I have been there, thanks to an ill-advised gift of a toaster oven! Don’t let this happen to you, men!
HT: Tim Brister
Men: Beware of the doghouse
Category: A Word to the Wise
New issue of Tabletalk now online
“True faith involves trusting the evidence that God has amply provided in and through His Word.”
The folks at Ligonier Ministries have graciously provided the August issue of their devotional online. Click on the image below to see it.
What is the difference between being anxious and being careful?
There are times when I wonder what exactly the Bible means when it tells us not to be anxious. I mean, where does being careful or prudent turn into being anxious?
John Piper, after almost being run over while walking across the street one day, wondered about the same thing and wrote a great article on it. Here is his conclusion:
“Do not be anxious for your life” (Luke 12:22) does not mean: Walk on red (at least not always). It means: 1) don’t fantasize nervously about getting pasted in the crosswalk; 2) believe that if you do get pasted, God is still in control and you will be with him and he will take care of your family; 3) if a carton of gold is across the street and the kingdom of God is on this side, don’t cross even on green; 4) if a red light tries to stop you from giving a big missions offering this week, walk on red! (Financial precautions are almost always too conservative.) After blue, God’s favorite color is green. Consider the lilies.
God’s Favorite Color :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library.
Is it revival? Test it with doctrine.
John Piper, on the Desiring God blog, writes about the aftermath of the Lakeland revival and the need for discernment:
Charismatics will not be the only ones who follow the Antichrist when he rises. So will the mass of those who today in thousands of evangelical churches belittle the truth of biblical doctrine as God’s agent to set us free (John 8:32).
Discernment is not created in God’s people by brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance. It is created by biblical truth and the application of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds. When that happens, then the brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance will have the strong fiber of the full counsel of God in them. They will be profoundly Christian and not merely religious and emotional and psychological.
The common denominator of those who follow the Antichrist will not be “charismatic.” It will be, as Paul says, “they refused to love the truth.”
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
Our test for every Lakeland that comes along should first be doctrinal and expositional. Is this awakening carried along by a “love for the truth” and a passion to hear the whole counsel of God proclaimed?
The one question you need to ask yourself
I came by this by way of Neatorama. Its creator made it as an anti-adverstising statement, but I think the sticker statement holds for anything. We are a consumer society and, especially in this country, we don’t always consider the question of whether we actually need something before we get it. As a Christian, I think it speaks to me as a question of whether I am relying on myself or God to satisfy my desires. Do I trust what the Bible says in Psalm 37:4?
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
And what are those desires? I think, if we delight ourselves in God, they are things that please God and bring us more satisfaction in him. Delighting ourselves in God brings us more and more pleasure, not in the earthly sense, but in the sense that we are not feeling like there is a lack in our lives. Think about how many times in your life — and I speak to this out of my own experience — you’ve gotten something you really wanted bad and then found yourself feeling like it wasn’t enough not long afterward. I think we can all picture the scene of the child on Christmas Day who opens all the presents and yet by the end of the day is bored or looking for just one more gift. So, ask yourself, do you need it?
Getting from God what we need when we need it
Of First Importance is a great site that, each day, “provide(s) a thoughtful quote to help you remember what’s ‘of first importance’: the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
I especially enjoyed today’s entry:
“God’s grace means that I can rest assured that I’ll have everything I need to be what he wants me to be and to do what he wants me to do in the situation in which he’s placed me.
I’m no longer restricted to the limits of my own strength and wisdom. By his grace, I’ve a new identity and a new potential. I’m a child of God; the risen Christ now lives inside of me. I need no longer fear people or circumstances; I don’t have to feel weak in the face of suffering or temptation, because I no longer rest in the resources of my own ability. I’m in Christ and he’s in me.
This new identity gives me new potential as I face the realities of life in this bent and broken world. God’s grace gives me reason to ‘take heart.’”
—Paul David Tripp, “Psalm 27: Take Heart”
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology: Online
UPDATE: The person who posted this online did so illegally. Like others who linked, I was unaware of this. My apologies. Rather, go here to see this awesome book.
