“It will be one of the curses of the damned to see that they will be condemned by their own reason with which they claimed to condemn the Christian religion.”
Pascal
“For God is good”
I haven’t posted since Uganda and I plan to post very soon about what the Lord did there and in me but because of school I haven’t had much time to formulate blog posts.
But I figured I could throw out a quote from something I am reading for homework.
Athanasius’ On the Incarnation of the Word
3. For God is good, or rather is essentially the source of goodness: nor could one that is good be niggardly of anything: whence, grudging existence to none, He has made all things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. And among these, having taken especial pity, above all things on earth, upon the race of men, and having perceived its inability, by virtue of the condition of its origin, to continue in one stay, He gave them a further gift, and He did not barely create man, as He did all the irrational creatures on the earth, but made them after His own image, giving them a portion even of the power of His own Word; so that having as it were a kind of reflection of the Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide ever in blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise.
4. But knowing once more how the will of man could sway to either side, in anticipation He secured the grace given them by a law and by the spot where He placed them. For He brought them into His own garden, and gave them a law: so that, if they kept the grace and remained good, they might still keep the life in paradise without sorrow or pain or care besides having the promise of incorruption in heaven; but that if they transgressed and turned back, and became evil, they might know that they were incurring that corruption in death which was theirs by nature: no longer to live in paradise, but cast out of it from that time forth to die and to abide in death and in corruption. 5. Now this is that of which Holy Writ also gives warning, saying in the Person of God: “Of every tree that is in the garden, eating thou shalt eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall not eat of it, but on the day that ye eat, dying ye shall die.” But by “dying ye shall die,” what else could be meant than not dying merely, but also abiding ever in the corruption of death?
Whose glory do you live for?
The more I live, and the more I battle with sin, the more I am convinced that it is a battle of glory. It is a battle between my glory and Christ’s glory, between pride and humility. As I reflect on my emotions, my thoughts and actions, and my desires and purposes behind them, I always find this battle. I find myself acting in ways to further my glory, speaking in ways to further my glory, and dressing in ways to further my glory. Yet all it ever leads to is insecurity and hopelessness, because I mess up, I fail, and thus, I am nothing without Christ. There is no glory to be furthered if that glory is mine.
And so I wrote 12 resolutions to help me fight this battle in the Lord’s favor, so that Christ might be glorified rather than me.
- 1. Resolved, to live and act for God’s glory in all aspects of life rather than my own.
2. Resolved, in light of resolution one, to desire a wife and act in pursuit of a wife for God’s glory rather than my own.
3. Resolved, to not act in order to gain acceptance of others, but act in order to maximize the glorification of God.
4. Resolved, to not be ruled by sarcasm, joking, mocking, but that my speech, tone and mannerisms might be pleasing to God and glorifying to His Son.
5. Resolved, to not speak pridefully or arrogantly of myself, but of Christ and Christ alone.
6. Resolved, to lead others to glorify God.
7. Resolved, to have an ever-striving pursuit of maximizing God’s glory in every aspect of my life, from my actions, to my speech and my appearance.
8. Resolved, to not dress in order to gain glory for myself.
9. Resolved, to not find my identity, or confidence, in myself but rather in Christ, who died for me, and the Father, who sent him.
10. Resolved, to never be satisfied with my holiness, but to continually resolve myself to fight for holiness.
11. Resolved, to follow Christ to the death of myself.
12. Resolved, to trust God knowing that His will is perfect.
Whose glory do you live for? Are you living to further your own glory, are your actions and thoughts for your glory, or are you living to further Christ’s glory in thought and deed?
Striving for Christ, for holiness
Are you satisfied with your life? Or do you hunger for holiness? Do you think you have already reached your goal? Or are you pressing onward? Is your life defined by Christ, by an ever striving passion for holiness? Or are you defined by the world, by your own glorification? Fight for holiness. Learn from the mature, run from the immature. Stand firm, do not be like those who are destined for destruction, deceived into thinking they have obtained salvation, but live in the context of heaven, your true home, in expectation of Christ’s return, and our transformation by his power.
Philippians 3:12-4:1 (ESV)
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
Help 58 Ugandan Orphans Hear the Gospel
So I realize that I have been slacking on posting over the past few weeks and I promise the reason is good. In less than three weeks I will be leaving Southern California for Africa to spend two weeks bringing the gospel to children.
Fifty-percent of the Ugandan population is composed of children 15 and under. More than two million of these children are orphans. In August, I, along with a group of college-aged students, will travel to Uganda to bring the gospel to 58 of these orphans.
I was hesitant when this opportunity was presented to me, having never been on a missions trip, let alone one across the world. But I had recently made a resolution that I would not live a safe life knowing that if I was going to bring maximum glory to God I would have to do so risking it all.
So from August 13-27 I will work with a ministry of Grace Brethren Long Beach called Ugandan Lambs (www.ugandanlambs.org). There are many organizations and groups working with children who have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa, but Ugandan Lambs (UL) is unique in its connection to my church family through Grace members Sam and Ruth Sebabi.
