Man In a Hole

This new video was posted by Tangle.com and I think this is a pretty good depiction of salvation. No matter how hard we try, there is no way we can get ourselves out of sin and death. Only the power and strength of Christ can secure salvation for us. Praise God for doing what only He can do!

What do you treasure?

What do you treasure? Or it could be asked in this way: what do you take joy or pleasure in? We all have things we treasure or take pleasure in. This question about what we treasure is a very important question, because it tells a lot about our relationship with Christ. Jesus tells us, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). So, what do you treasure?

Let me ask another question: Would you want to go to heaven if God were not there? Are you looking forward to spending eternity with God or are you just looking forward to His gifts? We are not saved just to escape hell and to enter heaven. Heaven would not be special if God were not there. So, God did not save us just to bring us out of punishment. He also did not save us just so He could bless us with gifts in and of themselves. God saved us so we could love God with our whole hearts. "Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your heart and with all your mind." (Matt. 22:37)

Before He saves us, we are unable to love God. Sin is anything that denies God the love and honor and glory that He deserves. But we have to understand that we are more than just people who sin. We are sinful. "None is righteous, no not one!" (Romans 3:10). This means that we are not just people who occasionally stop loving God. We are people who cannot glorify and love God. We are sinners and before Christ changes our hearts, nothing we do brings glory to God and therefore everything we do is sin. We do not just occasionally sin, we always sin before we come to Christ. And unless we truly love Christ, we will not turn to Him. "Whoever believes in the Son of God is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." (John 3:18-20). You see, everyone who loves the darkness does not come to the light. So someone can say they believe in Jesus, but unless they truly love Him and treasure Him, they have never truly received Him. Only those who treasure Him above all other things can say they have truly received Him.

Now, of course there are those who love the gifts that He gives, but not truly love Him. This is not salvation, because they can say they believe in Him, but not truly love God for who He is. This is the problem for the prosperity gospel. It preaches that if you come to Christ then He will give you all the desires of your heart. Some may say, well that's what Scripture teaches isn't it? "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). So if you turn to God, He'll give you the desires of your heart, right? Yes and no. Look at it closer. Who does it say that will receive the desires of their hearts? Those who delight themselves in the Lord. If their delight is in the Lord, then their desire is for God. And if their desire is for God, then it is God that they will receive. So it does not teach that God is a means to personal wealth and prosperity in the sense that the world defines it. It teaches that the one who delights in and desires God (or treasures God above all things) will receive what they treasure, namely God Himself. And those who truly do desire Him will be completely satisfied in Him.

This doesn't mean that God does not choose to bless some people with material wealth. But what this means is that those who delight in God will not treasure the gifts God gives them in and of themselves. They will be happy and thankful for what God gives them, but they will see those gifts as something in which they can use to continue to glorify God in their lives. The gifts are tools given by God for them to continue to show the world that God is infinitely more valuable than everything else they have. The true gift they have is God Himself, and if they were to lose all, they can still say they are rich because they have God.

Listen to what Peter and Paul have to say about this view of God being the ultimate gift that we can receive:

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God..." (1 Peter 3:18)
"For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2:18)
"More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Romans 5:11)

You see in each of these that the goal of salvation is not forgiveness or heaven or receiving good things in life. The goal is to be reconciled to God and to enjoy being in His presence. The gift of salvation is God Himself.

That is why Jesus has saved us and that is the desire for all those who truly believe. So, let me ask one more time: what do you treasure above all things? This will tell you whether you have truly received the grace of God that leads to salvation. God has saved us so we can treasure Him above all things, and in so doing we can once again glorify God. And this was the purpose for which God created us, so we can take pleasure in glorifying Him.

Some of you might ask yourself then: what can I do to be saved so I can love God with all my heart?

"Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out." (Acts 3:19)
"Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31)

Repent from the lifestyle that has refused to glorify God. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. You can pray a prayer something like this:
"Lord Jesus, I know that I have not loved you. I have sought my own desires and pleasures and have rejected you. I am a sinner who has turned away from you. Please forgive me of my sin. I believe that you are the Son of God who died upon the cross to pay the price for my sins. I ask you to give me heart that loves you and desires you above all other things. Help me to love You the way You deserve. Thank You for loving me and forgiving me. Amen."

If you truly desire for Christ to forgive you and to change your life, then you will be saved. That is a promise from God!

