Relentlessly Biblical

Individualism, Marriage, and the Ordinances

2012-01-27T11:26:00.001-07:00

I don't think there is any doubt that the church in the West has had a salutary effect on the practice of marriage. But here's a question for you.

Did the church in the West, particularly in America, also lead the way toward the dissolution of marriage by individualizing and interiorizing Christianity by making the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper primarily a matter of what we think in our heads?

For example, consider this proposal for marriage. Is it not similar to the way we treat church membership?

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

A Little Postcript to Jan 15

2012-01-27T10:59:00.004-07:00

In our sermon from January 15, I used the "Elephant Room" and the invitation of T. D. Jakes as an illustration of something which tears apart the unity of the body of Christ. Just in case anyone wants to follow up on that, here are a couple good online evaluations. If all this is meaningless to you, that's just fine. Your walk with Christ will thrive without needing to know anything about this. But since some of you are aware of these people and organizations, I post this here.

"After the Circus Parade" by Frank Turk

"Do You Beat Your Wife" by Carl Trueman

Turk's comments are apropos to the entire topic of unity, so let me give his three main points.

1. Someone needs to check the date for Mark Driscoll's shelf life as a reliable person.

2. The Gospel Coalition's response to MacDonald's resignation is par for the course for an organization that, frankly, values unity above the means to achieve unity (which is: sharpening each other with the truth).

3. TGC is not the only organization that has bacon in the fire after yesterday.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Who Will Be Your King?

2012-01-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

At his last great public declaration before he was crucified, Jesus cried out, "I did not come to judge the world but to save the world" (John 12:47). The world, however, had no interest in responding in kind. It did indeed want to judge Jesus. The darkness wished to overcome him. Jesus was arrested and brought to judgment. Lo and behold, who should he meet first representing the darkness but the high priest. The Jewish leaders, followed by the Jewish people, finally came to the place where they claimed Caesar as their king instead of their Messiah.

The account of Jesus' trial puts the question before us in clear and uncompromising terms, "Who will be your king?" Join us this Lord's Day to acknowledge Jesus as King.

Songs
O Father, Thou Whose Love Profound (#29)
Doxology
What Sacred Fountain Yonder Springs (#132)
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (#137)
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above (#60)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 23:1-19; Psalm 119:33-48
New Testament: Galatians 1

Sermon
Who Will Be Your King? - John 18:12-19:16

P.S. Don't forget our annual meeting following the fellowship meal.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

The Hour Has Come

2012-01-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Stepping into John 18, we find that the hour has come in which the forces of evil will unleash their fury on God's anointed One. But this is not just the world's doing. It is not merely random acts of wickedness. It is the cup that God the Father gave to his Son. How does Jesus respond? Come and see, and by seeing Jesus, I hope you will see God like you have not seen him before.

Songs
And Can It Be? (#335)
Doxology
Not What These Hands Have Done (#347)
Our Great Savior (#434)
Psalm 23b

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 22:16-31; Psalm 119:17-32
New Testament: Romans 16

Sermon
I AM Will Drink the Cup - John 18:1-11

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Family Worship

2012-01-18T13:21:00.001-07:00

If you are just starting family worship, or if you would like some encouragement for your family worship, this looks like a good website: familyworshipmonth.com.

The introduction to the site states

Family Worship Month is a humble call to the church and to the head of household to spend time with those you love reading the Bible, praying, and/or singing. As you will learn from these pages, Family Worship has a rich history in the church, it can be easy to implement, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it can transform your life, your family, and your church. Sign the Declaration and join a worldwide movement back to Family Worship. If you currently come together for family worship, tell someone. Share your experiences with your pastor and friends. If you are just getting started, you have come to the right place.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

The Word Does Its Work

2012-01-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

I believe this was a significant factor in the rise of the Puritan movement.

In the twenty-one years between Tyndale’s first Testament in1526 and Edward's accession in January 1547, there had been sixty-foureditions…of a whole English Bible or New Testament. (In the same period, therehad been no English printings of a Latin Bible, though there had beentwenty-two across Europe.)…It represents afair proportion of a population of two and a half million reading the Word ofGod, and uncountably more hearing it read.

After Edward’s succession, merely in his short six-yearreign, however…the number of English editions of the whole Bible or NewTestament printed was forty. That is an average of between six and seven ayear…. This great expansion in the production of English Bibles in the six yearsunder Edward has not been prominent in the writings of Early Modern History. Ithas, indeed, been quite removed from the picture….

One of the Edwardian editions, of Psalms, marks, probably in1549, the first appearance of a little book which, with larger contents, was tohave colossal influence on British and American religious life, matched only bythe New Testament. Modestly entitled CertainPsalms, chosen out of the Psalter… by Thomas Sternhold, this book is thefirst, with nineteen Psalms, of what was to become the phenomenal ‘Sternholdand Hopkins’, all the Psalm arranged metrically for congregational singing….

Using the…probably over-modest figure of an average printingrun of two thousand yields a total printed, in Edward’s reign, of some eightythousand English Bibles, all in six years.

David Daniell, The Bible in English, 245-6

Living in Unity

2012-01-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one Spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel..." (Phil 1:27).

This is our objective this Lord's Day, to stride forward in our ability to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. Join us!

Songs
Come, Thou Almighty King (#63)
Doxology
Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands (#230)
By Christ Redeemed, In Christ Restored (#233)
How Sweet and Awful Is the Place (#238)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 22:1-14; Psalm 119:1-16
New Testament: Romans 15

Sermon
That They May All Be One (continued) - John 17:20-26

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Tolle Lege

2012-01-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

I'd like to direct your attention to a book recommendation I published on the Religious Affections Ministries website (Augustine's Confessions). And while I'm doing that, I'd encourage you to check out that website regularly for good content to lead you to worship God aright.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Spiritual Unity

2012-01-06T17:06:00.002-07:00

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity....There the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forever" (Psalm 133). May we enjoy this as we meet together this Lord's Day.

Songs
All Glory, Laud, and Honor (#11)
Doxology
Our Great High Priest Is Sitting (#173)
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove (#211)
Blest Be the Tie that Binds (#219)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 21:20-36; Psalm 133
New Testament: Romans 14

Sermon
That They May All Be One - John 17:20-26

Pastor

2012-01-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

John Owen, "Brief Instruction in the Worship of God"

Question 27 —What are the principal duties of the pastors or teachers of the church?

Answer —^aTo be examples unto the flock in faith, love, knowledge,meekness, patience, readiness to suffer for the name and gospel of Christ,with constancy therein; ^bto watch for the souls and take care ofall the spiritual concernments of the whole flock committed to them;^cto preach the word diligently, dividing it aright;^dto preserve and contend for the truth; ^etoadminister all the ordinances of the gospel duly and orderly;^fto stir up and exercise the gifts they have received in thedischarge of their whole work and administration of all ordinances;^gto instruct, admonish, cherish, and comfort all the members ofthe church, as their conditions, occasions, and necessities do require;^hto attend with diligence, skill, and wisdom unto the dischargeof that authority which in the rule of the church is committed untothem.
^a 1 Tim. iii. 1–7, iv. 12;2 Tim. ii. 3; Col. i. 24;Phil. ii. 17, iii.17.
^b Heb. xiii. 17;Acts xx. 28.
^c 2 Tim. ii. 15, iv. 2;Rom. xii. 6–8.
^d1 Tim. vi. 20; Acts xx.28; Jude 3.
^e 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2; 1 Tim. iii.15.
^f 1 Tim. iv.14–16.
^g Acts xx. 18–20, 25, 27; 1 Thess. iii.5; 2 Tim. ii. 24,25.
^h Rom. xii. 7,8; 1 Tim. v. 17.

The answer is full and plain.

Who is sufficient for these things? Brothers, please pray for me and for all whom the Spirit calls to this responsibility.

JDP

High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Adopted as Sons, not Daughters

2011-12-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another reason to translate what the Scripture actually says, not what we think it ought to say according to current ideology. Speaking of the biblical teaching on adoption, Robert Letham writes,

The current tendency, influenced by the pressure of gender-inclusive language, to refer to believers as "sons and daughter" of God is misleading, blurs this vital truth, and has the effect of blunting the church's appreciation of what union with Christ entails. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father, and is so eternally; that is his name and that is his status. It is not a sexual term, for God is not a sexual being. By referring to Christian believers as "sons," the NT is not, under the influence of patriarchal culture, bypassing half the human race. Instead, it is pointing to our shared status with the Son of the father, in and by the Holy Spirit. The introduction of talk of "daughters" obscures this point, placed at the hub of the Christian life.

Union with Christ, 54, fn. 19

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

That They May All Be One

2011-12-30T08:39:00.004-07:00

Christ prayed that all who would believe in him through the message of his apostles would be one. Clearly this has ramifications for how we live with other Christians, beyond our fellow church members. But what are they? How do we even begin to endeavor to maintain the unity produced by the Spirit in our day of ecclesiastical confusion? We will begin the new year with by expending some spiritual sweat grappling with Christ's prayer for his church.

