Monthly Archives: September 2012

What is sin?

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“What is sin?
The glory of God not honored.
The holiness of God not reverenced.
The greatness of God not admired.
The power of God not praised.
The truth of God not sought.
The wisdom of God not esteemed.
The beauty of God not treasured.
The goodness of God not savored.
The faithfulness of God not trusted.
The commandments of God not obeyed.
The justice of God not respected.
The wrath of God not feared.
The grace of God not cherished.
The presence of God not prized.
The person of God not loved.
THAT is sin.”

– Dr. John Piper

Miscellaneous Quotes (50)

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“How many more Christians will remember today what happened eleven years ago that forgot what happened January 22, 1973?” – R C Sproul, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.” – John Piper

“[The elect] are gathered into Christ’s flock by a call not immediately at birth, and not all at the same time, but according as it pleases God to dispense His grace to them. But before they are gathered unto that supreme Shepherd, they wander scattered in the wilderness common to all; and they do not differ at all from others except that they are protected by God’s special mercy from rushing headlong into the final ruin of death.” – John Calvin, Institutes, 3.24.10.

“When I hear a Christian man finding fault with his minister, I always wish that the devil had found somebody else to do his dirty work.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Religion moves you to do what you do out of fear, insecurity, and self-righteousness, but the gospel moves you to do what you do more and more out of grateful joy in who God is in himself. Times of revival are seasons in which many nominal and spiritually sleepy Christians, operating out of the semi-Pharisaism of religion, wake up to the wonder and ramifications of the gospel. Revivals are massive eruptions of new spiritual power in the church through a recovery of the gospel.” – Tim Keller

“They that know God will be humble; they that know themselves cannot be proud.” – John Flavel
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A Major Announcement From Monergism.com

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Monergism.com announces the unveiling of a major project 9 months in the making — a best-of-the-web MP3 collection by Scripture, by Speaker, by Topic and by Series – the largest one-stop hub for the best free Reformed/evangelical MP3 resources from EVERY CHAPTER of the Bible from the ministries of Christ-centered, God-honoring shepherds and theologians who are committed to the historic Christian faith.

Check out this link for free mp3’s on Every Chapter of Scripture.

The Pleasures of God (Seminar)

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“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love,” Henry Scougal wrote in his 17th-century work, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. And if this is true of humans, might it also be true of God?

That is the starting place to John Piper’s book, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God. He recently led a five-hour seminar on the book in Minneapolis, all of which is now available for free. Here is the seminar in three parts:

The Pleasures of God – Part 1:

The Pleasures of God – Part 2:

The Pleasures of God – Part 3:

Miscellaneous Quotes (49)

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Followers of Jesus are apprentices who’ve embraced a life of learning. We never leave school. Even when we feel we have something to teach…

“Don’t buy the lie that cultivating condemnation and wallowing in your shame is somehow pleasing to God, or that a constant, low-grade guilt will somehow promote holiness and spiritual maturity. It’s just the opposite! God is glorified when we believe with all our hearts that those who trust in Christ can never be condemned. It’s only when we receive his free gift of grace and live in the good of total forgiveness that we’re able to turn from old, sinful ways of living and walk in grace-motivated obedience.” – C.J. Mahaney

“Christ told his disciples not to be anxious about tomorrow, but he never said not to consider tomorrow. Intelligent problem solving demands careful consideration of the future effects of present solutions.” – R.C. Sproul

“All that we receive in time, all the streams that come to our souls, are but so many streams flowing from that inexhaustible fountain, God’s electing, God’s sovereign, God’s distinguishing, God’s everlasting love.” – George Whitefield, ‘The Righteousness of Christ an Everlasting Righteousness,’ in Lee Gatiss, ed., The Sermons of George Whitefield (2 vols; Crossway, 2012), 1:290

“There is no reward from God for those who seek it from men.” – Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Prayer is the secret of holiness.” – R.C. Sproul

“Crucified for our sins and raised for our justification.” (The Gospel in 9 words) – Dr. Michael Horton

“What man will renounce his own work in order to trust to that of another, unless he be first convinced that his own is worthless? What man will repose for safety in another till he be convinced that there is no safety in trusting to himself? It is impossible. Man cannot do this of himself: it takes the work of God.” It is the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and that alone, which brings the sinner to renounce his own works and lay hold on the Lord Jesus for salvation.” – A W Pink

Eph 5:33 – “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

“When a man is communicating his love for his wife (both verbally and physically), he should be seeking to communicate to her the security provided by his covenantal commitment. He will provide for her, he will nourish and cherish her, he will sacrifice for her, and so forth. Her need is to be secure in his love for her. Her need is to receive love from him.

When a wife is respecting and honoring her husband, the transaction is quite different. Instead of concentrating on the security of the relationship, respect is directed to his abilities and achievements – how hard he works, how faithfully he comes home, how patient he is with the kids, and so forth.” – Douglas Wilson, Reforming Marriage (Moscow, Id,: Canon Press, 1995), 28.

“The taught of God may fall, but not fall away—fearfully, but not finally; terribly, but not totally.” – Thomas Case

“It is condescending love, it is amazing, it is forgiving love, it is dying love, it is exalted and interceding love and it is glorified love. I am talking of the love of Jesus Christ, who loved me before I loved him. He saw us polluted in blood, full of sores, a slave to sin, to death and hell, running to destruction, then he passed by me and said unto my soul, ‘Live,’ he snatched me as a brand plucked from the burning. It was love that saved me, it was all of the free grace of God and that only.” – George Whitefield, ‘Christ the Support of the Tempted,’ a sermon preached in 1740 in England, from Lee Gatiss, ed., The Sermons of George Whitefield (2 vols; Crossway, 2012), 1:341

“If we love Christ and He be ours, it will be a far greater exaltation than if we were from beggars turned to potent monarchs.” – Jonathan Edwards
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Friday Round Up

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(1) This could be the BEST SELECTION EVER in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale! The “Christian Worldview” DVD series alone is well worth considering. Here, Humanism, Pragmatism, Positivism, Pluralism, Relativism, Hedonism, Science, Economics, Government, Art and Literature.

Every good parent wants their children to understand the world around them and this series is superb for that. I am ordering a copy for each of my children as I want this set to be in their personal library. It is normally $72 and contains over 4 hours of teaching.

The “Tough Questions Christians Face: 2008 West Coast Conference” DVD set is also excellent, as is Dr. Lawson’s book “The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon.” Check out today’s $5 sale here.

The Pactum Salutis

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The covenant of redemption is a term we all should get to know – also known by its Latin name, the “pactum salutis,” this covenant was made in eternity past between the three Divine Persons of the holy Trinity. The Father planned redemption, choosing a people to save for Himself; the Son accomplished redemption, living a perfect life of righteousness and as their spotless and holy Substitute, He died for their sins and rose from the grave victorious; and the Spirit applies this redemptive work of Christ to this same elect group, bringing each of them from death to spiritual life and sealing them for the day of redemption. Nothing God planned to do from eternity will ever fail to come to pass. In this failproof plan, all three persons of the Trinity work together, each with their differing but entirely complimentary roles. This then is the starting point to talk about salvation. To start anywhere else, especially to start with man as the creature, and salvation becomes impoverished, meager and very fragile. Yet ours is so great a salvation, for just this reason – salvation is of the Lord!

Has the Text of the Bible Been Corrupted Over Time?

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The first ever question in the Universe was uttered by the crafty serpent to Adam’s wife Eve in the Garden of Eden, why would he ever need to change what is obviously a winning tactic? He knows that unless doubt is countered, it will lead to skepticism, and in due course, outright unbelief.

In former days it was just scholars who needed to be aware of this kind of material. Yet now that the blatant attacks on the Bible have gone mainstream in the media through men like Dan Brown and Bart Ehrman, Christians in our day need to be armed with answers. Here’s what we know:

The Jews had an unparalleled reverence for the Scripture. As the book of Deuteronomy expresses it, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus quotes this verse in response to the devil’s first temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4).

We can determine Christ’s view of Scripture with even greater certainty from His words in Matthew 22. In the context of quoting from the book of Genesis, He said, “…have you not read what was spoken to you by God…” (Matt. 22:31) According to Jesus, when the text of Genesis is read, you are reading words spoken to you by God. To say that Jesus had a high view of the text of the Bible would be a huge understatement.