A Missionary Kid's Blog

I was checking my email this morning and found out I had my first ever comment on the blog site. I know there are people who read the posts here on the blog, but I have never had someone comment on one of the blog posts. Well, this morning, I had my first one. And it was on the post "Helping Kids to Love Missions." The comment came from a missionary kid. He has started his own blog, "Justin's Journal," with the hopes of inspiring others as he shares what life is like as a missionary kid. I hope you will take the time to check out this blog and learn a little bit about what life is like on the mission field from someone who is actually living on it.

The blog can be found at http://missionaryboy.blogspot.com/.

From Greatness to Mediocrity

Greatness is a hard quality to measure, especially if you desire to measure it by God's standard, because we are so quick to measure according to our standards. Size of the church, the number of people, the type of ministries available are all ways in which we try to measure church health and growth. And the outward signs are not always the most accurate. In fact, rarely are they ever indicative of church health. However, Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, has attempted to find a way to measure church health according to God's standard as accurately as possible. He admits it is not infallible, but he believes it is fairly accurate. Sadly, according to the measurements they can go by, it appears that there are churches that have gone from being great to being mediocre or worse. Churches that once were beacons of obedience to the Great Commission have now lost the flame that pushed them forward. This is a question for all of us to ask of ourselves and our own churches. Are we growing the way God wants us to be growing? Are we about the business to which God has commanded us? If not, is there a way back? Of course there is. Thom Rainer gives this encouragement towards the end of his post. I encourage everyone to check out his blog post because we all need to consider whether we are about the business God has called us to.

Read the full article here.

A Marine's Viewpoint on the Christian Life

This past week, our pastor has been on vacation. Therefore, one of our members filled in for him for the mid-week Bible study last night. He served as a Marine. The devotion he gave last night was a wonderful exposition of the Bible from a Marine's point-of-view.

He has the entire manuscript included on his blog, "The Colonel's Corner." I encourage you to check it out. I pray God challenges you through it like He challenged me.

The Gospel Defined by John Calvin

Justin Taylor on Between Two Worlds reprints Calvin's preface to Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament (1534). It is a wonderful description and definition of what the gospel really is. I've reprinted it below for you to read.

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel

we are not Christians;

without the gospel

all riches is poverty,
all wisdom folly before God;
strength is weakness,
and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made

children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom

the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinner justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure,
and slaves free.

It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.

It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone.

For, he was

sold, to buy us back;
captive, to deliver us;
condemned, to absolve us;

he was

made a curse for our blessing,
[a] sin offering for our righteousness;
marred that we may be made fair;

he died for our life; so that by him

fury is made gentle,
wrath appeased,
darkness turned into light,
fear reassured,
despisal despised,
debt canceled,
labor lightened,
sadness made merry,
misfortune made fortunate,
difficulty easy,
disorder ordered,
division united,
ignominy ennobled,
rebellion subjected,
intimidation intimidated,
ambush uncovered,
assaults assailed,
force forced back,
combat combated,
war warred against,
vengeance avenged,
torment tormented,
damnation damned,
the abyss sunk into the abyss,
hell transfixed,
death dead,
mortality made immortal.

In short,

mercy has swallowed up all misery,
and goodness all misfortune.

For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit.

If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying, O hell, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? it is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us; and we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation is in it; but we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things.

And we are

comforted in tribulation,
joyful in sorrow,
glorying under vituperation,
abounding in poverty,
warmed in our nakedness,
patient amongst evils,
living in death.

This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.

Relying on the Gift of the Spirit's Power

In the book, The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper, he discusses how he seeks to rely completely on the Spirit's power during the preaching event. Now, I know most people who will read this are not preachers, so naturally, you are thinking, "how does this apply to me?" I believe that the insight Piper gives in this section can apply to whatever God calls you to do, whether it be teaching Sunday School, at home Bible study, or even witnessing to a lost person. Anytime you seek to share with someone else the truth of God's Word, this information is important because you must learn to rely on the gift of the Spirit's power.

To help him rely on the Spirit's power, he uses an acronym, APTAT:

First is to Admit that you can do nothing apart from Christ, just as John 15:5 teaches, "apart from me you can do nothing." This step helps to humble us to the point to where we must rely on God.

Second is to Pray for help. Knowing that we cannot do anything on our own, we seek God's power in the words that we speak to others. It is God's power alone that can raise the dead and give sight to the blind. Likewise, it is only God's power that can take His Word and open the hearts of those who hear it.

