Updates from poopemerges RSS
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02:42:43 pm on July 28, 2008 |
So my friend Joel told me how depressed he used to be and how guilty he used to feel when he would do evangelism and his friends would not get saved…he felt personally responsible. It wasn’t until he came to believe the doctrines of Grace that he felt a freedom to preach (share) Jesus without feeling like it was he who was deciding the fate of his friends. This is why I love what I view as the central tenet of reformed theology (as viewed through the New England theology of Edward’s et al.) that point is that Jesus is the point. It really is all about his Glory. that is why we share him…we do not preach Jesus because people need him (though they do) or because he can change their life (though he will) We preach Jesus because he is due their worship and he deserves the glory and honor and praise. This to me brings a great deal of freedom and a better motivation (if people are the only motivation for evangelism then a whole lot of people will never hear because there are a lot of people I do not like
) But if Jesus is the point and his Glory is my central aim then I will tell everyone I meet not because they need it, but because Jesus deserves it. It is a lovely thing when the Glory of God is the point…“let worship be the fuel of missions flame…”
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02:16:37 pm on May 28, 2008 |
“I insist you still are a Pharisee. My commission is to show you your sins, and I shall make no apology for so doing. You are a damned sinner.”
Apparently the doctor to whom he said it was a bit offended!
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06:22:06 pm on May 20, 2008 |
Oh to Grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be…
I have a very unreformed confession: I have alway had issues with grace. I know it is awful. My only defense is this, I have no problem with God’s grace for you. I believe with all my heart that no matter what you have done or will do, that God at the Cross, made atonement and his blood covers you. My problem with grace is me. You see I have to live with me everyday, and the more time I spend with me the less I am able to put my full faith in God’s grace. I am there at every stupid sin, every angry comment, every impure thought. The more time I spend with me, the more I become convinced that there is no way God could like me. And when I start to feel this way I start to pull away from God and become sullen…or I work harder and try and measure up. I fully confess this. At the same time I fully reject it.
I can’t measure up, and If I truly know Jesus I can not pull away. I am so happy that the Bible says:
Romans 8:29: For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
I may struggle with grace but I have no issues with sovereignty. And if God is in charge then his will is perfect. All that he says, will be, will be. I will be conformed to the image of his son. Oh man that is beautiful.
I am also glad it says this:
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship [c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
There is much there, but the part that really speaks to me is this: God chose me before the foundation of the world. He did not just chose me at the day of my Salvation and save me from the sins I had committed so far. But God in his wisdom and foreknowledge, before the world even was, chose me! If this is true it means that the all knowing God saw all of history and every sin I would ever commit and chose me anyway! Wow.
The other great part is why he chose me. For his own glory, pleasure and will. If God wants me what kind of arrogance is it if i claim my sins are too great? Are my sins bigger than the Cross? Are my sins greater than his love? Are my sins more powerful than his will? Never!
So yeah I have issues with Grace, but God is still working on me!
D
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03:29:43 am on May 19, 2008 |
Lyrics by Derek Webb:
i have come with one purpose
to capture for myself a bride
by my life she is lovely
by my death she’s justifiedi have always been her husband
though many lovers she has known
so with water i will wash her
and by my word aloneso when you hear the sound of the water
you will know you’re not alone’cause i haven’t come for only you
but for my people to pursue
you cannot care for me with no regard for her
if you love me you will love the churchi have long pursued her
as a harlot and a whore
but she will feast upon me
she will drink and thirst no moreso when you taste my flesh and my blood
you will know you’re not alonethere is none that can replace her
though there are many who will try
and though some may be her bridesmaids
they can never be my brideDiscuss.
D
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03:52:50 pm on April 29, 2008 |
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
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08:33:04 pm on April 23, 2008 |
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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01:37:26 am on April 20, 2008 |
“If you have pity for perishing people and a passion for the reputation of Christ, you must care about world mission.” –John Piper
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08:13:14 pm on April 17, 2008 |
“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60 italics Mine
-D
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08:09:24 pm on April 17, 2008 |
“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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09:51:38 pm on April 16, 2008 |
So let it be known that I think the concept of being a “red letter ” Christian, while it sounds great, is actually just bad hermeneutics. It also calls into question the inspiration of the rest of the Bible, because if “all scripture is God breathed” then all scripture is “red letters.” I suppose though it is possible that the “RLC’s” are not questioning inspiration…perhaps they are questioning the trinity (in which case Jesus is not God and did not breathe the scripture)…But alas no matter, here we will post a daily reading from the “red letters of Jesus” that are slightly more obscure.
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.” Revelation 2:2
D.
