My wife and I spent a good part of our long holiday weekend tweaking our church’s website.  You should check it out and let us know what you think in the comments section.

Back in June I wrote up a few tips on how to get out of the doghouse.  It was inspired by a JCPenney’s advertising campaign.  Here’s JCPenney’s latest installment in this series.  Funny.

(If you’re viewing this in an email or on Facebook the video may not be displayed below. If that’s the case, click-though here to watch it on my site)



[HT: Rev Kev]

I only wish I was kidding.  The game is called Mass: We Pray.  They have a website up.  This has almost certainly got to be a joke.  You can read more about the “game” here.

Watch the game’s trailer below.  (For those of you reading this through an email subscription or Facebook, you may have to click through to the actual post on my site to see the embedded YouTube clip.)

[HT: Forward Progress via Challies]

Couldn’t resist posting this.  Very Cool.

(Note: If you’re reading this through an email subscription it’s likely that the embedded video will not appear.  You may have to click through to my actual site to view the clip.)

[HT: Cynical-C]

J. I. Packer’s book, Knowing God, has been treating me very nicely this week.  I’m reading a chapter a day and it is proving to be an excellent and timely work.

In this little quip—which makes for one heck of a sentence—he outlines what is involved in the endeavor of knowing God.

“Knowing God involves, first, listening to God’s Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God’s nature and character, as His Word and works reveal it; third, accepting his invitations and doing what he commands; fourth, recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into his divine fellowship.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.  I doubt many could.

Charles Spurgeon

In his work, The Forgotten Spurgeon, Iain Murray summarizes Charles Spurgeon’s approach to controversy in five helpful and reflective ways.

Here’s the five ways along with a quote from the book representing each.

1. Pastoral Concern
   “There is evident in all the major controversies in which he was involved a pastoral concern for the spiritual welfare of men and women” (p. 197).
   
2. Great Faith
   “Spurgeon engaged in controversy with great faith in God, and with a sense of his duty to do God’s will whatever the outcome” (p. 202).
   
3. Commitment to the Word of God
   “The various controversies of Spurgeon’s life are unified when we see them as parts of his total commitment to the Word of God” (p. 203).
   
4. Desire for Christian Unity
   “Along with the thoroughness of  Spurgeon’s adherence to Scripture in all matters of controversy went his desire for true union with all evangelical Christians” (p. 204).
   
5. Understanding of II Timothy 3:12
   “Spurgeon reminds us that piety and devotion to Christ is not a preferable alternative to controversy, but rather that it should—when circumstances demand it—lead to the second” (p. 205).

We’d do well to have a godly handle on each of these five things in our ministries.

The Hard Work of Moving

A little over a week ago my wife and I packed up and moved to a new home.  If you’ve ever moved before then you know how big of a chore it is.  Boxes, furniture, trucks, tape, narrow hallways, fragile dishes, what to keep, what to get rid of, where to put things, etc.  Needless to say, moving is hard work.

Somehow after all of our stuff had been moved everything that our volunteer help (parents and in-laws) didn’t know where to put wound up in the one room that was designated to be my new office.  It was a disaster.  There were numerous stacks of boxes piled high to the ceiling.  I was left to stare at this mess of an “office” for several days.

My new home office.

There was no way around the fact that the only solution was to get in there and go through everything one box at a time.  It would be slow-going, tedious work, but work that had to be done if my office was ever going to be functional enough to get anything done in.  So after a few of days of procrastinating I got motivated and set my self to the task.

One box at a time I filtered my way through the wreckage.  I had to make a decision regarding everything.  Would I keep it?  Why?  And where would I put it?  If not, throw it away or give to charity?  Do I know anyone else who could use it?

Every gadget, every book, every accessory, every cable (there were a ton of cables!)—it all had to be be faced.  Eventually there was enough space cleared for me to place the larger pieces of furniture in the spots they needed to go.  From there it seemed liked the rest was easy.  The smaller stuff goes more quickly.

The Value of a Disciplined Mind

Today I was reminded of the hard work I did in sorting through and organizing my new office.  While preparing a paper comparing and contrasting the Protestant doctrine of imputed righteousness with the Roman Catholic teaching of infused righteousness I came across this little gem from John Piper.  In his helpful little book, Counted Righteous in Christ, he writes that,

“Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves.  Digging is hard, but you might find gold.”

