Halle Charissa
March 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
‘Devouring the truth of the Cross since July of 2007′
Good Quote
March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
Here is a good one from Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was cited in a great book by Paul Marhsall, Heaven is Not My Home. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
“The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something–have no doubts about that, either. He may think that his tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of his heart–but it will out. That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”
Enough said.
Joe
Needed Reminder
March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
SRI LANKA UPDATE: Wife of Martyred Pastor off Ventilator and Recovering ” National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka
The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) reports the wife of martyred Pastor Edirisinghe is recovering from severe injuries sustained during an attack that killed her husband. “The NCEASL chairman visited Shiromi yesterday. She is experiencing a great recovery, she speaks, breathes well and has been transferred to Kandy General for surgery to remove [the] bullet,” NCEASL reported. Mrs. Edirisinghe was critically injured on February 17 when two assailants gunned down her husband outside their home in Ampara, Sri Lanka. She sustained critical injuries to her stomach and their two-year-old son was also injured in the attack. Pray for her quick recovery from the remaining surgeries. Ask God to heal her emotions and to touch their son with the love of Christ. Pray God will give them supernatural ability to forgive the assailants and for their testimony to draw nonbelievers into fellowship with Christ. Psalm 23
I would encourage anyone who does not receive the Voice of the Martyrs email update to sign up now. It is good for us to pray for those who are being persecuted: for both the persecuted and for ourselves.
Joe
Signs and Wonders, Heresy and Love for God
March 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
That is the title of this “Taste and See” article by John Piper. It’s well worth the read.
Growing in discernment,
Joe
Looking Beneath the Surface
March 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
This post will be brief today, but I am hopeful that it will stimulate some thought. As of late, I have spent some considerable time just looking around and reflecting upon things unseen. What I mean by that is, as I mentioned to you in our conversation yesterday, I sometimes look at a particular landscape (whatever is in my vision at the time really) and I ask myself: What would I be seeing right now if all was as it ought to be? Or what will this particular place look like on the New Earth?
I encourage you to do the same at least once or twice today. Just look and ask yourself that question: What will all this be like on the New Earth, after Jesus has come again to renew all things? Then let your sanctified imagination wander.
We could also do the same with people. With relationships. With projects. We can ask ourselves, if there was no sin, what would this be like? How would I interact with this person? And how would they interact with me?
Sure, we won’t come up with all the right answers, but if you try it, I think you will agree that it is a good exercise. If nothing else, it will surely make you long all the more for the coming day in which all things will be made new.
Looking forward to that Day,
Joe
The Victory of Reason
March 25, 2008 | 2 Comments
Lar,
As you and others can tell by looking in the right-hand column on this page, my current read is The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark. Now, I have only finished the first chapter, so I am not going to venture to give a full summary of the book. But the subtitle by itself tells us quite a bit: “How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.”
I have often wondered about the various effects of the Christian worldview and knew there was a historical connection between the various blessings we enjoy and Christian though. I just never really understood how. Well, Stark has proved helpful immediately. His thesis is sound and, from my vantage point, somewhat obvious.
Interestingly enough, however, his thesis is not necessarily a popular one among scholars. Actually, this doesn’t come as a complete surprise, because of what we know of sin. However, when I think about the many men and women who write historical books, I can’t help but wonder how they can call themselves objective while minimizing the impact of Christian thought on the formation of Western Civilization. It really is striking the way in which sin can blind Ph.D’s. It surely powerfully distorts us all.
Also worth mentioning in all of this, however, is the way in which all human beings tend to minimize the power of ideas. It’s as if we are quite ignorant of our own make-up. We don’t realize that our answers to the basic questions of human existence really are the most important things about us. Who are we? Where did we come from? What has gone wrong? And how can it be fixed? Though the answers to these questions might seem somewhat abstract and impractical, they are anything but. As Stark shows in this book and a few others, if the right answers to these questions gain power amidst the masses, blessing comes to all. Sure, sin has and will continue to distort the various cultural enterprises that have arisen in Western Civilization. But that doesn’t mean that those enterprises are sin in and of themselves. Indeed, they are blessings that flow from a Christian worldview, blessings that affect us all.
I am sure I will have more to say about this book, but that is good for now.
Thankful (as always) for sound resources,
Joe
Lacking in Nothing
March 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
I have had a fuller day than anticipated, so I figured I would share something I wrote for ‘Joe’s Notes’ the other day. I am currently working my way through the book of James at a very slow pace. What follows is Part 3 of my thoughts on James 1:2-4. It was especially good for my own soul to think through these verses.
