Monthly Archives: November 2011

Islam A to Z

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Here are two outstanding presentations on the subject of Islam, made by my friend Dr. James White. As you watch them, I am sure you will note both the respect in which the topic is handled as well as the sincere desire to be accurate in what is said. This is important information for both the Christian and the Muslim in our day.

(1) Historical Background of Islam (with questions and answers)

Islam A to Z: Session 1 and Q&A from Lakeview Christian Center on Vimeo.

(2) Theology and Beliefs of Islam (with questions and answers)

Islam A to Z: Session 2 and Q&A from Lakeview Christian Center on Vimeo.

This Little Blog of Mine

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This effectual grace blog celebrates its 1st birthday today. That’s right, somewhere in cyber space, this little blog appeared for the first time on November 2, 2010.

I feel I have grown a great deal through the process of putting together the more than 750 posts on more than a 140 different categories. I must say that I have both valued and learned from the many comments I have received, even from those who have had strong disagreements with me. I hope you feel you have benefitted by your visits here and desire to continue the journey, learning and growing together in grace and knowledge of God.

Its hard to fathom this, but last month alone, people from all 50 states of the USA and 99 different countries stopped by for a visit here. Knowing this causes two definite reactions in me. Firstly, it humbles me profoundly to know that many look to this blog for sound biblical teaching, and secondly, it fills me with holy awe concerning the tremendous responsibility just such an audience places in my hands.

Though I try not to take myself too seriously, I must take His truth seriously. It would be the height of presumption to steer even one of God’s precious sheep in the wrong direction. As Jesus made clear, to whom much is given, much is required.

My prayer is that this blog will always be a place for God’s truth to shine forth like a beacon in this dark world, and a place where His gospel is clear in its declaration and wide in its reach. May our great tri-une God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit receive all the praise, honor and glory.

If you have something positive to share in the way of feedback, it would be great to hear from you. Please feel free to write a comment below. If you don’t feel you have anything positive to share, well thanks for stopping by anyway.

May God bless you richly!

John

An amazing recovery

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I am very thankful to God right now. Many of you have been praying for my friend Jim who died (for 18 minutes) back in June. The fact that he is even still alive is a miracle. He’s been living at my home gaining strength and gradually we have seen him take small steps on the road to recovery… until THIS AFTERNOON he was well enough to go back to work for the very first time since his massive heart attack. ALL GLORY TO THE LORD.

A Will Set Free

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What the unregenerate sinner needs is not free will but a will made free.

Until God grants a new heart with new affections, man will never desire the thing (the Gospel) or the Person (Jesus Christ) he so desperately needs. That is because the will always chooses according to the desire of the heart. And that is just it – the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Outside of God’s intervention, the sinner is not just morally neutral towards God, but totally hostile and impenetratably so. The heart is a heart of stone. It is stony only in one sense. For although it is capable of loving many things in this world it is incapable of even the slightest measure of love towards the one true God. That is the nature of spiritual death – the radical corruption of the heart inherent in all the sons and daughters of Adam since the Fall.

The will chooses that which is the greatest desire of the heart at the moment of choice. While the will makes choices every day, the one thing it will never choose is that which the heart hates above all else, namely, God as He really is. For such a choice to be made – for a man to actually enter the kingdom of God – he must first delight in what he hates. This of course is impossible. And this is why something very radical has to happen. Man needs to become a brand new creature all together with brand new desires.

The new desire has to emerge before the choice can be made. He desperately needs a new heart – a heart of flesh, one that beats to know God and until given one, he detests the very idea of it. Jesus made it abundantly clear that if this is ever to happen, he must first have a brand new nature, he needs much more than a spiritual make-over. He needs a spiritual re-birth. The old has to go, the new must come. Unless a man is born again he cannot enter the kingdom God. To fail to see this will not only undermine the biblical concept of the will, it results in a failure to fully comprehend the Gospel.

Calvin’s Heart for Missions

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I was asked recently “in your studies of John Calvin’s life and ministry, “Calvin’s enormous heart for world evangelism and missions.”