Songs
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (#69)
Doxology
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (#220)
I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord (#224)
Come, We That Love the Lord (#223)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 21:1-19; Psalm 111
New Testament: Romans 13

Sermon
That They May All Be One - John 17:20-26

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Insatiable Desires Christward

2011-12-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

Andrew Bonar's sketch of Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) presents before our eyes another of that great multitude of whom we ought to "consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

His description of himself on one occasion is, "A man often borne down and hungry, and waiting for the marriage supper of the Lamb." He is now gone on to the "mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense;" and there he no doubt still wonders at the unopened, unsearchable treasure of Christ. But oh! for his insatiable desires Christward! Oh! for ten such men in Scotland to stand in the gap! - men who all day long find nothing but Christ to rest in, whose very sleep is a pursuing after Christ in dreams, and who intensely desire to "awake with His likeness."

The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, ed. Frank E. Gabelein

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Seek the Lord

2011-12-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

Come now, insignificant man, fly for a moment from your affairs, escape for a little while from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside now your weighty cares and leave your wearisome toils. Abandon yourself for a little while to God and rest for a little while in Him. Enter into the inner chamber of your soul, shut out everything save God and what can be of help in your quest for Him and having locked the door seek Him out. Speak now, my whole heart, speak now to God: 'I seek Your countenance, O Lord, Your countenance I seek.'

Anselm, "Proslogion" in The Major Works, 84.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Proving the Fulness of Sin and the Grace of God

2011-12-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

No proof of the fulness of sin, after all, is so overwhelming and unanswerable as the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the whole doctrine of His substitution and atonement. Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the Son of God could make satisfaction. Heavy must that weight of human sin be which made Jesus groan and sweat drops of blood in agony at Gethsemane and cry at Golgotha, 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' (Matt 27:46). Nothing, I am convinced, will astonish us so much, when we awake in the resurrection day, as the view we shall have of sin and the retrospect we shall take of our own countless shortcomings and defects. Never till the hour when Christ comes the second time shall we fully realize the 'sinfulness of sin.' Well might George Whitefield say, 'The anthem in heaven will be: What hath God wrought!'

J. C. Ryle, Holiness

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Bible Reading Plans

2011-12-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

Do you meditate upon the word of God day and night? His word is his gift to us that we might know him. Prepare now to make 2012 a year of reading the Scriptures faithfully. Here is a blog post which gives several profitable plans for reading the Bible consistently. Read it, and let it challenge you to read the Word.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Behind the Scenes

2011-12-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

John 17 is a great behind-the-scenes look at what happens in John 3:16.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

United for the Cause

2011-12-23T12:21:00.001-07:00

The experience of meditating on John 17 is like soaring high in the limitless sky. There is simply no end to the beauty and grandeur of our triune God and his works. One could be quite happy here forever.

But we must also come back to earth to live faithfully according to this beautiful vision, so this Lord's Day we will consider Jesus' prayer that all who believe in him may be one as the Father and the Son are one. Join us! There is no better way to spend Christmas Day.

Songs
Angels from the Realms of Glory (#111)
Doxology
Silent Night! Holy Night! (#109)
Away in a Manger (#112)
Who Is He in Yonder Stall? (#120)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 20; Psalm1
New Testament: Romans 12

Sermon
United in Love for the Cause - John 17:20-26

What Is Theology?

2011-12-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

William Perkins said,

Theology is the science of living blessedly forever. Blessed life consisteth in the knowledge of God.

A Golden Chain, or The Description of Theology, 1

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

Joy to the World

2011-12-16T07:12:00.001-07:00

This coming Lord's Day, we will offer to the Lord a sacrifice of praise for the coming of our Lord. May you be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit as we gather for praise.

JDP
High Country Baptist Church of Colorado Springs

God Giving God

2011-12-09T08:17:00.001-07:00

Our God is a giving God, and what he supremely gives is himself. How does he do this, and what does it mean for our life in him? Join us this Lord's Day to listen to Jesus pray about these things.

Songs
Joy to the World (#92)
Doxology
The First Noel (#98)
See in Yonder Manger Low (#102)
Angels from the Realms of Glory (#111)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 19; Psalm 68
New Testament: Romans 11:17-36

Sermon
God Giving God - John 17

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion 7

2011-12-07T12:30:00.001-07:00

Chapter 10: Teaching as an Amusing Activity

1. Whileusing “Sesame Street”as an illustration of contemporary views of education, Postman makes thefollowing observation. “‘Sesame Street’ was entirely consonant with the prevailingspirit of America.Its use of cute puppets, celebrities, catchy tunes, and rapid-fire editing wascertain to give pleasure to the children and would therefore serve as adequatepreparation for their entry into a fun-loving culture” (142). Are educationalstructures and forms always oriented toward some end-goal? What is the end-goalof contemporary educational structures and forms? What should Christianeducation strive toward?

2. Postmanclaims “If the classroom now begins to seem a stale and flat environment forlearning, the inventors of television itself are to blame, not the Children’sTelevision Workshop” (143). Do you agree or disagree?

3. Assomething of a side note, I must register my agreement (of all things!) withPostman’s quotation from John Dewey: “Collateral learning in the way offormation of enduring attitudes…may be and often is more important than thespelling lesson or lesson in geography or history….For these attitudes arefundamentally what count in the future” (144). How should this influenceChristian parents who consider sending their children to public schools? toChristian schools? to homeschool?

4. Nowback to a fundamental point of engagement with this chapter…Postman says that“reading books and watching television differ entirely in what they imply aboutlearning,” and that this “is the primary educational issue in America today”(144-5). What is the primary educational issue in America today from a Christianperspective?

5. Whencriticizing education as entertainment, what precisely are we criticizing?

6. Whatdoes Postman posit as the three commandments of television’s philosophy ofeducation (147-8)?

Loving Holiness

2011-12-03T09:52:00.001-07:00

Something to consider as we meet together tomorrow.

Have I a real love to holiness? Do I press after it, and earnestlydesire to be more holy, using holy ordinances for this end, that I may be madethereby more and more holy? Am I fond of holy ordinances and holy people, andthat because they are holy? Have I a real value for holiness wherever I see it?Do I delight in God’s holy word, and that because it is holy? Do I call theholy sabbath a delight, and that because it is holy? Do I love the brethrenbecause they are holy, and love them the better the more holy they are? Do Ilong to be made perfect in holiness in that other world?

Matthew Henry

Shunning Sentimentality and Pragmatism

2011-12-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

Who knew that wisdom could be found in the Huffington Post?

This article isn't the whole fight, but the author lands a hard right hook to the head.

Here is the jist of the article: "God save us from the successful church."

Read it all here.

In, but not Of

2011-12-02T07:11:00.001-07:00

Yes, that old "in but not of" again. It seems like a cliche: "Christians are in the world but not of the world." But what did Jesus mean when he prayed, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" and "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world"? We will seek to come to grips with that this Lord's Day.

Songs
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (#87)
Doxology
O Come, All Ye Faithful (#88)
Angels We Have Heard on High (#89)
Once in Royal David's City (#91)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 18; Psalm 7
New Testament: Romans 11:1-16

Sermon
In the World, No of the World - John 17:6-19

Bible Study Resource

2011-11-30T13:07:00.001-07:00

For those who might be interested, I recently published a review of the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary. You can read it here.

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion 6

2011-11-30T12:58:00.001-07:00

Chapter 9: Reach Out and Elect Someone

1. Inthis chapter, Postman says that “the fundamental metaphor for politicaldiscourse is the television commercial” (126). He wants “to show how it hasdevastated political discourse." What does he use as his baseline forevaluating not just political discourse but also science and liberal democracy(127)? Or to ask the question from a different angle, what does he see as thesource of good political discourse?

2. Whydoes the answer to #1 matter?

3. Aristotleidentified three pisteis, or forms ofpersuasion, in any speech situation: the presentation of the trustworthycharacter of the speaker, the logical argument set out, and the emotionaleffect created by the speaker (OnRhetoric, 1.2). Since I assume Postman would accept Aristotle as anauthority on these matters, does Postman adequately account for all three meansof persuasion?

4. Postmanmakes the astute observation that “the television commercial is not at allabout the character of products to be consumed. It is about the character ofthe consumers of products” (128). Later he says that great commercials “providea slogan, a symbol or a focus that creates for viewers a comprehensive andcompelling image of themselves” (135). Is it not true that political leadershave always functioned as visible embodiments of the polis (the city orcommunity)? If so, what is bad about the way commercials structure politicaldiscourse?

5. Augustinesaid that a community is formed by common agreement on the objects of our love.What do our commercials, as well as our political discourse, tell us about thestate of our community? What loves hold us together?

6. Whatwould a good model of political discourse in America look like? Couldcommercials have any appropriate function in that kind of discourse?

7. Postmancharges that television is “a medium which presents information in a form thatrenders it simplistic, nonsubstantive, nonhistorical and noncontextual; that isto say, information packaged as entertainment” (141). Is entertainmentnecessarily simplistic, nonsubstantive, nonhistorical, and noncontextual? Ifsomething is simplistic, nonsubstantive, nonhistorical, and noncontextual, canit even be “information,” much less entertainment? Would it be better to saythat television presents a series of dramas or stories? How does this help us in understanding how to critically evaluate television and its effect upon our political discourse?

Giving, Keeping, Sending

2011-11-25T06:24:00.001-07:00

As we read Jesus' prayer for his disciples in John 17, we find that they are caught up into the very work of God. It is an incredible privilege to do the works of God based upon his work for us, and we will learn more of this by listening to Jesus' prayer this Lord's Day.

