Daily Archives: September 27, 2010

R.C. Sproul: How Can I Prevent My Personal Christian Growth from Becoming Stagnant?

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Some good practical advice (for a Calvinist, that is). 🙂

Obviously our Christian growth can move at various speeds, and we tend to have a kind of ebb and flow. Sometimes we’re moving ahead in leaps and bounds and other times at a snail’s pace. When it’s moving in such a laboriously slow fashion, we may think that it has become utterly stagnant. Again, if there is no evidence of growth whatsoever then I would say it’s time to examine our souls and our hearts to see if we’re in Christ at all because where the spirit of Christ indwells a person, he will not permit total stagnation.

Read the whole thing.

Tom Krattenmaker: Get to Know a Muslim, Rather Than Hate One

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A good piece.

The same goes for Muslims. If you’re fortunate enough to have Muslim neighbors or co-workers, you’ve probably come to see that they have as much in common with suicide bombers as your friend at church has in common with the supposed Christians who bombed the Atlanta Olympics and murdered an abortion doctor at his church. If you’re one of the many who has formed a view of Muslims primarily from the news media or the rhetoric of anti-Muslim propagandists, take a minute to learn something about the world’s second-largest religion. It’s telling that the Florida pastor behind the vastly overpublicized plan to torch Qurans admits to never reading the text that he declared to be “of the devil.”

Read it all.

General vs. Specific Revelation

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A good piece that explains the two concepts.

Because Romans 1:19-20 is one of the principal New Testament passages on the topic of ‘general revelation’, it may be helpful to summarize how ‘general’ differs from ‘special’ revelation. God’s self-revelation through ‘what has been made’ has four main characteristics. First, it is ‘general’ because made to everybody everywhere, as opposed to ‘special’ because made to particular people in particular places, through Christ and the biblical authors. Secondly, it is ‘natural’ because made through the natural order, as opposed to ‘supernatural’, involving the incarnation of the Son and the inspiration of the Scriptures. Thirdly, it is ‘continuous’ because since the creation of the world it has gone on ‘day after day…night after night’ (Ps. 19:2), as opposed to ‘final’ and finished in Christ and in Scripture. And fourthly it is ‘creational’, revealing God’s glory through creation, as opposed to ‘salvific’, revealing God’s grace in Christ.

–Dr. John R.W. Stott, The Message of Romans

From the Morning Scriptures

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When [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

–Luke 5:4-11 (TNIV)

Peter’s reaction to Jesus is typical of what happens when the profane meets the holy. We see this same phenomenon happening to Abraham (Genesis 18:2), Job (42:6), and Isaiah (6:5), among others. I did the same thing the day Jesus came and visited me. It is a vivid reminder of the deadly effect of sin and the alienation it causes between God and humans. That is why the Bible tells us that sin leads to death. It separates us from the Source of all life.

But note carefully Jesus’ reaction to Peter. He doesn’t say, “Man up, dude. You deserve to feel that way because you really haven’t been a very good person.” No, Jesus tells Peter not to be afraid. Instead of excluding Peter, Jesus invites him to join him.

Thankfully, we can have confidence that Jesus will react to us the same way he did to Peter. When we meet or encounter him, Jesus tells us not to be afraid and he invites us to follow him to Life. How do we know this? We have his very cross that stands as an eternal witness to God’s great and gracious love for us.

John Keble: Anglo-Catholic Revivalist

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This week, I am featuring John Keble (pronounced KEE-ble), 1792-1866, a 19th century Anglican priest and professor of poetry at Oxford. In 1833, he preached a sermon titled, National Apostasy. In it:

Keble addressed two quesions: How can one tell when a Christ nation has alienated itself from God, and what should faithful Christians do when that happens? Look at several things, he said: indifference to the religious life of others, failure to instruct children, casual tolerance of unbelief, disregard of voluntary oaths, and “disrespect to the successors of the apostles.” [One can only imagine what Keble would think about what is happening today in England and America.]

Keble’s sermon was the opening shot of the Oxford Movement, so called because its leaders were associated with Oxford University. It is also called the Tractarian Movement because it spread, initially, through the publication and distribution of tracts. These Tracts for the Times took the debate out of Oxford’s ivory towers and into the parishes. At the heart of the debate was the nature of the church. The Tractarians said the church was created and commissioned by God, and is accountable to God (Richard H. Schmidt, Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality, p. 176)

The Oxford Movement signaled a rebirth of Anglo-Catholicism, a high-church movement within the Anglican Church, and this week’s selection will focus on Keble’s writings about the nature of the Church.

From the sermon National Apostasy:

The point really to be considered is whether, according to the coolest estimate, the fashionable liberality of this generation be not ascribable, in a great measure, to the same temper which led the Jews voluntarily to set about degrading themselves to a level with the idolatrous Gentiles. And if it be true anywhere that such enactments are forced on the legislature by public opinion, is apostasy too hard a word to describe the temper of that nation?

–John Keble

From the Old Methodist Hymnal

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God of the Ages, by Whose Hand (206)

God of the ages, by whose hand
Through years long past our lives were led,
Give us new courage now to stand,
New faith to find the paths ahead.

Thou art the thought beyond all thought,
The gift beyond our utmost prayer;
No farthest reach where thou art not,
No height but we may find thee there.

Forgive our wavering trust in thee,
Our wild alarms, our trembling fears;
In thy strong hand eternally
Rests the unfolding of the years.

Though there be dark, uncharted space,
With worlds on worlds beyond our sight,
Still may we trust thy love and grace,
And wait thy word, Let there be light. Amen.

–Elisabeth Burrowes

Fishermen vs. Kings

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Jesus came to save both the poor and the rich, both the peasant and the prince. But when it came to selection of his apostles, he did not choose princes or the wealthy or the learned or those of noble birth. Instead, he chose fishermen, simple people through whom his grace could shine most clearly. If he had first called a king, the king might have thought it was because of his regal position that he had been chosen. If he had first called a scholar, he might have thought it was because of his brains that he had been chosen. To call the world to humility, the message had to be carried by humble people. And so it was that Christ did not convert fishermen through an emperor but an emperor through a fisherman.

–Augustine, Sermon 360B.24

The Results of Sin

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For sin begets death, and hell is its home. We need not ask ourselves: Does hell exist? We need only ask: Where does sin have its home?, and we will see and taste hell. The one who is in sin is already in hell. Your hell is conditional as long as you can drag yourself out of it; it is permanent when you are helpless to emerge. Come out, while you are still able! But be afraid indeed of the awful possibility that lurks for us of “not being able any longer to come forth.” The prodigal son dragged himself out in time; the rich man at his feast was no longer able.

–Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes