knowledge AND living...

The aim of no passage of Scripture is that we should simply know what it says without the knowledge translating into discipleship and worship.

- Marcus Honeysett

quote from "A hole in the fuel tank?" a really good article that I was sent...

The Table

The Table

Lord's Communion -

Saint's sweet union.

Flesh that's broken -

One loaf our token.

Blood-remission -

A vine's fruition.

Christ-believing -

Flesh-blood receiving.

Grace invis'ble -

Myst'ry spiritual.

Christ's ordaining -

Christian proclaiming.

Sign and sealing -

Gospel-revealing.

Self perishing -

Brothers cherishing.

Blest sacrament* -

A Church commitment.

MCC - 1/26/10

 

 Lk 22:18-20; Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 10:16-17, 21; 11:17-34

*For the proper use of the word sacrament, consider Calvin's Institues, book 4, chapter 14.

the curse of Muslim lands according to a grand mufti

“Suicide operations have become a curse of Muslim lands." - Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh

This quote comes from the sermon preached at the hajj in November.  Two interesting articles on the topic: a news article from that day and an opinion article from this month.

A Greater Liberty to Win

A Greater Liberty to Win

“In Flanders fields,” the poem goes,
The poppies grow among the rows;
The souls there laid for freedom died
"Uphold the torch” was what they cried.

In greater cause, my life I’d give:
That souls f’rever in heav’n’d live.
In peace I’ll sleep, for Jesus said,
“My Church I will raise from the dead!”

No failure then can we conceive:
Each sheep in Jesus will believe.
The death of death, sin, and hatred
Yields life eternal and sacred.

On God's own plan we now focus,
Proclaim'ng His eternal purpose.
The vision's His, and not our own:
Nations rejoice before His throne!

MCC – 1/22-23/10

This article was very interersting on the China-Google spat.  It considers the broader issues of the Chinese rise toward superpower status as well as the question of the difference it will make whether China is faced outward or inward.  Interesting...

There is no such thing as a private glory of God! 

He is the God of the nations, and he means for his fame to be spread among the nations. 

- John Piper

quotes from Baxter's "The Reformed Pastor"

"All creatures, as such, are broken syllables; they signify nothing as separated from God."

"Theology must lay the foundation, and lead the way of all our studies."

"To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in his works - this is the true and only philosophy..."

"It is a most high and noble part of holiness, to search after, behold admire, and love the great Creator in all his works.  ... The book of Job, and the Psalms, may show us that our physics are not so little kin to theology as some suppose."

So far as a man is not emptied of himself, and of his own righteousness and goodness, in whatever form or shape, so far he is of a legal spirit. - Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

a more beautiful Church

"O Thou True Light of all lights, as Thy grace, through the true faith, has enriched Christians before unbelievers, so they are bound to demonstrate the true faith to unbelievers.... The holy Church, which consists of the souls of just catholic men, would be far more beautiful if there were men acquainted with different languages who would go through the earth, that unrighteous and unbelieving men might hear the praises of Thy glorious Trinity and of Thy blessed humanity and of Thy painful passion.

~Raymond Lull

(found in George Smith's Short History... pg 108.)

Hebrews 10, 1 John 1-2, Confession, and Forgiveness

The past two weeks, two sermons have been preached at Providence that provide a much richer and, I believe, more accurate understanding of 1 John 1:6-2:2 than I have previously heard preached.  The first sermon was based on Hebrews 10 and dealt with the extent of our forgiveness in Christ.  The second was based on 1 John 1-2 and gave the positive message of that passage.  These are very helpful messages, and are available either from provcast.org or from the Provcast podcast on iTunes.

About a month ago, I posted a link to another resource on this topic.  These resources dovetail together rather well.

Calvin on the effectiveness of God's grace opposed to our (in)ability to will good

These are selections from reading I did for our DTS meeting today.  They will come into fuller color if read in their original context (Calvin, Institutes. Book 2, Chap. 5), but I thought they were worth sharing as snippets.

"And yet, as the beneficence and liberality of God are manifold and inexhaustible, the grace which he bestows upon us, inasmuch as he makes it our own, he recompenses as if the virtuous acts were our own."  Wow!  God graces us to live for Him, and then rewards us for doing what He Himself enabled!

"...God does not measure the precepts of his law by human strength, but, after ordering what is right, freely bestows on his elect the power of fulfilling it."  What an amazing truth! God does not require what we can do, rather He gives us the power of doing what He requires!
 
"...God works in his elect in two ways: inwardly, by his Spirit; outwardly by his word.  By his Spirit illuminating their minds, and training their hearts to the practice of righteousness, he makes them new creatures, while, by his word, he stimulates them to long and seek for their renovation."

"In regard to the present question [what is the power of the Law in man?], while [the Law] explains what our duty is, it teaches that the power of obeying it is derived from the goodness of God, and it accordingly urges us to pray that this power be given us." (emphasis added)

"Being taught by precepts what the will of God is, we are reminded of our wretchedness in being so completely at variance with that will, and, at the same time, are stimulated to invoke the aid of the Spirit to guide us into the right path.  But as our indolence is not sufficiently aroused by precepts, promises are added, that they may attract us by their sweetness, and produce a feeling of love for the precept.  The greater our desire of righteousness, the greater will be our earnestness to obtain the grace of God.  And thus it is, that in the protestations 'if we be willing,' 'if thou shalt hearken,' the Lord neither attributes to us full power of willing and hearkening, nor yet mocks us for our impotence." (emphasis added) 

There is NO TIME!

There is NO TIME! is an excellent book by Paul Nyquist. I was given it for Christmas, and I finished it today. Outstanding!

I loved several principles that were laid out (I have rephrased some of them):
-- Divine Serendipity: All appointments are divine appointments.
-- The imminent return of Christ: This has to be a real motivation for us, not just a superficial one.
-- God's Arm is not shortened: God CAN and DESIRES to impact the world today as He did in the days of the apostles.
-- Stewardship: The investment of God's people deserves eternal reward.  Are they receiving eternal glory for the investment that they make today?
--Overt Witness: We share the Gospel of Christ early and often in all our relationships.

 I love the way I can find most of the principles laid out in  There is NO TIME! in the book of Acts. The author did a good job of acknowledging and dealing with differences between the apostolic and modern contexts generally.  With that being said, I would be interested in seeing further clarification on a few points.

- This is not an excuse to flee danger (The premise is that we may not have much time in a nation; but that doesn't mean that we can flee danger simply because we are threatened.  It means that we are very likely to get thrown out no matter our commitment.)
- NT churches were also planted/matured other ways (Many frontier churches in the NT were planted in other ways, e.g. Antioch or Rome.)
- There was a fairly stable NT political scene whereas the fable is based on instability (While Roman politics were turbulent, the empire seems to have been fairly stable in the areas where Paul worked; the situation we are looking at is often quite different... what does that mean?)
- This model lends itself to “single” ministry. (The book gave me new insight into why Paul would want teams that could travel light without the "burden/distraction" of families.)
- More definition of the difference between team and work group would be helpful.  (I just am not sure I have the difference clear in my mind.)
- If done carefully there does not seem to be a need for retraining as you add like-minded team members (e.g. Luke, Timothy).
- Paul ministered in basically one nation for his entire ministry; thus changing nations/people groups might not be the answer at the end of the process.  Applied to today that might look like moving within a nation to different areas or moving within a people group/related people groups.