Third is to Trust in a specific promise of God. Take a Scripture in which God has promised His power and help and bank on that specific promise as you seek to share the Word God has put on your heart.

Fourth is to Act in that confidence. Knowing that God has and is enabling you to speak His Word, we must carry through in obedience knowing that He will be faithful.

Finally is to Thank God for His help and presence in the work He has called us. When we get done and look back, we know that our effort is feeble and unworthy, but it is powerful because of what God is doing through it. Thank Him for His Spirit and His promise.

This is a great acronym for all Christians as they follow Christ in obedience to Go into all the world making disciples!

Helping Kids to Love Missions

As Christians, it is important for us to teach the importance and the joys of missions. Therefore, it is vitally important that we teach children how to love missions and to help support missionaries. Desiring God has a blog post on 10 ways in which families and teachers can help teach kids how to love and support missionaries. Check it out here!

Pray for Muslims During Ramadan

Mission Network News is calling for a month of prayer for Muslims around the world during the Ramadan season, August 22nd to September 20th. Ramadan is a very holy month for Muslims in which they try to purge their bodies of all kinds of evil through fasting. Let's be in prayer for them that God would open their eyes to His love for them and that they would find the only true cleansing from sin that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Click here to read the full article from the Mission Network News.

Prepare for Suffering - Now!

The following quote comes from the book, Let the Nations be Glad: the Supremacy of God in Missions by John Piper. In this quote, Piper quote Richard Wurmbrand who suffered in his home country of Romania to help stress the importance of preparing for suffering before we have to face suffering.

"Richard Wurmbrand endured fourteen years of imprisonment and torture in his homeland of Romania between 1948 and 1946. He had been leading a secret underground ministry when the Communists seized Romania and tried to control the church for their purposes. Wurmbrand, like the apostle Peter, stressed the tremendous need to get spiritually ready to suffer.

"What shall we do about these tortures? Will we be able to bear them? If I do not bear them I put in prison another fifty or sixty men whom I know, because that is what the Communists wish from me, to betray those around me. And here comes the great need for the role of preparation for suffering which must start now. It is too difficult to prepare yourself for it when the Communists have you in prison.
I remember my last Confirmation class before I left Romania. I took a group of ten to fifteen boys and girls on a Sunday morning, not to a church, but to the zoo. Before the cage of lions I told them, "Your forefathers in faith were thrown before such wild beasts for their faith. Know that you also will have to suffer. You will not be thrown before lions, but you will have to do with men who would be much worse than lions. Decide here and now if you wish to pledge allegiance to Christ." They had tears in their eyes when they said yes.
We have to make the preparation now, before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nice carpets, or nice curtains. You do not have a wife any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand." (Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, p. 78-79)

May we be able to say with Paul that "I can do all things (even suffer and die) through Him who strengthens me."

Biblically Sound Hip Hop

Anybody who knows me, knows that I love music, especially Christian music. But one of the problems I've found is that alot of what is classified as Christian music is little more than just secular music that just happens to mention Jesus' name once in a while to make it fit the Christian genre. Of course, over the years that's been changing. You now have bands such as Shane and Shane, David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, and Todd Agnew (just to name a few) which all seek to keep Christ central in all of their music. But all of these fit within the praise and worship genre of music. It's hard to find anything other than the contemporary/praise genre that keeps Christ and the Scriptures central in their songs. However, recently I have come across a hip hop artist that is just as Christ centered as the other bands that I have just mentioned. I can confidently recommend this artist to anybody who is looking for a deep, biblically sound message in this genre of music. The artist is Lecrae. Throughout his songs he talks about keeping Christ as the treasure of your heart, living the kind of holy life that honors God, what it means to be a part of the body of Christ, and finding our indentity not in the things of the world, but in Christ alone. Lecrae is about as biblically sound as any praise and worship artist that I've listened to. Granted, not everybody is into this kind of music, but there a lot of people who are and it is great to know that there is finally some music to be able to confidently recommend to those people. Be sure to check out this artist. He is currently on his "Don't Waste Your Life" Tour.