Sam and Ruth were born and raised in Uganda, and the AIDS epidemic has deeply affected their lives. As sisters, brothers, cousins and in-laws began to die from AIDS, the Sebabis found themselves sole providers for all the children left behind. As the numbers grew the burden became too great for them bear alone.
UL seeks to not only meet the physical, educational and medical needs of the 58 children, but the spiritual as well. These children are suffering in a world so much different than our own, without parents and without the luxuries and comforts we often take for granted, and they desperately need to hear the gospel, to drink from the well of living water.
Because I truly believe in this cause I want to give you the opportunity to have a role in proclaiming the gospel to these children.
1. Prayer. The Lord responds to prayer and we are confident that He will do a mighty work in answering serious and intentional prayer by you and others.
2. Finances. The trip costs $2,900 per person, $26,000 total for the team. So please pray that the Lord will provide.
3. Encouragement. My team and I would greatly appreciate help in some way, whether it be commenting on this blog entry, sending us an email or some other creative way.
The Centrality of Gospel Proclamation Continued
Continuing from yesterday’s quote from Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ Total Church,
We want to make three assertions about the relationship between evangelism and social action:
1. Evangelism and scoial action are distinct activities.
Good social action is about harnessing the insights and resources of the poor, but the gospel is a message from the outside that is addressed to us in our spiritual helplessness and powerlessness.
2. Proclamation is central
Social action without proclamation is like a signpost pointing nowhere. Worse still, it is likely to imply either that salvation is synonymous with socioeconimic betterment or that salvation is through good works like those I am doing.
3. Evangelism and social action are inseparable
People often talk about evangelism being the priority, but this suggests a list of actions that you work through from the top down; if you do not have time for the bottom items (like social involvement), then this does not really matter. But evangelism cannot be separated from social action because mission takes place through relationships, and relationships are multi-faceted. As Paul says of his relationship with the Thessalonians, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thess. 2:8)
There has been a recent movement toward social action in local churches and thus I think it is appropriate to discern its proper role in the church inlight of Scripture. For a great and detailed study into this topic read Mark Dever’s church’s paper, What Does Scripture Say About the Poor?
The local church has a responsibility for what is taught and that it is taught. Therefore, it is harmful if the mission of the local church becomes diluted with other things that distract her from her primary purpose. Yet while the primary purpose of the church is the preaching of the gospel, she may pursue that in ways which include caring for the physical needs of non-Christians. Such mercy ministries to those outside of the church are not biblically required to be ministries of any congregation. But they may be employed to the end (whether directly or indirectly) of promoting the gospel in the community.
That quote cannot do justice to the depth and care that went into the research and writing of the paper as the authors unpack the role of the local church and the individual Christian in the lives of the poor.
The Centrality of Gospel Proclamation
So in any Christian ministry, including ministry among the poor, proclaiming and teaching the word of God must be central. And that is because the greatest need of the poor, as for us all, is to be reconciled to God and so escape his wrath. What makes Christian social involvement distinctly Christian is a commitment to reconciling the poor to God through the proclamation of the gospel.
This means it is never enough to address people’s felt needs. Felt needs can be a good point to start because the gospel addresses the human condition in all its complexity. But people do not as a rule express God’s judgment as a felt need. People are blind to their true plight. They do not see their greatest need, which is to be reconciled to God through the gospel. If we do not keep people’s eternal plight in mind, then immediate needs will force their way to the top of our agenda, and we will betray the gospel and the people we profess to love. The most loving thing we can do for the poor is to proclaim the good news of eternal salvation through Christ. It is by no means the only loving thing we can do for them, but it is the most loving thing we can do. It would be a crime of monumental proportions knowingly to withhold such good news.
From: Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church
Blog forward: Thom Rainer
Every so often I come across a blog/site that offers valuable insight into the bible, or the church, or life, and so I want to make it a habit to pass that blog/site along to my readers.
Thom Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services.
Rainer provides keen insight into the inner workings of the church, offering valuable information and observations for believers.
Here are three of my favorite posts:
And my prayer is that I will become someone so passionate about the gospel and what Christ did for me that I will have trouble keeping quiet. Indeed may I become like Peter and John who faced their detractors with boldness. Instead of concern for their freedom or even their lives, they simply said that they couldn’t keep quiet.
Crisis at County Seat First Church
I hear more and more pastors and seminary students say that they don’t want to go to a church like County Seat First Church. They have heard about the difficulties others have experienced at these churches. They have heard the condescending comments like: “It is easier to birth a baby than to resurrect the dead.”
8 Traits of Effective Church Leaders
In our subjective interviews with effective church leaders across the nation, our interviewers repeatedly reported that the leaders had a clear and compelling confidence about their own leadership. But that confidence was not arrogance. To the contrary, their confidence centered more on what God was doing and less on their own inherent abilities.