I think most of us are aware of John Calvin the Bible teacher and theologian; and we know of the radical positive changes he brought to the city of Geneva where he pastored for so long; but very few seem to be aware that his Geneva Church was a great sending center, with hundreds of students being sent out to take the Gospel and plant Churches in foreign lands.

Calvin trained men to go out from Geneva to many parts of the world. Many of them went, knowing they faced certain death for doing so. Indeed, many who went out died as martyrs for the Gospel. Yet despite this, the work of God prospered exponentially.

Dr. Stephen Lawson, in his book “Pillars of Grace” writes, “Calvin dispatched French-speaking pastors, whom he had trained for the gospel ministry, from Geneva to other French-speaking provinces in Europe. Most went to France, where the Reformed movement grew to encompass about one-tenth of the population. Eventually, thirteen hundred Geneva-trained missionaries went to France. By 1560, more than a hundred underground churches had been planted in France by men sent out from Geneva. By 1562, the number of churches had multiplied to as many as 2,150, with more than 3 million members. The membership of some of the churches numbered in the thousands. This growth produced a Huguenot church that almost overcame the Catholic Counter-Reformation in France. Further, Geneva-trained missionaries planted churches in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and the Rhineland—even Brazil.”

When Slandered…

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John Piper, page 63:

“In the end, the only “good name” that matters is not how men feel about us, but how God feels about us. The ultimate slander came on the cross. “Let God deliver him now, if he desires him” (Matthew 27:43). If? There is no question. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). This is the only good name that matters in the end. This is true riches. This is the glory of Christ.”

Commenting on Psalm 91:5 “Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler,” C. H. Spurgeon wrote:

Note, once more, that sometimes the fowler, when he faileth to take his bird by deceit and craft, will go a hawking after it-will send his hawk into the air, to bring down his prey. It often happens, when the devil can not ruin a man by getting him to commit a sin, he attempts to slander him; he sends a hawk after him, and tries to bring him down by slandering his good name. I will give you a piece of advice.

I know a good minister, now in venerable old age, who was once most villainously lied against and slandered by a man who had hated him only for the truth’s sake. The good man was grieved; he threatened the slanderer with a lawsuit, unless he apologized. He did apologize. The slander was printed in the papers in a public apology; and you know what was the consequence. The slander was more believed than if he had said nothing about it. And I have learned this lesson-to do with the slanderous hawk what the little birds do, just fly up. The hawk can not do them any hurt while they can keep above him-it is only when they come down that he can injure them. It is only when by mounting he gets above the birds, that the hawk comes sweeping down upon them, and destroys them.

If any slander you, do not come down to them; let them slander on. Say, as David said concerning Shimei, “If the Lord hath given him commandment to curse, let him curse;” and if the sons of Zeruiah say, “Let us go and take this dead dog’s head,” you say, “Nay, let him curse;” and in that way you will live down slander.

If some of us turned aside to notice every bit of a sparrow that began chirping at us, we should have nothing to do but to answer them. If I were to fight people on every doctrine I preach, I should do nothing else but just amuse the devil, and indulge the combative principles of certain religionists who like nothing better than quarreling.

By the grace of God, say what you please against me, I will never answer you, but go straight on. All shall end well, if the character be but kept clean; the more dirt that is thrown on it by slander, the more its shall glisten, and the more brightly it shall shine. Have you never felt your fingers itch sometimes to be at a man who slanders you? I have.

I have sometimes thought, “I can not hold my tongue now; I must answer that fellow;” but I have asked of God grace to imitate Jesus, who, “when he was reviled, reviled not again,” and by his strength let them go straight on. The surest way in the world to get rid of a slander is just to let it alone and say nothing about it, for if you prosecute the rascal who utters it, or if you threaten him with an action, and he has to apologize, you will be no better off-some fools will still believe it. Let it alone-let it keep as it is; and so God will help you to fulfill by your wisdom his own promise, “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.”

And now, ere I close this point, let me observe once more, the fowler, when he is determined to take his birds, uses all these arts at once, perhaps, and besets the bird on every side. So, you will remember, beloved, it is with you. Satan will not leave a stone unturned to ruin your soul for ever.

“Amidst a thousand snares I stand,
Upheld and guarded by Thy hand.”