Songs
Praise the Savior (#17)
Doxology
Rejoice, Believer, in the Lord (#627)
A Sovereign Protector I Have (#615)
How Good Is the God We Adore (#738)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 17; Psalm 114
New Testament: Romans 10:14-21

Sermon
From Manifestation to Consecration: Knowing God in His Saving Works - John 17:6-19

It Is Good to Give Thanks

2011-11-24T09:16:00.001-07:00

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name,
O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

Psalm 92:1-4 (ESV)

Week of Remembrance

2011-11-23T09:38:00.001-07:00

Every year, during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, my family and I have a week of remembrance. I want my children to know the mighty acts of God "so that they should set their hope in God" (Psa 78:7). Here is our plan for this year's week of remembrance.

Monday - remembering the mighty acts of God in creation and redemption

Tuesday - remembering the mighty acts of God in our family's history. We particularly like to recount how the Lord saved our children's grandparents and all the blessings which flow to us today because of it.

Wednesday - remembering the mighty acts of God in our family's history (continued)

Thursday - Thanksgiving Day

Friday - remembering the mighty acts of God in 2011

I hope you will have a wonderful time in your homes this week telling the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done (Psa 78:4)!

Living in the Dark Ages of Sound

2011-11-18T09:42:00.001-07:00

Enlightenment thinkers made up the label "Dark Ages" to dismiss the European era of Christendom as backwards, superstitious, and unintelligent. The reality is that moderns believe just as many, if not more, cunningly devised fables, and our ignorance can be seen and heard in the cultural artifacts we produce. More dreadfully, our ignorance can be seen and heard in the worship we offer to God.

Two blog posts I read this morning brought this to my attention again, and I commend them both for your consideration. In the first, David de Bruyn considers Richard Weaver's statement, "Unformed expression is ever tending toward ignorance." Without good form in our music, prayers, and preaching, we slouch toward darkness. He concludes:

Beware the people who insist you choose between form and freedom. Good form is freedom. Good form enables freedom. Good form frees us to express ordinate affection. (Read it all here.)

The second post is by Peter Leithart, entitled "How the Church Lost Her Soundscape." He observes, "Musically, evangelicals are all charismatics now." So he asks, "What ideas, standards, and forces shape liturgical music? And, what does the church’s musical culture say about the church and its future?"

He criticizes the ignorance of contemporary pop music:

Contemporary music arose just as general music education collapsed in our schools. As Ken Myers points out, the church did nothing to fill the gap, apparently content to let advertisers, disk jockeys, the Stones, Steve Jobs, and Madonna provide musical training for Christians, especially young ones. It is no surprise that contemporary worship music takes its cues from commercial pop. No surprise, but surely a concern. Pop music is a relatively new cultural phenomenon with its own set of commercially driven values—accessibility, immediacy, instant gratification, freedom, sex. It has its own, extremely limited, range of musical and emotional possibilities. For all its variety, pop music is dismally monophonic. Transgression is encouraged, so long as it doesn’t get too close to the music. Lady Gaga wears her meat dresses and Rihanna feigns sex on stage, but when the music starts they are both as frothy as Justin Bieber. There can be no Stravinsky of pop music.

Leithart concludes with this sobering observation:

I can hardly imagine a more worrisome sign of worldliness, or clearer evidence of the church’s identity crisis, than our eager renunciation of our own soundscape and our determination instead to reproduce the world’s.

I hope for a new reformation which will drive out the dark ages of sound we now inhabit.

A Sacrifice of Praise

2011-11-18T09:09:00.001-07:00

Would you like to participate in one of the most powerful exhibitions of the Jesus Christ's lordship? It is better than any parade of military muscle, and it is far more effective than any Federal Reserve board meeting. It is when God's people humbly and joyfully gather to declare what he has done to deliver them. Join us this Lord's Day to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving!

Songs
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come (#708)
Doxology
We Plough the Fields and Scatter (#704)
Psalm 95
We Gather Together (#709)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Isaiah 12
New Testament: Romans 15:8-13

Sermon
A Sacrifice of Praise - Hebrews 13:15

Please remain with us to offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Psa 50:14) immediately after the conclusion of our service. Tell us what God has done for your soul!

Following our time of giving thanks, we will all celebrate together with a thanksgiving feast!

Helping Out the Fountain

2011-11-12T16:58:00.001-07:00

...whatever right worship is paid to God profits not Him, but man. For no man would say he did a benefit to a fountain by drinking, or to the light by seeing.

Augustine, The City of God, 10.5

Undiminished Christianity and Unfailing Love

2011-11-11T10:49:00.001-07:00

If you have not done so already, I encourage you to read David de Bruyn's series of articles on conservative Christian churches. His conclusion points us to what is always at the heart of a lively and biblical conservatism - Spiritual love.

Pastor de Bruyn begins:

Conservative Christian churches are not eccentric. They believe they are merely consistent in their understanding and application of Christianity. They believe that the Christianity they have received must be passed on without diminution. Where they differ from many other Christians is that they believe there is more to Christianity than the gospel and a statement of faith. They believe there is such a thing as Christian worship, and they wish to pass this on. They believe Christianity is a life of love and worship, therefore they believe they must preserve and pass on the whole notion of ordinate affection. They believe Christianity must be applied to a continually changing world, therefore they wish to pass on a concern for meaning. They believe they are simply one link on the chain of Christian history, therefore they wish to honor what is truly Christian from the past.

Consequently, he pleads with his fellow pastors, "Love people, not populism."

A love for people means supplying them with what they need most and what will help them most: an undiminished Christianity. This will mean teaching them things that they may initially reject, or misunderstand, or fail to grasp. It may mean enduring charges of elitism, Gnosticism, or authoritarianism. Yes, many of our people are populists, and expect us to be too. But as any parent knows, love is not merely meeting the expectations of your children all the time. Love is patient, love is kind, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

At HCBC, we long, by the grace of God, to love too much to be populist.

Read the whole thing.

Eternal Life

2011-11-11T10:38:00.001-07:00

What really is 'eternal life'? Why should I want it?

This Lord's Day we will see how Jesus puts on the spread so we can taste it. Join us.

Songs
Crown Him with Many Crowns (#52)
Doxology
Praise Ye Jehovah (#4)
There Is a Fountain (#267)
Now Thank We All Our God (#5)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 16; Psalm 23
New Testament: Romans 10:1-13

Sermon
What Is Eternal Life? - John 17:3

The Only Really Happy and Blessed Life

2011-11-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

For of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker? How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through Whom they had received their being? They would be no better than the beasts, had they no knowledge save of earthly things; and why should God have made them at all, if He had not intended them to know Him? But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in His own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made even themselves after the same Image and Likeness. Why? Simply in order that through this gift of God-likeness in themselves they may be able to perceive the Image Absolute, that is the Word Himself, and through Him to apprehend the Father; which knowledge of their Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life.

Athanasius, On the Incarnation, section 11

Church Planting and Renewal Conference

2011-11-09T14:54:00.003-07:00

Back on October 20-21, I had the privilege of participating in the Mid-America Conference on Preaching hosted by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, with the theme of church planting and renewal. All of the recordings and notes from the conference are available here.

A Prayer to Know the Triune God

2011-11-05T08:03:00.000-06:00

O Lord our God, we believe in you, Father and Son and Holy Spirit....Directing my attention toward this rule of faith as best I could, as far as you enabled me to, I have sought you and desired to see intellectually what I have believed, and I have argued much and toiled much. O Lord my God, my one hope, listen to me lest out of weariness I should stop wanting to seek you, but let me seek your face always, and with ardor. Do you yourself give me the strength to seek, having caused yourself to be found and having given me the hope of finding you more and more. Before you lies my strength and my weakness; preserve the one, heal the other. Before you lies my knowledge and my ignorance; where you have opened to me, receive me as I come in; where you have shut to me, open to me as I knock. Let me remember you, let me understand you, let me love you. Increase these things in me until you refashion me entirely.

Augustine, The Trinity, 15.51 (translated by Edmund Hill)

A good prayer to pray as we gather tomorrow to consider John 17:1-5.

The Deep Grammar

2011-11-04T17:00:00.001-06:00

Trinitarianism is the encompassing framework within which all Christian thought takes place and within which Christian confession finds its grounding presuppositions. It is the deep grammar of all the central Christian affirmations.

Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God, 46

God Giving Glory to God

2011-11-04T07:29:00.000-06:00

Jesus prayed that his Father would glorify him so that he could glorify the Father. Here is the source of our eternal life.

Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy (#3)
Doxology
All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name (#36)
Amazing Grace (#247)
Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness (#400)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 15; Psalm 25
New Testament: Romans 9:19-33

Sermon
God Giving Glory to God - John 17:1-5

We Say "Amen"

2011-11-03T16:41:00.000-06:00

R. C. Sproul has some instructive comments on why we say "Amen" in our corporate worship. He begins,

And all the people said… “Amen!” The “amen corner” has had an important place in the life of the church throughout the ages. However, it is rare to find such a spot among Presbyterians. We are known as God’s frozen chosen for a reason. It has been said that the Methodists like to shout “Fire,” the Baptists like to shout “Water,” and the Presbyterians like to softly say, “Order, order.” Nevertheless, in spite of the idiosyncrasies of various ecclesiastical persuasions, the function of the word amen far transcends denominational usages in the modern era.

Read the whole thing.

Circle of Glory

2011-11-03T08:56:00.000-06:00

Do you see the circle of glory revolving among those who are alike? The Son is glorified by the Spirit; the Father is glorified by the Son; again the Son has his glory from the father and the only-begotten thus becomes the glory of the Spirit. For with what shall the Father be glorified but with the true glory of the Son, and with what shall the Son be glorified but with the majesty of the Spirit?

