Josh King

Tolle Lege: Don’t Stop Believing

Readability: 1

Length: 179 pgs

If you ride the pendulum this book will likely make you mad and that is exactly why I liked it. While I did not always agree with Wittmer’s analysis or his advice, I agree completely with his overall thesis – that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are not competing alternatives. While some conservatives so emphasize belief that it doesn’t matter how you live, post-modern innovators often so stress ethics that it doesn’t matter what you believe. The pendulum swings. Wittmer calls for us to learn from each and stand our middle ground. He shows the relation of right practice to right belief by tackling 10 tough questions that often divide the extreme camps. The questions are:

Must you believe something to be saved?
Do right beliefs get in the way of good works?
Are people generally good or basically bad?
Which is worse: homosexuals or the bigots who persecute them?
Is the cross divine child abuse?
Can you belong before you believe?
Does the kingdom of God include non-Christians?
Is hell real and forever?
Is it possible to know anything?
Is the Bible God’s Word?

If you are attracted to postmodern innovators I would recommend this book to you. If you are appalled by them thinking they have no valid critiques of evangelicalism I would also recommend this book to you. I give you a couple of my favorite quotes and the conclusion of the chapter dealing with homosexuality.

Christians believe that the true God is not one person, as Jews and Muslims suppose, but that he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – three persons who share a single essence. These monotheistic religions agree that God is one, and so he is to be feared and praised above all gods. But only the Christian faith, which adds that God is also three, best explains why God is love.

We will always bear the image of God which is why our sin is a tragedy. Girls Gone Wild is sadder than When Animals Attack, for, spring break evidence to the contrary, the girls in these videos – and the guys who watch – are corrupting a higher good.

One of Jerry Falwell’s close associates left Lynchburg in 1987 to pastor a church in Grand Rapids. Ed Dobson decided that his church would balance their conviction that homosexual acts are wrong with compassion for those suffering from its effects. So he called an AIDS hotline, which put him in contact with the pastor of a pro-homosexual church in the community. Dobson told the pastor that while they never would agree on the morality of homosexual practice, they could agree to work together to help those who were struggling with AIDS. …

Dobson’s greatest criticism came from his congregation, many of whom feared that their church would be overrun with homosexuals. Dobson replied “that will be terrific. They can take their place in the pews right next to the liars, gossips, materialist, and all the rest of us who entertain sin in their lives.” He added, “When I die, if someone stands up and says, ‘Ed Dobson loved homosexuals,’ then I will have accomplished something with my life.”

Dobson’s ministry is evidence that we need not compromise our moral code to reach out to those who have violated it. Homosexuals are guilty of illicit sex. We are often guilty of not caring about them or their plight. Our sin is greater, and it isn’t even close?

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=glo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0310281164&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Amen! + Brokeness

I read two great posts today. One made me joyfully shout amen, the other sweetly broken.

A Wordless Gospel Is Like a Digitless Phone Number

Saying “Preach the gospel; if necessary use words” is like saying “Tell me your phone number; if necessary use digits.” – J.D. Greear

HT: Justin Taylor

I’m afraid I have more faith and interest in the internet than in God. How about you?

I tried for hours this morning to access the internet, though it wasn’t responding.

I don’t do that with God. Do you? – Abraham Piper

The Doctor: I Don’t Understand Me

The true Christian is a man who cannot understand himself; he can only say ‘I am what I am by the grace of God. I have not done this myself.’ But he knows that something has been done to him. He is amazed at the fact that he loves God. The Christian is a man who is conscious that God has been dealing with him. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 8, p. 190

Brackets and Fragments & Genesis 26:34-28:9

The literary framework of this section is beautiful, the characters in the narrative are not. Genesis 26:34-35 and 28:6-9 form brackets around the narrative. They record Esau’s birth to Canaanite and Ishmaelite women. In between these brackets there are a series of scenes portraying the covenant family. The family is never all together, they are fragmented. Scheming and plotting abound, sin is everywhere, no one is untainted.

Isaac is secretive and disobedient to the birth oracle his wife received in Genesis 25:23. He, like his son, is driven by his appetite. As Derek Kidner says, “Isaac’s palate governs his heart.”