Here are a couple videos to check out on this artist. You can also go to YouTube and look under Lecrae:


"Send Me"



"Truth"

Don't Waste Your Life

Each of us who are called by God have been called for a purpose. Not to live according to the purpose in which God has created us with is to waste our life. Sadly, many Christians go through life only to come to the end and weep because they have wasted their life. We only have one life to live and unless we live it to the glory of God we will have wasted it. According to Paul, to live is Christ and to die is gain. May we live our lives so we can honestly say that about our lives.

Penn Gillette on Christian Evangelism

I had this video emailed to me a few weeks ago and wanted to share it with all of you. This video is of Penn Gillette giving his take on evangelism. The reason why I think this is interesting, because, if you know of Penn Gillette, you will recognize him as being one of the most popular magicians today. He is also an outspoken atheist. However, I think he has some interesting things to say about evangelism that we as Christians need to learn and practice as we go into all the world with the gospel. Penn talks about a situation where a Christian came up to him after one of his shows and offered him one of those green Gideon Bibles. Penn, though he has not received Christ (as of yet), was very impressed with the manner and behavior of the Christian who approached him. There are things that we can learn from this man.

Happy 500th Birthday!

Five hundred years ago on July 10th, 1509, one of the most influential men of God in the protestant reformation was born, John Calvin. His name usually evokes some kind of emotion in people, normally negative feelings. However, he, along with others such as Luther and Zwingli, was used by God to bring reformation to the church and to bring the focus back to a true focus of the gospel of Christ and to bring individual access to the Word of God. Before the reformation, the people had to depend upon the clergy to preach the Word of God and trust that what they were being told lined up with what God had revealed to us in His Word. However, with the reformation, the Bible was translated into the common languages and people could read the Word for themselves. The Roman Catholic church had also manipulated the people into buying indulgences in order to earn favor with God or to help a loved one escape purgatory. The reformers, such as Calvin and Luther helped bring back the true message of the gospel that a person is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by works lest anyone should boast.

Whether or not you agree with all of his personal theology, and honestly, I do not think any two people agree on everything, we must thank God for men like Calvin who followed God in obedience and was thus used by Him to bring the truth of the gospel back to the people. Let us continue to pray for men like these to be raised up by God to lead His people in the truth of His Word.

In Honor Of...

Born on Feb. 27th, 1930 and died on May 7th, 2009 was a man who meant the world to me, although the world will never know his name. That man was Victor H. Cosentino, my grandfather. He was born to Italian immigrants Vincenzo and Domenica Cosentino in Butler, PA. However, it is not him directly that this post is in memory or honor of. Here is a man, who wanted his life and his death to bring honor and glory to Christ. I do honor the memory of my grandfather because of the focus his life brings to Christ and not to himself.

A letter my grandfather was writing before he passed away was found by my grandmother a couple weeks ago. He made explicit statements in the letter that he did not want the memorial service to be about him, but to bring honor to the One who saved him. He was not a perfect man, but he was a godly man who desired to bring honor and glory to Christ. I love him and I miss him, but I know his joy has been made complete because he is seeing Christ face to face just as He is. And one day, he and I shall worship and enjoy Christ together in His presence.

So, it is not in memory or honor of my grandfather that I write this post. It is in celebration for the joy he is experiencing and the honor of his Savior! It is because of his loving obedience to Christ that my father learned to fear the Lord with all his heart and in turn, taught me to love and fear the Lord with all my heart. God worked through this man to draw three generations of Cosentinos to Himself, and hopefully a fourth as my baby girl comes to know the loving grace of our Heavenly Father.

The Abortion Debate

Sadly, this morning, there was a shooting in a church in Kansas. However, it was committed by someone who claimed to be pro-life. He shot down an abortion doctor, one who was well known for doing late term abortions. He was serving as an usher in his Lutheran church. It is a sad story and a sad testimony concerning someone who claimed to be pro-life. However, he decided it was within his rights to take justice into his own hands and take the life of this doctor. Now, I definitely do not agree with the doctor and I do believe that abortion is murder. However, the man who shot him down in cold blood is also guilty of murder. Justice needs to be carried out by the law of the government that God has ordained and not by an individual's judgment. We are called to show the love of God to people and make it clear by our life and teaching what is right and wrong. There is a way to peacefully teach and explain sin as sin without playing the role of God and executing judgment on those who are living in sin. Sadly, the church did not do its responsibility by practicing church discipline on this doctor who saw nothing wrong with abortion. But church discipline is much different from someone assuming the right to take the life of this man. Church discipline would have shown him the sinfulness of his actions in the hope that he would be made right with God. This man was not concerned with the doctor's relationship with God. He was only concerned about his own personal agenda. And sadly, because of the church's lack of discipline, they also were not concerned about his relationship with God. The worst thing a church can do is to allow sin to continue without regard to the consequences that follows from the sin that is committed. This is sadly true for both the doctor and for the one who committed the shooting.