What this book is about:
The Christian church has a long tradition of systematic theology, that is, studying theology and doctrine organized around fairly standard categories such as the Word of God, redemption, and Jesus Christ. This introduction to systematic theology has several distinctive features:
– A strong emphasis on the scriptural basis for each doctrine and teaching
– Clear writing, with technical terms kept to a minimum
– A contemporary approach, treating subjects of special interest to the church today
– A friendly tone, appealing to the emotions and the spirit as well as the intellect
– Frequent application to life – Resources for worship with each chapter
– Bibliographies with each chapter that cross-reference subjects to a wide range of other systematic theologies.
Fight to go forward or you will regress
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. — I Timothy 6:12
John Piper spoke at New Attitude over the weekend in Louisville, Ky. His two messages were Fighting for Faith with God’s Word and William Tyndale: A Life Transformed by God’s Word. New Attitude is a conference that has been going on for a few years, promoting something called humble orthodoxy. Of particular interest — and benefit — is his how-to for studying your Bible regularly.
More free resources for you: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
From OnePlace.com:
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899 – 1981) has been described as ‘a great pillar of the 20th century Evangelical Church’. Born in Wales, and educated in London, he was a brilliant student who embarked upon a short, but successful, career as a medical doctor at the famous St Bartholemew’s Hospital. However, the call of Gospel ministry was so strong that he left medicine in order to become minister of a mission hall in Port Talbot, South Wales. Eventually he was called to Westminster Chapel in London, where thousands flocked to hear his ‘full-blooded’ Gospel preaching, described by one hearer as ‘logic on fire’. With some 1600 of his sermons recorded and digitally restored, this has left a legacy which is now available for the blessing of another generation of Christians around the world – ‘Though being dead he still speaks’.
You can hear sermons from this great preacher for free! at OnePlace.com (with registration). If you own an iPod or an MP3 player, this is a great way to fill it with awesome encouragement, teaching and counsel. If you don’t you can still listen online for free.
Battling with compassion
As I continue to think about the recent series of sermons being preached at my church, Berean Bible Church, I dwell on the image of the battleship and what that means for my life. Today, I have been thinking about Jonathan Edwards and his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
A few weeks ago in Sunday school we were talking and it came up in discussion that Edwards’ sermon was something that everyone should read. We are fortunate in this age of the Internet that things like that are only a click away. If you are unfamiliar with Edwards, you can always go to Wikipedia, where you can learn about him. About his famous sermon, you’ll find:
This sermon was the very embodiment of a traditional “Hellfire and Brimstone” sermon of the Great Awakening. Edwards’ invoked horrific imagery with the intention of persuading his audience through fear of their own damnation. This sense of fear was apparently so great that during the sermon, according to Stephen Williams (a witness who recorded the events of the sermon), Edwards had to ask for silence from the overwhelmed crowd so that he could finish. When performing this sermon, Edwards would read it in a quiet, calm voice that commanded silence from the audience. Any disturbance would have been noticed, making it easier to gauge the reaction of the congregation as a whole. The subject matter of this sermon was not uncommon for Edwards. Invoking Hellish images was part of a greater arsenal of Gospel topics that Edwards commonly used throughout his catalog of sermons.
But in this day and age, “Hellfire and Brimstone” doesn’t go over well. We are told to love people, not scare them. But if you read through “Sinners,” you will see that making people aware of the existence and the clear path to it we all face is ultimately a loving act. How?
In his message “Two Motives for Missions, Or One?” John Piper explains that compassion pursues the rescue of perishing sinners. If we are truly loving, we cannot go about us each day with blinders on as people are perched on the precipice of hell.
We are battling sin and Satan and hell not just for ourselves, but for the glory of God. When we, out of compassion, work to rescue perishing sinners we bring glory to God by not by just warning them away from the punishment of hell but by luring them to the pleasure of Christ.
Go to battle. Do it for love and the supreme satisfaction of knowing Christ.
For a great talk about Jonathan Edwards and his life, go here.
Rockstanding 
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