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Spirit (cited by Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea, 209)

Poetic Power

2011-11-03T06:22:00.000-06:00

How can man adequately communicate about God and the depths of spiritual experience? One partial answer is to use poetry, such as the author of Job did.

Robert Alter (The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) is effusive in his praise of the poetic skill of the author of Job.

The Book of Job is, of course, a theological argument, but it is a theological argument conducted in poetry, and careful attention to the role that poetry plays in the argument may put what is said in a somewhat different light from the one in which it is generally viewed. The debate between Job and his three adversarial friends and then God's climactic speech to Job exhibit three purposefully deployed levels of poetry....(6)

The third--and ultimately decisive--level of poetry in the book is manifested when the Lord addresses Job out of the whirlwind....The poet, having given Job such vividly powerful language for the articulation of his outrage and his anguish, now fashions still greater poetry for God....God's thundering challenge to Job is not bullying. Rather, it rousingly introduces a comprehensive overview of the nature of reality that exposes the limits of Job's human perspective....The vehicle of that overview is an order of poetry created to match the grandeur--or perhaps the omniscience--of God. (9-10)

With God's speech as the climax of the book, the Job poet takes a risk that only a supreme artist confident in his genius could do. He had already created for Job the most extraordinarily powerful poetry to express Job's intolerable anguish and his anger against God. Now, when God finally speaks, the poet fashions for Him still greater poetry, which thus becomes the poetic manifestation of God's transcendent power and also an image-for-image response to the death-wish poem that frames Job's entire argument. (158)

Prose isn't enough. It takes poetry to communicate something of the grandeur and power of our God.

God, Glory, and Giving

2011-10-28T15:38:00.000-06:00

As a young man in my teen years, I was privileged to attend church with an elderly saint named Mr. Chodan. I admired his godly wisdom gained through many years of following Christ, and I never tired of listening to him pray. His prayers were never fiery or passionate. No, they were deeper than that. They were quiet, substantive communion with God. Mr. Chodan's example taught me much about knowing God.

But in John 17 we find a prayer that is infinitely deeper than Mr. Chodan's prayers could ever be. Here we listen to God communing with God, and by the Spirit we are drawn into the true knowledge of God which is eternal life. I hope you will join us to listen to this prayer this Lord's Day.

Songs
Give to Our God Immortal Praise (#53)
Doxology
Blessing and Honor (#10)
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (#69)
Psalm 118b

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 14; Psalm 136
New Testament: Romans 9:1-18

Sermon
God Giving Glory - John 17:1-5

Tastes in Noise

2011-10-27T09:06:00.000-06:00

Every body has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

Jane Austen opens up another one of her many insights into human nature. We might restate it this way - what we love in our hearts is much more significant to our happiness than the circumstances in which we find ourselves, even when those circumstances are as simple as noise.

Unveiling the Idols

2011-10-27T08:30:00.000-06:00

It is fascinating to observe how the underlying paganism of our society is working its way out more and more consistently into our public practices.

On a scholarly level, some advocate re-appropriating the polytheism of Homer's era. These scholars see clearly how enlightenment has brought emptiness, so they advocate a different kind of idolatry.

On a popular level, we are watching the deification of Steve Jobs.

As I was re-reading J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism just a little while ago, I came across something I had forgotten. Machen wrote:

...despite all superficial continuity, a remarkable change has come about within the last seventy-five years. The change is nothing less than the substitution of paganism for Christianity as the dominant view of life. Seventy-five years ago, Western civilization, despite inconsistencies,was still predominantly Christian; to-day it is predominantly pagan.

This work was published in 1923. If Machen was right, and I think he was, then twentieth century America was, at bottom, a pagan society. Her public institutions, practices, and mores have progressively removed the drapery which shrouds her real gods.

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion 5

2011-10-26T13:49:00.000-06:00

Chapter 8: Shuffle Off to Bethlehem

1. After watching religious programming on television, Postman came to two conclusions (116-7). What are they?

2. What characteristics of television make authentic religious experience impossible via television broadcasts, according to Postman (118-21)? Do the same criticisms apply to radio broadcasts or live streaming videos of preachers in multi-site churches?

3. Is Postman correct when he says “It is an essential condition of any traditional religious service that the space in which it is conducted must be invested with some measure of sacrality” (118-9)? Why or why not?

4. Why does Postman think that televised religion has a strong tendency toward idolatry (122-3)?

5. “I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion,” Postman writes. “When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether” (121). What Scriptures would support his belief?

Real Discipleship in the Home

2011-10-25T20:01:00.000-06:00

Overheard this morning in the next room:

And so we can see that God always provides for his people.

A split-second later:

M----, go get on the potty!

I love family life and homeschooling.

Coming from Nowhere and Going Nowhere in Particular

2011-10-25T09:04:00.001-06:00

That about sums up the view of mankind working through Western society for the past few centuries. Charles Taylor says that the “Modern Moral Order”

“…starts with individuals, and doesn’t see these as set a priori within a hierarchical order, outside of which they wouldn’t be fully human agents. Its members are not agents who are essentially embedded within a society which in turn reflects and connects with the cosmos, but rather disembedded individuals who come to associate together. The design underlying the association is that each, in pursuing his or her own purposes in life, act to benefit others mutually. It calls for a society structured for mutual benefit, in which each respects the rights of others, and offers them mutual help of certain kinds” (A Secular Age [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007], 447).

The gospel changes all of that.

The Only Form of Sexual Union

2011-10-22T16:44:00.000-06:00

The only remaining safeguards of family life in modern urban civilization are its social prestige and the sanctions of moral and religious tradition. Marriage is still the only form of sexual union which is openly tolerated by society....But if we accept the principles of the new morality, this last safeguard will be destroyed and the forces of dissolution will be allowed to operate unchecked.

Christopher Dawson, "The Patriarchal Family in History" - 1933

And what is the cardinal weapon that in our day is being deployed against the gospel of triune grace? It is sexual confusion. It is sexual brinksmanship. It is sexual accommodation. It is sexual grammar parsing. And whatever else it is, it is now upon us.

Douglas Wilson, "Cardinal Sexuality" - 2011

The historian Dawson was concerned about the decline of our society; our concern, though related, is more radical. It is a concern about the gospel and the right relationship of men to God. God created male and female and established the only form of sexual union precisely to point men to the wonder of his relationship with his church (Eph 5:32). The diabolical attack upon the only form of sexual union is an attack upon the gospel and the core truths of Christianity.

Who Are They?

2011-10-22T16:01:00.001-06:00

Pastor Bryan Brock of Lifepoint Baptist Church, applying Hebrews 13:17:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

"Who is the 'them' and 'they' in your life?"

"It could be argued that active church membership in good standing was one of the best NT tests of genuine Christianity."

The Gospel News Is Sounding

2011-10-22T14:20:00.000-06:00

We welcome you to join us this Lord's Day as we rejoice in the spread of the good news of Jesus around the world.

Songs
Salvation! O My Soul Rejoice! (#291)
Doxology
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (#137)
From Depths of Woe (#337)
Hark! the Gospel News Is Sounding (#293)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 13; Psalm 114
New Testament: Romans 8:18-39

Sermon

Proverbs on Education

2011-10-18T16:39:00.000-06:00

What is the message of Proverbs concerning education and learning?

In the final analysis Proverbs is a book of education. It is the textbook of Israelite paideia (Greek, "education"). What is the Hebrew ideal of education?...

First, Proverbs does not subordinate the education of the individual to the needs of the state. This is remarkably different from the later Greek paideia. For the Greeks devotion to the polis ("state") was a fundamental element of education....In Proverbs, however, such notions scarcely surface at all. Patriotism is not regarded as evil, but no attempt is made to glorify Israelite culture. Instead, everything is subordinated to the Israelite God. If God is honored, all will be well with the state; if he is not, things will not go well....

Second, Israelite wisdom does not promote any particular occupation or trade. This contrasts with Egyptian instructional literature....

Third, education is primarily the task of parents. The family is the first and best school (Deut 6:4-9). The son is exhorted o heed his mother and father (23:22-25), and the parents are commanded to invest time and attention in their children (29:15, 17).

Finally, biblical wisdom stresses the limitations of human knowledge. The gulf between human perception and divine reality is never really closed....The learned must never forget their limitations (30:2-4) and that they are prone to error and conceit. Above all, they must subordinate their quest to the Word of God. For "every word of God is flawless" (30:5).

Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (NAC), 57, 59

P.S. Those in our seminar on the wisdom literature in the Bible may be interested in this post, "What is Hebrew Poetry?"

Songs and Scripture for the Coming Lord's Day

2011-10-14T19:28:00.000-06:00

Songs
Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today (#156)
Doxology
Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness (#400)
It Is Well with My Soul (#371)
May the Mind of Christ My Savior (#476)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 12:28-51; Psalm 135
New Testament: Romans 8:1-17

Sermon
Returning to the Father so that You May Have Peace - John 16:25-33

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion 4

2011-10-11T15:27:00.000-06:00

Chapter 6: The Age of Show Business

1. As he begins the second section of the book, Postman states the questions which the rest of the book will address. What are they (84)? Keep these questions in mind as you read.

