My friend Ryan Beardsley just posted this exact quote on his blog, but I couldn't help pasting it here as well! The truth in these statements is profound and life-changing.
"The first foundation of the delight a true saint has in Christ is His own perfection; and the first foundation of the delight he has in Christ, is His own beauty; He appears in Himself the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely. The way of salvation by Christ is a delightful way to him, for the sweet and admirable manifestations of the divine perfections in it: the holy doctrines of the gospel, by which God is exalted and man abased, holiness honoured and promoted, sin greatly disgraced and discouraged, and free and sovereign love manifested, are glorious doctrines in his eyes, and sweet to his taste, prior to any conception of his interest in these things. Indeed, the saints rejoice in their interest in God, and that Christ is theirs, and so they have great reason, but this is not the first spring of their joy. They first rejoice in God as glorious and excellent in Himself, and then secondarily rejoice in the fact that so glorious a God is theirs."
Jonathan Edwards (Religious Affections, 176).
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Apologies!
It's been four months since my last post and I apologize. After a semester and a half I am still learning to fit everything I have to do into my schedule and somewhere along the line updating this blog just fell through the cracks. So let's see. Where to start? God blessed me with a great first semester of seminary. He gave me the grace to work hard and do well in all my classes, and also allowed me to meet a lot of awesome people. One of the awesome things about Trinity is that people come here from all over the world to get the training they need to handle the Word of God faithfully so they can spread the gospel to the people in their own countries. On my own hall I have the privilege of living in between one guy from Sri Lanka and another from South Korea. A little further down the hall is a man from Indonesia and a guy from Romania. Some of these guys have parted from their wives and children for a time in order to attend school here. It's amazing to see their dedication to Christ and the gospel that sustains them through such sacrifices.
God also provided me with a very interesting part-time job last August that has been a great blessing. At the beginning of last semester I began working at Kelley and Spalding Funeral Home, where my friend Ryan Beardsley and I work as visitation attendants. It's been a wonderful job in that the hours are usually in the evenings, the people I work with are extremely enjoyable, and I am often able to study vocabulary while working. I am also thankful to have a job while in seminary that keeps me reminded often of the reality that I will very shortly be with the Lord Jesus. John Piper recently posted this amazing quote on his website:
"You can be so interested in great theological and intellectual and philosophical problems that you tend to forget that you are going to die."
God also provided me with a very interesting part-time job last August that has been a great blessing. At the beginning of last semester I began working at Kelley and Spalding Funeral Home, where my friend Ryan Beardsley and I work as visitation attendants. It's been a wonderful job in that the hours are usually in the evenings, the people I work with are extremely enjoyable, and I am often able to study vocabulary while working. I am also thankful to have a job while in seminary that keeps me reminded often of the reality that I will very shortly be with the Lord Jesus. John Piper recently posted this amazing quote on his website:
"You can be so interested in great theological and intellectual and philosophical problems that you tend to forget that you are going to die."
-Martin Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, p. 193.
Pray for me that all of my studying and learning will be done in full recognition of my own approaching death, and in steadfast faith in the great hope of the gospel. There is so much more to tell, but this will have to do for now. My next post will hopefully be quite sooner than the last one. Also, I'm experimenting with different colors for my blog. I can't seem to find the right one. Any suggestions let me know!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Willow Creek
In a recent article entitled, "Willow Creek Repents" in Leadership magazine, a multi-year research project into the church's ministry is recounted which was conducted by Willow Creek, and brought about some interesting findings. The research was "to know what programs and activities of the church were actually helping people mature spiritually and which were not." Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek, made the following statements regarding the research findings.
"Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for."
"We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."
It is wonderful that Bill Hybels is recognizing that church programs do not automatically effect personal spiritual growth, but isn't it sad that it took a research study to lead to this realization when the Bible itself has plenty to say about the matter. Later on in the article, the executive pastor of Willow Creek says they are going to replace old assumptions and "replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture." I fear that Willow Creek has still not addressed the underlying problem: a pragmatic approach, which looks to what research says "works" rather than to the Word of God itself. Read the full article below.
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html
"Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for."
"We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."
It is wonderful that Bill Hybels is recognizing that church programs do not automatically effect personal spiritual growth, but isn't it sad that it took a research study to lead to this realization when the Bible itself has plenty to say about the matter. Later on in the article, the executive pastor of Willow Creek says they are going to replace old assumptions and "replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture." I fear that Willow Creek has still not addressed the underlying problem: a pragmatic approach, which looks to what research says "works" rather than to the Word of God itself. Read the full article below.
