A little humor

I suppose it's time I do something a little more lighthearted on my blog, lest everyone think that I am always serious. I do have a tendency to be a little too serious, but I will tell you one comical story about my five year old son, Tyler. The other day while my wife was in the DC area visiting family, my wife (Rachel) took my 2 year old daughter (Anna) to the restroom. After a few minutes Tyler started to wonder what was taking so long, so he asked his grandmother what was going on. She said, "I think Anna is having some bowel problems." Tyler was silent for a second and then he said, "She's having problems with A,E,I,O,U?". My wife's homeschooling has really paid off...

Calvinism and its Implications

I have talked to some people that have been around many Calvinists in their lifetime that have obviously been bad examples. I recently had a conversation with someone about this issue. He said that he noticed that all Calvinists think that the doctrines of grace is the most important thing in the Christian faith - the cardinal doctrine by which all Christians should be judged. According to this guy, we think that what people believe about Calvinism is what is most important. Is that true? Do Calvinists think Calvinism is more important than it really is? Is Calvinism important? Does it affect a lot of other things in the Christian faith? He said that the Calvinistic people that he has known have exhibited arrogance, intellectualism, lack of joy, lack of love and lack of evangelism. Do they? I have many thoughts on this, but here are my questions for you guys:

-Tell me how important the doctrines of grace really are and why?
-What are the practical implications of these doctrines?
-Do they affect a lot of what the Christian faith is about?
-Why are there so many arrogant Calvinists?
-Give me some examples of Calvinists who are not / were not arrogant.
-Give me some examples of Calvinists that are not / were not unloving.
-Give me some examples of Calvinists that are / were evangelistic.
-What about joy and Calvinism? Should the two go together?

I think I have lobbed you guys some softballs here. You should have plenty to work with. You guys are going to write a booklet for me. Don't worry. I'll give you credit.

It really concerns me that this is the view (at least of one person I know) of Calvinism to which people hold. I love these doctrines, find them to be thoroughly Biblical, and think they are very important. If you believe the same, tell me why and help me defend these precious doctrines. If you don't, tell me why.

Like Finding a New Toy!

My good friend Mark Redfern showed me how to do some new tricks - nothing that is very difficult (even for an accountant). I now have the ability to do links and pictures. I thought I would use my new skills to put some pictures and links on here. I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about some of the books that have infulenced me most. Perhaps you want to steer clear. :)

Desiring God
When I Don't Desire God
God's Passion for His Glory
The Supremacy of God in preaching
Future Grace
Counted Righteous in Christ
The Sovereignty of God
Shepherding a Child's Heart
Mortification of Sin
The Religious Affections
Today's Gospel
Tell the Truth
The Cross-Centered Life

If I had to pick one that has had the biggest influence on me, I think it would have to be a combination of God's Passion for His Glory, followed by Desiring God, followed by When I Don't Desire God. God's Passion for His Glory expounds on the foundational Biblical truth that God's glory is the ultimate end of eveything. Desiring God expounds on this truth and expands to show that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. When I Don't Desire God helps you apply the truths taught in Desiring God to your life. Once you see that the affections are not optional, it is devastating. Once you see that you don't have what we are commanded to have, namely, joy in God Himself, it is devastating. The book, When I Don't Desire God gives practical steps as to how to fight for joy in God. These three books together have shaped my theology more than any others. These books give a big-picture, foundational understanding of what the Bible is really all about.

Blogging is fun.

Connecting Two Blogs

I got a lot of feedback and wisdom from people on the last post regarding productivity organizations. I appreciate the help. Tonight I read the latest post on another guy's blog. I don't know how to do links or any of that yet, but his post was a simple, yet profound statement about our existence - 50 words that tell us why we were created. It inspired me to think more about my existence and to get more serious about this question: am I fulfilling the purpose of my life? All 50 of the words that he used were synonyms for proclaiming Him / magnifying Him / glorifying Him / enjoying Him, etc. How do the two blogs relate? Well, an organization like the ones we talked about on the previous post (as a result of God's common grace) can help one formulate mission statements, goals, fulfilling responsibilities, etc. If we are guided by scripture then we understand what the ultimate purpose for everything is, namely, spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ (or however you like to say it). Perhaps we could use more focus on being better stewards of God's time (redeeming the time) by reading some of this material or taking some of these classes. Or perhaps we would be more comfortable reading from someone in the Biblical counseling realm who has formulated some similar tools. James C. Petty has written a book entitled "Step By Step" and a smaller booklet entitled, "Priorities: Mastering Time Management." Both are in the "resources for changing lives" series. (this would be another good spot for some links and/or pictures of the book/booklet. If any of you want to offer some advice on how to do some of these techy things - I'm an accountant and we are usually behind on technology.) If any of you out there have not spent significant time formulating a mission statement, goals for your life, and/or resolutions, I strongly recommend that you do so. The same goes for churches and other organizations. Jonathan Edwards is one great example of a Christian who did this. I think he was a teenager (at least for part of the writing of his 70 resolutions). Two great things to keep in mind for a mission statement/resolutions/goals, etc:

1)What Edwards wrote at the beginning of his resolutions:

"BEING SENSIBLE THAT I AM UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING WITHOUT GOD' S HELP, I DO HUMBLY ENTREAT HIM BY HIS GRACE TO ENABLE ME TO KEEP THESE RESOLUTIONS, SO FAR AS THEY ARE AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL, FOR CHRIST' S SAKE."