Let us remember the words of John Piper in his 1995 sermon, "Fasting for the Safety of the Little Ones."

"This war will not be won by bullets. It will be won by brokenness and humility and sacrifice. It will be won when we identify with the children in our suffering rather than with the abortionist in his killing."

We must go to our knees to God in prayer to change the hearts of the people and live the love of Christ in our lives as we relate to the lost around us. That is the only way we can hope to change the hearts of the people towards abortion. Change comes not through political activism or violent actions, but through the demonstration of the reality of the love and enjoyment of God in our lives and the change that can be experienced in the lives of those who don't yet treasure Him as their highest good.

Amillenialism: the Reformed View on the End Times

What does the Bible really say about the end times? Many American evangelicals hold to a dispensational premillenialist viewpoint concerning this topic? But is there really any Biblical evidence to support the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture of the church? In my opinion, no there is not. Of course, many people who do believe in the pre-tribulation rapture (where God takes the church before the Great Tribulation begins) use 1 Thessalonians 5:9, which states, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." However, I would argue that persecution and God's wrath are two different things. Why else would Jesus make the statement in His beatitudes, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Just because we are not destined for God's wrath, which I firmly believe that no true believer will undergo God's wrath, does not mean that we will not go through the Great Tribulation. The two are not the same thing. God's wrath is the ultimate punishment for those who do not believe on the name of God's only Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ became the propitiation for the sins of all who believe on Him, which means that He took upon Himself the wrath of God that belonged to me because of my sin. He satisfied God's wrath. Because He has taken that upon Himself, I no longer have to face God's wrath. However, for those who do not believe are condemned already because of their unbelief. They are under God's wrath and will face it in eternity if they do not place their faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians is that they do not need to worry about their brothers and sisters in Christ who have passed away, because they are covered by the blood of Christ. They are not destined for God's wrath and neither are we when we die. We are not to worry about their eternal security because Christ paid their debt. What Paul says here has nothing to do with having to endure through the Great Tribulation, at least in my humble opinion. I mean, all we have to do is look to the Christians in the Middle East and Asia and look at the persecution they are having to endure over there. If what Paul says about us not being destined for wrath has anything to do with enduring persecution, then he was wrong about those Christians over there.

So what is the answer to the question about the end times? There are many differing views concerning this difficult topic. Of course within the premillenialist (meaning Christ will return to earth before the 1,000 year millennial kingdom spoken of in Revelation 20) viewpoint, you have pretribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation viewpoints, which refers to the point in time God will rapture His church from the earth. Either He will rapture the church before the tribulation, sometime in the middle of the tribulation, or at the end of the tribulation, but all of them occuring sometime before the actual millennial kingdom age begins.

Then you have a post-millennial viewpoint, which means that Christ's return will occur after the 1000 year reign on earth. These people view that the 1,000 year reign of Christ is more of a utopia that is created through the spread of the gospel throughout the earth. Christianity will one day see a remarkable change in attitude and all nations will one day be Christian, and at the end of this time period is when Christ will come back.

Amillennialists on the other hand view the millennial kingdom of Christ to be symbolic of the time period between His resurrection and His second coming at the end of the tribulation when He comes to defeat the Antichrist and his false prophet. People who adhere to this believe that we are currently living in the millennial kingdom because of the role of the church in spreading the gospel to the lost. When the Great Tribulation begins is when Satan will be unleashed to do what he desires until Christ comes to finally defeat him and throw him into the lake of fire for all eternity.

Up until now, I have always considered myself a post-tribulation, premillennialist believer. I look at Revelation chapter 20 to describe a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ upon this earth following the Great Tribulation. However, I am now beginning to question my belief in that as I am reading through Dr. Kim Riddlebarger's book, "A Case of Amillennialism." He is showing the evidence that supports the idea that the 1,000 year reign mentioned in Rev. 20 is actually symbolic of the time period we are currently living in. I'm not sure which way I will decide when I finish reading it, but he is making some very strong points in favor of this particular view point. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the end times and desires to get a different viewpoint from that of Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey. In fact, Dr. Riddlebarger has already given me more Biblical proof for his belief than I have gathered from the other men mentioned above.

