Current Reading

I am about half way through Josh Harris' new book. It is a an excellent and accessible introduction to theology and the christian life told within the context of his life and experience. Josh is an accomplished writer and a pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD.

One notable quote: " ...if you want to feel deeply, you have to think deeply. Too often we seperate the two...But emotion built on emotion is empty. True emotion--emotion that is reliable and doesn't lead us astray-- is always a response to reality, to truth. It's only as we study and consider truth about Jesus with our minds that our hearts will be moved by the depth of his greatness and love or us."

This is a good book filled with links between right thinking and both right feeling and right doing. I highly recommend this book as I do all Josh's books.

A Good Day

I went to a funeral today. And it was a good day. At the funeral, we celebrated a saint who has entered into glory and a life simply lived for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a somewhat unusual detail to this woman's death. She committed suicide. The rich grace of God was preached by the pastor who spoke. He used a great example of why we should expect to see this saint again. His reasoning was that if he were to drive out of the funeral home and get hit by a car and die while having a sinful thought, he would not lose his salvation because his salvation was not based on his actions in the first place. The gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life based on Christ's performance in a sinless life and His sacrificial substitutionary atonement. It was so good to hear this truth preached in front of an open casket. We will see her again. Praise be to God for his grace given to sinful men and woman.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

An Active Rebellion

I've recently been musing (that's an old word for 'thinking', the opposite of amusement) on the size of our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the whole universe in general. All the time, I cannot get the words of David out of my head:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Palsm 8:3,4)

I heard an astronomer say something very insightful. What he said was an example of a creature passionately hating the Creator. A pot shaking his fist at the Potter. Astronomer Robert Jastrow sais this:

Just as I can't believe that there was a creator, I can't believe this all happened by chance, which implies there was a creator. So, you see, I'm in a completely hopeless bind, and I stay there. It makes me uneasy. I feel I'm missing something but I will not find out what I'm missing within my lifetime.

This man is not dumb, he is in rebellion. He is not ignorant of God, he hates God. When he looks through the telescopes to see the heavens, he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. What can be known about God is plain to him. In the very objects Mr. Jastrow sees through the lenses, God has made his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, clear to this mans perception. He is without excuse. He neither honors God as just that, God, nor does he give God thanks. Claiming to be wise, Robert Jastrow has become a fool and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the glory of magnified balls of gas. He worships and and serves the creature rather than the Creator. And through all of this, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against his ungodliness and unrighteousness.

So, I give thanks to God, through Christ, for making the riches of his glory known to me, a speck in space. There is only one difference between me and Robert Jastrow and it's not a moral decision to follow Jesus, it is a five letter word called GRACE. And it's by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone, in Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone, that the Gospel of God's free grace has saved me, a wretched sinner on a very small planet in a extremely small galaxy in an exceedingly tiny universe, all created by a triune God, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Old, Stable, and Reformed #3

In the last article I said that the most fundamental issue in our discussion about the gospel is the issue of authority. The complete and exhaustive authority of the Bible in our study is of critical importance. That is, we must be completely submissive to the Word in all things. If, in the study of any issue, we leave the umbrella of submission to God’s Word (whether intellectual or otherwise), we revert to our natural and comfortable rebelliousness. Intellectual rebellion is sin, too!

Foundational accuracy is especially important because we are prone to rebellious, self deceived error. We cannot trust our own judgment on any issue. We certainly cannot trust our judgment on such a serious issue as the gospel. In our natural state we are dead in our sin, insensitive to Spiritual realities, deaf to God’s Word, convinced that we know truth apart from God, and actively opposed to God’s Kingdom and authority. We were lost, sick, and dead while thinking we were healthy, morally good, and justified in our rejection of God’s revelation.

Our salvation comes to us through the Word of God. The Spirit uses the Word to convince us of our sin, its heinousness to God, and its consequences. The Spirit then uses the Word to display Jesus Christ to us as the answer to our sin problem. We are convinced of his loveliness, the sufficiency of His work, and the availability of His grace and mercy. The Spirit changes our heart and mind by the Word. The Word is the instrument by which a heart of stone is transformed into a heart of flesh. We throw off our rebellious God-less-ness and submissively embrace His offers of grace and mercy. We repent and believe the Word. The Word is now our guide and authority. Any rejection or diversion from this foundational principle is a return to our own autonomy and a rejection of the authority of Christ. We grow in holiness as our minds are transformed and renewed by the Spirit’s application of the Word of God.

Our gospel (definition and dispersion) must be God’s gospel. God’s gospel is the gospel that is given in God’s Word. If the message given is not God’s gospel, it is a lie. And those who tell lies are called….

The Prince on Infallibility

"Everybody believes in infallibility somewhere. A Romanist believes in an infallible
Pope, and a great philosopher believes in his infallible self; he knows that he is right. I believe in this infallible Book, and in the infallible God; and I ask any of you, who are troubled, and worried, and tossed to and fro because of what some heretic or skeptic has said, to “walk in the light of the Lord,” and to be perfectly satisfied as to the revelation he has given us in his Word."- C.H. Spurgeon

Crazy Busy

I have been spending all my free time studying algebra. Memorizing things like the quadratic formula (pictured above) in an effort to test out of a college math class. I am starting out as a freshman in a couple weeks. A freshman at the age of 33... better late than never I suppose.

On top of all this I have a hot project (see pics below) berating down my neck (as always). So I have been contending with those deadlines also. Hopefully I will be back in my normal state of controllable chaos after this week and I will be able to post some of the ideas that have been bouncing abound in my brain.

Something Beautiful - 7

Death Cab for Cutie - Title and Registration

I love this video. In a world so saturated with cutting edge technological innovation it is always refreshing to see people use simple materials and techniques to make something visually engaging.

Heretical Crazy Talk Videos

The mockingbird blog posted their seven favorite heretical crazy talk videos of 2009. You should watch them. Some are so crazy they are funny, like Benny Hinn revealing that there are actually nine persons in the trinity, but mostly they are just sad.

Here is the link.

Old, Stable, and Reformed---#2

“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and by plain reason and not by Popes and councils who have so often contradicted themselves, my conscience is captive to the word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot and I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.”

When considering the issues of salvation and the gospel, the most crucial concern is the question of authority. What is the final authority for establishing and defining the message of salvation? Who owns the gospel? Who has the right to define the gospel? How can I know and trust the gospel message that I hear? That was the concern of the young monk Martin Luther as he faced the might of the political and religious rulers of his day. Luther saw the issue as a gospel issue. The Roman church asserted their ownership of the gospel and opposed any questioning of their authority. Luther struggled with the authority question as he exegeted scripture and assessed the practices and preaching of the Roman church around him. After several years of development, Luther stood before the Diet of Worms and rejected the Roman church’s claim to absolute authority over the gospel. Luther asserted that the church’s authority over the gospel was secondary and derived. The church’s authority was limited to the scripture and scripture alone.

Luther’s dilemma must be lived out in the thought of each would-be theologian. What/who is our ultimate authority? Is it the scripture or one of the scripture’s rivals: human reason, human tradition, or human psychology? Is it God or one of God’s rivals? It is important for us to establish the correct epistemological foundation early in the process because of the difficulty of the questions that eventually develop in our study of the gospel.

The central issue in all of human knowledge always boils down to revelation vs. autonomous reason/experience. It is no less so in this crucial are of the gospel

Pastor Tony - Serving By Saving

This is my pastor, Tony Buford. This is an excerpt from the sermon "Born to Serve", preached on 12-22-09.

All of pastor Tony's sermons can be found on Sermon Audio.