This blog got started exactly two years ago today. Back on November 2, I wrote, “A blog (or weblog) is a kind of online journal… this is a place where I share what’s currently on my heart and mind. Its where I share things that are fun; things that make smile; make me laugh, and where I pass on things I am learning and things that really make me think and ponder. In other words, its a place where I do my thinking out loud. Many times I will share my own thoughts entirely. At other times I will point to other people who have said something that has impacted me that I think is worthwhile for us all to consider. So this is a place where I share what I am currently learning about life and things that interest me about our world, as well as the God I love and the amazing treasures I am discovering in His word, and their practical application to our everyday lives.”

1,412 posts covering 227 different categories later, I’d love to hear how this site has been a blessing.

Each of you are busy people I know, but if you can take a few moments to write something about your experience with the blog, I would love to hear from you. Remember, if you do decide to write, please try to be nice to the birthday boy. He’s only two you know. 🙂

POST TENEBRAS LUX – AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT

REFORMATION POT LUCK

If you are anywhere near Phoenix, Arizona this Sunday (October 28) you are more than welcome to join us for a special pot luck event in celebration of Reformation Sunday.

The last Sunday in October is traditionally the time when evangelicals remember how God brought the clarity of the Gospel back to the Church when Martin Luther (on October 31, 1517) nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Church in Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

Start time is 11:00 am. We will join together in singing praises to our God and then start watching an excellent 6 part DVD series called “Reformation Profiles” by Dr. Stephen Nichols. People new to Reformed theology may wonder just what it was about a five-hundred-year-old historical movement that affects our thinking so much today. So join Dr. Nichols for an inviting, approachable take on “Reformation 101.” More than a history lesson, each 23 minute session highlights one of the main personalities of the Reformation (including Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Lady Jane Grey). These men and women affirmed the fact that on the sure foundation of God’s word alone, justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone.

Each character is seen in their historical context and then tied to one of the solas, making these vital doctrines come alive, as we come to understand how standing for these truths was a matter of life and death. Dr. Nichols helps believers understand why the Reformation mattered then and matters now.

Session titles:
Why the Reformation Matters
Sola Scriptura: Martin Luther & The Rediscovery of the Authority of Scripture
Sola Gratia: Ulrich Zwingli & the Rediscovery of Grace
Sola Fide: Lady Jane Grey & the Rediscovery of Justification by Faith
Solus Christus: John Calvin & the Blessing of Christ Alone
Soli Deo Gloria: Glorifying God in Everything

In between the teaching sessions there will be lots of great fellowship and great food.

ALL ARE WELCOME. If you share a passion for the Gospel and enjoy meeting like minded people, we’d love for you to join us. We aim to finish our time together by mid afternoon.

If you are coming, just e-mail me (use the Contact tab above) and I will provide the address and directions.

*** Anyone can leave anytime, as we understand that not everyone may be able to stay for all the sessions. That’s very much understood. Just stay for what you can and enjoy the teaching and fellowship.***

**** You may wish to print out your own set of study notes for the sessions and bring them with you. They are available for free at this link. ****

John

(1) The Presidential race has seemed to be particularly bitter and nasty this year. Because of that, Mitt Romney’s speech on Thursday evening at the Al Smith dinner in New York was a breath of much needed fresh air. It was hilarious.

If you did not see it, here it is:

(2) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering. They can be found here.

(1) Please be praying for the Sproul family. Shannon Macfarlane Sproul, daughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and granddaughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday. She was just fifteen years old. It was only a year or so ago that R.C. Sproul Jr. lost his wife to cancer. Update here.

(2) “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.” – John Newton (1725-1807)

(3) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering, especially the Alaskan Cruise extensive series on election (eleven 45 minute messages) and the doctrines of Grace in John series by Dr. Steven Lawson (both are downloads). Other resources include material on preaching, Jonathan Edwards, Islam, Nehemiah, worldviews, God’s holiness, missions, and joy. They can be found here.

(4) Update: There is currently a 50% discount available on my new book, direct from the publisher here in the USA, Solid Ground Christian Books. For those who wish to order 10 or more copies there is a 54% discount. Both deals can be found at this link.

(5) Excerpt from THE NECESSITY OF THE SPIRIT’S WORK, NO. 251, DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, MAY 8, 1859, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.

“And I will put My Spirit within you.” Ezekiel 36:27.