His point is made as he encourages readers to do the hard work of thinking through a difficult chapter in his book.  It took me back to before I had straightened up my office.  Everything was so cluttered.  People had filled the room with all sorts of items—some helpful, some not.  I had to dig through it all and the end result was a nice home office.

I fear that too many of our minds are cluttered the way my home office was before I worked through the mess and made things right.  If we never take the time to dig through ideas, filter out the bad, and elucidate the good, then our minds will only be confused, crowded, and undecided.  No matter what it is that we’re considering, we need to do the hard work of disciplining our minds to think through stuff.

In the end, we’ll only be better off for having drawn our own conclusions.  And who knows, maybe we’ll find gold.

James 1:2-4 commands us to know and rejoice in the fact that God sovereignly allows trials and difficulties in our lives to mold us, strengthen us, and refine us into the holy people that He’s called us to be.

Here are three little thoughts I observed present in this text from the letter of James:

• There’s a big difference between looking for the good in the bad and looking for God in the bad.
• There’s also a big difference between trials and temptations that we meet versus trials and temptations that we make.
• There’s a big difference between wanting to be happy and wanting to be holy.

I’ve been reading through the volume edited by SEBTS president, Danny Akin, A Theology for the Church.  It’s not all easy reading, but it is interesting.

Writing in a section on, “The Doctrine of Revelation,” Greg Alan Thornbury makes the point that, “[The] notion that freedom accompanies the discovery of truth is what has made Christianity the singularly most powerful worldview in the history of the world.”

In so doing he gives this intriguing tidbit from Albert Einstein:

Being a lover of freedom, when the [Nazi] revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced.  Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. . . .

Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s Campaign for suppressing truth.  I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom.  I am forced to confess that what i once despised I now praise unreservedly.

Sometimes people get a bad wrap.  Whether it’s deserved or not, a bad reputation in the public eye is hard thing to get turned around.  Just ask Michael Vick.

Especially discrediting are negative first impressions.  For many young people, though, that’s exactly what they get when encounter the writings of Puritans in their high school literature courses.

A high school student I know recently went through his introduction to Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  Not surprisingly, his reaction was somewhat negative.  Cold, condemning, judgmental, mean—that’s how Edwards is all too often portrayed to students every year in American Literature classes all over the country.

Hughes Oliphant Old writes that,

For generations, Edwards has been held up to the ridicule of every American high school student as the original preacher of hell, fire, and damnation. The typical high school English teacher in the required American literature course all too often perceives Edwards to be the source of all that made up the worst of American revivalism…In the popular imagination Edwards has a bad reputation, and the protestations of serious scholars have only been heard by intellectuals.

Here’s how the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University introduces this sermon,

Anthologized in high school and college textbooks, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God represents in many persons’ minds the bleak, cruel, and hell-bent outlook of Edwards and his Puritan predecessors. But of course such a representation is only a caricature, for Sinners, if it represents anything, stands for only a small part of Edwards’s view of the relationship between humankind and God.

It really is a shame that Edwards is so commonly written off as a prudish, unrealistically zealous, hellfire preacher.  But he is, and often.

George Marsden, in his book, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, points out that Edwards “…is widely acknowledged to be America’s most important and original philosophical theologian,” and one of America’s greatest intellectuals.  What really is unfortunate is that the only thing many students can remember about him is that he said things like this:

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and Justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow…

and this:

He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.

It’s ironic that literature classes so misunderstand Edwards as to only remember lines like these—lines which when pulled out of context seem completely cruel and unjust.  I certainly don’t remember my American Literature class emphasizing the end of the sermon—the invitation to receive Christ’s mercy.  Edwards writes,

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners.

He continues,

And let everyone that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now harken to the loud calls of God’s word and providence.

The Worship of Mammon, by Evelyn De Morgan (1909).

I recently preached through Jesus’ master treatment of money and possessions in Matt. 6:19-34.

Here are a few quotable nuggets of wisdom I came across in my studies.

Martin Luther:

“I have held many things in my hands and have lost them all.  But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.“

Jim Elliot:

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

John Wesley:

“I value things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”

David Livingstone:

“I place no value on anything I possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God.”

Randy Alcorn:

“You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.”

John Piper:

“When anxiety strikes and blurs our vision of God’s glory and the greatness of the future that he plans for us, this does not mean that we are faithless, or that we will not make it to heaven.  It means our faith is being attacked.”

