Some Time Off

I'm going to be taking a break from my blog for a spell (if you haven't noticed already).  Many other things have pushed to the forefront that require more of my time.  Perhaps check back in six months or so...

Omnes enim Christi

Of the Reading of Difficult Books

"If a book is easy and fits nicely into all your language conventions and thought forms, then you probably will not grow much from reading it. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. It's the hard books that count. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds."

John Piper, from his book God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards

Nitro-charged, Pauline Sovereignty of God

"If there is one doctrine in the world which reveals the enmity of the human heart more than any other, it is the doctrine of God's sovereignty. When men hear the LORD's voice saying, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," they gnash their teeth and call the preacher an Antinomian, a High Calvinist, or some other hard name. They do not love God except if they can make Him a little God. They cannot bear for Him to be supreme. They would gladly take His will away from Him and set up their own will as the first cause."

- Charles Spurgeon

God's Law in the Christian's Life

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.....Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
-- the Lord Christ, Matthew 5.17,19

"I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet."
-- the Apostle Paul, Romans 7.7

"Let us not forget that 'the Law is good if we use it lawfully' and that 'by the Law is the knowledge of sin' (I Timothy 1.8; Romans 3.20, 7.7). Let us bring the Law to the front and press it on men's attention....We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus and stay with Jesus and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world."
--J.C. Ryle, from his book Holiness (1879)

"Although true believers be not under the Law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned; yet it is of great use to them, as well as to others; in that, as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives; so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of His obedience."
--Westminster Confession, Chapter XIX, sec.6a (1646)

"Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law."
-- the Apostle Paul, Romans 3.31

"The fact is, the Law was not given to justify us (for if this were so, Jesus Christ would have died in vain, as St.Paul says; Gal.2.21, 3.18-21) but, on the contrary, to condemn us, and to show us the hell which is opened wide to swallow us, to annihilate and totally abase our pride, in making the multitude of our sins pass before our eyes and showing us the wrath of God which is revealed from Heaven against us (Romans 1.18, 4.15; Gals.3.10,12).
--Theodore Beza, from The Christian Faith (1558)

"The Law of God is the catalyst for revealing to the saint the meaning behind the admonishment, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
--Corey Ankeny, "Stirring the Pot" (2002)

"Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith."
-- the Apostle Paul, Galatians 3.24

Go Ron Paul!

I dig Ron Paul and think he's the best man for the President we have going this time around, and last time too for that matter.  I'd like to break down why that is exactly, but alas, I have no time to do such a thing right now.  But I did find an excellent article by pastor Voddie Baucham's on his blog entitled "Why Ron Paul?"  which I agree with completely.  It's really well written and I encourage any of you reading this blog to take five minutes and read it through. 

Mission Work to Your Neighbors

"Jesus didn't run projects, establish ministries, create programs, or put on events.  He ate meals.  If you routinely share meals and you have a passion for Jesus, then you'll be doing mission."

- Tim Chester, from his book A Meal with Jesus

The Sacred Ordinariness of Sharing Meals

"It's good to be reminded that the table is a very ordinary place, a place so routine and everyday it's easily overlooked as a place of ministry.  And this business of hospitality that lies at the heart of Christian mission, it's a very ordinary thing; it's not rocket science nor is it terribly glamorous.  Yet it is the very ordinariness of the table and of the ministry we exercise there that renders these elements of Christian life so important to the mission of the Church...
       Most of what you do as a community of hospitality will go unnoticed and unrecognized.  At base, hospitality is about providing a space for God's Spirit to move.  Setting a table, cooking a meal, washing the dishes is the ministry of facilitation: providing a context in which people feel loved and welcomed and where God's Spirit can be at work in their lives.  Hospitality is a very ordinary business, but in its ordinariness is its real worth."

- Simon Holt, quoted in A Meal with Jesus by Tim Chester

Christian Meditation

     "Meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice.  Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.

     It's purpose is to clear one's mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one's mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God's power and grace.

     It's effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God's greatness and glory and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us --"comfort" us, in the old, strong, Bible sense of the word -- as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ."

-- excerpt from Knowing God by J.I. Packer

Are We Heralding Jesus' Good News?

"Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day.  However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect.  The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones.  We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people.  The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church.  That can only mean one thing.  If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did."

- Tim Keller, from his book Prodigal God

Imitate, Imitate, Imitate

"Hospitality will lead to "collateral damage".  Food will be spilled on your carpet.  You'll be left with cleaning up.  Your pantry may be decimated.  But remember that God is welcoming you into His home through the blood of His own Son.  The hospitality of God embodied in the table fellowship of Jesus is a celebration and sign of His grace and generosity.  And we're to imitate that generosity."

- Tim Chester, from his book A Meal with Jesus