“And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Who among us does not want to become mature and complete, lacking in nothing? And yet, as usual, while we desire the end, we are inclined to despise the means. But I ask you to simply imagine for a moment what it would be like to be mature and complete lacking in nothing. What would it be like to be free from your selfishness and self-pity and pride and laziness and impatience and lack of discipline and whatever other sin you can think of? What would it be like to be free from the things that hinder your fellowship with God and other people? What would it be like to overflow consistently with the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Can you imagine it just for a moment? Can you think of the joy?!
I ask these questions, because vision is needed. Clarity of vision is necessary. For James knows full well that we as human beings can endure and rejoice in any difficulty if we see clearly what that difficulty is designed to bring us. That is, if the end goal is precious enough to us, we can endure and rejoice in whatever the means. Human history and personal experience makes this psychological reality very plain.
Therefore, James wants us to lift up our eyes to who we can become, so that we might face the trials of today with utmost rejoicing. A basketball player cannot rejoice in pushing his body to the max day after day without a clear vision of his goal. A woman cannot rejoice in the pains of labor if she loses sight of the joy of a baby soon to come. Do you then, have a clear vision of maturity and completeness? And if you possess such a vision, do you think more about the goal or about the trials? Do you think more about the end, or about the means?
Much of our trouble in life flows from our lack of vision. We become so mired in the day to day difficulties of life that we lose sight of who God wants to make us and the place He has prepared for us. We despise the means because we lose sight of the end. We do not want to train because we have forgotten about the big game. We forget about maturity and completeness and therefore, grumble in the face of difficulty.
And yet God calls us to look beyond the means to the greater end, to look to things unseen.
“For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that re unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
The thinking is the same right? Clarify your vision. Clarify your goal. And look to that goal day after day so that you might embrace the various kinds of trials that will inevitably come. Do you want to become mature and complete, lacking in nothing? Do you want an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison? Then look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. Keep the eternal weight of glory in view. Think consistently of maturity and completeness. For then, and only then, will you be able to look your trials in the eye, so to speak, and say, “You are well worth it.” Then and only then will you have the strength to count your various trials all joy.
O Lord, make us a people of vision! Help us, O God, to focus on the end, so that we might embrace the means to that end. Clarify our vision of maturity and completeness. Capture our hearts with a vision of that eternal weight of glory that you long to give us, so that we might look to the things that are unseen and embrace every sort of trial as all joy. O God, grant us such grace in the name of your Son. For it is in His name that we pray. Amen and Amen.
Victory!
March 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
I could not allow this day to pass without making a post giving thanks for the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I don’t have the time to post all that I am thinking. And even if I did, I could not do justice to the joy found in contemplating all that Jesus accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection. But suffice it to say on a day like this that apart from the resurrection, His perfect life and sacrificial death would not have meant much to the world. Sure, they would have been admirable, but there would have been no ultimate conquest over death, over Satan, over sin.
Yet whatever the result would have been, we need not worry, for Jesus did rise again. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. One day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea. And we can say this all with confident and eager expectation and joy because Jesus Christ did not remain in the tomb, but rose again.
I could say more, but the following verses naturally state things much better than I ever could.
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raied imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and theis mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Amen and Amen.
Looking forward to the day when we will see all that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus accomplished….
Joe
Advice from the Prince of Preachers
March 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
From Charles Spurgeon:
“I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. People have often asked me, “What is the secret of your success?” I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel,—not about the gospel, but the gospel,—the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news. Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon. You remember the story of the old minister who heard a sermon by a young man, and when he was asked by the preacher what he thought of it he was rather slow to answer, but at last he said, “If I must tell you, I did not like it at all; there was no Christ in your sermon.” “No,” answered the young man, “because I did not see that Christ was in the text.” “Oh!” said the old minister, “but do you not know that from every little town and village and tiny hamlet in England there is a road leading to London? Whenever I get hold of a text, I say to myself, ‘There is a road from here to Jesus Christ, and I mean to keep on His track till I get to Him.’” “Well,” said the young man, “but suppose you are preaching from a text that says nothing about Christ?” “Then I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get at Him.” So must we do, brethren; we must have Christ in all our discourses, whatever else is in or not in them. There ought to be enough of the gospel in every sermon to save a soul. Take care that it is so when you are called to preach before Her Majesty the Queen, and if you have to preach to charwomen or chairmen, still always take care that there is the real gospel in every sermon.”
Thanks Mr. Spurgeon; I will do my best to saturate people with Christ in every sermon!
On the Death of Jesus
March 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I probably won’t have a chance to read this article until next week, but I trust Justin Taylor’s recommendation that it paints a helpful picture of what Christ would have physically suffered on the Cross.