2. What distinction does Postman make between technology and a medium (84)?

3. “It is possible,” Postman writes, “for a technology to be so used that its potentialities are prevented from developing and its social consequences kept to a minimum” (85). He then goes on to say, “But in America, this has not been the case. Television has found in liberal democracy and a relatively free market economy a nurturing climate in which its full potentialities as a technology of images could be exploited” (86). Assuming Postman’s point for the sake of argument, does this mean that the greater problem we face is “liberal democracy and a relatively free market”? If we reformed these problems, would television as a medium convey a different meaning?

4. “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television” (87). Agree or disagree? Two further thought questions. Is entertainment bound to be the ruling ideology of television, as such? Is entertainment bound to be the ruling ideology of television in America?

5. Would it be accurate to make this charge: “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on radio”? Or, “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse in news magazines”?

6. Postman says, “I do not say categorically that it is impossible to use television as a carrier of coherent language or thought in process….After all, it is not unheard of that a format will occasionally go against the bias of its medium” (91). But he goes on to state, “But this is not television at its best, and it is not television that most people will choose to watch” (92). Does this mean that the greater problem we face is what most people want to watch?

7. “How television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged” (92). Would it be more accurate to say that how producers stage the world using television’s inherent qualities becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged? Is this what Postman means? What difference does it make?

8. Most would agree that “our culture has moved toward a new way of conducting its business, especially its important business. The nature of its discourse is changing as the demarcation line between what is show business and what is not becomes harder to see with each passing day” (97-8). What would you suggest is the source of this shift in our society?

Chapter 7: “Now…This”

1. I think it is evident by now that this book forces us to meditate upon our human nature as much as it does upon the nature of television. What fundamental presuppositions do we as Christians bring to the table regarding human nature?

2. Does the format of the typical television newscast communicate that the world “has no order or meaning and is not to be taken seriously” (99)? Do the constant interruptions of commercials render the news “banal” (104)?

3. Is the following true in all forms of communication? “The perception of the truth of a report rests heavily on the acceptability of the newscaster” (101). Is it wrong for our perception of truth to be influenced by the messenger? Also, does television make us rely more heavily on this perception?

4. “What has music to do with the news? Why is it there?” (102).

5. How do we combat “disinformation” (107)?

6. Postman says that “television is the paradigm for our conception of public information” (111). Does the growing influence of the internet and devices such as the iPhone change this? If so, in what way?

7. What does the book of Ecclesiastes have to say about what Postman is wrestling with in this chapter?

Sorrow and Joy

2011-10-07T09:07:00.000-06:00

Although the church marches on through suffering in this present world, she is already partaking of the blessing and fullness of true life that comes from Jesus. We will reach for that joy this Lord's Day, as we call on the heavens and the earth to join us in our jubilation.

Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for him;
Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation! (Isaiah 25:9)

Songs
Joy to the World (#92)
Doxology
Psalm 100
God Is the Treasure of My Soul (#632)
Rejoice, the Lord Is King (#13)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 12:1-17; Psalm 81
New Testament: Romans 7

Sermon
No One Will Take Your Joy Away from You: Living in the Joy of the Resurrected Christ - John 16:16-24

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion 3

2011-10-04T19:22:00.000-06:00

Chapter 5: The Peek-a-Boo World

1. Postman argues that in the middle of the nineteenth century two ideas came together which formed a new metaphor for public discourse. What are those two ideas?

2. Do you agree with Postman that telegraphy “destroyed the prevailing definition of information, and in doing so gave a new meaning to public discourse” (65)? Why or why not?

3. Postman asserts that “information derives its importance from the possibilities of action” (68). Is this true? Can you think of counter-examples which do not fit his assertion? What is the danger of this viewpoint?

4. What is the real value of information measured by?

5. Christ taught us to not needlessly multiply words (Matt 5:33-37). Do we debase our cultural conversation simply by the sheer volume of talk?

Guidance

2011-09-30T13:05:00.000-06:00

While on vacation recently, my family and I went up into the Routt National Forrest near the Flat Tops Wilderness, the second largest wilderness area in the state. Due to the ages of our younger children, we did not push too far off-road. Nevertheless, just touching that vast and rugged wilderness was enough to make one keenly sensible that you must be aware of where you are at, at all times. Getting lost there, especially in the winter, can be a life or death matter.

Following Christ and accomplishing his mission can sometimes feel like wandering through a wilderness area. Thankfully, we have a guide, the Spirit of truth, who will lead us in all the truth. Join us this Lord's Day to follow his leading.

Songs
Call Jehovah Thy Salvation (#499)
Doxology
All the Way My Savior Leads Me (#494)
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (#495)
Thou Sweet Beloved Will of God (#528)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 11; Psalm 109
New Testament: Romans 6:15-23

Sermon
Guidance in All the Truth - John 16:12-15

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion 2

2011-09-13T16:17:00.000-06:00

Chapter 2: Media as Epistemology

1. Postman opens this chapter with a clear statement of what he hopes to show in his book. What is it?

2. Postman says, “Television is at its most trivial and, therefore, most dangerous when its aspirations are high, when it presents itself as a carrier of important cultural conversations” (16). Do you agree? Why or why not?

3. Epistemology is concerned with knowledge and belief and truth. For example, we have epistemological concerns when we wonder, “What sources of knowledge can I trust? When am I justified in believing that I know the truth?” Why does Postman bring up epistemology? What does he want to show (17)?

4. Postman writes, “Whatever the original and limited context of its use may have been, a medium has the power to fly far beyond that context into new and unexpected ones. Because of the way it directs us to organize our minds and integrate our experience of the world, it imposes itself on our consciousness and social institutions in myriad forms” (18). Why is this true from a Christian perspective? What is fundamental to a Christian worldview which explains why we always think and communicate in metaphors?

5. Is it true that our media forms define truth for us (17, 18)?

6. Postman denies epistemological relativism, yet he says, “Truth, like time itself, is a product of a conversation man has with himself about and through the techniques of communication he has invented” (24). Is he consistent?

7. What is truth?

Chapters 3&4: Typographic America and The Typographic Mind

1. Postman credits the Enlightenment for the character of American thinking in the nineteenth century (47). He also says, “It is no accident that the Age of Reason was coexistent with the growth of a print culture” (51). Do you think his historical connection is appropriate?

2. Postman puts forward religion and law as examples of the essentially rational character of early American discourse, which he calls the “Age of Exposition.” He also says that advertising followed this basic model of discourse. When does he say that the change in advertising began (59)?

3. Is rational, dispassionate, abstract, and objective knowledge the best way to find the truth?

Ministry Is a Verb

2011-09-13T09:17:00.000-06:00

Last Friday I attended a local conference on ministering to military personnel and their families. I figured I could glean a few insights and also scope out the lay of the land in contemporary military ministry. Thankfully, I was able to accomplish both of those objectives.

However, two other observations struck themselves like darts into my mind while at the conference. The first was that the military co-opts the church for its own purposes. This underlying premise seemed to be shared by every speaker I heard, Christian or non-Christian, military or civilian. I heard nothing about sin, righteousness, and judgment. I did not hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I did not hear that Jesus is Lord and that all men, including those in the U.S. military, must bow the knee to him. I certainly did not hear that allegiance to Christ was far more important eternally than allegiance to America. I did hear, repeatedly, how churches can help military personnel and their families in order to have a strong fighting force. It's not about seeking first the kingdom of God; it is about seeking the kingdom of America. This is civil religion with a vengeance. But I'll have to deal with that more at a later time. This post is prompted by the second observation.

The second observation was that "ministry" was treated as a noun and not as a verb. In other words, "ministry" was considered a thing that churches and Christians provide for military personnel. In this sense, it is a product. It can be packaged, programmed, and even marketed. "A" ministry is completely separable from any particular people, their wisdom, love, and Christian character. This view of ministry, of course, is not unique to this conference. It is precisely the view of ministry that prevails amongst Christians in this nation, so it is not surprising that the conference reflected it. This view of ministry also fits neatly with the first observation mentioned above. The military views churches as producers who provide a product that they are happy to have their soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines consume. They are happy to have them consume this product because they see that it yields more stable families, less destructive behavior, and an all-around happier life for their personnel.

Ministry, however, is first and foremost a verb. It is something that people do. It is inseparable from those who perform it, including their Christian maturity and character. It is not a product that can be marketed. The church is not a factory which produces a nice little product called 'spirituality' which people can consume in order to make their lives and families better. It is decidedly not a factory producing a product to keep the military humming along in top condition.

Pastor David Doran recently addressed this same problem with a post aimed at local church life. He writes:

Ministry is not a position; it’s an action. You don’t really “have” a ministry; you minister. A healthy congregation is not built by organizational charts and job descriptions. It develops as God’s people engage themselves is serving Him by using their God-given gifts for the benefit of the Body (Eph 4:11-16). That text highlights spiritual maturity and mutual ministry, not organizational efficiency. Sound doctrine and godly relationships are God’s priorities.

He also gives an example of the 'institutional' mindset of ministry.

That the institutional mindset has crept into the church is most clearly evident by the way people think about going to church (and I’m tempted to put those last three words in quotes because the phrase itself reflects the problem). Let me illustrate. A friend tells you he is going up north for the weekend and you ask about missing church. His reply: “Because someone else is covering my [insert normal ministry designation] this Sunday, I’m not doing anything, so there’s no problem with me skipping this weekend.” Do you see what has happened here? Serving Christ in the church has been reduced to fulfilling a task or role within a program.