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html
Psalm 112:6-8
For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
(English Standard Version)
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
(English Standard Version)
Monday, October 15, 2007
Joel Osteen on 60 Minutes
Joel Osteen was featured on 60 Minutes last night, interviewed by Byron Pitts. See the link below for Christian blogger Michael Spencer's thoughts on the interview. Here's a preview:
"The line about getting people into 'church' who have been out of 'church' is simply crap, to be polite. No one in this movement is in church. They’re in the worst form of the prosperity Gospel, they are abandoning the God of the Bible, and they are glorifying a man who is assisting in the humiliation of the Gospel of Jesus. Osteen is a motivational speaker, and he uses only enough Christianity as necessary to get in the pockets of the gullible. Osteen is a Gospel preacher like Col. Sanders is an army officer." "Again, as I’ve said before, every evangelical leader needs to personally and by name repudiate and separate from Osteen, and call upon him and his followers to come back into the faith that is articulated in the Apostle’s Creed."
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/reactions-to-the-60-minutes-joel-osteen-piece
Also, Westminster Seminary professor Michael Horton was interviewed on the show as well, regarding the theology of Joel Osteen. Check out the link below for his comments.
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/osteenpage.htm
"The line about getting people into 'church' who have been out of 'church' is simply crap, to be polite. No one in this movement is in church. They’re in the worst form of the prosperity Gospel, they are abandoning the God of the Bible, and they are glorifying a man who is assisting in the humiliation of the Gospel of Jesus. Osteen is a motivational speaker, and he uses only enough Christianity as necessary to get in the pockets of the gullible. Osteen is a Gospel preacher like Col. Sanders is an army officer." "Again, as I’ve said before, every evangelical leader needs to personally and by name repudiate and separate from Osteen, and call upon him and his followers to come back into the faith that is articulated in the Apostle’s Creed."
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/reactions-to-the-60-minutes-joel-osteen-piece
Also, Westminster Seminary professor Michael Horton was interviewed on the show as well, regarding the theology of Joel Osteen. Check out the link below for his comments.
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/osteenpage.htm
Sunday, October 14, 2007
22 Theses on Paul and the Law
I'm happy to announce that my former professor, Dr. Caneday, has recently posted a newly revised 22 Theses on Paul and the Law on his blog, Biblia Theologica. His theses are extremely helpful in better understanding the apostle Paul's understanding of the Mosaic Law and how it relates to the Christian now that Christ has come. I encourage anyone interested to click on the link to the blog under the list of my favorite blogs, or just click on the link below.
http://bibliatheologica.blogspot.com/
http://bibliatheologica.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 12, 2007
Spiritual Warfare Part Two
I came across several helpful quotes in a book I was reading today, Missions in the Third Millenium by Stan Guthrie. Guthrie is commenting on the particular understanding of spiritual warfare advanced most powerfully by Frank Peretti's book, This Present Darkness. I think the comments Guthrie makes in regard to the worldview put forward by this book are very perceptive.
"These depict a God who lets angels and demons 'duke it out' while remaining largely on the sidelines. Much of the spiritual warfare movement implies the existence of a God who is either unwilling or unable to work without specific, targeted prayers to first neutralize the satanic hosts pervading the planet" (80). Later, Guthrie adds, "Claiming the truthfulness of a teaching based on recent experience or a new revelation is the modus operandi of a cult, not of biblical Christianity" (81). Finally, Guthrie helpfully reminds us, "If this 'warfare' emphasis was not known or needed in the church's first two millennia, why would it be for the third millennium? And if it is a true way of becoming 'equipped for every good work,' why did God take so long to reveal it? And how do proponents defend themselves against the charge that they are promoting just the latest gnostic teaching in the church? Gnosticism, long a bane of the church, is an approach to faith that says that some special, hidden knowledge available only to the few is necessary to properly live the Christian life or to do God's will. The warfare emphasis certainly seems to imply this" (82). To end on a positive note, Guthrie offers this concluding comment: "Despite its flaws, it would be a mistake to dismiss the spiritual warfare movement out of hand"..."The spiritual warfare movement rightly reminds us that we battle not only the world and the flesh, but the devil as well" (82).
"These depict a God who lets angels and demons 'duke it out' while remaining largely on the sidelines. Much of the spiritual warfare movement implies the existence of a God who is either unwilling or unable to work without specific, targeted prayers to first neutralize the satanic hosts pervading the planet" (80). Later, Guthrie adds, "Claiming the truthfulness of a teaching based on recent experience or a new revelation is the modus operandi of a cult, not of biblical Christianity" (81). Finally, Guthrie helpfully reminds us, "If this 'warfare' emphasis was not known or needed in the church's first two millennia, why would it be for the third millennium? And if it is a true way of becoming 'equipped for every good work,' why did God take so long to reveal it? And how do proponents defend themselves against the charge that they are promoting just the latest gnostic teaching in the church? Gnosticism, long a bane of the church, is an approach to faith that says that some special, hidden knowledge available only to the few is necessary to properly live the Christian life or to do God's will. The warfare emphasis certainly seems to imply this" (82). To end on a positive note, Guthrie offers this concluding comment: "Despite its flaws, it would be a mistake to dismiss the spiritual warfare movement out of hand"..."The spiritual warfare movement rightly reminds us that we battle not only the world and the flesh, but the devil as well" (82).
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