The Foolishness of the Cross
March 21, 2008 | 2 Comments
Lar,
Thanks so much for that post yesterday. I was encouraged. And I am sure that I was not the only one. For I need continual reminders that God is God. That He knows everything. And that I am a mere finite creature.
As we reflect upon the death of Jesus Christ today, I just want to marvel for a moment at the wisdom of God. For lately I have been thinking about the framework of creation, fall, and redemption. And one thought that continually comes to mind is, “What is the world is going on?”
This question hits me when I reflect upon my own life and upon all of human history. What is going on? Sure, I love my Bible; and I believe every word of it. I know it tells the unique story of redemption. Yet at the same time, don’t you ever read it and marvel at what a mess it appears to be? The nation of Israel. The book of Judges. David and Solomon and their numerous wives. Babylonian captivity. The prophets. And then, above all, the brutal slaying of the Son of God upon a cross.
Some may think I am bordering on unbelief at this point, but from my vantage point, a meditation on what seems like foolishness to us ends up to be an encouragement to me. Why you ask? Well, because I know it isn’t foolishness, but the perfect indication of divine wisdom. Though it all might look like a mess to me, God’s in that mess. Indeed, Jesus came down into the midst of the mess and suffered and died because of the mess. Even more, to make sure that things will not forever be a mess.
On one hand, things are a mess. But on the other hand, they aren’t. Things are not as they are supposed to be. That is true enough. But in the midst of it all, God is doing what God aims to do. He is revealing His perfect wisdom and authority and beauty and power. He is building His kingdom. He has reversed, is reversing, and will reverse forever the effects of the fall. Even through the likes of fools like us.
We celebrate Jesus’ death today brother. And many think such a death is foolishness. And yet, it is the power and wisdom of God. God is not the fool. We are the fools. And our greatest joy is to acknowledge our foolishness and incredible limitations and to marvel at His infinite wisdom. Our highest pleasure is found in being humbled by God’s wisdom and boasting only in Him.
What follows is 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. It’s a lengthy passage, but I commend it to you for your meditation. Let it make it you marvel at the greatness and glory of our God as revealed in Jesus!
“For the word of the cross is folly 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, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where ist he scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brother: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 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 flesh 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.’”
Boasting in the Lord,
Joe
Easter Hope
March 19, 2008 | 2 Comments
Joe,
This Sunday in my sermon I will be mentioning my Aunt Carole, who died almost three years ago from cancer. Here’s part of her story that I will not be sharing this Sunday, but as I just re-read this (it is part of a letter I wrote to my dad last year addressing his hostile atheism), my gratitude to God compelled me to post it:
I’m sure you remember the last day we saw her. Michelle and I had come especially because we knew how ill she was and wanted to speak with her about her soul, and about faith in Christ. We all sat there together for a couple of hours, and as soon as you and Gail and the girls left, before I could say anything to her, she asked me, ‘Are you going to pray with me now?’ I said of course, and I asked her how her soul was. She said (without any prompting from me) that she was scared, and that she felt guilty because she knew she had never cared much for God or religion or anything. She seemed to have regret about that. I shared with her some of the truths I have shared with you in this letter about what Jesus came to do, and read her a story from Luke’s gospel (which I read at the funeral) about a criminal who asked Jesus for help in his last moments before death, and Jesus’ promise that because of his faith, he would be with Jesus in paradise that very day.
She seemed genuinely encouraged by that, and after I shared a little more with her about suffering we made plans to come back and see her the following week and talk more about it all. She told me that she wanted me to lead and speak at the funeral service, (a request which would be denied, though it was heard by other loved ones). Just a couple of hours later her condition worsened and they took her to the hospital. She died just 36 hours after we left.
If her faith was genuine in that moment (and I have reason to believe that it was), then I can emphatically say that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to Carole. Because, by her own admission, she was walking through life indifferent about God. Had she been on that plane that crashed the Towers, she would have been eternally separated from God in a hell that makes our worst days on earth seem like an amusement park. But that terrible cancer she had turned her heart heavenward and compelled her to seek refuge for her life of indifference toward her Maker, and to be reconciled with Him through faith in Christ. And if she is with Him now, then she would be the first to say that her cancer was a loving gift that was well worth all the pain for the glory that it has brought to her: “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…“
If that seems to you an unwise way of running the universe, (letting people get cancer so they could go to heaven, letting planes explode buildings so people could be encouraged to believe in Jesus), then all I could say is this: ‘What percentage of knowable facts about this world do you possess knowledge of?’ Out of all that can be known in the world, how much do you know? Would you even dare to say that you know .0001 of 1%? Well, the God of the Bible knows everything, past, present and future. And if His ways don’t line up with my ways (which they often don’t!), then that’s a problem with me, not Him. He made me, not the other way around. He does not need to give me an account of all that He does. He has been merciful to reveal anything of Himself, and to show me His kindness and power to redeem our sufferings and sins through the sufferings of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Exceedingly grateful for the mercies of Jesus,
Larry
March Madness Fun
March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
You know how much I enjoy College Basketball. Well, in honor of the upcoming tournament Erin and I put together a little NCAA Tournament pool. So I wanted to invite anyone and everyone to join in. All you have to do is go to this page and fill out your bracket. It takes all of 5 minutes to do. I am considering giving the winner a book of their choice from the Crispin Library. But if I come up with a better prize, I will be sure to let everyone know.