G. Campbell Morgan:

“The measurements of your lives cannot be circumscribed by the point where blue sky kisses green earth.  All the fact of your life cannot be encompassed in the one small sphere upon which you live.  You belong to the infinite.  If you make your fortune on the earth—poor, silly, soul—you have made a fortune, and stored it in a place where you cannot hold it.  Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning.”

John MacArthur:

“During one of the many Roman persecutions, soldiers broke into a certain church to confiscate its presumed treasures.  An elder is said to have pointed to a group of widows and orphans who were being fed and said, ‘There are the treasures of the church.’”

D. A. Carson:

“The point is that the things most highly treasured occupy the ‘heart,’ the center of the personality, embracing mind, emotions, and will; and thus the most cherished treasure subtly but infallibly controls the whole person’s direction and values.”

“Either God is served with a single-eyed devotion, or he is not served at all.  Attempts at divided loyalty betray, not partial commitment to discipleship, but deep-seated commitment to idolatry.”

William Barclay:

“Jesus never said that this world was unimportant; but he said and implied over and over again that its importance is not in itself, but in that to which it leads.  This world is not the end of life, it is a stage on the way; and therefore a man should never lose his heart to this world and to the things of this world.  His eyes ought to be for ever fixed on the goal beyond.”

Stanley D. Toussaint:

“The primary work of the subjects f the kingdom in their relationship to God is to give implicit, complete, and wholehearted devotion to Him.  This dedication will be marked by freedom  from care, for God will sustain them.”

John Calvin:

“It is, no doubt, true, that believers themselves are never so perfectly devoted to obedience to God, as not to be withdrawn from it by the sinful desires of the flesh.  But as they groan under this wretched bondage, and are dissatisfied with themselves, and give nothing more than an unwilling and reluctant service to the flesh, they are not said to serve two masters: for their desires and exertions are approved by the Lord, as if they rendered to him a perfect obedience.  But this passage reproves the hypocrisy of those who flatter themselves in their vices, as if they could reconcile light and darkness.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

“That is the great principle of which I must constantly remind myself — that I am a child of the Father placed here for His purpose, not for myself.  I did not choose to come I have not brought myself here; there is a purpose in it all.  God has given me this great privilege of living in this world, and if He has endued me with any gifts, I have to realize that, although in one sense all these things are mine, ultimately, as Paul shows at the end of I Corinthians 3, they are God’s.  Therefore, regarding myself as one who has this great privilege of being a caretaker for God, a custodian and steward, I do not cling to these things.  They do not become the centre of my life and existence.  I do not live for them or dwell upon them constantly in my mind; they do not absorb my life.  On the contrary, I hold them loosely; I am in a state of blessed detachment from them.  I am not governed by them; rather do I govern them; and as I do this I am steadily securing, and safely laying up for myself, ‘treasures in heaven.’”

Commenting on Matt. 6:19-21, John Calvin writes,

They are blind and destitute of sound judgment, who give themselves so much toil and uneasiness in amassing wealth, which is liable to putrefaction, or robbery, or a thousand other accidents: particularly, when God allows us a place in heaven for laying up a treasure, and kindly invites us to enjoy riches which never perish.

Cited from Calvin’s Commentaries, Volume XVI: Harmony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Ooh, and this one’s good too (from the same source):

We all have a natural desire to pursue happiness; and the consequence is, that false imaginations carry us away in every direction.  But if we were honestly and firmly convinced that our happiness is in heaven, it would be easy for us to trample upon the world, to despise earthly blessings, (by the deceitful attractions of which the greater part of men are fascinated,) and to rise towards heaven.  For this reason Paul, with the view of exciting believers to look upwards, and of exhorting them to meditate on the heavenly life, (Col. 3:1,) presents them to Christ, in whom they ought to seek perfect happiness; thus declaring, that to allow their souls to grovel on the earth would be inconsistent and unworthy of those whose treasure is in heaven.

John Bunyan’s allegorical description of the Christian life of faith, The Pilgrim’s Progress, is an absolutely fantastic book—a must read for every Christian.  The main character, aptly named ‘Christian,’ has a rather interesting conversation with one of the shepherds he met on the tops of the Delectable Mountains.  Among other things it speaks rather succinctly of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

Christian: Is this the way to the Celestial City?

Shepherd: You are right in your way.

Christian: How far is it?

Shepherd: Too far for any but those that shall truly get there.

Christian: Is the way safe, or dangerous?