2)Keep in mind is that we must regaulrly review them to see how we are doing. Again, Edwards is helpful here:

"Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week."

You could write the best mission statement known to man and never look at it again. This is not God-honoring. This is not redeeming the time. It is like being a hearer of the word and not a doer. I pray that we would be good stewards over this precious gift of time that we have been given. May God grant you resolve to glorify Him!

Productivity Organizations

I read a post on Justin Taylor's blog today regarding his friend (the director of radio and internet at Desiring God), Matt Perman. Perman was mentioned on the blog of productivity expert David Allen. In the blog, Allen quoted Perman's email that he had sent to him about the benefits of taking Mr. Allen's Minneapolis RoadMap seminar. Here it is:

"And thank you for the great work that you do. Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything have been paradigm-shaping books for me and several others I work with. It is so freeing to have a clear enough view of things that I can choose my work, rather than have it choose me. The GTD system has also taught our organization how to hold together our sometimes competing values of creativity and execution. In fact, the vision I now have for my department is: creativity, quickly executed."

Here is my question for you guys/gals: Is there anything wrong with Christians taking these types of courses (like Mr. Allen's or Franklin Covey's) to improve productivity and/or time management, etc? Some of you may think that this is a silly question to even ask because it seems like there is obviously no problem with it. I tentatively agree with you, but I just want to solidify my foundational thinking on this. The reason I even ask the question is because of two things:

1. Before I became a Christian I was really into the whole Franklin Covey thing - really into it. It was almost like a religion (I think it was an idol). It is something that you can get so wrapped up in that you find your happiness and satisfaction in "Getting things done". The problem is, what if you don't get things done? So when I became a Christian I think I shied away from it for fear of it becoming an idol. This may be unbalanced (I think it is), but you can help me with that.

2. I am a little leary of taking my cues about how I live my life from non-Christians. As someone with convictions about the sufficiency of scripture and the power of a nouthetic model of counseling as opposed to psychology sprinkled with Bible talk, it scares me a little to take courses like these and allow people with no Biblical foundation to counsel me as to how to live my life.

That being said, I have some other thoughts as to why this would not be a bad idea. Instead of me including my thoughts, I would like to allow you folks to help balance me out and point out where my thinking may be wrong in this regard. I'm hoping to get some good responses on this one. Perhaps you have benefited from these types of courses and would like to share why you wouldn't hesitate to read and/or practice some of the things that they teach. Talk to me...

Glorifying God Through Joy

I preached a message on Romans 15 a few months ago. Following are some of the thoughts that came out of that study. As I honed in on what I determined to be the key verse of that text, 15:7 - "Therefore, receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God", it caused me to ask what receiving one another for the glory of God meant there. In order to answer that question I was forced to look at Romans 14 because this context is the key to understanding what “receiving one another” means here. In looking back at chapter 14 I realized that it is a Christian liberty issue. The stronger and weaker brothers both have an obligation to one another. As I was thinking further about what the second half of the verse meant, “to the glory of God”, it became evident to me that this text was a perfect example of the Biblical idea of Christian hedonism. Here I see in several places in this passage (Romans 14:1-15:13) the idea of the glory of God and the joy of His people so intermingled that it is hard to determine which is which. Of course, I think, and believe it can be argued on the basis of this text, that those two ends are actually one. Romans 15:7b-13 would be one argument and very forceful used by itself. But the force of the argument (that God’s passion for His glory and my desire to be satisfied are not at odds, but are actually one and the same goal) is increased even more when you consider the context of Romans 14, dealing with eating meat offered to idols, drinking wine, and observing certain days and its parallel with 1 Corinthians 10:23-31. Paul is talking about the same thing in this passage, namely, eating meat offered to idols. The phrase that caught me was Romans 14:16-17. "Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." In other words, the main thing in Christianity is not rules and regulations about what we should be eating or drinking it is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." That sounds like joy to me. Christianity is about joy. This made me think back to 1 Corinthians 10:31. What does that say, in the context of the exact same issue? "Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." So it is not about eating or drinking, but about glorifying God. I do not think that it is a stretch to say that these are parallel passages, especially in light of the obvious contextual similarities (they are dealing with the exact same issue). If they are parallel, then you could use these terms interchangeably and make this statement about these verses: They are saying the same thing, namely, that Christianity is not about making rules regarding what can and cannot be eaten or what can and cannot be drank. Christianity is about glorifying God through righteousness, joy, and peace. Christianity is about being happy in God because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Even if one were not convinced as I am about this parallel and the consequent connection I have made, Romans 15:7b-13 are pretty convincing verses in themselves. Praise God that my longing for happiness is not at odds with His passion for His own glory. What a freeing truth! Oh Lord, help me live for your glory by fighting for righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit!