Deadline is tomorrow morning I believe, so if you want to join in the fun, do so today.
Thankful for the game of basketball,
Joe
p.s. Group password is: hoosiers
Gospel-Centeredness
March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
Great post brother. Discerning. You cut to the heart, everyone’s heart. That is always appreciated.
This post won’t be long, but I wanted to offer one thought that came to mind in regards to helping others become more gospel-centered, namely, pray with them.
Now, I don’t want to encourage others to make a show of their prayers or anything, but the reality is that one of the most powerful ways you can influence another is to pray consistently with them. You just can’t hide your theology in prayer. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. So if you are not gospel-centered, that will be readily apparent in your prayers in any situation or person. But if you are, there will be a different spirit about your prayers, a different sense. And even if those praying with you can’t put their finger on it, they will be influenced by it. So, what I mean in essence is that in order to help others grow in gospel-centeredness, pray gospel-centered prayers with them.
Again, we aren’t talking about showy prayers. They have to be genuine. But even if your understanding isn’t perfect (and who’s is?), you can still steer your prayers towards the gospel. Indeed, you ought to steer your prayers to the gospel. In fact, a primary way in which you yourself can grow in gospel-centeredness is by filling your prayers with the gospel itself.
Well, I said this would be a short post. So that is enough. May our prayers be filled with the good news of Jesus Christ, brother.
Seeking Him with you,
Joe
Pursuing Gospel-Centeredness, #4
March 18, 2008 | 4 Comments
Joe,
It seems like a long time ago when I wrote a couple of posts in response to a comment from Will on how to help others become more gospel-centered. I still hope to write a few more on this subject, but here is something that has been especially significant for me over the last week or two:
Beware of being a Pharisee about the Gospel.
I know these two things appear contradictory, and they are. A Pharisee is by nature not gospel-centered, and a true embrace of the Gospel crushes the roots of Pharaseeism (is that a word?). Yet I have seen in my own heart the subtle way that a genuine desire to promote the glory of the Gospel can turn into a cold-hearted, arrogant condemnation of those who don’t meet your standards of gospel-centeredness.
When I say beware of being a Pharisee about the Gospel, I mean beware of looking down upon others and casting judgment upon those people who you think are not as gospel-centered as they should be. In reality, none of us are as gospel-centered as we should be. But I’ve sensed in me and in others who I minister to a tendency toward pride, an attitude that we have now ‘arrived’ because we know the centrality of the gospel for all of life. We hear sermons and grumble that they are not gospel-centered enough. We look down on certain church leaders or authors or small-group members because ‘they just don’t make the gospel central enough.’
Even our renewed our hearts can still be so deceptive that we take something as precious as the gospel, and use a commitment to certain doctrines about Christ’s death and resurrection as a way of gaining favor with God, and therefore cast judgmental attitudes toward those who haven’t embraced what we have.
The Gospel tells us that there is absolutely nothing we can do to merit the favor of a holy and just God…and even passion for the gospel can be something we use to make ourselves feel better than other people, even other Christians. Nothing is farther from the true spirit of the gospel than to use the gospel to elevate yourself or your knowledge above those of other people.
In the same way that many ‘Calvinists’ turn off other Christians to those doctrines because of their condescending attitude toward those who don’t believe like them, so also can genuine lovers of the gospel distort the gospel by acting condescending toward people who aren’t as gospel-centered as they think they are. Few things will make the gospel as unattractive as a person who uses it to feel superior to others who they regard as ‘unenlightened’.
So beware of this, brothers and sisters. I have been placing a high emphasis on the centrality of the gospel lately, to make the main thing the main thing. With all my heart, I believe that is right, and should be contended for at all costs. Yet I have seen in my own soul this tendency toward becoming a Pharisee about it. If my discernment is accurate, I also see it in others who I minister to. It is ugly, and it is an awful distortion of true gospel-centeredness. It will only hinder the spread of the gospel we so long to see cherished.
For the sake of the gospel, let’s resist it at all costs!
Larry
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