THE miracles of Christ are remarkable for one fact, namely that they are, none of them, unnecessary. The pretended miracles of Mohammed and of the Church of Rome, even if they were miracles, would have been pieces of folly! Suppose that Saint Denis had walked with his head in his hand after it had been cut off—what practical purpose would have been served thereby? He would certainly have been quite as well in his grave, for any practical good he would have conferred on men! The miracles of Christ were never unnecessary. They are not freaks of power. They are displays of power, it is true, but they, all of them, have a practical end. The same thing may be said of the promises of God. We have not one promise in the Scripture which may be regarded as a mere freak of Grace. As every miracle was necessary, absolutely necessary, so is every promise that is given in the Word of God! And hence from the text that is before us, I may draw and I think very conclusively, the argument that if God in His Covenant made with His people has promised to put His Spirit within them, it must be absolutely necessary that this promise was made and it must be absolutely necessary, also, to our salvation that each of us should receive the Spirit of God! This shall be the subject of this morning’s discourse. I shall not hope to make it very interesting, except to those who are anxiously longing to know the way of salvation.

We start, then, by laying down this proposition—that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to us, if we would be saved.

I. In endeavoring to prove this, I would first of all make the remark that this is very manifest if we remember what man is by nature. Some say that man may of himself attain unto salvation—that if he hears the Word, it is in his power to receive it, to believe it and to have a saving change worked in him by it. To this we reply—you do not know what man is by nature—otherwise you would never have ventured upon such an assertion! Holy Scripture tells us that man by nature is dead in trespasses and sins. It does not say that he is sick, that he is faint, that he has grown callous and hardened and seared—it says he is absolutely dead! Whatever that term, “death,” means in connection with the body, that it also means in connection with man’s soul—viewing it in its relation to spiritual things. When the body is dead, it is power- less; it is unable to do anything for itself. And when the soul of man is dead, in a spiritual sense, it must be, if there is any meaning in the figure, utterly and entirely powerless and unable to do anything of itself or for itself! When you shall see dead men raising themselves from their graves; when you shall see them unwinding their own sheets, opening their own coffin lids and walking down our streets alive and animate as the result of their own power—then, perhaps, you may believe that souls that are dead in sin may turn to God, recreate their own natures and make themselves heirs of Heaven, though before they were heirs of wrath! But mark, not till then. The drift of the Gospel is that man is dead in sin and that Divine Life is God’s gift. And you must go contrary to the whole of that drift before you can suppose a man brought to know and love Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit! The Spirit finds men as destitute of spiritual life as Ezekiel’s dry bones. He brings bone to bone and fits the skeleton together and then He comes from the four winds and breathes into the slain and they live and stand upon their feet—an exceedingly great army—and worship God! But apart from that, apart from the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God, men’s souls must lie in the valley of dry bones, dead and dead forever!

But Scripture does not only tell us that man is dead in sin; it tells us something worse than this, namely, that he is utterly and entirely averse to everything that is good and right. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither, indeed, can it be” (Rom 8:7). Turn all through Scripture and you find continually the will of man described as being contrary to the things of God. What did Christ say in that text so often quoted by the Arminian to disprove the very Doctrine which it clearly states? What did Christ say to those who imagined that men would come without Divine influence? He said, first, “No man can come unto Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him.” But He said something more strong—“You will not come unto Me that you might have life.” No man will come! Here lies the deadly mischief—not only that he is powerless to do good—but that he is powerful enough to do that which is wrong and that his will is desperately set against everything that is right! Go, Arminian, and tell your hearers that they will come if they please, but know that your Redeemer looks you in the face and tells you that you are uttering a lie! Men will not come! They never will come of themselves! You cannot persuade them to come! You cannot force them to come by all your thunders, nor can you entice them to come by all your invitations! They will not come to Christ, that they may have life! Until the Spirit draws them, they neither will come, nor can they!

Hence, then, from the fact that man’s nature is hostile to the Divine Spirit; that he hates Divine Grace; that he despises the way in which Grace is brought to him; that it is contrary to his own proud nature to stoop to receive salvation by the deeds of another—hence it is necessary that the Spirit of God should operate to change the will, to correct the bias of the heart, to set man in a right track and then give him.

HT: Thom Cole

(1) “All is shadow here below! The world is a shadow; and it passes away! The creature is a shadow; and the loveliest and the fondest may be the first to die! Health is a shadow; fading, and in a moment gone! Wealth is a shadow; today upon the summit of affluence, tomorrow at its base, plunged into poverty and dependence! Human friendships and creature affections are but shadows; sweet and pleasant while they last, but, with a worm feeding at the root of all created good, the sheltering gourd soon withers, exposing us to the sun’s burning heat by day, and to the frost’s cold chill by night! Oh, yes! “Passing Away” is indelibly inscribed upon everything here below! Yet how slow are we to realize the solemn lesson: “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!” Unconverted reader, what is your life but a vapor that passes away? and what are its pursuits but shadows; unreal, unsatisfying, evanescent? Your rank, your wealth, your honors, your pleasures, are but phantoms which appear but for a little while, and then are lost in the deeper shadow of the grave, and the still deeper and longer shadow of eternity! Oh, turn from these dreams and hallucinations, and, as a rational, accountable, immortal being, on your way to judgment, fix your mind upon your solemn, endless future! You are going to die! And, oh, when that dread hour comes, so real and appalling, how will your past life appear?” – Octavius Winslow

(2) As I fix my gaze upon the cross of Christ, three things become crystal clear: (1) I am a great sinner. In myself, I am worthy only of death and total banishment from God. (2) God’s love for me, even as I stand in the stench of my sin is totally mind blowing and yet ever so real. He loves me far more than I could possibly imagine. (3) Christ is a great Savior. He is my only hope and all my righteousness.