This view of ministry is tempting because it does not require a commitment of covenant love. I don't have to give my life to real people in a real place. I just have to do my job, and I am free from all the baggage of love. As long as my program works well (and working well is usually defined statistically), I can have a sense of accomplishment. I have 'served the Lord' with my life by running the program. But biblical ministry, Christ-like ministry, is at its core a giving of my life for the sake of others so that they may know the Lord. It is love that leads me to lay down my 'freedom' to skip church so that I can serve my Lord by serving his people.

Ministry is love. Ministry is service. Ministry is a verb.

For the Love of the World

2011-09-10T13:30:00.000-06:00

The world is an old whore, desperately deceiving and being deceived, destroying and being destroyed, and she will be judged.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Therein lies the paradox of the Christian's relationship to the world. Join us this Lord's Day to be in the world but not of it.

Songs
Now Thank We All Our God (#5)
Doxology
God Loved the World (#244)
May the Mind of Christ My Savior (#476)
Rejoice, Believer, in the Lord (#627)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 8; Psalm 78:23-55
New Testament: Romans 5:1-11

Sermon
For the Love of the World - The Gospel of John

Ears Wide Open

2011-09-09T14:16:00.000-06:00

Nancy Leigh Demoss gives some good pointers on how to listen to preaching. She asks,

Do you ever find yourself . . .
• waking up on Sunday morning and wishing you didn’t have to go to church?
• having a hard time staying awake in church?
• daydreaming during the message, or making a mental “to-do” list while the pastor is preaching?
• picking apart the message or the preacher in your mind or not getting anything out of the sermon?
• wishing your pastor would be more _____?
• forgetting what the message was about before you get home from church?

How can you prepare your heart to get the most out of your pastor’s preaching?

You can read it all here.

And for Us

2011-09-07T12:43:00.000-06:00

This is a lesson that all churches need to learn continually.

"A Lesson from Marx for the SBC"

Amusing Ourselves to Death Discussion

2011-09-07T12:41:00.000-06:00

For those who cannot make it to our discussion group, yet would like to follow along as much as possible, I will post study questions from the book Amusing Ourselves to Death.

(Note that all page number refer to the original edition.)

Introduction

1. AOD was first published in 1985. Who was the president at that time? What was the cultural mood?

2. Postman refers back to two novels which imagined the future of our civilization. What are they?

3. What was Orwell’s vision of the future?

4. What was Huxley’s vision of the future?

5. Postman’s book lends its support to which vision?

Chapter 1

1. Postman’s book focuses on the forms of human conversation and argues that “how we are obliged to conduct such conversations will have the strongest possible influence on what ideas we can conveniently express. And what ideas are convenient to express inevitably become the important content of a culture” (6). Do you find this initially plausible? Why or why not?

2. Where did Postman first get the idea that “forms of media favor particular kinds of content and are therefore capable of taking command of a culture” (9)?

3. Postman suggests that perhaps Moses should have added the commandment, “Thou shalt not make mechanical representations of time” (12). Why is it significant to our Christian view of communication that Moses did not include such a command?

4. What does Postman mean by saying that “a medium is a metaphor” (10-14)?

5. Do you believe Postman when he says, “We do not see nature or intelligence or human motivation or ideology as ‘it’ is but only as our languages are. And our languages are our media. Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture” (15)?

Guilty As Charged

2011-09-03T09:28:00.000-06:00

Did you know that there is one prosecuting attorney who infallibly proves his case? He is the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This old world system in which we live constantly protests its innocence, but there is no way to get around the verdict.

But now you must ask yourself, "Do I know how the world is guilty?" Many professing followers of Christ seem quite unaware of how the world is guilty, and so they have difficulty discerning worldliness even when it is staring them in the face. In order to perceive the world's guilt, join us this Lord's Day.

Songs
God Himself Is Present
Doxology
The Holy Ghost Is Here (#203; Tune: St. Thomas)
Eternal Spirit! Praise We Bring (#207)
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove (#211)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 6:28-7:25; Psalm 78:1-22
New Testament: Romans 4:13-25

Sermon
The World Stands Convicted - John 16:4-11

Not Sub-Christian Praying

2011-08-30T15:05:00.000-06:00

The language of these imprecatory psalms is harsh (dashed heads against rock, broken teeth, etc.), but it is justly fierce, corresponding to the depth of wickedness displayed by those who would join the serpent against God.

And in a footnote,

Appeals for and celebrations of God's judgment in the Psalms are not 'less than Christian'..., as any reader of the book of Revelation can see. In fact, descriptions of the horrifying terror of the coming judgment are merciful warnings that invite the wicked to repent, and they glorify God who will demonstrate his wrath and make known his power (Rom 9:22).

James Hamilton, God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 288-89.

Dry Off and Get to Work

2011-08-26T09:21:00.000-06:00

After Jesus douses us with the sober truth that the world hates us, what do we do? We could sit there and cry about it, but that would only make us wetter. Worse than that, it would lead us to fall away from Christ. Instead, we should recognize that Christ has us in enemy territory for a purpose. We are to testify about Christ. Let's dry off and get to work.

Songs
We Gather Together (#709)
Doxology
Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness (#400)
Our Great Savior (#434)
Lord, How Delightful (#726)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 6:1-27; Psalm 90
New Testament: Romans 4:1-12

Sermon
Testifying in Enemy Territory - John 15:26-16:4

Someone Who Gets It!

2011-08-23T16:03:00.000-06:00

In our day of Styrofoam wafer Christianity, it sure is refreshing to come across someone who understands the issues at stake in our practice of the Lord's Supper. Russell Moore writes:

Too often in our contemporary Evangelical church culture, the act of barring a member from the table seems quaint or even meaningless. After all, who really cares if he is deprived of a wafer and a splash of grape juice?

Sometimes Christians in other traditions assume that all low-church Protestants take this kind of view, but that’s simply not the case. While disagreeing with the sacerdotal theologies of many of the older traditions, Baptists (before we were to this extent washed up in the riptide of parachurch Evangelicalism) shared with other Christians a common conviction that the Lord’s Table is a place of profound gravity—much more than the kind of “communion” we might have with the Lord and with one another while talking about the Holy Spirit over coffee and doughnuts.

This is why many low-church Protestants have shared historically with their high-church brothers and sisters the conviction that the Supper must be tied to discipline (1 Cor. 5:11). The table is not just an individual reminder of the gospel; it is the very locus of church fellowship, the place where we experience Christ present in proclamation and in one another. It is here that we experience a foretaste of the wedding supper to come, and where we announce those we hold accountable to struggle with us until then. The church is “recognizing the body” of Christ (1 Cor. 11:29) by defining the boundaries of communion at the table in terms of those who are in union with Christ and who are able, should they deny him, to be disciplined.

You can read the whole thing here. It seems as though so many of my Baptist, Presbyterian, and Bible church brothers look at me with blank stares when I talk about these things. We can't even have a meaningful disagreement because they assume that Lord's Supper has as much significance to Christianity as a Jesus t-shirt. They both proclaim Jesus, right? And aren't my personal thoughts of Jesus what the Supper is all about? And after all, it is the gospel that matters, not how we choose to portray it. Why should it matter who we allow to the Supper?

No, no, no, my friends. "It is the very locus of church fellowship."

A Bucket of Ice Water

2011-08-19T14:32:00.000-06:00

In a violent contrast, Jesus moves from telling his followers to abide in his love to saying that the world will hate his followers. Its the bracing kind of statement that feels like you have just had a bucket of ice water thrown in your face. But it is just what we need if we are going to follow him and accomplish his mission. Join us this Lord's Day for a bucket of cold water in the face.

Songs
Call Jehovah Thy Salvation (#499)
Doxology
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (#588)
He Who Would Valiant Be (#507)
How Firm a Foundation (#610)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 5; Psalm 105
New Testament: Romans 3:19-31

Sermon
The World Will Hate You - John 15:18-25

P.S. Don't forget the afternoon picnic.

How to Show Biblical Love to One Another

2011-08-18T09:56:00.000-06:00

Since we have talked quite a bit lately about Christ's command to love one another, I found this post helpful:

37 Ways to Love One Another.

I'm grateful for biblical direction to stir me up to love and good works.

Driscoll

2011-08-18T09:51:00.000-06:00

I know that not many people in our church have much to do with Mark Driscoll...and that's a good thing. However, given the realities of technology today, I would be naive to think that you won't come across his teaching somewhere. Some of his teaching is biblical, but you need to be aware of his clearly unbiblical and degraded teachings, as well. Phil Johnson has done us a service by demonstrating how ridiculously unbiblical and obscene Driscoll can be. It's sad that Phil even has to document such things, and it's even worse that so many evangelical leaders refuse to deal with the issue.

The pastoral epistles show clearly how men can go astray in their practice as much as in their teachings. It will not do to defend Driscoll on the grounds that he has some good theology. If he cannot understand why filthy talk has no place in his life (Eph 5:12), then he fails the Scriptural qualifications for an overseer (1 Tim 3:2 - "above reproach," "self-controlled," "sober-minded," "respectable"). All who hunger and thirst after righteousness ought to steer well clear of his degrading ministry (1 Cor 15:33).

Dwelling in Christ's Love

2011-08-13T08:11:00.000-06:00

How do you make the love of Christ your true home? Jesus tells us to "abide in him." Join us this Lord's Day to seek that true home.

Songs
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (#243)
Doxology
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Kingsfold)
Psalm 23b
Jesus Love Me (#719)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 4; Psalm 82
New Testament: Romans 3:1-18

Sermon
Dwelling in Christ's Love - John 15:1-17

Just Sentiments

2011-08-11T11:13:00.000-06:00

The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 14.

