In the footsteps of those great men

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  edikaiosen 5:02 pm on April 30, 2008 | 2 | # |
  Tags: Bible, Church in America, division, evangelism, fortressing, Heretics, Jesus, John, Jude, Luke, Mark Driscoll, money, moralism, orthodoxy, orthopraxy, polemic, religion, Romans, worship

  I believe that in any good reformation there are going to be things that people disagree about, for if there wasn’t any disagreement there would be no need to reform, hence I’m not against being a polemicist. In order to change we need to face our differences and choose sides. Now, you must understand, that I believe the church for the most part in America has become so perverse that it is no longer recognizable as Christ’s Church, but instead is on the verge of becoming a mere cult to the worship of money, America, self, moralism, and religion; for if you do not understand this then you will see my points as pointless. Because of this abounding heresy found in most American churches division is necessitated and recommended. Take a look as these verses regarding division in the New Testament:

  Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. John 9:16 (italics added)

  Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:51-53 (italics added)

  Jesus came at a time when division was necessary. He divided people by those who would believe His Gospel and those who would not. We must not be afraid to divide away from those who have perverted the Gospel.

  Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Romans 12:9

  Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Romans 16:17-18

  Also the book of Jude

  We need to act in accordance with the spirit and by the will of God given through the Holy Scriptures to become a holy (seperate) people. This does not mean fortressing our faith and removing ourselves from the world, but rather being distinct and remaining true to the Gospel. That means evangelism among the world (culture grand and small), it means remaining faithful to the truth but being flexible with the presentation. As Mark Driscoll says, “there are some things that remain in the closed hand and some things that remain in the open hand.” (paraphrase) The bible is in the closed hand.

  So in the spirit of becoming holy and blameless we must contend ernestly for the Gosple and that means not being afraid to step on heretics toes. We should seek to reform gently those who have wandered from the path of truth, but not be afraid to say their wrong and we don’t want them to associate with us. It’s okay for them to think what they want, but there comes a point when they’ve wandered too far and they’re no longer Christian, they’re something else completely.

  K.B.

   
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  poopemerges 3:52 pm on April 29, 2008 | 1 | # |
  

  On the part of man, however, nothing precedes grace except indisposition and even rebellion against grace.

  In brief, man by nature has neither correct precept nor good will.

  We are not masters of our actions, from beginning to end, but servants.

  We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds.

  It is not true that God can accept man without his justifying grace

  The law, as taskmaster of the will, will not be overcome except by the “child, who has been born to us” [Isa. 9:6].

  The law makes sin abound because it irritates and repels the will [Rom. 7:13].

  The grace of God, however, makes justice abound through Jesus Christ because it causes one to be pleased with the law.

  Every deed of the law without the grace of God appears good outwardly, but inwardly it is sin.

  The will is always averse to, and the hands inclined toward, the law of the Lord without the grace of God.

  The grace of God is given for the purpose of directing the will, lest it err even in loving God.

  D

   

• poopemerges 8:33 pm on April 23, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Church in America, Ed Stetzer, Reformation

  I am in Orlando and Ed Stetzer said today:

  “The Church in America will never change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing…I do not think we are there yet”

  We have been focusing on the concept of what it will mean to have a true church planting movement here in America.  The last one that took place in this coutry was in the 1700’s!  It was the Baptist and the Methodist. 

  Get this the Methodist Circut riders life expectancy was 39!  These dudes rode all over the country to tell people about Jesus and it literally killed them.  But at the end of it there were thousands of churches.  The Methodist were starting two churches a day.  That is crazy stuff. 

  In America in our time the only thing that is killing us is the over eating we all do after church…we are certainly not dying from spreading the gospel!  Frankly the church is not only physically fat it is spirtually fat. It is not dying from spreading the gospel of Jesus..it is dying from the spread of the gospel of self, America and stuff. I pray that we might soon be alive again.  All of us.  Not just the Baptist and Reformed but the Pentecostals and Methodist too.  It’s going to take all of us.   May we live and multiply.

  Semper Reformada

  D

   
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  edikaiosen 5:04 pm on April 22, 2008 | 3 | # |
  Tags: creation, election, God, Romans, Theology

  Romans 1:25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.”

  Wow.  I don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like my life.  I often worship God’s creation rather than the one who created it.  How weird does it sound to say to a work of art hanging on a wall in a gallery “Awesome! You are so beautiful!  I am so glad you decided to look like this because you are amazing!”  No!  You commend the artist with those accolades.  You might comment on his skillful hand, his eye for color, his careful placement of shadow, or his conception and command of that conception.

  We must stop living as if the Creator God isn’t in the room and give worship where worship is due.

  It really goes deeper than worship though, we not only worship God’s creation but don’t we also take the painting off the wall and change it?  And don’t we go really beyond changing it to saying to the artist that what he made was wrong?  And don’t we often times go even further and pervert the artist creation to how we want to see it by spitting on it, cutting it, burning it… Don’t we “…invent ways of doing evil…” (Romans 1:30) to God’s amazing creation.

  So I say again, we must stop living as if the Creator God isn’t in the room.  Lest we forget that we are also His creation.

  But we can’t will it can we?  For we have been “…given over to our shameful lusts…” (Romans 1:26)  There is no hope in us ever being able to give proper worship to our amazing Creator.  We are utterly sinful.  Our only hope is that our Creator choose to fix us, for how can the created thing become it’s own savior?  We must rely on our Creator to choose and to fix us.  Romans 9:11-13

  “Yes, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:not by works but by him who calls-she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’

  God in His sovereign choice as Creator and through His omnipotence has chosen those in His creation that He will save and those whom He will destroy and as Creator, He is completely justified, for who says to the Artist you can’t destroy that?  It’s His to destroy or His to save.  Amen!

  K.B.

   
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  ddonnie 3:41 am on April 22, 2008 | 0 | # |
  

  God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.

  John Calvin

  D.C.

   
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  mikevandrie 1:56 pm on April 20, 2008 | 3 | # |
  Tags: Grace, Spurgeon

  I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, “You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.” My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.  -Charles Haddon Spurgeon

  Do we think like this?

  Is it true?

  Does the Bible support this?

  -M. VanDrie

   
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  poopemerges 1:37 am on April 20, 2008 | 0 | # |
  

  “If you have pity for perishing people and a passion for the reputation of Christ, you must care about world mission.” –John Piper

   

• poopemerges 8:13 pm on April 17, 2008 | 0 | # |
  

  “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60 italics Mine

  -D

   

• poopemerges 8:09 pm on April 17, 2008 | 0 | # |
  

  “The great weakness of moralistic, exemplaristic preaching is its tendency to enlist Old Testament examples in order to lay ethical obligations on hearers without showing how Christ kept covenant faithfulness where the negative examples failed, and how Christ’s perfect righteousness fulfills even the best obedience offered by the Old Testament’s most positive examples. By “cutting the corner” and bypassing the text’s “fulfillment in Christ” …in a desire to show the text’s relevance to hearers’ daily struggles and relationships, moralism excises from the biblical narratives the source of their life-changing power, which is their testimony to the saving mercy of God in the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus. When Christ and his all-fulfilling role as Lord and Servant of the covenant are left out of the “equation” the narratives of Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, David, and Nehemiah are subtly transformed from gospel into law…”-Dennis E. Johnson

  -D

   
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  edikaiosen 5:16 pm on April 17, 2008 | 4 | # |
  Tags: Bible, discipleship, Jesus, Romans

  So I’ve been reading Romans a lot lately, we all have been, and it dawned on me how much I’ve grown up without Gods Word in my life.  Yea I went to church, a fundy church at that, and yea I was in youth group; I did all the things I was supposed to do (sort of).  As long as I was the favorite of that current leader that I was under everything else could slide.  It was about pleasing him or her and putting on a show.  Why? you may ask.  (Here’s is where my pondering has lead) Because I didn’t know the gospel!  I was taught by my spiritual leaders in my church all of the things that I was supposed to do as a “good christian”.  “You shouldn’t lie” or “You shouldn’t lust after women, that’s disgusting” (sometimes they threw a judgment in there too, just to mix it up I guess)  Sure, those things are true, but where was the gospel in all this judgement?  No where to be found by me.  It was all tired moralism.  Why wasn’t Romans 2:4 quoted to me,

  “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”

  Or

  Romans 8:28-31

   ”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.  What, then, shall we say in response to this?  If God is for us, who can be against us?”

  You see, this is the gospel at the heart, Jesus died for us so that we could be justified and glorfied and changed!  If this would have been told to me in place of the judgements and moralism God’s kindness could have led me toward repentance.  His word is enough! (imagine that)

  So… here I am reading God’s word not for any other reason other than to read it, and guess what? It’s changing my life.  You see, when we go to God’s Word with a presupposition about what we’re going to get out of it we’re going to get exactly what we want out of it.  We’re going to twist and contort until it fits the asnwer we desire, but when we read and surrender all in humble knowledge of our own inadequacy to understand what we need and when we stop conforming the gospel to our falleness and begin to let the gospel conform us, then the power of God’s written Word is endless.

  My suggestion:  Pick a book of the Bible and read it.  Come to it empty (no specific questions, no attitude, (simply said, don’t be looking for anything)) and you’ll leave full (with exactly what the spirit wanted you to get from it).

  K.B.

   

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