But that is not all. In Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” This is hugely significant. A “jot” is the Hebrew letter “yodh”, the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is also the smallest letter. A “tittle” is the small decorative spur or point on the upper edge of the yodh. If you can imagine a tiny letter with a slightly visible decorative mark (similar to the dot used in the lower case letter “i” in our English language), the meaning of Christ’s statement becomes abundantly clear. Jesus was saying that not even the smallest letter or even a tiny mark above a Hebrew letter will ever disappear from God’s law, until all is fulfilled. He not only believed that inspiration extended to every word, but to every tiny mark on the page.

For an orthodox Jew, nothing was more sacred than the word of God. This meant that when it came to making copies of the Biblical text onto scrolls, each Jewish scribe was meticulous in the extreme, viewing his task as a high and holy calling. Tradition tells us that each scribe would actually take a bath before writing the name of God on a scroll, even if it appeared only a few words apart in a verse. Multiple references meant multiple baths!

As is the case in a number of other languages, each letter in Hebrew has a numerical value. This means that each line in the text could be given a numerical value, as did each page and each scroll. If the number total of the copied scroll was not the same as the original, the entire copy was burned. Similarly, if a letter even touched another letter, the copy would be destroyed and the scribe was asked to start his work all over again. Talk about precision!
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Leadership Lessons from the Tortoise and the Hare

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Darren Hardy writes:

… you know I am a fan of the story of the tortoise and the hare and the lesson it teaches about how hardworking, consistent and steady-paced people (or reptiles) will eventually overtake the fast, talented, experienced but complacent people (or mammals). Someone recently shared with me an adaptation of the story that makes a poignant leadership point. It goes like this…

After getting his hare butt kicked by the tortoise so many times, the hare finally wised up and realized it was because he was being overconfident, unfocused and inconsistent (maybe he read The Compound Effect; hey it’s possible!).

Newly enlightened he decided to make some changes and challenged the tortoise to a rematch. The tortoise accepted his challenge.

This time, the hare ran with all his might and didn’t stop, relentlessly and persistently until he crossed the finish line. This time the hare won!

The moral of the story? If you think focus and consistency is amazing when applied to the slow and steady, imagine what’s possible if applied to the fast and talented.

But the story doesn’t end here…

This time, it was the tortoise that did the soul searching and he realized that if the hare didn’t stop, there is no way he could beat him…. unless! He thought.

He decided on a different course and he challenged the hare to another rematch. The newly emboldened hare, of course, agreed.

With the lessons learnt from his previous failure and his new disciplines in mind, the hare kept on running once the race started and didn’t stop until the route led him to the bank of a river. He was taken by surprise and he did not know what to do, since he could not swim. There were no bridges in sight and no one to ask for directions. As he racked his brain, thinking of ways to cross the river, the tortoise strolled slowly along, dived into the river, swam across it and ultimately, finished the race before the hare.

The moral of the story? Know your strengths and take on your competitors in areas of your core competency.

But that’s not the rest of the story…
With the hare and the tortoise spending so much time together racing, they became rather good friends. They also developed a mutual respect for one another as they realized that they are both different and they have different strengths. They decided to race again, but this time, as a team.

As the race started, the hare carried the tortoise and they sped to the riverbank. There, they switched positions and the tortoise ferried the hare across the river. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they crossed the finishing line together.

They completed the race in a record time that both of them could never achieve if they were to do it alone. They also felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they’d felt earlier.

The moral of the story? It’s good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies but unless you’re able to work in a TEAM and harness each other’s core competencies, you’ll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you’ll do poorly where someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. And being supportive team members is necessary for a team to advance.

There are more lessons on teamwork to be learned from this story…

Note that the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could, but was not doing as well as he wished.

Imagine how long it will take the hare to learn how to swim! Or for the tortoise to learn to run fast. In this day and age when the environment changes at lightning speed, we have to learn to work with people who have strengths in areas that we do not.

It is the same in business, if we can collaborate with people who are experts in areas that we are not familiar with, we will realize that our market and opportunities suddenly becomes bigger.