively expounds...if we are united to Christ, then we are united to him at all points of his activity on our behalf. We share in his death (we were baptized into his death), in his resurrection (we are resurrected with Christ), in his ascension (we have been raised with him), in his heavenly session (we sit with him in heavenly places, so that our life is hidden with Christ in God), and we will share in his promised return (when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also will appear with him in glory) (Rom. 6:14; Col. 2:11-12; 3:1-3). This, then, is the foundation of sanctification in Reformed theology. It is rooted, not in humanity and their achievement of holiness or sanctification, but in what God has done in Christ, and for us in union with him. Rather than view Christians first and foremost in the microcosmic context of their own progress, the Reformed doctrine first of all sets them in the macrocosm of God's activity in redemptive history. It is seeing oneself in this context that enables the individual Christian to grow in true holiness."</div>
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As long as we live in this world of sin, we should let it drive us to Him. The Scripture clearly states that Christ is our sanctification. The whole of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension have provided to us a deposit of His own sanctified life, from which all our needs can be supplied. So we feed on Him in the Eucharist as a visible gospel, where He communes with us in a spiritual way. Because of our union with Him, we partake of His resources. That is why he can "become for us" sanctification, just as he is also our wisdom, righteousness and redemption (I Cor. 1:30).</div>
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With this in mind, John Calvin once said:</div>
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"We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ [Acts 4:12]. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is ‘of him’ [I Cor. 1:30]. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects [Heb. 2:17] that he might learn to feel our pain [compare to Heb. 5:2]. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Gal. 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment; in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from the fountain, and from no other."(2.16.18.)</div>
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We grow in grace by looking to Christ, not ourselves for our spiritual nourishment. We would exhaust oursleves very quickly on our own resources. God requires holy perfection from us but we always fall short. Since all we do has mixed motives and we seldom if ever love others as we should, we can confidently say that we do not bring anything of additional worth to our relationship with God. He is fully satisfied in Christ. </div>
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Yes... we are declared righteous because of our union with Christ but few consider that we are also sanctified in the same way. </div>
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The gospel not only justifies us but is what we run back to in order to sanctify us. Justification, where God has already fully accepted us based on Christ's alien righteouness is what he has done for us, but sanctification is what He progressively does in us. This is also a gift of grace appropriated by faith. The difference in our standing before and after salvation is that we have the Spirit indwelling us constantly newewing our affections which delight in His law and drive us to feed on Christ.</div>
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The power of the Holy Spirit working in us is never to be the basis of our relationship with God because the imputation of Christ's righteousness already sees us as holy before Him. Thus when you long for His acceptance just look to Christ, whose blood of the covenant "reminds God" not to treat us as our sins deserve. You will never be holy enough, even for an instant, on your own. Christ alone is your righteousness.</div>
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But each day subjectively the Spirit is also uniting you to the nourshment of Christ, who imparts life to you from the root. God desires that you grow in conformity to Jesus Christ. He even "predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29) He purifies you so that you would be eager to obey and delight in Him. As we lose confidence in self, we gain confidence in Christ and the Spirit experientially imparts life to us daily so that we might see more of our own unrighteousness and be willing to forsake it in glad obedience to Him. This is as much a gift of grace as is our justification. We respond, yet the response is wrought by the life of grace that we now partake of in Christ. "His commands are not burdensome"(1 john 5:3) because in Christ we now view them as holy and good (Rom 7:12).</div>
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The prophet Ezekiel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, expresses it thus:</div>
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"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)</div>
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The Word as a Means of Grace</div>
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It is we who obey yet it is because of the new Spirit put in us that we have the heart to do so. The Holy Spirit has conquered our hatred of the light and moves within us to desire His law. To grow into His likeness more and more, let us constantly feed ourselves on the reading of the Word, and put ourselves before good exposition of the Word for this is the outward means the Spirit uses to bring us greater understanding. This means taking our eyes of of self and our own spirituality. Let us always pray that the Spirit removes our faithlessness and illumines our minds that we might to grow in out Knowledge of Him in the Revelation He has given us. Again John Calvin said,</div>
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"Indeed the Word of God is like the sun, shining upon all those to whom it is proclaimed, but with no effect among the blind. Now, all of us are blind by nature in this respect... Accordingly, it cannot penetrate into our minds unless the Spirit, as the inner teacher, through his illumination makes entry for it." (Calvin's Institutes 3.2.34.)</div>
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Only the Holy Spirit is equal to the task of sanctification in us. We are commanded and are indeed responsible to put on and act out Christlike character, but these are fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). That means they work themselves out in us as the Spirit unites us to Christ, not through sheer willpower or exertion. While responsible to obey, we are also dependent on Him to obey. All spiritual blessings are ours in Christ (Eph 1:3)</div>
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Now many persons have asked me if sancification is monergistic in the same way regeneration is. I am rather hestiant to say yes because the term monergism is used in regeneration because God alone acts upon someone who is dead. We do not respond to become regenerated, but are regenerated in order to respond. A believer already has the Spirit indwelling so He is in fact responding to somehting God does in him. God still initiates and moves us to obedience but we actually act. One of the classic texts for sanctification is, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Phil 2:12b,13.</div>
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God makes us will and work in a particular direction, but Paul nontheless commands believers to act on it. There is never a command to be regenerated, as it is never spoken of in the imperative. The new birth is something God does and God alone.</div>
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A. A. Hodge once said,</div>
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"It must be remembered that while the subject is passive with respect to that divine act of grace whereby he is regenerated, after he is regenerated he cooperates with the Holy Ghost in the work of sanctification. The Holy Ghost gives the grace, and prompts and directs in its exercise, and the soul exercises it. Thus while sanctification is a grace, it is also a duty; and the soul is both bound and encouraged to use with diligence, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, all the means for its spiritual renovation, and to form those habits resisting evil and of right action in which sanctification so largely consists."</div>
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"Dependence" is the key word here. The more we depend on Christ, the less we do on self, and our own resources. So sanctificaiton is all about Christ becoming greater and we becoming less. It is worthwhile to rememeber that sanctification does not earn merit for us. Christ's merit alone is sufficient. He is "our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."</div>
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<i>Originally posted by John W Hendryx on April 21, 2006 12:16 PM at http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/04/sanctification_via_union_with.php</i>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-51545926159690137122009-07-11T14:10:00.013+10:002012-12-22T01:32:28.984+11:00Sanctification by Grace Alone<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Sola Gratia & Sanctification by Rich Gilbert</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000607035054/www.alliancenet.org/pub/articles/gilbert.sanctification.html">©1990 Modern Reformation/Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals</a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Kindly right-click on the links for the option to open them in a new window. Thanks!)</span><br />
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Sola Gratia, Grace Alone. This Biblical concept was one of the central themes of the Reformation. Simply stated, it is the teaching that men are justified, apart from anything they can do to cooperate, solely by the grace of God.<br /><br />But what does this have to do with sanctification? Everything; for it is precisely this teaching which is the basis for the sanctified life.<br /><br />Over the centuries (from the first century A.D. in fact! See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ro%206:1;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Romans 6:1</a>) this doctrine has been charged with being injurious to good moral behavior i.e., if it is true that we do not have to do good works in order to be saved, and indeed that we cannot do any, no one will ever try to live a holy life.<br /><br />Not true. In fact, it is only when we have despaired of our own efforts to save ourselves, that good works even become possible. How so? The first and greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2022:37;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Matthew 22:37</a>). Anything done apart from this pure motive is therefore impure (since its origin is impure "a bad tree cannot produce good fruit." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%207:18;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Matthew 7:18</a>). None of us is able to love God perfectly as He requires, and without this pure motive even our "good" works are like "filthy rags." (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isa%2064:6;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Isaiah 64:6</a>).</div>
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So, despairing of his own efforts to save himself, man turns to Christ and learns that for the sake of His (Christ's) work the sinner is graciously accounted righteous through faith in Christ's work. Now he no longer feels the weight of the law pressing down with its threats to any who don't perfectly keep its demands (see <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal%203:10;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Galatians 3:10</a> & <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=james%202:10;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">James 2:10</a>). Now he is free to obey and does good works spontaneously out of love and gratitude.</div>