Click here to visit Dr. Riddlebarger's blog site. He has other resources that help explain his beliefs. I'm not saying he has the correct view, but I personally think he's closer to it than anyone I've read before on this topic.

Job, the New Book by John Piper

Here is an advertisement for the new book by John Piper, "Job." Definitely makes me want to read it. Of course, I want to read anything that John Piper puts out.




http://www.jobthebook.com/

You can also click on these links to hear John Piper read from the book.

Part 1: O God, Have Mercy on My Seed
Part 2: That I Should Bear This Pain, Not You
Part 3: O Spare Me Now, My Friends, Your Packages of God
Part 4: Unkindly Has He Kindly Shown Me ... God

Holy Men of God

R.C. Sproul and Al Mohler discuss, "Is it Possible that you are wrong on your doctrinal positions?"

If Calvinism is True, then Why Evangelize?

Evangelism and the Soveriegnty of God

There is much debate as to the role of human responsibility and the sovereignty of God when discussing the topic of evangelism. Some people would argue that because we are commanded by God to take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the world, that our human responsibility somehow outweighs God's sovereignty and that in essence, God really is not completely and totally sovereign in the universe. However, on the flip side of this, some people believe with all pure intentions that God's sovereignty is total and complete and because it is so, evangelism is somehow not needed, because God already knows who He is going to save and that we cannot change the outcome, no matter what we do. So some believe that we as Christians can sit back and not bother to evangelize. In fact, this is a problem for those who reject Calvinism and the doctrine of election. If God has already chosen His elect, then Christ's command to evangelize is obsolete. Therefore, some people reject the doctrine of election based on this reasoning.

Now, I don't pretend to know the answer to this apparent contradiction, but we know that the Bible teaches both human responsibility and the doctrine of election. There is no doubt in my mind that God is totally sovereign in the salvation of His elect. And at the same time, the Bible teaches that we as Christians have a responsibility to share the gospel with those who do not know Christ. God has chosen to work through His people to bring the lost to Himself. Because of this chosen method, it is our responsibility to be about the business of evangelism, even though God is completely sovereign in His election of His people. To ignore one doctrine over another would be a mistake.

One might ask, then, how do we deal with this seeming contradiction? First of all, we have to realize that it just appears to be a contradiction, not that it really is a contradiction. Just because our finite minds cannot comprehend how both of these doctrines work together does not mean they they are at war with one another. In fact, Spurgeon was once asked if he could reconcile these two truths (human responsibility and the sovereignty of God) together. His reply was, "I wouldn't try. I never reconcile friends." In his mind, whether or not he comprehended how these two truths work together, he viewed them as friends. He saw that these two ideas were not opposed to one another, rather they were working together.

Ultimately, this mystery is a beautiful thing, because it shows us that God's ways are higher, much higher, than our ways. If we could somehow comprehend everything about God, He would not be the one, true God. He would be a god fashioned in our own image, and that would be a terrible thing indeed. What we must do is celebrate the mystery between the two truths and joyfully accept that there are things about God that we do not understand.

Finally, we take these truths with us as we take the gospel into the world through obedience to Christ's command in Matthew 28. We can be bold as we share the gospel because we know that success or failure is not based on the results that come about as the outcome of our sharing, because we are not responsible for the results. God is responsible for the saving of lost souls. We are responsible for being obedient to what God has called us to do by sharing the gospel with the lost. And even if we never see a person saved in our lifetime, we can rest assured that we are not failures. Our purpose is namely to share the glory of God to the world. God's purpose is to open the eyes of the world to His glory. This is a truth that frees us to be bold in our responsibility to evangelize the world.

Two wonderful books to read on this topic of the relationship between human responsibility and God's sovereignty in evangelism are J. I. Packer's "Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God" and John Piper's "Let the Nations Be Glad: the Supremacy of God in Missions." I would highly encourage everyone to pick up these two books.

The Hard Road of the Cross

I found this article while reading a blog entry on Between Two Worlds. This was a story that broke my heart and gave me joy as I read it. It made me think of my own selfishness and the pain of having to make such a hard decision.