Shepherd: It is safe for those for whom it is to be safe, “but transgressors shall fall in it” (Hos. 14:9).

I just finished reading it again and it was even better the second time around.  You can get your own copy here from Amazon for around $10.

Famous pastor and hymn-writer, John Newton, was born on this day back in 1725. He's most well-known for his hymn, "Amazing Grace."

Here’s a nice, little bio on Newton’s life and testimony that was put together by the folks at Mars Hill.

[HT: Between Two Worlds]

Really liked this video from Ray Comfort.



[HT: Atheist Central]

The church I’ve recently joined here in Mobile, AL—Christ Fellowship Bapist Church—is hosting a conference later this year.  It’s called The Expositors’ Conference.  It will feature Dr. Steven L. Lawson and Dr. Joel R. Beeke as they present, “A History of Expository Preaching from the Reformation to the Present.”

I’ve been asked to come up with some 125 x 125 ads for the conference.  These will likely be placed on a few prominent blogs and/or websites within Reformed circles on the web.

It’s the first time I’ve ever tried to put together something like this.  I’m not telling what software I used because you’ll probably laugh at me.

Here’s the ads I came up with so far.  Some of them are animated—that is, they blink at least.

[HT: Take...Z]

Imagine Spot #3

Imagine Spot #2

Imagine Spot #1

[HT: Jill Stanek]

Here’s Francis Chan with a great analogy/object lesson about the way we live our lives and trusting God.

For more on Francis Chan, check out these links:

• His blog
• His church
• His book, his book’s website, and his book’s free audio download
• His school

[HT: Take...Z via A&NY]

A couple of related posts you may consider reading:

• Jesus’ Top 10 Reasons Why You’ve Got Nothing to Worry About
• The Difference Between Anything and Everything

This is an updated re-post from a few months ago.  I just found out that the woman highlighted in this post, Rachel Barker, passed away this week.  Please pray for her family, most notably her husband, Neil.

[HT: Already and Not Yet]

Rachel Barker’s life tell a remarkable story.  Staring into the face of death with the pronouncement of terminal cancer, she clings to the truth of the gospel with what appears to be unshakable resolve.  A testimony for the ages, no doubt.  Her website, DeathIsNotDying.com, highlights her tale.

This is from the website, DeathIsNotDying.com:

Rachel’s story is not unlike what thousands of women around the world have experienced. A diagnosis that changes a woman’s life and inevitably takes from her what we consider to be most precious.

After four and a half years of vigilantly fighting breast cancer, the 37 year old wife and mother of two was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

But for Rachel the essence of life is found in her relationship with God through Jesus. And that’s why Rachel is convinced that death is not dying.”

[HT: Between Two Worlds & Josh Harris and Girl Talk]

First, this is funny.  Second, it’s ironic.

Funny because it’s Conan O’Brien.  Ironic because I’m going to post it on my Twitter account.

[HT: Jill Stanek]

Thought this was interesting.

“Laughing With” Lyrics:

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God when it’s gotten real late and their kid’s not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say “We’ve got some bad new, sir,”
No one’s laughing at God when there’s a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’ve lost all they got and they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God in a hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God

Laughing With by Regina Spektor from the album Far

[HT: Josh Harris]

Summertime can be a strange thing for teenagers.  Many go from school-year schedules that require smartphones to summertime one’s that leave them checking their pulse.  Clubs, teams, meetings, appointments—these sorts of things fill their year, but oftentimes even the busiest of students are left with nothing to do once the summer arrives.  Here are some tips for how teens can get the most out of their summers.

5 +’s and 5 -’s = 10 Helpful Tips for Teenagers in the Summertime

First, the +’s.  Let’s start things off on a positive note.  Here are five things you need to strive to be with whatever summer you’ve got left.

1. Productive
   For goodness’ sake, find your lazy self something to do!
2. Mentor
   Find one for yourself.  Be one to somebody else.
3. Reader
   Find something you like and read about it.  Books, magazines, articles…whatever.  Just read.  It’s kind of like taking a shower for your brain…and trust me, you need one!
4. Holy
   Don’t waste away spiritually during the summer.  Start right away and establish a time and a place where you can read the Bible and pray every day.
5. Helpful
   Use the extra time you’ve got to do something positive.  Help out at church.  Help your neighbors with stuff.  Just help!

Now, here’s the -’s.  At all costs, resist the temptation to veg out all summer long, not doing anything but lounging around and learning how to be more comfortable with being lazy.  Instead, take my advice and steer clear from the following headings.