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There is also a sense in which we can say that sanctification (like justification) is "Sola Gratia."<br /><br />Everything relating to sanctification, every aspect of it is the work of God in us and on our behalf. Our sanctification owes its beginning to God's recreative act in us. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eze%2011:19-20;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Ezekiel 11:19,20</a> tells us that it is God who removes our hearts of stone and gives us hearts of flesh and that it is this that enables us to keep His commandments <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(This teaching is so important that it is repeated in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eze%2036:25-27;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Ezekiel 36:25-27</a> - Boms)</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20peter%201:3;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">1 Peter 1:3</a> says that God has caused us to be born again. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(This teaching is so important that Peter repeats it in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20peter%201:23;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">1 Peter 1:23</a> and is echoed in passages such as <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%201:13;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">John 1:13</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%203:6;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">John 3:6</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%206:65;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">John 6:65</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2017:2;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">John 17:2</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%209:16;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Romans 9:16</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%201:4-6;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Ephesians 1:4-6</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%202:4-5;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Ephesians 2:4-5</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=james%201:18;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">James 1:18</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20timothy%201:8-9;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">2 Timothy 1:8-9</a> just to mention a short few. Heaven help us if we ever dare contradict or water down such a fundamental Biblical Gospel truth - Boms) </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The beginning of sanctification, its origin, is the work of God.</span></span></span></div>
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The righteousness that becomes ours in sanctification is the obedience Christ rendered to the law. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%205:10;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Romans 5:10</a> refers to this when it speaks of being saved by His life. Christ lived the life of perfect obedience that we were incapable of living and our sanctification is the imparting of that righteousness to us.</div>
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Although our will is active and cooperates in sanctification, it is the Holy Spirit that spurs us on to do good works. This is what Paul means in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=phil%202:13;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Philippians 2:13</a> where he says "it is God at work in you, both to will and work for His good pleasure." If the Holy Spirit were to withdraw His assistance, we would no longer continue and progress in sanctification.</div>
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Scripture often speaks of sanctification in two ways, as an already accomplished fact and as a continuing process. In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%201:2;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">1 Corinthians 1:2</a> we are said to have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%206:11;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">chapter 6 vs. 11</a> it again says we were sanctified. God looks at us through Christ's perfect life and for the sake of His life and death on our behalf, and in light of this, He graciously accepts our works, deficient and impure as they are, as holy on account of faith in Christ. </div>
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We are sanctified already in that God has called and separated us out of the world for His purposes to be His people. </div>
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In fact, it is because we are already sanctified that we are called to live accordingly and to grow in sanctification. In all of Paul's letters where he has an exhortation to live holy lives, it is always based on the preceding section which explains what we already are in Christ. Then he says "therefore" we ought live accordingly. </div>
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The clearest passage showing this is <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eph%202:10;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Ephesians 2:10</a>. Here we are told, 1) that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, 2) the good works were prepared beforehand by God, and 3) that we have merely to walk in them <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(just as the Sovereign Gracious LORD causes us to! Please see Paul's encouragement to the less than perfect church in Corinth: <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%2012:5-6;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">1 Corinthians 12:5-6</a> and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%2012:11;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">11</a> - Boms)</span>.</div>
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Finally, no treatment of sanctification would be complete without discussing a Christian's failings. It is an unfortunate reality that Christians do still sin <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(please see <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20john%201:8-10;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">1 John 1:8-10</a> and notice how John writes "we" - Boms)</span>. </div>
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There will always be a remnant of the Old Adam in us warring against the New. This is what Romans 7 is all about. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(Paul writing in the present tense in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%207:14-25;&version=31;49;47;9;43;">Romans 7:14-25</a> - Boms.)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></div>
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Here Paul speaks of the conflict still within him (not before he was a Christian, for the desires of the New Man are not active in the non-Christian) as he wrote his letter to the Romans. He says that the good he would do is what he does not do, but rather, winds up doing the evil that he doesn't want to do. This is perhaps where grace has its most significant relationship to sanctification. </div>
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It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace for you if you are not a Christian, but when you become a Christian then there are all sorts of laws you must obey and you feel like you were better off before you were converted. But the good news for Christians is that the death of Christ was a death for your sins, too. Christ died for the sins Christians commit, even after they become Christians. He is still your mediator and His sacrifice is bigger than your transgression. In Him is your justification. In Him is your sanctification. In Him is your peace. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.</div>
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Soli Deo Gloria.</div>
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<i>Rich Gilbert is a freelance Lutheran writer for Modern Reformation</i><br />
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<i>Please see the original article </i><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000607035054/www.alliancenet.org/pub/articles/gilbert.sanctification.html"><i>here</i></a><i>. Many thanks & God bless!</i></div>
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ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-28991637955461168342009-06-06T15:30:00.007+10:002012-12-22T01:33:25.048+11:00The Great Mystery of Godliness<div style="text-align: justify;">
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"Indeed, to every saved man it is the greatest miracle of all that he is, himself, a believer. When I come to look at the truths upon which I rest, they are very simple indeed and, yet, around them so many doubts are cast by the evil of my own heart that I stand amazed that my faith retains her hold. I believe that Christ died for my sins with much more assurance than I believe anything else. No fact in history is one-half so certain to me, and yet, at times, it is so hard to believe that it is clear to me that true faith is not of man, but is a fruit of the Spirit." </div>
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--Charles H Spurgeon (delivered on the Lord's Day morning, Decemeber 22, 1867)</div>
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<i>Please enjoy the whole message in pdf format </i><a href="http://www.recoverthegospel.com/Old%20Recover%20the%20Gospel%20Site/Spurgeon/Spurgeon%201-1000/786.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><i>here,</i></span></a><i> compliments of </i><a href="http://www.recoverthegospel.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><i>RecoverTheGospel.com</i></span></a><i> (Kindly right-click on the links for the option to open it in a new window.)</i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>Thank you and God bless!</i></span></span></div>
ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-73912588802892118392009-04-13T11:56:00.009+10:002009-07-11T16:19:42.770+10:00May This Unworthy Post Lead Us to HIM Alone Who is Infinitely Worthy...<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Grace & peace to you all!<br /><br />Once again I have been caught slacking off in updating this poor old neglected weblog.<br /><br />As a very quick update on what the Blacktown Care Group has been up to:<br /><br />Straight after finishing the series of lessons based on John MacArthur's book "How to Survive in a World of Unbelievers," we jumped into and are now in the middle of a series of lessons based on John Piper's book "Don't Waste Your Life."<br /><br />We praise and thank God for allowing us access to such engaging, challenging and provocative lessons from very Christ-centred Biblical Pastors such as John MacArthur and John Piper.<br /><br />May others be encouraged to go through these preachers' materials as well.<br /><br />Many of Pastor John MacArthur's resources are freely available at the Grace To You Ministry website: </span><a href="http://www.gty.org.au/"><span style="font-family:georgia;">gty.org.au </span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><em>(Please right-click on any of the links for the option to open them in a new window.)</em><br /><br />And pretty much all of Pastor John Piper's </span><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/"><span style="font-family:georgia;">resources</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> are freely available at DesiringGod.org<br /><br />Pastor Piper's many </span><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/"><span style="font-family:georgia;">books and study guides</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> can be accessed free of charge in pdf format at the </span><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/"><span style="font-family:georgia;">DesiringGod</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> website.<br /><br />I hope to update thís weblog with a rough summary of our current series of lessons sometime, um... soon. (I just realised that I haven't even finished summarising our lessons on John MacArthur's book yet, as well!)<br /><br />In the meantime, please enjoy this very classic message, by </span><a href="http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Jonathan Edwards</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> entitled "</span><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.excellency.html"><span style="font-family:georgia;">The Excellency of CHRIST</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">."<br /><br />Be blessed, dear beloved!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><em><span style="font-size:130%;">"And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?<br /><br />And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.<br /><br />And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.<br /><br />And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.<br /><br />And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood <strong><span style="color:#000000;">a </span><span style="color:#000000;">Lamb as it had been slain</span></strong>, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.<br /><br />And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.<br /><br />And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.<br /><br />And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for <strong><span style="color:#000000;">thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood</span></strong> out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;<br /><br />And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.<br /><br />And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;<br /><br />Saying with a loud voice,<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#000000;">"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."</span></strong> </span><br /></em><br /><br />Revelations 5:2-12 </span></div>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-41511161307067062312008-12-25T11:13:00.011+11:002012-12-22T01:36:14.079+11:00Celebrating The Birth Of True Righteousness<span style="font-size: 85%;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: georgia;">...Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised <em>(righteousness or right-standing with God)</em>, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.<br /><br />Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. <strong><em>So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ</em></strong> that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.<br /><br />You are all sons of God <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">through faith in Christ Jesus</span></span>, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia;">What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But <strong><em>when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."</em></strong> So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.<br /><br />...</span><strong><em><span style="font-family: georgia;">So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.</span></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>May our Holy Gracious Heavenly Father continue to make us yearn for His Righteousness to be manifested more and more, in the lives that He has given us.<br /><br />May those </i><em>around</em><i> us witness His Almighty hand transforming us and declare, "God is GOOD!"<br /><br />May His Holy Spirit move in </i><em>their</em><i> lives just as He moves in ours, causing us all to desire Jesus above all else... and to truly celebrate Christmas throughout forever.<br /><br />In Christ's name we pray. Amen.</i><br /><br /><br /></span></div>
</span>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-46383070797352846622008-10-04T16:04:00.044+10:002010-01-06T12:44:34.860+11:00Surviving John MacArthur's How To Survive In A World Of Unbelievers<span style="color:#000000;"><div align="justify"><br /><br />Grace & Peace in abundance to you all, through the knowledge of our God, Jesus Christ our Lord!<br /><br />It's been quite a while since the last weblog entry and I must apologise for not having been able to update the weblog more regularly.<br /><br />The Care Group has just wrapped up a very interesting and engaging 6-month (?) series of (fortnightly) lessons based on John MacArthur's book entitled, "How to Survive In a World of Unbelievers." (Many thanks to Kuya Glenn and Ate Dodie C of the Padstow Care Group for helping us obtain copies of this rare book, which has been out-of-print here in Australia for quite some time.)<br /><br />Sadly, I have been unsuccessful in obtaining permission to reproduce excerpts of the book from publishers <a href="http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=0849955564">Thomas Nelson</a>. However, most of the chapters from the book are freely available online at Pastor John MacArthur's Grace To You Ministry <a href="http://www.gty.org.au/">website</a> and at The Bible Bulletin Board <a href="http://www.biblebb.com/">website</a> for your <a href="http://www.google.com/custom?q=%22table+talks%22&hl=en&safe=active&client=pub-1553533353985394&cof=GL:1%3BAH:left%3BLBGC:000080%3BBGC:%23f0e8d8%3BVLC:%23663399%3BGALT:%23660033%3BGFNT:%230000ff%3BGIMP:%230000ff%3BDIV:%23FF9900%3B&domains=www.biblebb.com&sitesearch=www.biblebb.com&oe=ISO-8859-1&filter=0">review</a>. (Please right-click on the links for the option to open it in a new window.)<br /><br />If I am not mistaken, each chapter was originally a sermon message by Pastor John at <a href="http://www.gracechurch.org/home/">Grace Community Church</a>, in Sun Valley California. These were then compiled and edited to produce the book. A study guide was then developed to accompany it, to help facilitate group discussions.<br /><br />Here's a very humble basic/bare-bones summary of what we've discussed:<br /><br />"How To Survive in a World of Unbelievers" by John MacArthur is a series of lessons based on Christ’s most intimate teachings to his handpicked disciples, during the Last Supper. This was just a few short hours before Jesus knew that He would be betrayed and be given over to the Sanhedrin. These were Christ’s heart-felt instructions on how His true disciples should act under His authority and how they were to faithfully represent Him in this unbelieving world.<br /><br />In the Introductory discussion prepared and led by Elder Rob V, we learned that the Last Supper occurred during the Jewish festival of Passover. Passover was one of many Jewish feasts (see Leviticus chapter 23) which included Pentecost and Tabernacles/Tents, that trace their beginnings to Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. In their Exodus from Egypt, God revealed Himself as the unfailing rescuer of His chosen people: no matter how undeserving they were, God was faithful to His promise to cleanse and save a people unto Himself. And this same God is still His people's faithful, unfailing Saviour today.<br /><br />In Chapter 1, “<a href="http://www.gtysg.org/Resources/Positions/P22">The Humility of Love</a>,” we learned how during the Last Supper (in Luke 22), after Christ’s triumphant entry to Jerusalem, a dispute arose among the disciples about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom. Jesus settled this dispute by declaring, “the one who is the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules, like the one who serves.” Christ graphically demonstrated the kind of humility that He was talking about, by washing the disciples feet. The important point in this was not the washing of the feet per se, but rather the incredible <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=humility">humility</a></span> (the utter absence of self-pride or self-interest) that it took to wash the disciples' dirty, dusty, smelly feet. It is this kind of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">humility</span> (a word that shares the same root as the word <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">humiliation</span>) that results in selfless loving service to God and to others. It is this kind of humility that characterizes The One who is The Greatest in The Kingdom. In Luke 22:27b, Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves.” Christ’s love and humility are inseparable (John MacArthur p5). May Christ's humility be seen more and more in us, as God continues to work in our lives.</div><div align="justify"><br />In Chapter 2, “<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P26">Unmasking the Betrayer</a>,” we learned how shocked the disciples were to hear how one of them (one handpicked by Christ Himself) would betray Jesus that very night. None of them would have had a clue, hadn't Jesus revealed this to them. Yet Jesus reassures them that all of these things have been foreshadowed in the Old Testament (David’s Psalms 41 & 55 and Zechariah 11), in effect saying that all of these were going exactly according to God's plan (not Satan's, nor Judas' nor the Sanhedrin's, but God's plan). As Jesus said in John 13:18-19, “...I know those I have chosen... this is to fulfill the scripture… I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.” (The word “He” in this passage is often <em>italicised</em> in many English Bible translations because it does not actually appear in the original Greek manuscripts. Thus, a much better way to read verse 19 would be, “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I AM</span></span>.”) May the chapter, “Unmasking the Betrayer” cause us to focus not so much on the betrayer, but rather to focus more on the Unmasker--the Great I AM.<br /><br />In Chapter 3, “<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P23">The Marks of a Committed Christian</a>,” John MacArthur lists 3 vital distinguishing characteristics that should identify every genuine believer (based on John 13:31-38): an Unending Preoccupation with God’s Glory; an Unfailing Love for the Children of God; and an Unswerving Loyalty to Jesus Christ. Each one is the mark of an active personal God, working in the individual lives of His true followers as they represent Him in this world.<br /><br />In Chapter 4, “<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P24">The Solution to a Troubled Heart</a>,” we learned how upset the disciples were, since Jesus would soon be betrayed into His enemies' hands and because Jesus would be leaving them in just a while. Jesus thus taught the disciples that they were to trust in His Presence (even when He does not seem to be there); to trust in His Promises (even when everything seems to be going wrong); and to trust in His Person (even when we don’t seem to understand Him).<br /><br />In Chapter 5, “<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P19">Jesus Is God</a>,” we learned how Jesus could not have been merely a good teacher or just another prophet. Anyone who made the <a href="http://www.gotquestions.org/is-Jesus-God.html">divine claims</a> that Jesus made was either telling the truth or he was a liar (liars do not make very good teachers). Jesus Christ is God the Son, uniquely one with, but distinct from God the Father. Jesus Christ is God incarnate, God in the flesh. This is all too much for the human mind to truly comprehend, as the disciples themselves showed how lacking their understanding of Christ’s deity was. Only God's Divine work in a person's life will cause that individual to <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2016:15-17;John%206:42-45;1%20cor%201:22-25;&version=49;">acknowledge</a> Jesus Christ as God the Son. This is why we need the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit…<br /><br />In Chapter 6, "<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P15">The Ministry of the Holy Spirit</a>," we learned how the Bible's <em>imperatives</em> (the laws & commands, all our responsibilities) are ever rooted in the Bible's <em>indicatives</em> (the declarations, proclamations and promises of our sovereign, gracious, eternally faithful, holy God actively accomplishing His work, in His people's lives). The Biblical imperatives and indicatives (law & gospel) should never ever be seen or taught as divorced from each other. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to actively, particularly/personally and consistently cause God's saints (former sinners, former rebels, former objects of God's righteous wrath) to become <em>obedient</em> to God. Nothing else and nothing less than the Holy Spirit's gracious and effectual sovereign work in our lives will result in us becoming truly Godly: truly Christ-like. All the glory belongs to God!<br /><br />In Chapter 7, "<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P21">The Gift Of Peace</a> (aka The Peace of Christ)," we learned how the peace that comes from Christ is different from the "peace" that the world has in mind. The world's idea of peace is the absence of trouble or conflict. The peace that comes from Christ is a quiet blessed assurance that not only isn't affected by whatever trouble or conflict that the world throws its way, but rather even turns <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">around</span> the troubles and conflicts that it comes across for the glory of Christ. It is the peace that surpasses all human understanding. It is the peace that comes only <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">from</span> God because it is the peace <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">of</span> God. And this peace <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">of</span> God can only be experienced by those who have peace <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">with</span> God. And peace <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">with</span> God is only attainable through Jesus Christ. It is this peace of Christ that the disciples direly needed to rule in their hearts, as their Master Jesus prepared them for His date with the cross. </div><div align="justify"><br />In Chapter 8, "<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P27">What Jesus' Death Meant to Him,</a>" as the time of Jesus' betrayal drew closer and as Jesus made it clearer to the disciples that He would be leaving soon, we learned how hard it would have been for the disciples to comprehend how God could accomplish anything good from everything that's now happening. The disciples left their families, careers and belongings to follow Jesus. They hoped Jesus would soon march into Jerusalem to kick out their Roman occupiers and reestablish David's Kingdom, perhaps making them very high ranking officials. Instead, Jesus reveals how everything that has been going on, will soon result in Him being betrayed and nailed to a Roman cross. Jesus thus needed to reassure them that everything was going exactly according to plan--Christ's predictions of what will be happening were not guesses based on probabilities, but were revelations based on certainties. Believe it or not, acknowledge it or not: Only God can take upon Himself the ugliest, most brutal, most torturous and humiliating death penalty ever instituted by a world power... and use it to secure eternal victory, all according to His <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%203:15;isa%2053:5,12;zech%2012:10;matt%2012:40;&version=31;">plan</a>.<br /><br />In Chapter 9, "<a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P25">The Vine & The Branches,</a>" we learned that while Jesus would be physically away from His disciples, they can rest in the fact that Christ would be their Eternal Vine, in whom every true disciple (past, present and future) had been supernaturally grafted into. We are His branches and apart from Christ, we can do nothing. He is central to everything that we are. Those who do not remain or abide in the vine are cast out by the Vine Dresser, God the Father. All true believers remain or abide in the Vine (keeping the Vine central to everything in their lives) and will bear much fruit. Some may bear more fruit than others, sooner than others, or more evident than others. But Christ's precious nourishing through the Holy Spirit and God the Father's careful pruning (as painful as it may be at the time), all assure that the genuine branches will bear fruit. </div><div align="justify"><br />In Chapter 10, "The Benefits of Life in Christ (aka <a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Positions/P18">Abiding in Christ</a>," we learned how the gracious Lord Jesus further encouraged His now confused, fearful, down-hearted disciples. Apart from the divine promise of bearing eternal fruit (in the previous chapter), Christ assured His chosen disciples of answers to their Godly prayers, abundant lives that overflow with God's "uncontainable" glory, joy and their eternal security in Him... only in Him. (In the end, Christ Himself is every true disciple's greatest encouragement. Christ Himself is our greatest benefit.)<br /><br /><br />(The last 2 chapters were unavailable on the Internet at the time of this posting, but their outlines with discussion questions can be enjoyed by clicking on the links below. Please right-click on the links if you would like the option to open them in new windows. Many thanks!) <br /><br />Chapter 11, <a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Study+Guide+Chapter/1554">"How to be a Friend of Jesus"</a><br /><br />Chapter 12, "Hated Without a Cause" <a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Study+Guide+Chapter/1555">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://www.gty.org/Resources/Study+Guide+Chapter/1556"> Part 2</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div></span>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-79667461091521998902008-10-04T16:00:00.004+10:002009-11-19T19:52:32.686+11:00John MacArthur Videos<div align="center"><br /><br />An Interview with John Piper & John MacArthur<br /><br /><embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2364511665014765504&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />From the series entitled, "Does The Truth Matter Anymore" from CrossTV<br /><br />The Apathy Of The Modern Church Part 1<br /><br /><object height="270" width="330"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mQPdLHk6T18&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.tangle.com/flash/swf/flvplayer.swf" flashvars="viewkey=a88d22758957f8c4b6d7" wmode="transparent" quality="high" width="330" height="270" name="tangle" align="middle" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Apathy Of The Modern Church Part 2<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kOPEtLCLrPI&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.tangle.com/flash/swf/flvplayer.swf" FlashVars="viewkey=def93f42df743c39e44f" wmode="transparent" quality="high" width="330" height="270" name="tangle" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /></embed></object></div>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-75679411789955462092008-06-22T17:50:00.020+10:002012-12-22T01:39:33.947+11:00Sinclair Ferguson on Focusing on CHRIST, Rather than on our own Religiosity<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #45392b; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual... but from the New Testament's point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirtuality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources.</span></blockquote>
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Only where our piety forgets about ourself and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety (be) nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><i>--Sinclair Ferguson </i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>(Quoted from Monergism.com's Gospel-Centered Life </i></span><a href="http://www.monergism.com/monthly_focus/gospel_centered_life.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>page</i></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>)</i></span></div>
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<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-82010792404263969432008-04-26T12:36:00.014+10:002009-01-02T12:28:38.630+11:00Watch Out! Watch This...<div align="center"><embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-6706559774734854138&hl=en&fs=true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2006/1872_Watch_Out_for_Those_Who_Lead_You_Away_from_the_Truth/">Watch Out for Those Who Lead You Away from the Truth</a><br />by John Piper (November 5, 2006)<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Please right-click on the link above for the option to open in a new window.)</span></span><br /><br /></div><blockquote>Romans 16:17-20:<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. Such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.<br /></div></blockquote><br /><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I recall talking to a wise leader of a large missions organization about doctrinal faithfulness. He said something to this effect, “It’s crucial. And so is unity. Some people emphasize one, and some the other. Our organization is made of two kinds of people: purity boys and unity boys.” The unity boys naturally emphasize the preciousness of personal relationships and tend to neglect an emphasis on truth. The purity boys naturally emphasize the preciousness of truth and tend to neglect the nurture of personal relationships.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In fact, you could probably categorize people and churches and denominations and institutions and movements in the evangelical church today (or even in society in general) along these lines: There are those who emphasize doctrinal purity, and there are those that emphasize relational unity.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Loving People and Loving Truth<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I hope you are feeling uncomfortable with that description. A good impulse inside of you would be saying right now: “Do we have to choose? Can’t it be both? Can’t you love truth and love people?” In fact, it would be an even more biblical impulse if you found yourself thinking, “I don’t even think you can love people if you don’t love truth. How can you do what is ultimately good for people if you don’t have any strong convictions about what is ultimately good?”<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">And yet there is no escaping the reality that people and churches and denominations and schools and even whole periods in history lean one way or the other. I think the period of history we live in is not an easy time to be a lover of truth. The most common criticism, if you stand for an important truth and imply by that stand that others should believe it, is that you are arrogant, which is the opposite of being loving (1 Corinthians 13:4), and therefore you are undermining relationships.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">For many thoughtful people today the only path to peaceful relationships in a pluralistic world is the path of no truth that deserves assent from everyone. It seems on the face of it to make sense. If no one claims that what he believes deserves assent from anyone else, then we can live together in peace. Right? So peaceful pluralism and diminished truth claims go hand in hand.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">But it doesn’t work like that. When there is no truth that deserves assent from everybody, the only arbiter in our competing desires is power. Where truth doesn’t define what’s right, might makes right. And where might makes right, weak people pay with their lives. When the universal claim of truth disappears, what you get is not peaceful pluralism or loving relationships; what you get is concentration camps and gulags.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Purity for the Sake of Unity<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I want you to see from the Bible—and feel in your bones—the importance of being a purity boy for the sake of being a unity boy. I want you to see and feel how out of step this text is with today’s Western culture. It pictures a way of thinking and living that most of our fellow Americans would consider offensive, unloving, fundamentalistic, and out of date. It’s mainly a purity text—a text calling for vigilance in matters of truth and doctrine. But it’s not only that. In a striking way, it is a unity text. The goal of the vigilance for right teaching is to avoid Christ-belittling, self-exalting dissension.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">So my hope in preaching from verses 17 and 18 is that you will be freed from any blindness or bondage to this truth-diminishing period of time in which we live. And I pray that, because of this liberty, you would know what it is to love your adversaries and that you would have fresh power from the gospel to magnify Christ in showing that love.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Let’s read again Romans 16:17-18,<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Verse 17 gives two commands that seem contradictory, but they are joined by a phrase that shows why they are not contradictory. And verse 18 gives two reasons why these two commands are so crucial. Let’s look first at the commands in verse 17.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Watch Out for Those Who Cause Divisions<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The first command in verse 17 is to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles or stumbling blocks. “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles.” So it is clear from this command that Paul is concerned about unity. He wants to promote unity. Watch out for those who cause divisions. These are enemies of unity. Watch out for them. I don’t want them to have that effect on you.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Avoid Them<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The second command in verse 17 is to avoid these people. The last phrase in the verse: “Avoid them.” Stay away from them. Now the reason I said these two commands sound contradictory is that the first one is driven by a passion for unity: Watch out for those who cause divisions. And the second one is, in fact, a call for division. When you spot such a division-causing person, divide from him. Avoid him.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The Dividing Line of Doctrine<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">What is it then between these two commands that helps us see how they are not in fact contradictory? It’s Paul’s reference to doctrine. Verse 17: “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” The issue here is not the same as in chapter 14 where Paul is dealing with different convictions about non-essential things. There he said, in verse 5, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” There was no talk in chapter 14 about avoiding people. The whole point was to help the strong and the weak Christians live together in mutual respect and understanding.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">But now here in Romans 16:17, the approach is dramatically different. Here Paul says: Avoid them. Divide from them. Why? Because they are promoting doctrine contrary to what they had been taught. Now Paul’s response to this could have been: Well, nobody has all the truth, and everybody has a piece of it, and unity is more important than truth, and so don’t divide. And we would say: That impulse would not be all bad, would it? Unity is a good thing. Paul cares about it. His first command is: “Watch out for those who cause divisions.”<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Truth-Based Division for the Sake of Truth-Based Unity<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">But that is not the way he responded to this situation. Instead, for the sake of unity—that is, truth-based unity—Paul calls for truth-based division. Avoid them. I don’t know how Paul could make any clearer how he relates doctrine and unity. For Paul, doctrine is the basis of unity. Without the common doctrine they had been taught, the unity would not have been Christian unity. So he is willing to call for truth-based disunity (“Avoid them.” “Divide from them.”) for the sake of truth-based unity.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In other words, when a person departs from the doctrine that the apostles had taught, Paul sees this as a greater threat to unity than the disunity caused by avoiding such people. If we say: How can that be? How can dividing from a false teacher who rises up in the church promote unity in the church? The answer is that the only unity that counts for unity in the church is rooted in a common apostolic teaching. Isolating false teachers—avoiding them—is Paul’s strategy for preserving unity that is based on true teaching.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Joy in the Truth Is Dominant<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Now let’s pause here before looking at the reasons for these commands in verse 18. I want to make a clarifying comment about both of these commands and the doctrine that connects them.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">First, with regard to the command to “watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught,” it is possible to go overboard on this. I hesitate even to say it, since I don’t think this is the temptation of most churches or most Christians today. But it is possible, and there are churches and people that do go overboard.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">What I mean is that they become so obsessed with spotting doctrinal error that they lose their ability to rejoice in doctrinal truth. They’re like dogs that are trained so completely to sniff out drugs at the airport, that even when they’re off duty they greet everybody that way. It doesn’t make for a very welcoming atmosphere.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The book of Romans does not make this mistake. Periodically Paul warns against doctrinal or ethical error. But most of Romans is a glorious display of the work of Christ for us and in us. So let’s ask the Lord to help us get the balance right here. We must do this: “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” But this is not the main thing we do. Vigilance over error is necessary, but joy in the truth is dominant.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">There Is a Defined Body of Doctrine<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Second, with regard to the doctrine, don’t miss the obvious: There is such a thing—a body of doctrine that someone can go against. Verse 17: “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” There is a doctrinal standard. There is something you can depart from. Paul refers to it in several ways. In Romans 6:17, he calls it the standard of teaching: “[You] have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” In 2 Timothy 1:13-14, he calls it the pattern of sound words and the good deposit. “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” In Acts 20:27, he calls it the whole counsel of God. “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">So there is a body or standard or pattern of sound doctrine. The caution here, of course, is that we must not put every minor opinion about hundreds of Bible verses in this category so that there is no room for any disagreement at all (cf. Philippians 3:15). The pattern of sound doctrine would be a faithful summary of biblical essentials determined by how crucial they are in expressing and preserving the history of redemption, the nature and condition of man, the nature and work of Christ, the nature and word of the Holy Spirit, and the nature and work of God the Father. One of the greatest challenges in the quest for unity is deciding what belongs in this body of doctrine when Paul says, if someone departs from it, avoid him. That’s part of what the elders were working on last year in the baptism question. And which we are still working on.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Leave Room for Enemy Love<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Third, with regard to the second command at the end of verse 17 (avoid them), we need to be sure we leave room for obedience to the teaching in Romans 12 that says we should “Bless those who curse you” (v. 14), and, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (v. 18), and so on.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Avoiding someone does not mean: Stop caring about him, or stop praying for him, or even stop talking to them. When Peter acted contrary to the gospel in Galatians 2, Paul did not first avoid him. He first confronted him with a view to winning him back. That kind of contact is not forbidden. What Paul commands with the words avoid them, is not no contact at all, but the kind of contact that communicates life can go on as usual between us. It can’t. If you, as a professing Christian, persist in departing from the doctrine the apostles taught, we can’t simply hang out together like we used to.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">False Teachers Seem Nice<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">That brings us finally to verse 18 and the two reasons Paul gives for why doctrinal vigilance is so important. Verse 18: “For such persons [that is, the persons who depart from the doctrine] do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Let’s take the second one first. Verse 18b: “By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.” The word for flattery is simply blessing. And smooth talk doesn’t necessarily mean manifestly slippery. It just means pleasant and plausible. So the reason we must be so vigilant over biblical doctrine is that those who depart from it take simple people with them by pleasant, plausible speech that presents itself as a blessing. False teachers don’t get a following by being rough and harsh. They get a following by being nice.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Just take two examples from history: Arius (d. 336) and Socinus (d. 1604)—both of whom denied the deity of Christ. Parker Williamson describes Arius like this:<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Here was a bright, energetic, attractive fellow, the kind of citizen whom any Rotary Club would welcome. Singing sea chanties in dockside pubs and teaching Bible stories to the Wednesday night faithful, this was an immensely popular man. His story reminds us that heresy does not bludgeon us into belief. We are seduced. (Parker T. Williamson, Standing Firm: Reclaiming the Chastain Faith in Times of Controversy [Lenoir, North Carolina: PLC Publications, 1996], p. 31.)<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">And another writer describes Socinus like this:<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">He was a gentleman. His morals were above reproach and he distinguished himself by his unfailing courtesy. Unfailing courtesy was remarkable in an age when even the great Protestant leaders, Luther and Calvin would use vile street language when arguing with their opponents.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">This means that it will seldom be popular to resist false teachers in the church because they are almost always perceived as bringing a blessing and speaking with winsome words. They are gentlemen. And Paul says the innocent are carried away. Hence he says, “Watch out for them. And avoid them.”<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">False Teachers Serve Their Own Appetites<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The other reason why doctrinal vigilance is so crucial, Paul says, is (verse 18a) because “such persons [the false teachers] do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites”—literally their own belly. In other words, the issue in false teaching is not a simple intellectual mistake. Behind the plausible speech and the smooth gentlemanly demeanor is idolatry, and the idol is the belly—the appetite for food or sex or human approval. Behind serious false teaching, we almost always find not merely intellectual mistakes, but worldly passions enslaving the mind.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Watch Out<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">So I close with a pointed call to vigilance: Watch out for smooth talkers who pastor large churches, write many books, lead wide ministries, and do not manifestly prize above their earthly good the whole counsel of God.<br /></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">© Desiring God<br /><br />Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.<br /><br />Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org</span><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"></span><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> </div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://au.geocities.com/ignlacsina/Be_Nice.jpg"><br /></a></div>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-2391166107517352852008-04-26T11:51:00.005+10:002008-04-26T13:50:00.870+10:00IF You Truly Love CHRIST Then You Will Truly LOVE Sound Biblical Doctrine...<p style="text-align: center;">Find out WHY. Watch this video from CrossTV.com, an excerpt from their mini-series entitled, "The True Christian's Love For The Unseen Christ." Watch it! Watch it! Watch it!</p><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><embed src="http://godtube.com/flvplayer.swf" flashvars="viewkey=588a8dbd3b42b26d59a1" wmode="transparent" quality="high" width="330" height="270" name="godtube" align="middle" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You can also watch this excerpt at </span><a href="http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=588a8dbd3b42b26d59a1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GodTube.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (Please right-click on the link for the option to open in a new window.)</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-59947554499983327452008-03-24T13:14:00.004+11:002008-03-26T20:58:01.496+11:00The Message of Easter<div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#666666;">Please enjoy <a href="http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/2008/03/19/the-message-of-easter/">this article</a> by Pastor Darryl Dash of <a href="http://www.richview.org/about/beliefs.htm">Richview Baptist Church</a> in Toronto Canada. He also runs the <a href="http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/">Theocentric Preaching </a>website, where this entry originally appears and has graciously granted permission to have it reproduced it here. </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#666666;">Pray that we may all take heed of its simple yet powerful message.</span><br /></span><br /></div><p></p><p align="justify"><br />I used to subscribe to the tape ministry - remember the days before digital downloads? - of a large church. I remember getting the Easter Sunday message one particular year. The main idea of the sermon was something like, “You’re good, but you could be better.” The preacher used the illustration of Tiger Woods’ golf swing. It was good, but Tiger went back and and learned a new swing to be even better. We can do the same with our lives when we come to Christ, he said.<br /><br />I remember being shocked. The message of Easter isn’t that we’re good but Christ came to make us a little bit better. Earl Creps has said that Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, or good people better. He came to make dead people live. I agree. Dead people need the message of Easter, and nothing else will do.<br /><br />At Easter we get to proclaim the timeless story of God in Christ taking the place of sinners so that we who were dead could live. There are so many riches within this story, so many angles, so much depth, that we don’t have to drift from the meaning of Easter to be relevant.<br /><br />Let’s stick with the message of Easter. It’s far better than any other message we could offer, and it’s one that people desperately need to hear.</p><p align="center"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>I can't help but get a little naughty here, but if Emergent Pentecostal Earl Creps (of the AOG!) can get that one right, then the rest of us simply have no excuse. No excuse at all. Ooh, yeah!<br />Grace & Peace --Boms</em></span> </p>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-22669827407083905082008-03-23T06:38:00.003+11:002008-04-26T14:17:13.881+10:00Celebrating the Holy Gracious RISEN LORD Jesus our Saviour, Forever and Ever!<div align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /><br />"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...<br /><br />"But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.<br /><br />But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."</span><br /></span></div><p align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">--Paul the Apostle, 1st Letter to the Corinthians 15:1-4, 13-20</span></p><p align="center"><br /><br /><embed src="http://godtube.com/flvplayer.swf" flashvars="viewkey=83e335755e5e914c16da" wmode="transparent" quality="high" width="330" height="270" name="godtube" align="middle" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br /><br /><em>Hoshana!</em><br />הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא<br />הושענא<br />ὡσαννα<br /><em>Please save, we pray...<br />In Christ's name, Amen.</em><br /><br /><br /></p>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-39117931820533078552008-03-22T15:46:00.008+11:002008-03-24T11:48:13.460+11:00By Grace Alone...<div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="color:#000000;">"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 the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."</span> --The Apostle Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV)<br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God."</span></span>--The Apostle Paul's 2nd Letter to the Corinthians 3:5 (ESV) </div><p></p><br /><br /><br /><p align="center"><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b6lhilgWXIE&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b6lhilgWXIE&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></p><p align="center"><p></p><p align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">GRACE ALONE<br />©1998 Maranatha! Music.<br />Words and Music by Scott Wesley Brown, Jeff Nelson<br /></span><br /><br /></p>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-55987924154195904502008-03-22T08:13:00.003+11:002008-12-09T19:56:11.927+11:00The Sensuous Christian...<div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">It was a happy occasion when I received an email from Ligonier Ministries, granting permission to reproduce here an excerpt from Dr. R.C. Sproul’s book “Knowing Scripture” (Intervarsity Press, 1977), entitled “The Sensuous Christian.”<br /><br />A Sensuous Christian is someone who relies more on feelings rather than the correct handling of God's Word. Heaven knows I need to be less and less of a Sensuous Christian. May the Lord use this to keep us all from becoming one, or to transform us from being one—not just during each Lenten Season.<br /><br />Ligonier Ministries was established in 1971 to equip Christians to articulate what they believe and why they believe it. Our foremost desire is to “awaken as many people as possible to the holiness of God by proclaiming, teaching, and defending His holiness in all its fullness.”<br /><br /></span><br /><p align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">You can help support Ligonier Ministries by visiting their website </span><a href="http://www.ligonier.org/"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.ligonier.org/</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />(Pls. right click on the link for the option to open it in a new window.)</span></p><br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#000000;">What is a Sensuous Christian? One dictionary defines sensuous as, “pertaining to the senses or sensible objects: highly susceptible to influence through the senses.” The sensuous Christian is one who lives by his <em>feelings</em> rather than through his understanding of the Word of God. The sensuous Christian cannot be moved to service, prayer or study unless “he feels like it.” His Christian life is only as effective as the intensity of present feelings. When he experiences spiritual euphoria, he is a whirlwind of Godly activity; when he is depressed, he is a spiritual incompetent. He constantly seeks new and fresh spiritual experiences and uses them to determine the Word of God. His “inner feelings” become the ultimate test of truth.<br /><br />The sensuous Christian doesn’t need to study the Word of God because he already knows the will of God by his feelings. He doesn’t want to know God; he wants to <em>experience</em> him. The sensuous Christian equates “childlike faith” with ignorance. He thinks that when the Bible calls us to childlike faith it means a faith without content, a faith without understanding. He doesn’t know that the Bible says, “In evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20). He doesn’t realize that Paul tells us again and again, “My beloved brethren, I would not have you ignorant” (see, for example, Romans 11:25; <em>or 1 Corinthians 10:1, 12:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:13—Boms</em>).<br /><br />The sensuous Christian goes his merry way until he encounters the pain of life that is not so merry and he folds. He usually ends up embracing a kind of “relational theology” (that most dreadful curse on modern Christianity) where personal relationships and experience take precedence over the Word of God. If the Scripture calls us to action that may jeopardize a personal relationship, then the Scripture must be compromised. The highest law of the sensuous Christian is that bad feelings must be avoided at all cost.<br /><br />The Bible is addressed primarily though not exclusively to our understanding. That means the mind. This is difficult to communicate to modern Christians who are living in what may be the most anti-intellectual period of Western civilization. Notice, I did not say anti-academic or anti-technological or anti-scholarly. I said anti-intellectual. There is a strong current of antipathy to the function of the mind in the Christian life today.<br /><br />To be sure, there are historical reasons for this kind of reaction. Many laymen have felt the result of what one theologian has called “the treason of the intellectual.” So much skepticism, cynicism and negative criticism have spewed forth from the intellectual world of theologians that the laymen have lost their trust in intellectual enterprises. In many cases there is the fear that faith will not hold up under intellectual scrutiny so the defense becomes the denigration of the human mind. We turn to feelings rather than to our minds to establish and preserve our faith.<br /><br />Christianity is supremely intellectual though not intellectualistic. That is, Scripture is addressed to the intellect without at the same time embracing a spirit of intellectualism. The Christian life is not to be a life of bare conjecture or cold rationalism; it is to be a life of vibrant passion. Strong feelings of joy, love and exaltation are called for again and again. But those passionate feelings are a response to what we understand with our minds to be true. When we read in Scripture, “Take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), “ho hum” is not an appropriate response. We can be of good cheer because we understand that Christ has indeed overcome the world. That thrills our souls and sets our feet to dancing. What is more precious than to experience the sweetness of the presence of Christ or the nearness of the Holy Spirit?<br /><br />God forbid that we should lose our passion or go through the Christian pilgrimage without any experience of Christ. But what happens when there is a conflict between what God says and what I feel? We must do what God says, like it or not.