This story is about a family who chose to adopt this baby boy, Matthew Patrick, who was born in January. Unfortunately, they found out that he had a fatal brain disease and that he would die within 4-12 months. However, they chose to adopt him anyway, knowing that it was what Christ wanted them to do and knowing they would face the pain and hardship of watching this young child die. They chose the hard road of the cross.

Little Matthew died on Sunday. His adopted parents are both sorrowful and joyful knowing that he is with Christ. Please take a moment to read this story. It'll change your view about the decisions you make concerning the easy way of the world, or the hard road of the cross. Go here to read the full story.

O Lord God of Hosts Who is Mighty as You Are, O Lord?

Let the heavens praise your
wonders, O Lord,
Your faithfulness in the assembly
of the holy ones!
For who in the skies can be
compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings
is like the Lord,
a God greatly to be feared in the
council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are
around him?
O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
with your faithfulness all around
you?
You rule the raging of the sea
when its waves rise, you still them.
You crushed Rahab like a carcass;
you scattered your enemies with
your mighty arm.
The heavens are yours; the earth also
is yours;
the world and all that is in it, you
have founded them.
The north and the south, you have
created them;
Tabor and Hermon joyously
praise your name.
You have a mighty arm;
strong is your hand, high your
right hand.
Righteousness and justice are the
foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go
before you.
Blessed are the people who know
the festal shout,
who walk, O Lord, in the light of
your face,
who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are
exalted.
For you are the glory of their strength
by your favor our horn is exalted.
For our shield belongs to the Lord,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.
(Psalm 89:5-18, ESV)

This is just a great psalm describing the best it can our indescribable God and his indescribable power and strength and glory! Who is mighty as you are, O Lord? The answer is: no one! Praise God!

Profitable

2 Timothy 3:16 states "For all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness."

We had a representative from the Gideons International come and speak with us today. And our pastor followed him with a message entitled "Profitable," taken from the verse in 2 Timothy that is quoted above. This is a great reminder for all of us that the Word of God is more than a collection of writings that have been carried down for over 2,000 years. It is God's method of revealing Himself in written form. Of course, He revealed Himself completely in Jesus Christ, but it is through the Bible that we can come to know Him 2,000 years later. The Word of God is profitable.

Along with what the Gideon speaker talked about and what the pastor spoke about, our Sunday school class also talked about the importance of being in the Word. We are going through the study "When I Don't Desire God," by John Piper. It is a study on fighting for joy in God. We are to the point to where we are studying strategies to use as we fight for joy. A couple of those strategies are to meditate on Scripture, to memorize Scripture, and to use Scripture to preach to yourself when you are not desiring God the way you know you should. Scripture is vitally important in our walk with Christ. Of course, I am guilty of taking it for granted. There are days in which go by when I don't open up my Bible because of some lame excuse of being too busy or not feeling like it. But we've all got to come to the Bible realizing that it is a wonderful treasure given to us by God for us to experience the treasure of God Himself. I pray that this is what would happen for all of us. Don't take the Word of God for granted. There are people who do not have a copy of the Word to turn to. Take the precious gift God has given to you and treasure it by spending time in it. It is through our time in the Word that our hearts can "taste and see that the Lord is good."

Corrective Tract for the Prosperity Gospel

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:34-36).



This text and image was provided by the Desiring God blog.

Never Let the Gospel Get Smaller

Never Let the Gospel Get Smaller

John Piper had a wonderful blog about this topic about letting the gospel have a smaller place and view in your life.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

• grace gets bigger;
• Christ gets greater;
• his death gets more wonderful;
• his resurrection gets more astonishing;
• the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
• the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
• its global extent gets wider;
• your own sin gets uglier;
• the devil gets more evil;
• the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
• its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
• and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

To read the full blog, go to the Desiring God blog here. It's definitely worth the time to read.

"Here I Stand"

On April 17-18, 488 years ago, Martin Luther was called before the Diet of Worms to claim his works as heresy. After making it clear that he would not recant of his stance and beliefs because of his conscience and the Word of God, he boldly declared, "Here I stand, I can do no other." Martin Luther helped bring about a reformation of the church declaring that authority rests in Scripture alone, not in the church or of any one leader of the church. May all of us as God's people stand as boldly before others as we stand firm upon the Word of God.