Book Review: Spectacular Sins *must read
Many are quick to say such things as “this is [insert writer’s name here] best book!” or “if you are going to read any book by [insert writer’s name here] this is it!” And so when I say that Spectacular Sins is John Piper’s greatest work to date, I do so carefully, especially considering the number and depth of his works.
But this IS Piper’s best work, for here, in the very center of opposition to God, to Christ, Piper masterfully shows God’s sovereignty, removing every last argument pitted against it. For if sin, the cosmic rebellion against a holy God, is ultimately under the authority of God, and not just that, but if God is actually using said rebellion to actually bring Himself more glory, how can our knees not hit the ground, how can our hearts not leap, how can our eyes not rain tears, and how can our voice not belt out praise?
The book begins with an introduction by Piper where he exhorts his readers to worship a larger God, because without a big God believers will not be able to handle the suffering that is to come.
People who don’t like Christians are all around us. Only a strange providence keeps our churches from being bombed. It is only a matter of time till the reality of the rest of the world comes home. And all the while we are called by Christ to go to them, love them, sacrifice for them, bring the gospel to them. The Great Commission is not child’s play. It is costly. Very costly.
The coddled Western world will sooner or later give way to great affliction. And when it does, whose vision of God will hold? Where are Christians being prepared for great global sorrows? Where is the Christian mind and soul being prepared for the horrors to come?
After writing in Chapter 1 the impulses that fuel the reason for the book, Piper deconstructs the passage that acts as the backbone of his argument, Colossians 1:9-20. For if all things were created by, through, and for Christ then “everything that exists, exists to make the greatness of Christ more fully known.”
All that came into being exists for Christ – that is, everything exists to display the greatness of Christ. Nothing – nothing! – in the universe exists for its own sake. Everything – from the bottom of the oceans to the top of the mountains, from the smallest particle to the biggest star, from the most boring school subject to the most fascinating science, from the ugliest cockroach to the most beautiful human, from the greatest saint to the most wicked genocidal dictator – everything that exists, exists to make the greatness of Christ more fully known – including you, and the person you have the hardest time liking.
In Chapter 3, Piper focuses on God’s sovereignty over Satan, showing how it is God who governs the moves of Satan and effortlessly answers the question of evil. Why does God not just wipe out Satan? “For the fullness of Christ’s glory.”
A single, sudden, and infinitely holy display of power to destroy Satan immediately after his fall would have been a glorious display of power and righteousness. But it would not have been the fullest possible display of all the glories in the Son and the Father. God chose an infinitely wise way of displaying the full array of divine glories in letting Satan fall and do his work for millennia.
The glory of Christ reaches its highest point in the obedient sacrifice of the cross where Jesus triumphed over the devil (Col 2:15).
Then Piper goes through the Bible to show God’s sovereignty over sin in the history of humanity, from the fall of man, to Babel, Joseph, the kings of Israel and ultimately to death of Christ.
Could the God of the Bible allow his Son to die by anyone’s hands but His own. Piper confidently proclaims “No!”
Why should this matter to you? It should matter because if God were not the main Actor in the death of Christ, then the death of Christ could not save us from our sins, and we would perish in hell forever (Matt. 25:46; 2 Thess. 1:9). The reason the death of Christ is the heart of the gospel—the heart of the good news—is that God was doing it. Romans 5:8: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If you separate God’s activity from the death of Jesus, you lose the gospel. This was God’s doing. It is the highest and deepest point of his love for sinners. His love for you.
This book is a must read for all believers. Not only will it prepare you for suffering, curing you of “wimpy worldviews” as Piper calls it, it will bring you to your knees in humility and praise.
How could a God who takes an act, which purpose is to defame the name of God, and twist it to have it do the opposite and glorify the name of Christ, not cause to cry out “How great is our God!”
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You can download the book for free in PDF form, or purchase it.
Honor Calvin by Glorifying God
Whenever I speak of my love for Calvinism the first attack leveled at my theology always goes something like this,
“Calvin is just a man.” or “Why are you worshiping Calvin?”
And I respond,
“You do not understand. Calvinists do not worship Calvin, for if we did we would not be Calvinists, for Calvinism levels all glory and worship to God and God alone, for Calvin was dead, living a life of total depravity, unable to love God, to love holiness, until Calvin was called by the grace and power of God alone. So to say that Calvinists are worshiping a man is to completely miss the point of Calvinism.”
So in honor of Calvin’s birthday it is only fitting to glorify God, because all that Calvin was able to accomplish theologically could not have been done without Christ’s death and resurrection, without the drawing of the Spirit, without the will of the Father. Left to his own, Calvin would have never been able to see the beauty of the Creator.
Rather than simply honoring Calvin’s legacy, honor Calvin by glorifying God, for I believe Calvin would want nothing less. It is not Calvin we praise, it is not Calvinism we cling to, but the glorious, magnificent, beautiful, lovely, holy, righteous, all-knowing and all-powerful creator of all things.
To Him be the Glory.