<br /><br />Reflect for a moment. What happens in your own life when you act according to what you feel like doing rather than what you know and understand God says you should do? Here we encounter the ruthless reality of the difference between happiness and pleasure. How easy it is to confuse the two! The pursuit of happiness is regarded as our “unalienable right.” But happiness and pleasure are not the same thing. Both of them feel good, but only one endures. Sin can bring pleasure, but never happiness. If sin were not so pleasurable, it would hardly represent a temptation. Yet, while sin often “feels good,” it does not produce happiness. If we dot know the difference, or worse yet, do not care about the difference, we have made great strides to becoming the ultimate sensuous Christian.<br /></span><br /></div><br /><p align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180315570439723922" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XG0dTJv69dA/R-QtkJh8G5I/AAAAAAAAACI/QIIzpoI8XY0/s200/Knowing+Scripture.jpg" border="0" />Learn more about correctly handling the Word of God. Rely less on feelings to interpret the Holy Bible. Read Dr. R.C. Sproul’s book “Knowing Scripture” (InterVarsity Press, 1977). Copies should be available at the following online booksellers:</span><br /><br /><a href="https://store.ligonier.org/product.asp?idDept=B&idCategory=BS&idProduct=KNO01BP">Ligonier Ministries</a><br /><a href="http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=733">InterVarsity Press</a><br /><a href="http://orders.koorong.com/search/details.jhtml?code=0877847339">Koorong</a><br /><a href="http://www.word.com.au/details.aspx?ProductID=363811">Word </a><br /><a href="http://reformers.cart.net.au/details/2202647.html">The Reformers Bookshop, Stanmore Baptist Church </a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(Pls right-clink on the links for the option to open each one in a new window.)</span></p><br /><div align="justify"></div>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35079402.post-55991972992913337102008-02-24T21:13:00.033+11:002010-08-30T18:08:20.232+10:00Humanism v. The Centrality of God<div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Chairman Justin led our discussion the fortnight ago (February 9), on the first of his series entitled “End Time Deception in the Church.” We learned that the term “end times” pertain to the times of Paul and the early church, to now, all the way until The Lord Jesus Christ returns physically.</div><div align="justify"><br />Websters-Online dictionary defines Deception “a misleading falsehood.” In other words, it is falsehood that will mislead. If it were an obvious falsehood, it would not be so deceptive. That’s why this subject of Deception in the church can be very tricky.<br /><br />Sometimes we will sound like we’re just splitting hairs. Sometimes, it will challenge us to question teachings or doctrines that we thought were right or correct.<br /><br />This is why we desperately need God's Holy Spirit to ground us firmly in the Bible: For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12; written to Jewish followers Christ, who were being tempted/encouraged to return to Judaism or at least to water down their belief in the absolute supremacy/Lordship and sufficiency of Jesus Christ.)<br /><br />Let's pray that these difficulties will convince us of how insufficient we humans really are and how badly we all need to depend on God, always.</div><div align="justify"><br />The primary text that Justin used was <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20thess%202:1-4;&version=31;49;47;9;51;">2 Thessalonians chapter 2: 1-4</a>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">(Please right-click on the link for the option to open in a new window.)</span> This passage clearly instructs its readers not to believe false reports about Christ (particularly about His “early” return) that seem so believable. Verses 3 and 4 commands:<br /><br />“<em>3Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction</em>. <em>4He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”<br /></em><br />Note how this “man of lawlessness” intends to put himself at the very center of all that is worshipped. Yet shouldn’t God alone be at the very center of our worship (<em>worth-ship</em>)?<br /><br /><em>"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."</em> (Colossians 1:16-18)<br /><br />Should anything else be of greater concern to us than Christ’s Lordship? Christ’s Supremacy over all things? Should we have a greater passion for anything else than Christ’s Dominion and Authority?<br /><br />Chairman Justin’s original plan was then to talk about the deception or falling away that will happen, as manifested in particular movements or groups: Liberation Theology/Social Gospel (which stresses freedom from neediness and injustice); Prosperity Gospel/Name-It-And-Claim-It/Word of Faith Movement (which stresses how God wants you to be happy); Ecumenical Movement (stresses unity above doctrinal purity); the New Age Movement (stresses how mankind can benefit from the powers of nature/creation) and so on.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><br />(Due to unexpected changes in work schedules, Justin had to beg off developing and leading the second study for this Friday night. So I was assigned to prepare this night's session, picking up where we last left off.)</span><br /><br />What we noticed with all of the groups mentioned above (Liberation Theology, Prosperity Gospel, Ecumenical Movement, etc.) was that their errors (as well as whatever errors <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">we<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"></span></span> may have, ourselves) can be traced to “Humanism,” or putting mankind/ouselves above everything else; or putting mankind’s interests as our Number One priority, instead of Jesus Christ’s Lordship.<br /><br />Merriam-Webster.com defines Humanism as “a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests…”<br /><br />It’s as if, what matters to man (mankind) is what matters the most.<br /><br />Even worse, we might sometimes be led to believe that we are truly being Godly when we put mankind first. (Ever notice how some people are regarded as “good” or "truly Godly" Christians by how good they are with people, regardless of whether they actually believe that Jesus Christ rose from the grave or not? Or whether they believe in the Trinity, or Jesus' Virgin Birth or not? or in Christ's glorious physical return or not?)<br /><br />By the way, the term "humanism" was coined in 1808. It was based on the 15th century Italian term <em>umanista</em>, which was used to designate teachers or students of classic non-religious literature. Humanism in the West has since evolved into philosophies and movements "<a href="http://newhumanist.us/?p=239">placing the human being as the central value and concern, in such a way that nothing is above the human being and no human being is above another.</a>" <em>(Please right-click on the link for the option to open in a new window.)</em><br /><br />However, “humanist” philosphies can be traced back to Confucius, and of course, all the way back to the Fall of Man in Genesis 3 (when Adam & Eve put <em>their</em> interests over & above their obedience to God, their gracious Creator).<br /><br />Remarkably, “Humanism” isn’t just for humanists (atheists/agnostics). Religious leaders themselves can have attitudes or doctrines that are centered primarily on human interests.<br /><br /><strong>Read <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%2022:15-40;&version=31;49;47;9;51">Matthew 22:15-40</a> for our discussion. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">(Please right-click on the link for the option to open it in a new window.)</span></span></strong><br /><br /><strong>What comes to mind when you hear the word Pharisee? Who were the Sadducees? What is a Herodian? What were they experts on?</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong>The Pharisees</strong> – <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Religious leaders and experts on both the written and oral Jewish laws. They were mostly looked up upon by the Jewish masses as the preservers and guardians of Jewish heritage and traditions, upholding the purity of Jewish identity in the light of their occupation by the Hellenistic and pagan Romans. Generally, they were more egalitarian, popular and democratic than the aristocratic Sadducees. This is exemplified by their assertion that "A learned mamzer takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest." (A mamzer, according to the Pharasaic definition, is an outcast child born of a forbidden relationship, such as adultery or incest, in which marriage of the parents could not lawfully occur. The word is often, but incorrectly, translated as "illegitimate" or "bastard.") Anyone could join their group as long as they shared the same passion for upholding Jewish laws and traditions, equating these as love for God. Jesus however, exposed their preoccupation with law, tradition, duty and performance in the name of God, as hypocrisy.</span><br /><span></span><a href="http://www.ovrlnd.com/GeneralInformation/Pharisees_Sadducees.html"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.ovrlnd.com/GeneralInformation/Pharisees_Sadducees.html</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees#Relationship_to_other_movements"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees#Relationship_to_other_movements</span></a></span></div><div align="justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span></span></span><a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=252&letter=P"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=252&letter=P</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span></span></span><span><a href="http://bible.org/seriespage/pharisees"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://bible.org/seriespage/pharisees</span></a></span></div><div align="justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Please right-click on the links for the option to open them in a new window.)</span></span></span><br /><br /><br /><strong>The Sadducees</strong> – <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Religious leaders and experts on the Torah, the five books of Moses that make up the first five books of the Old Testament. Generally speaking, the Sadducees were <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">more </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">conservative (or strict) in their religiosity</span>, but <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">more liberal (or progressive) in their politics</span>, than the Pharisees. They were very strict in rejecting beliefs (both oral and written) that cannot be found in the five books of Moses. This is why they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead nor were they expecting any sort of Messiah. They espoused a very literal interpretation of the Torah. To the Sadducees, when the Torah says “<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exo%2021:24;&version=31;47;49;9;51;">An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth</a>,” they will literally expect an eye as the only legitimate replacement for a plaintiff’s injured eye. (The Pharisees though would be more practical in pointing out that what this passage was trying to say was that all punishment must fit the crime: an injured eye should be compensated with something of equal value, but not necessarily a literal eye. Of course, it was how Jesus put <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205:38-39;&version=31;47;49;9;51;">this subject</a> in its proper perspective that should remind us of how much we need God's Holy Spirit, to do what is truly right.) While they were less popular with the masses and were a much smaller group than the Pharisees, the Sadducees came from very aristocratic families and were more financially powerful than the Pharisees. This made them very influential in the Sanhedrin. Because they came from the upper classes, they could afford to enjoy the finer things in life. Their "sophistication" meant that they were more appreciative of Greek history, art and philosophy (just like their Roman conquerors), than the Pharisees. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin_Trial_of_Jesus#Composition_of_the_Sanhedrin_Convened">Caiaphas</a>, the High Priest at the time the Sanhedrin interrogated Jesus before his crucifixion, was a Sadducee.</span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadducees#Beliefs"><span style="font-size:78%;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadducees#Beliefs</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-73415/biblical-literature"><span style="font-size:78%;">http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-73415/biblical-literature</span></a><br /><a href="http://bible.org/seriespage/sadducees"><span style="font-size:78%;">http://bible.org/seriespage/sadducees</span></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">(Please right-click on the links for the option to open them in a new window.)</span><br /></span><br /><br /><strong>The Herodians</strong> – <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic"> Priestly sect of political opportunists, supporters and cronies of King Herod’s dynasty, the puppet leader of Israel under Roman occupation. They were legal and political experts who collaborated with their Roman conquerors, who in turn made the Herodians very influential in government and society (even if they were largely despised by the Jewish masses).</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><a href="http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/HERODIANS"><span style="font-size:78%;">http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/HERODIANS</span></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic;font-size:78%;">(Please right-click on the link for the option to open it in a new window.)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>What were the concerns that these people were confronting Jesus with? Can you see the difference in priorities between the Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees on the one hand, and Jesus Christ on the other?<br /></strong><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Taxes? International and interpersonal politics? The use of Mosaic law to try and disprove the resurrection? Legalistic priorities?</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>How does Jesus Christ respond?<br /></strong><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">When asked about paying taxes to oppressive foreign conquerors, did Jesus engage them with the intricacies of geo-political relationships? Or did He use their question to point them <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">back to God</span>? (“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.”)<br /><br />When asked a silly question to try and disprove the resurrection, Jesus again used their query to point them <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">back to God.</span> (“…Have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”)<br /><br />When asked about what a legalist's priorities should be, Jesus does the same thing again: use the question to point people <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">back to God.</span> (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.”)<br /><br />Whatever their differences, the Pharisees, Herodians and the Sadducees shared a desire to entrap and humiliate Jesus by using subjects and topics that they were comfortable with. What Jesus did however, was to expose how far away from God their interests really were.<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Interestingly, in v. 36-40, Jesus was only asked which one of the Commandments is the greatest. But he makes a very important distinction by instructing us on the 1st and <em>2nd</em> Greatest Commandments. Why do you think he makes this distinction between loving God first and foremost with everything you’ve got on the one hand, and loving others as you love yourself on the other?<br /></strong><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">We should not confuse the two, or neglect one for the other. We do not fulfill the 1st and Greatest Commandment by concentrating on the 2nd. Rather, obeying the 1st should result in us being humbled into observing the 2nd. The Greatest Commandment is to love the LORD your GOD with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind. Loving your neighbor as you love yourself, is very important. Jesus would not have mentioned it if it weren’t. But it is still only secondary. What Jesus was telling the man-centered religious leaders was that they should be GOD-CENTERED: Stop treating God as if He were a given or just a footnote in the background. God has center stage—not us!<br /><br />Anytime God is not central in our lives, we are guilty of Idolatry. The main problem with Humanism is that it is a form of Idolatry—something or someone else has become the center of our interests, concerns, thoughts or feelings besides the Lord Jesus Christ.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Does being God-centered mean we shouldn’t care for our fellow man as much as we used to, anymore?</strong> (Think carefully before you answer…)<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">When the Gracious Sovereign Provident God of the Bible—the same Holy God who reigns over the minutest details of our lives, the God who works in us to both will and do of his good pleasure, the God whose love compels us—whenever <strong>He</strong> is at the center of our hearts and minds… that’s usually when we find ourselves less afraid to become vulnerable to our fellow man and to love our enemies… that’s when we become less timid about doing to others what we would have them do to us… to forgive the most painful wrongs done to us… to share the most remarkable truths revealed to us by God in His Word. Being truly GOD-centered should not result in apathy towards our fellow man. Being God-centered does not mean that we love others less, but that we love God even more--more than anyone or anything else, anytime, anywhere.<br /><br />Does this seem unreasonable? Only if you're god doesn't really deserve that much adoration, maybe.<br /><br />Does this seem humanly impossible? Exactly! May the Holy Spirit use the weight of these great commandments to bring us down to our knees before God, fully convinced that whatever God the Father requires, only God the Son Jesus Christ can truly fulfill! And may He graciously fulfill it in us for His glory!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The God-Centeredness of God’s Word: Reading The Bible with God at its Center</span></strong> (Application)<br /><br />According to the International Bible Society-Send The Light website (<a href="http://www.biblica.com/aboutus/ibs-stl-biblica.php">www.Biblica.com</a>), the Bible is:<br /><br />▫ A guide for living… It gives us a road map for the perilous journey of life…<br />▫ A storehouse of wonderful stories for children and grownups.<br />▫ A refuge in trouble. People in pain, in suffering, in prison, in mourning, tell how they turned to the Bible and found strength there in their desperate hours.<br />▫ A treasury of insight as to who we are... We did not come about by chance…<br />▫ A sourcebook for everyday living... providing standards for our conduct…<br /><br />But first and foremost, they say that <a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php">“The Bible is the account of</a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php"> God's</a><a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"></span></a></span><a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php"> action in the world and </a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php">His</a><a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"></span></a></span><a href="http://www.biblica.com/bibles/about/1.php"> purpose with all creation.”</a> <em>(Pls. right-click on the link, for the option to open it in a new window.)</em><br /><br />Welsh theologian Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) said: “The Bible is not a book with just an appeal to us to do this, that, or the other—to accept certain ideas and put them into practice… It's not a book teaching morality or ethics or anything else… I'll tell you what it is—it's not a book, I say, that asks us primarily to do anything—it's a great announcement of what God has done! It's God acting!”<br /><br />He did not say that there is no appeal in the Bible for us to do what we ought to; he did not say there were no commands to follow; he did not say that we cannot learn ethics or morality from the Bible. What he was trying to say was that the Bible is primarily about God. It is God-centered. It is about the God who reveals to us what is right, what is wrong; what is good, what is evil. It is about God revealing His Holiness, His Grace, His Power, His Love, His Wrath, His Dominion, His Lordship, His Authority that knows no end. This is what we should always humbly keep in mind whenever we open our Bibles. It is not about us or what we have to do "for God." Rather, it is about God and what He is doing in all that He created.<br /><br />"...O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)<br /><br />The Bible is above all else, about the All-Mighty All-Knowing Holy GOD, the Creator and Sustainer of all things; who is Graciously revealing Himself and patiently gathering unto Himself the objects of His Righteous wrath, to bless or dispense with as He wisely planned. The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself. Keeping this in mind should result in us becoming just a bit more God-centered… which should result in us being able to better discern truth from error… which should result in us seeing how desperately far away from God mankind really is… which then should cause us to reach out to people with The Way, The Truth and The Life, even more.<br /><br />While being more God-centered ought to humble us into becoming more <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">forgiving</span> of errors, this is no excuse for us to become more <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">tolerant</span> of errors: sinfulness, self-centeredness and disregard for Christ’s absolute Lordship, Supremacy and Sufficiency in all things. Being more forgiving is not the same as being more tolerant. In fact, God-centeredness should make us even more passionate in proclaiming and <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">contending for</span> God's truths: His everlasting Dominion, Authority and Lordship as clearly revealed in Scripture!<br /><br />Being humble does not make us more God-centered. Being more forgiving, more patient, more passionate in reaching out to others do not make us any more God-centered either. Rather, these traits are merely among the <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">results</span> of being <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">made able</span> to see the centrality of God in all things (that all things and events revolve around Him who caused them into existence for His purpose and Glory). God-centeredness is by grace. A not-so-positive result of becoming God-centered though, is seeing how un-God-centered we all really are--yes, including ourselves. All of us need to become more and more God-centered, moment by moment. It is a life-long learning experience, and it can be a very tumultuous heart-breaking process. Becoming more and more God-centered is not very popular in this man-centered world that we live in.</div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><br /><br />"Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Why do the nations say, 'Where is their God?' Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." (Psalm 115:1-3)<br /><br />"Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." (Isaiah 46:9-10)<br /><br />"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his path beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his councilor? Who has ever given to God, that Gos should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:33-36)<br /><br /><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Ignacio Lacsina</span>ignlacsinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04136368461432802610noreply@blogger.com0