Eating Our Hearts Out

2011-08-11T09:40:00.001-06:00

The riots in England are but another example of how Western societies are consuming themselves from within. The cancer has eaten out our souls. May the true churches of our day proclaim boldly, "You must be born again!"

Update: This article by Mike Ovey assesses the situation well.

Secularization

2011-08-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

Charles Taylor on the meaning of the term "secular" in the West.

And so the history of this term “secular” in the West is complex and ambiguous. It starts off as one term in a dyad that distinguishes two dimensions of existence, identifying them by the particular type of time that is essential to each. But from the foundation of this clear distinction between the immanent and the transcendent, there develops another dyad, in which “secular” refers to what pertains to a self-sufficient, immanent sphere and is contrasted with what relates to the transcendent realm (often identified as “religious”). This binary can then undergo a further mutation, via a denial of the transcendent level, into a dyad in which one term refers to the real (“secular”), and the other refers to what is merely invented (“religious”); or where “secular” refers to the institutions we really require to live in “this world,” and “religious” or “ecclesial” refers to optional accessories, which often disturb the course of this-worldly life.

Through this double mutation, the dyad itself is profoundly transformed; in the first case, both sides are real and indispensable dimensions of life and society. The dyad is thus “internal,” in the sense that each term is impossible without the other, like right and left or up and down. After the mutations, the dyad becomes “external”; secular and religious are opposed as true and false or necessary and superfluous. The goal of policy becomes, in many cases, to abolish one while conserving the other.

In conjunction with this, I read Ralph C. Wood's discussion of Flannery O'Connor's insights into American religion.

Yet for all of O'Connor's commonality with the major modern writers, there is also a huge difference: she does not secularize the spiritual. Salvation and damnation are, for her, more than inward states of subjective consciousness; they are objective states of both our immediate existence and our final destiny. The secularizing of the spiritual - at least from Hegel forward - has been one of the most serious mistakes of modernity....That late modern men and women of the West have failed to discern the concrete operations of both the divine and the demonic is largely the church's fault.

Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 156-7.

Don't Try to Go to Heaven without It

2011-08-05T16:30:00.000-06:00

Here is something to ponder this weekend. The Christian Curmudgeon asks a provocative question, "Can you go to heaven without being a church member?"

Read it here.

A Good Series on Worship

2011-08-05T16:25:00.000-06:00

This series of lessons on corporate worship from Bethany Bible Church looks like it would be worth your while. I've been enjoying growing deeper in corporate worship, and everything that drives me to engage with God truly I count as a gift.

The Fruitful Vine

2011-08-05T10:08:00.000-06:00

It is hard to find richer teaching on Jesus' relationship with his disciples anywhere in the Scripture than in John 15. Join us this Lord's Day to hear his words.

Songs
All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name (#36)
Doxology
Tis the Christ (#150)
Hallelujah! What a Savior (#128)
Jesus Shall Reign (#51)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 3; Psalm 69
New Testament: Romans 2:1-29

Sermon
The Fruitful Vine and Branches - John 15:1-8

Virtue and Ordinate Love

2011-08-04T15:47:00.000-06:00

When the miser prefers his gold to justice, it is through no fault of the gold, but of the man; and so with every created thing. For though it be good, it may be loved with an evil as well as with a good love: it is loved rightly when it is loved ordinately; evilly, when inordinately. It is this which some one has briefly said...in praise of the Creator: "These are Thine, they are good, because Thou art good who didst create them. There is in them nothing of ours, unless he sin we commit when we forget the order of things, and instead of Thee love that which Thou hast made."

But if the Creator is truly loved, that is, if He Himself is loved and not another thing in His stead, He cannot be evilly loved; for love itself is to be ordinately loved, because we do well to love that which, when we love it, makes us live well and virtuously, so that it seems to me that it is a brief but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love....

Augustine, The City of God, XV.22

Ritual

2011-08-02T09:10:00.000-06:00

Anthropologist Mary Douglas:

The long history of protestantism witnesses to the need for continual watch on the tendency of ritual form to harden and replace religious feeling. In wave upon wave the Reformation has continued to thunder against the empty encrustation of ritual. So long as Christianity has any life, it will never be time to stop echoing the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, to stop saying that external forms can become empty and mock the truths they stand for. With every new century we become heirs to a longer and more vigorous anti-ritualist tradition.

However, she also recognizes that this anti-ritualistic mindset is problematic.

The Evangelical movement has left us with a tendency to suppose that any ritual is empty form, that any codifying of conduct is alien to natural movements of sympathy, and that any external religion betrays true interior religion.

Purity and Danger, Routledge Classics ed. (New York: Routledge, 2002), 76

Anti-ritualism can be every bit as damaging as ritualism. It has the potential to deeply distort our perception of reality. It can drive a hard wedge between "external" and "internal," and ultimately destroy the very possibility of human communication and society.

Glad that He Is Gone

2011-07-29T10:42:00.000-06:00

Have you ever considered that there are powerful reasons to be glad that Jesus left this earth and went to his Father? At first thought, it would seem to be better for us if Jesus was present with us bodily, but that thought reveals that we do not understand God's plan of redemption, nor how we participate in all of the blessings he has for us right now. Join us this Lord's Day to rejoice that Jesus left us.

Songs
Arise, My Soul, Arise (#174)
Doxology
The Solid Rock (#392)
It Is Well with My Soul (#371)
Praise the Savior (#17)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 2; Psalm 46
New Testament: Romans 1:18-32

Sermon
Rejoicing that Jesus Left Us - John 14:25-31

No Substitute for the Church

2011-07-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

Mark my words: it is absolutely necessary that Scripture's particulars again become normative among Evangelicals, and to that end, that we lead Evangelicals back to the Church, Her Sacraments, the discipline of Her officers, corporate worship, and the proclamation of the Gospel by Her Apostles, pastors, elders, and deacons. This is the record left us in the New Testament of the Apostolic fulfillment of the Great Commission.

And if we are to return to Scripture in this way, we must show the error of those men and organizations who claim to be sharing Jesus, which is to say fulfilling the Great Commission, while studiously avoiding the very things our Lord Jesus commanded, starting with Baptism and moving on to that word "everything."

Tim Bayly doing a little fog clearing exercise.

The Old South as a Schoolmarm

2011-07-27T14:49:00.001-06:00

...Victims of the confusions and frustrations of our own time turn with live interest to that fulfillment represented by the Old South. And it is this that they find: the last non-materialist civilization in the Western World. It is this refuge of sentiments and values, of spiritual congeniality, of belief in the word, of reverence for symbolism, whose existence haunts the nation....

Looking at the whole of the South's promise and achievement, I would be unwilling to say that it offers a foundation, or, because of some accidents of history, even an example. The most that it offers is a challenge. And the challenge is to save the human spirit by re-creating a non-materialist society. Only this can rescue us from a future of nihilism, urged on by te demoniacal force of technology and by our own moral defeatism.

The first step will be to give the common man a world view completely different from that which he has constructed out of his random knowledge of science....What man thinks about the world when he is driven back to his deepest reflections and most secret promptings will finally determine all that he does....

Distinctions of many kinds will have to be restored, and I would mention especially one whose loss has added immeasurably to the malaise of our civilization - the fruitful distinction between the sexes, with the recognition of respective spheres of influence.

The Old South may indeed be a hall hung with splendid tapestries in which no one would care to live; but from them we can learn something of how to live.

Richard Weaver, The Southern Tradition at Bay: A History of Postbellum Thought, reprint ed. (Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1989)

No Dogs or Pigs Allowed

2011-07-26T12:08:00.000-06:00

The early Christian leaders known as the church fathers were exceptionally serious about the need for moral purity for a right understanding of Scripture. Here is Gregory of Nazianzus in his "First Theological Oration."

Not to every one, my friends, does it belong to philosophize about God, not to every one; the Subject is not so cheap and low; and I will add, not before every audience, nor at all times, nor on all points; but on certain occasions, and before certain persons, and within certain limits.

Not to all men, because it is permitted only to those who have been examined, and are passed masters in meditation, and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified. For the impure to touch the pure is, we may safely say, not safe, just as it is unsafe to fix weak eyes upon the sun’s rays.

And what is the permitted occasion? It is when we are free from all external defilement or disturbance, and when that which rules within us is not confused with vexatious or erring images; like persons mixing up good writing with bad, or filth with the sweet odours of unguents. For it is necessary to be truly at leisure to know God; and when we can get a convenient season, to discern the straight road of the things divine.

And who are the permitted persons? They to whom the subject is of real concern, and not they who make it a matter of pleasant gossip, like any other thing, after the races, or the theatre, or a concert, or a dinner, or still lower employments. To such men as these, idle jests and pretty contradictions about these subjects are a part of their amusement.

The Spirit of Truth Is Here

2011-07-22T09:51:00.000-06:00

Is it really possible to participate with Christ in his mission? Yes.

How? You have a 'Paraklete.'

Come rest and rejoice in him with us this Lord's Day.

Songs
Salvation! O My Soul Rejoice! (#291)
Doxology
Eternal Spirit, Praise We Bring (#207)
Come, Holy Ghost, Our God and Lord (#209)
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (#495)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Exodus 1; Psalm 31
New Testament: Romans 1:1-17

Sermon
You Have a Helper - John 14:16-17

Filled with the Fruit of Righteousness

2011-07-15T12:27:00.000-06:00

Unlike most modern intellectuals, the church fathers recognized that good interpretation is most likely to flow from a good person. Patristic exegesis was, finally, a religious exercise. Right reading was a fruit of righteousness.

John J. O'Keefe and R. R. Reno, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 23.

Living in Love

2011-07-15T09:48:00.000-06:00

"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
Jesus (John 14:23)

Songs
Come, Thou Almighty King (#63)
Doxology
Eternal Spirit! Praise We Bring (#207)
Come Holy Ghost, Our God and Lord (#209)
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove (#211)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Genesis 50; Psalm 11
New Testament: Matthew 28:1-20

Sermon
Living in Love - John 14:15-24

The High Calling of Motherhood

2011-07-15T08:49:00.000-06:00

On June 16 I linked to a good article about motherhood as a mission field. Now there is a follow up post which is just as good: "Motherhood Is a Calling."

The truth is that years ago, before this generation of mothers was even born, our society decided where children rank in the list of important things. When abortion was legalized, we wrote it into law.

Children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below honing your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get. In fact, children rate below your desire to sit around and pick your toes, if that is what you want to do. Below everything. Children are the last thing you should ever spend your time doing.

If you grew up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood, to think like a free Christian woman about your life, your children. How much have we listened to partial truths and half lies? Do we believe that we want children because there is some biological urge, or the phantom “baby itch”? Are we really in this because of cute little clothes and photo opportunities? Is motherhood a rock-bottom job for those who can’t do more, or those who are satisfied with drudgery? If so, what were we thinking?

Do read the whole article.

Means of Grace?

2011-07-14T09:42:00.001-06:00

The Christian Curmudgeon discusses why many Christians view historic Protestantism as something more like Roman Catholicism.

A "high view of the Church, of the ministry, of the Word and sacraments is historic Protestantism, but it sounds Catholic to many evangelicals today."

...Historic Protestantism sounds strange to evangelical ears because it believes the means of grace are just that – means whereby, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, God’s grace enters our lives.

Of course, there is much more to be said about "means of grace," but it is quite helpful to realize that American evangelicals in general are deeply mystical. Thus they have a difficult time making a connection between the grace of God and any external action. For all practical purposes, God is privately experienced "in my heart." Going to church, for example, is quite extraneous to the essence of my personal relationship with God.

HT: Ryan Martin

Good News around the World

2011-07-14T09:11:00.001-06:00

Pastor David Doran on teaching at Central African Bible College in Zimbabwe:

Our God is doing awesome things all over the globe for His glory! Seeing them firsthand is an amazing gift of His grace.

Read the whole thing, and be encouraged at the gracious work of the Spirit of God in Africa.

Read Wisely

2011-07-13T10:34:00.000-06:00

"There is … the ignorance of those who have misread many books. They are, as Alexander Pope rightly calls them, bookful blockheads, ignorantly read. There have always been literate ignoramuses who have read too widely and not well. The Greeks had a name for such a mixture of learning and folly which might be applied to the bookish but poorly read of all ages. They are all sophomores."

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, revised ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 12

O Death, Where Is Your Victory?

2011-07-09T05:38:00.000-06:00

This is a beautiful testimony to the grace of God, bringing one of his dear saints home to glory.

"The Valley of the Shadow of Death"

Whatever You Ask

2011-07-08T09:12:00.000-06:00

Jesus has risen from the dead and has gone to the Father. From that honored position, he works to bring honor to the Father. For that very reason, he loves to do what his followers ask of him. He commits himself to do whatever we ask in his name. What an amazing commitment! Are you participating in the mission of Christ by asking in his name?

Songs
We Gather Together (#709)
Doxology
Lord Jesus Christ, We Seek Thy Face (#667)
Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire (#669)
Jesus, Where're Thy People Meet (#666)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Genesis 49; Psalm 28
New Testament: Matthew 27:32-66

Sermon
Whatever You Ask - John 14:13-14

How You Worship God Matters

2011-07-06T15:43:00.000-06:00

This article asks the question, "What kind of Christians do contemporary services produce?" As they say, that's a good question. Consider it.

Roused and Warmed with Desire

2011-07-02T07:24:00.000-06:00

Each Lord's Day we read, just read, from the holy Scripture. Yesterday I was made aware of a great example of how we ought to listen to the Scriptures as they are read. These are the words of John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) in his Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans.

As I keep hearing the Epistles of the blessed Paul read, and that twice every week, and often three or four times, whenever we are celebrating the memorials of the holy martyrs, gladly do I enjoy the spiritual trumpet, and get roused and warmed with desire at recognizing the voice so dear to me, and seem to fancy him all but present to my sight, and behold him conversing with me. But I grieve and am pained, that all people do not know this man, as much as they ought to know him; but some are so far ignorant of him, as not even to know for certainty the number of his Epistles. ... [T]his blessed Apostle said to the Philippians; 'Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel.' (Phil. i. 7.) And so ye also, if ye be willing to apply to the reading of him with a ready mind, will need no other aid.

Don't You Understand Yet?

2011-07-01T13:52:00.000-06:00

Teachers love good comments from their students. It demonstrates that the student is thinking carefully about what he is being taught. But in the final discussion with Jesus' disciples before he was crucified, Philip made a profound request of Jesus which made Jesus sad. Philip wanted to see God, which is the greatest vision any man can have (Rev 22:4). Why would such a request make Jesus sad? It revealed that Philip still couldn't see that he was talking to the Word made flesh.

Do you think that Jesus might say the same thing to you? Let's consider this from a different angle. Are you satisfied with seeing the Father in the Son? Does the revelation of God in Jesus fill your soul and control your life? How can it do so? Join us this Lord's Day to hear Jesus' words and be satisfied with seeing the Father in the Son.

Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy (#3)
Doxology
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise (#23)
God of Earth, God of Sky (#24)
Praise Ye the Lord (#42)

Scripture Reading
Old Testament: Genesis 48; Psalm 73
New Testament: Matthew 27:1-31

Sermon
Satisfied with Seeing the Father in the Son - John 14:8-14

Conviviality

2011-06-29T13:27:00.000-06:00

Convivial. I like that word. It is derived from the Latin convivium, which was a feast or a banquet, and it suggests a joyful sharing of life together. It's a good way to think of our meetings - joyfully sharing together in the life of God.

Seeking God

2011-06-29T13:00:00.000-06:00

Confluents

Christina Rossetti

As rivers seek the sea,
Much more deep than they,
So my soul seeks thee,
Far away:
As running rivers moan
On their course alone,
So I moan,
Left alone.

As the delicate rose
To the sun's sweet strength
Doth herself unclose,
Breadth and length;
So spreads my heart to thee
Unveiled utterly,
I to thee,
Utterly.

As morning dew exhales
Sunwards pure and free,
So my spirit fails
After thee:
As dew leaves not a trace
On the green earth's face;
I, no trace
On thy face.

Its goal the river knows,
Dewdrops find a way,
Sunlight cheers the rose
In her day:
Shall I, lone sorrow past,
Find thee at last?
Sorrow past,
Thee at last?

Why Practice Church Discipline?

2011-06-29T06:16:00.001-06:00

Jonathan Edwards gives five motivations to practice church discipline.

Read the whole sermon, "The Nature and Ends of Excommunication," in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M.

Clothed and In Our Right Minds

2011-06-29T06:16:00.000-06:00

You used to think that the story of the emperor's new clothes was a fairy tale reworked and popularized by Hans Christian Andersen, but it is being literally enacted today before our very eyes.

Earlier this month, a cross-dressing man flew from Ft. Lauderdale to Phoenix wearing only women's undergarments. Dennis Prager commented on the airline's response.

U.S. Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder was asked how the airline allowed a nearly naked cross-dresser to board a plane and sit next to other passengers who, one assumes, did not appreciate being seated next to an exhibitionist.
As reported by the San Francisco Examiner, she “said employees had been correct not to ask the man to cover himself. ‘We don’t have a dress code policy. Obviously, if their private parts are exposed, that’s not appropriate. . . . So if they’re not exposing their private parts, they’re allowed to fly.’”
The decline of American civilization since the 1960s has been so fast and so dramatic that it takes one’s breath away. That a woman speaking on behalf of a major airline can say with a straight face that her airline allows anyone dressed or undressed to fly on its airplanes, so long as they do not expose their genitals, perfectly encapsulates this decline.

How do functioning adults become so absurd? Why do we feel powerless to challenge outrageous behavior? There is no publicly accepted standard of judgment to which we can appeal. In the name of freedom, we have asserted personal autonomy. Personal autonomy can seem reasonable at first; however, it ends in lunacy.

Proverbs 11:14 states, "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law." This is simply to say, when God's Word does not provide authoritative wisdom, men will become collectively stupid. Even if they do not personally parade about in their undergarments, they will have nothing to say to those who do.

One reason our society is powerless to challenge outrageous behavior is that we recognize if we open up the question of what is decent behavior, we will be forced to deal with another question, "By what standard?" We don't want to have to admit that there is an overarching moral standard to which we are all accountable. We will go to almost any length to avoid having to admit that we are accountable to the one true God. We will even tear out our reasoning apparatus and become mute mules entertained by a parade of insanity (Rom 1:18-32).

The entrance of God's Word gives light. Without it, we will end up naked and stupid. May we uphold God's Word as our clear authority, and thus be found clothed and in our right minds.