God-centered Repentance

In reading Thomas Watson's "The Doctrine of Repentance" today, the God-centeredness of the puritans, and particularly of Thomas Watson jumped out at me again. Watson (as with all the puritans) had such a beautiful way of getting to the heart into the thoughts and motives. This book reminds me of Owen's "Mortification of Sin" in the way that he wields the sword to cut through to the heart like a great surgeon of the soul. Watson shows that God is the ultimate motivation to true repentance and I saw that in a major way today. In talking about sorrow over sin (one essential element of true repentance), Watson talks about the reason for sorrowing over sin. These two quotes were very convicting and Biblical:

"Question 2: But how great must sorrow for sin be in all?
Answer: It must be as great as for any worldly loss. "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10) Sorrow for sin must surpass worldly sorrow. We must grieve more for offending God that for the loss of dear relations. Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. (Isaiah 22:12): this was for sin. But in the case of the burial of the dead we find God prohibiting tears and baldness (Jeremiah 22:10; 16:6), to intimate that sorrow for sin must exceed sorrow at the grave; and with good reason, for in the burial of the dead it is only a friend who departs, but in sin God departs."

"We usually weep for the loss of some great good; by sin we have lost the favour of God. If Micah did so for the loss of a false god, saying, 'Ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more?' (Judges 18:24) then well may we weep for our sins which have taken away the true God from us."

May we share the same radical, God-centeredness in all our dealings with sin. Oh, for more puritans today!

God Comforts the Depressed

Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more. (2 Corinthians 7:4-7)

Sovereignty is at the forefront of my mind because of the Desiring God conference. I was reading Tim Challies live blog from the conference. It is always the big controversial thing to talk about God being sovereign over calamity (a sweet truth that I would never deny). Sometimes we Calvinists have a tendency to focus so much on God being in control of bad, that I wonder if we forget to praise Him for the good things that happen. This text proves that Paul thinks of God as being in control of blessings. In fact, Paul says that "God...comforted us by the coming of Titus; and...also by the comfort with which he was comforted in [them]." So, in Paul's mind, it was not Titus that comforted them but God that used Titus to comfort them. God was the one who providentially comforted them through Titus. I think this is a lesson in the way that we should talk about good things happening to us in our lives. The fact is, people don't talk like this today. Christians rarely talk this way! We would do well to follow Paul's example to give credit (glory) where credit (glory) us due! God is sovereign. If a blessing comes to you, it didn't come from Karma or because "what goes around comes around". It came from God. Let's start reflecting a Biblical vocabulary when good things happen. We calvinists affirm the sovereignty of God in suffering. Let us not forget to praise God and reflect with our speech to others that "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." (James 1:17) This is a strange way of speaking in today's entitled, Godless, man-centered, affluent America.

Dangerous Duty

I am brand new to the blogosphere - just a couple hours old, in fact. As I was thinking of a name for my blog, "Dangerous Duty" came to mind because of John Piper's little book entitled, "The Dangerous Duty of Delight". A dangerous duty it is indeed! A difficult duty it is! For a wretched, nasty sinner like me to delight in God as the Bible commands is impossible! We all need grace to fight the fight of faith, to be given eyes to see the beauty of Christ. This fight is not for the timid and it is not for those with a light, trivial, fun view of the Christian life. The Christian life is war! We should be blood-earnest and serious about delighting in God more than life on this earth. For the stakes are eternal.

Love the Truth

Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12)

From this passage and others, we see that saving faith involves more than a mere assent to the truth. It involves a change in the affections. Paul says in v.10 that they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. One might think that Paul is going against the doctrine of justification by faith alone that he develops so fully in Romans. I can almost hear the objections: “Wait a minute, Paul. You said that we just had to believe the truth, not love it!” However, I think Paul would respond with v.12 and say that believing the truth and loving the truth are the same. True saving faith includes a change in affections, not just assent. You can make the connection in this text between receiving “… the love of the truth” (v.10) and “…believe the truth” (v.12). You can also make a connection between “…believe what is false” (v.11) and “…(take) pleasure in wickedness”. There is no middle ground you either “take pleasure in wickedness” or you "love...the truth”. Which is just like saying you either believe what is false or believe the truth.

Accursed from Christ!

Romans 9:3 – “For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh…” Notice what Paul really puts the emphasis on for the worst possible outcome of one’s life – being accursed from Christ. Not burning in hell, as horrid as that would be! The absolute worst thing that could happen to a person would be eternal separation from Christ, which, Paul explains at the end of chapter 8, can’t happen to a true believer. The emphasis and the horror of going to hell is not the torture that surely occurs there, but the separation from Christ. As one puritan put it, “If I were to die and go to heaven only to find that Jesus wasn’t there, that would surely be hell to me.” Paul would say it the same way. “For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Why is dying gain to Paul? “…to depart and be with Christ…is far better.” (Philippians 1:21; 23) For Paul (and for all real Christians), heaven is not great because of the streets of gold and the reunion with Aunt Betsy. Those things are great, but the greatest thing about heaven and eternal life is that Christ is there and we can have perfect fellowship with Him there. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life is so magnificent because it enables us to know God in Christ. Being damned to hell is exceedingly horrible because by it we experience eternal separation from fellowship with Christ.