"Here’s the gospel in a phrase. Because Christ died for us, those who trust in him may know that their guilt has been pardoned once and for all. What will we have to say before the bar of God’s judgment? Only one thing. Christ died in my place. That’s the gospel.
Alistair Begg
- from Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Godliness and the Next Generation
Kevin DeYoung is fast becoming one of my favorite bloggers to read regularly. I urge everyone to read his latest series of blog posts on "Reaching the Next Generation" (i.e. our youth). Here's a sampling from the post entitled Reaching the Next Generation: Hold Them With Holiness :
"One of our problems is that we have no done a good job of modeling Christian faith in the home and connecting our youth with other mature Christian adults in the church. One youth leader has commented that how often our young people “attended youth events (including Sunday school and discipleship groups) was not a good predictor of which teens would and which would not grow toward Christian adulthood.” Instead, “almost without exception, those young people who are growing in their faith as adults were teenagers who fit into one of two categories: either (1) they came from families where Christian growth was modeled in at least one of their parents, or (2) they had developed such significant connections with adults within the church that it had become an extended family for them.” Likewise, sociologist Christian Smith argues that though most teenagers and parents don’t realize it, “a lot of research in the sociology of religion suggests that the most important social influence in shaping young people’s religious lives is the religious life modeled and taught to them by their parents.”
The take home from all this is pretty straight forward. The one indispensable requirement for producing godly, mature Christians is godly, mature Christians. Granted, good parents still have wayward children and faithful mentors don’t always get through to their pupils. But in the church as a whole, the promise of 2 Peter 1 is as true as ever. If we are holy, we will be fruitful. Personal connections with growing Christians is what the next generation needs more than ever."
I am thankful for posts like this that remind me of the call God has for my life as a father, and that call me to repent for living forgetful of this truth so often.
"One of our problems is that we have no done a good job of modeling Christian faith in the home and connecting our youth with other mature Christian adults in the church. One youth leader has commented that how often our young people “attended youth events (including Sunday school and discipleship groups) was not a good predictor of which teens would and which would not grow toward Christian adulthood.” Instead, “almost without exception, those young people who are growing in their faith as adults were teenagers who fit into one of two categories: either (1) they came from families where Christian growth was modeled in at least one of their parents, or (2) they had developed such significant connections with adults within the church that it had become an extended family for them.” Likewise, sociologist Christian Smith argues that though most teenagers and parents don’t realize it, “a lot of research in the sociology of religion suggests that the most important social influence in shaping young people’s religious lives is the religious life modeled and taught to them by their parents.”
The take home from all this is pretty straight forward. The one indispensable requirement for producing godly, mature Christians is godly, mature Christians. Granted, good parents still have wayward children and faithful mentors don’t always get through to their pupils. But in the church as a whole, the promise of 2 Peter 1 is as true as ever. If we are holy, we will be fruitful. Personal connections with growing Christians is what the next generation needs more than ever."
I am thankful for posts like this that remind me of the call God has for my life as a father, and that call me to repent for living forgetful of this truth so often.
Lewis on Suffering and Heaven
As we were discussing the new heaven and new earth as described by the prophets in our small group breakout in class today, CS Lewis and his perspective on how we will see our suffering once the future heavenly state is attained came up. Below is the quote referred to from The Great Divorce. I like the idea of our agonies being turned into glories!
C.S Lewis:
"That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory."
from The Great Divorce, HarperSanFrancisco, (c)1946, 1973, 2001, p. 69
C.S Lewis:
"That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory."
from The Great Divorce, HarperSanFrancisco, (c)1946, 1973, 2001, p. 69
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Gospel Explained #2
The Gospel is the good news of our final and full enjoyment of the glory of God in the face of Christ. That this enjoyment had to be purchased for sinners at the cost of Christ’s life makes his glory shine all the more brightly. And that this enjoyment is a free and unmerited gift makes it shine more brightly still. But the price Jesus paid for the gift and the unmerited freedom of the gift are not the gift. The gift is Christ
himself as the glorious image of God – seen and savored with everlasting joy.
- John Piper, God is the Gospel
himself as the glorious image of God – seen and savored with everlasting joy.
- John Piper, God is the Gospel
End times spectrum of beliefs
I found this summary of the differing positions that have been held by Christians throughout history on the end times to be very useful given the confusion that sometimes surrounds this topic. As you can see, there are a variety of viable positions held in this area by orthodox, Bible-believing Christians that we do not need to divide over. Yes,lets glorify the Lord with our minds and seek to understand and profit from exploring the Bible to the best of our ability, but let us not be dogmatic where Scripture is not completely clear, but rejoice together in the areas of agreement.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Gospel Explained #1
From D.A. Carson, who writes that understanding the Bible's storyline is essential to rightly understanding the Gospel:
"The gospel is integrally tied to the Bible’s story-line. Indeed, it is incomprehensible without understanding that story-line.
God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image bearers.
Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath.
But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects.
In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel."
HT: Trevin Wax
"The gospel is integrally tied to the Bible’s story-line. Indeed, it is incomprehensible without understanding that story-line.
God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image bearers.
Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath.
But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects.
In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel."
HT: Trevin Wax
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Talking vs Listening to Yourself
I have found the quote below by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the most influential preachers of the 20th century, most helpful, and I have recently been reminded how we need to continually preach the good news of the Gospel to ourselves. The Gospel is not a decision we made at some point in our life to allow us entry into the Christian life, thus we can now move on to other things. The Gospel is the Good News we need to preach to ourselves each and every day and continually, actively believe -"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek"(Romans 1:16). Starting this week, I'll be posting frequently significant quotes explaining the Gospel to help us in this regard. I pray it will bear much fruit in our lives. Here's Lloyd-Jones:
"The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience.
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20-21; emphasis added.
HT: Justin Taylor
"The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience.
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20-21; emphasis added.
HT: Justin Taylor
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
For Fathers
Thanks to Sam for the heads up to a helpful series of devotionals by Rick Warren on encouraging fathers to take the lead in the spiritual growth of our children. Here are the devotional topics with the links:
Fathers: Help Your Children Know God
Fathers: Teach Your Children God's Word
Fathers: Pray Fervently for Your Children
Fathers: Protect Your Children's Minds
Fathers: Guard Your Children's Spiritual Growth
Fathers: Show Your Children the Meaning of Commitment
Fathers: Help Your Children Know God
Fathers: Teach Your Children God's Word
Fathers: Pray Fervently for Your Children
Fathers: Protect Your Children's Minds
Fathers: Guard Your Children's Spiritual Growth
Fathers: Show Your Children the Meaning of Commitment
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