The Decline and Fall of Christian America

"The Decline and Fall of Christian America." That was the cover story for the April 13th edition of Newsweek. The words were colored red and were shaped in such a way as to form a cross. It was a pretty ominous site, to be sure. It is never a pleasant thing to think about when the country you love so much is turning away from the Judeo-Christian foundation that it was built upon. In fact, it seems as if the past several decades since prayer was taken out of school and then Roe v. Wade has been one defeat after another for evangelical Christians.

One of the quotes from the Newsweek article did concede that Christianity is not dead in America. They wrote, "The Christian God isn't dead. But He's less of a force in U.S. politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory." I have to agree with that statement. The importance people place upon God has definitely decreased, even among those who profess to be Christian. It's one thing to go to church with the family on Sunday, but then another to be living out your faith during the week. We have somehow separated our spiritual lives from our social lives and therefore we are not allowing God to make an impact in our lives in politics or culture.

However, as gloomy as this may seem, I see a ray of hope in this. This is the challenge for the church today! God is giving us new opportunities to allow our lights to shine like never before. We are no longer living in a culture where people believe they are Christian simply because they are an American. Sure, there may still be some people who think that way. But now there are people who actually recognize that they are not Christian believers. It is much easier to share the gospel with someone who knows they are lost than it is with someone who is lost but thinks they are saved. When you shine a flashlight in the middle of the day, you cannot see the effect of its light because of the light of the sun is outshining it. However, when you shine that flashlight in the middle of the darkness, it shines bright for all to see. That's the great opportunity I see for us as Christians today. More and more people are realizing that they are not saved. As a result, there's a great darkness that allows us to shine bright for all people in our nation to see.

The call for us as believers is to return to a proper view of who God is. We can either let the bleak situation get us down (which I have unfortunately been guilty of), or we can trust in the power and the authority of Jesus Christ to carry us through as we boldly proclaim the glory of God to the nations! Let us be obedient to the Great Commission Jesus laid out for us in Matthew 28 and allow God to declare His glory among His people for all to see! What a great day in age to be living as a true follower of Christ Jesus our Lord!

Systematic Theology

Wayne Grudem is a writer and theologian, mostly known for his work "Systematic Theology." He teaches a Sunday School class in which he keeps the outlines from all of his lessons online. I would recommend going to that site and taking a look at all of his lessons. You can visit the Christian Essentials website here where his mp3 lectures and outlines are held.

The Importance of Studying and Loving Little Children

As a children's pastor, I have a special place in my heart for children. Justin Taylor on his blog site, "Between Two Worlds," has an excellent post on the importance of loving little children. It's a good reminder for all of us!

Between Two Worlds: The Importance of Studying and Loving Little Children

Christopher Hitchens to debate Dinesh D'Souza in Ellisville, MS

There is going to be a debate at the Jones County Jr. College in Ellisville, MS next Monday. I am too far away to be there for it, but these two men have debated before and there is video of their debates. Christopher Hitchens is the author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Dinesh D'Souza on the other hand is a professing Christian and strong supporter of the Religious Right.

I have watched the video below that I have embedded. It's a very interesting video which shows the different issues that Christians and Atheists deal with constantly. I am including this video on this site because it is always important for us as believers to know what we believe and why we believe it. One of the problems I saw in D'Souza's arguments for Christianity was that he does not hold to a literal view of Scripture. Because of this, there were many times in which it appeared that Hitchens had a more convincing argument. Our view of the inerrant and infallability of the Word of God is of extreme importance as we seek to declare the glory of God to the world, because it is through Jesus Christ that God has revealed His glory and it is through the written record of the Word of God that we are led to Jesus Christ and the revelation of God through Him. Therefore, D'Souza's arguments are not as compelling as they could be had he had a stronger affirmation of the literal inerrancy of the Word.

Still, overall, he had many great points to make against atheism.
Just, remember, I do not endorse the theological views of either person, especially that of Christopher Hitchens.


Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza at CU Boulder from Justin Leddick on Vimeo.

The Prosperity Gospel

The prosperity gospel has many dangers that accompany it. That's because it focuses on the gifts of God rather than God Himself. God Himself is what brings us joy, not the things He can give us. If we lost all of our possessions and only Jesus remained, we should still be totally satisfied and joyful. "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." I have all my soul needs in Him alone.

That's My King

That's My King! He is the one in which all of my joy and satisfaction is placed.

Sunday's Comin'

I know it's a day after Easter, but it is always good to remember what Christ did for us on the cross every day of the year!