(3) An author usually writes with the hope of being read; and more than this, that what is written would benefit those who do so. He feels he has something worth saying, and wishes to say it in such a way that it impacts people. This is his driving motivation that propels him to spend many sleepless nights at his desk, writing, re-writing, and writing again. He writes because he feels he must write. He has to say it. He has to get his thoughts down on paper. He just has to. Like a mother with child, there’s something inside him that must come out. Something has to be said. Something has to be heard.

When the final book is in the hands of people, an author waits with baited breath to learn if what he wrote made any kind of difference. He wants to know if his words hit the mark. The Christian author wishes to know if God is somehow using the book to draw people closer to Himself. Did it help someone? Did the Lord use the book to help someone understand HIS book better? Is someone on earth walking closer to the Master now? Is someone out there enjoying their inheritance in Christ more than they were previously?

Its still early days regarding my own book, but the feedback so far remains encouraging. One reader recently wrote:

“Before reading this book, I was “spooked” even by the word Calvinism… it sounded like a good-old-boys theology that I didnt want to be part of. However, in the interim, I heard people I truly respect (John Piper, Greg Koukl, Matt Slick) supporting it so I gave it a try and bought this book.

The author holds your hand and shows you the rationale behind the 5 points, all properly backed up by Scriptures. I don’t say it totally changed my belief on freedom but put a stone in my shoe to continue studying in prayer to find the truth… The book is also easy to read so you will go through it fairly quickly and painlessly.”

This is just the sort of person I wrote the book for – someone who is prepared to look at the Scriptures with something like an open mind. My prayer is that it will be a tool to help people come to grasp the truth of His word on this vital theme of Divine election. As I have written elsewhere:

“God revealed this in His word, not to cause controversy amongst Christians. It is not in the least bit controversial to Him. He revealed this because as His child, He wanted you to know this truth. God forbid that it should be obscured from you. It is part of your inheritance to come to understand that He has had no momentary, temporary interest in you. God has loved you from eternity. God did not have to tell us about His electing love, but there is no doubt that He has done so many times over. The reason for this is clear. He wanted you to know that He actually chose to save you. He did so for reasons known only to Him (though we know it was for no reason found in you at all). His choice was without conditions because born spiritual dead, there were no conditions you could ever fulfill. When you were without God and without hope in this world, God took the initiative in sending His Son into this world to do whatever was necessary to bring you to Himself. This is radical, overwhelming, all conquering love. Nothing could suceed in standing in His way. Once the choice was made, there would be no possibility of failure.”

I have been told that the paperback version of the book is now in bookstores as far away as South Africa and Australia. As I mentioned last week, it is currently available at a 50% discount direct from the publisher here in the USA, Solid Ground Christian Books. For those who wish to order 10 or more copies there is a 54% discount. Both deals can be found at this link.

(4) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering here.

(1) The paperback version of “Twelve What Abouts – Answering Common Objections Concerning God’s Sovereignty in Election” is currently available at a 50% discount direct from the publisher, Solid Ground Christian Books. For those who wish to order 10 or more copies there is a 54% discount. Both deals can be found at this link.

(2) Dr. Dan Wallace states the facts on the “Jesus had a wife” fragment here.

(3) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering here.

(1) Does the Doctrine of Unconditional election make God a “respecter of persons”? My friend John Hendryx of monergism.com writes, “The charge we often hear from those who reject God’s unconditional election is that it makes God a respecter of persons. As is the case with most protests against unconditional election it is important to point out that this is a moral rather than exegetical argument. And if this is the basis for their rejecting the doctrine of salvation by grace ALONE, rather than appealing directly to the Scriptures which repeatedly declare unconditional election (Eph 1:3,4; Rom 9), then one is basing their theological future on shaky ground… Nonetheless I still think it is important to face up to this charge to see if it has any validity. To do this we need to understand how the Bible uses the concept of “respecter of persons” and then let it interpret itself as to what it actually means, and then determine whether or not God would be guilty of it if unconditional election were true. Below is a wide sampling of its occurrence in the Scripture: More here.

(2) There’s an interesting selection of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale! The “Willing to Believe” Conference Series is highly recommended. Check out today’s $5 sale here.

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.

(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.