1. Screen Saver
   Like a computer that’s not being used, too many teenagers turn off their brains all summer long.  This is NOT GOOD!
2. Narcolepsy
   Sleep…ahhh.  We all love it, but ‘too much of a good thing is bad’ definitely rings true with teenagers, summertime, and excessive sleeping.  GET OUT OF BED!
3. Lazy
   Summertime does not mean you’re off the hook from having to do anything.  God didn’t create us to be lazy, so get off your butt and do something!
4. Selfish
   Many teenagers feel that they’ve somehow deserved the right to be lazy because they’ve made it to the summer.  Try telling that to your boss someday!
5. Fat
   When we lay around, encourage inactivity, and don’t do anything we become fat.  The same is true with our spiritual lives.  Don’t become spiritually fat over the summer.

There’s your 10 helpful tips on teenagers and summertime.  Any I forgot?  What advice would you give to young people during their summer months?

Calvin 500, the uber-celebration festivities’ headquarters of John Calvin’s 500th birthday, has put together quite an impressive website.  Among many other things included there is a “fun” section where you can test your skills as a Calvin scholar.  I got 9 out of 10 correct and earned myself this shiny, little badge.  Not too bad, eh?

More about John Calvin at Calvin 500

This morning I woke up to read and be encouraged by these related thoughts.

Mark Driscoll on the spiritual gift of giving:

Regardless of the amount, people with this gift genuinely view their treasures, talents, and time as on loan from God and not their own. They are often moved to meet the physical needs of others. They enjoy giving of themselves and what they have.

John Piper on Jesus and the leftovers:

The leftovers were for the servers. In fact the first time there were twelve servers and twelve basketfuls left over (Mark 6:43). The second time there seven basketfuls left over—the number of abundant completeness.

What didn’t they understand? That Jesus would take care of them. You can’t outgive Jesus. When you spend your life for others, your needs will be met.

Both posts are short, to the point, and well worth the 30 seconds it’ll take you to read them.

• Driscoll’s full post
• Piper’s full post

“If no one has ever heard you change your mind about something, then you are either a god or you have mistaken yourself for one.”

—Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something

Stealing from C. J. Mahaney and his blog’s rather illustrious serious of posts in which he interviews prominent figures from within evangelicalism, I’ve put together three lists of books that you may be interested in.

I love to read.  It comes as no surprise that many of the men that I love to read and listen to also love to read.  Here are three authors and a few of their favorites!

The first is from author, speaker, and former pastor Randy Alcorn.  The second is from Presbyterian pastor, pastor, and author, Ligon Duncan.  The third is from pastor and author, John Piper.

If you’re interested in picking up your own copies of any of these titles, simply click the book cover in the carouseling advertisements below.  Please note that these advertisements are interactive.  I’d encourage you to play with them.  They’re neat.  Place your mouse on top of any cover and purchasing information will pop up.  Click on the arrows beneath each carousel and the books will rotate accordingly.

—

—

Writing at his blog, A Brick in the Valley, pastor and author, Chris Brauns, provides a quick little anecdote on the dangers of TV:

I am not saying all television is wrong. Once when the flu visited our house (though uninvited); one of our children watched Anne of Greene Gables during recovery.  It was a good thing.

But, let’s ask ourselves. Do we regularly administer videos, even good ones, to our children, in order to buy ourselves peace and quiet.

Do not let television be a drug that you administer to your children for your own benefit.

For more thoughts on watching TV you should check out my posts:

• John Piper on Watching TV
• 10 Reasons Why You Could Do Without Cable TV

A pastor-friend of mine, Tyler Scarlett, has compiled a nice little list of reasons why he is, yet again, going back to school.  The list is posted over at his blog, A Word from the Pastor.  Here’s a brief excerpt.

He asks,

Why would I put myself (and my family) through the grueling hours of study, reading, writing, and academia? I’m already pastoring a well-established, healthy, missions-minded church, why would I see the need to go back to school again?

He answers (and these are just a snippet of his 12 reasons),

• God and His Word deserve the very best that we can give. (Do I even need the rest of the list?)
• I don’t want to serve “Chef Boyardee” style meals from God’s Word each Sunday…
• Dead theologians of the past have a lot to teach me about the future.

Read the rest of Tyler’s list: “The Best Teachers are Lifelong Students”