Rebekah is an eavesdropper. She manipulates, plots, schemes. She usurps her husband’s authority. She has good ends in mind but seeks to accomplish those ends with sinful means.

Jacob goes along with his mother’s plot. He succumbs to her pressure to sin. As a 40 year old man he is commanded by his momma. Initially he seems resistant, but it is not the morality of the plot, but the feasibility of the plot that causes his hesitation. In the midst of his deception one lie leads to another and he blasphemes (27:20).

If you are tempted to sympathize with anyone it is Esau. This shows us our wickedness. You must come to Esau in context. First, we have seen that Esau has no right to the birthright/blessing by Divine order; God has chosen Jacob (Malachi 1:2-3). Second, Esau has sold his birthright (25:29-34), and although distinct, the birthright and blessing are inseparably linked. Thus the blessing is now doubly not his. Third, he marries Canaanite wives, making his parents miserable. Fourth, here he is breaking his vow to Jacob. Fifth, he is unrepentant and blames Jacob wholly for losing his blessing when he was only cheated once, and only cheated out of that which was already doubly not his. Sixth, his unrepentant attitude toward sin leads to bitterness and hatred and intended murder. This is the guy we want to sympathize with? And indeed we should. We sympathize with Esau not because we also are innocent and cheated, but because we also are wicked and stupid.

Where is the hero in this Jerry Springer drama? He is behind the curtain. And all the sin in the covenant family does not thwart his purposes, it only accomplishes it. He will discipline His people, sin has consequences, yet His covenant love carries on.

The Doctor: Look At the Face, Not the Wheels

An old preacher who lived about 100 years ago used a very good illustration to explain the matter. He said: “Here is a statement which appears to be contradictory, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God”. How can that be? The good things I see, are working in that direction, but look at those other things – they seem to be working in the opposite direction. How can you say that things which are working in the opposite directions are for my good? The old preacher answered by using the illustration of a watch. He said, “Take your watch and open it. What do you see? You see that one wheel is turning in an anti-clockwise direction, but it is attached to another wheel that is working in a clockwise direction. You look at the machinery and you say, ‘This is mad, this is quite ridiculous; here are wheels turning in opposite directions; the man who made the watch must have been a madman.” But he wasn’t. He has so arranged the watch and put in a main-spring to govern all the wheels, that when it is wound up, though one wheel turns this way, and another that way, they are all working together to move the hands round the face of the watch. They appear to be in contradiction but they are all working together to the same end. Our lives are like that. Look at life, and you ask at first what is happening? I can see that certain things are good for me, but other things seem to be al against me. But think again of the great Watchmaker who has planned it all. Do not jump to the conclusions, look for the ultimate purpose, look for the ultimate end. And if you do so with a spiritual eye you will soon begin to see that God knows what He is doing.” – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 8, pp. 169-170

Tolle Lege: He is Not Silent

Readability: 1

Length: 169 pgs

Author: Al Mohler

I am deeply thankful to God for Al Mohler. I believe God’s hand has powerfully been on him as the president of Southern Seminary. I think He is Not Silent might be Mohler at his best, showing the deterioration of preaching in light of the glory that it is meant to be.

In the end, our calling as preachers is really very simple. We study, we stand before our people, we read the text, and we explain it. We reprove, rebuke, exhort, encourage, and teach – and then we do it all again and again and again.

Preach the Word! That simple imperative frames the act of preaching as an act of obedience, and that is where any theology of preaching must begin. Preaching did not emerge from the church’s experimentation with communication techniques. The church does not preach because preaching is thought to be a good idea or an effective technique. The sermon has not earned its place in Christian worship by proving its utility in comparison with other means of communication or aspects of worship. Rather, we preach because we have been commanded to preach.

True preaching begins with this confession: we preach because God has spoken. That fundamental conviction is the fulcrum of the Christian faith and of Christian preaching.

I fear that there are many evangelicals today who believe that God spoke but doubt whether he speaks.

Preaching is therefore always a matter of life and death. … The question that faces us as preachers is not how we’re going to grow our churches or inspire our people. It is not even how we can lead them to live more faithfully than they did before. The question that faces us is: Are these people going to life or are they going to die?

The expositor is not an explorer who return to tell tales of the journey but a guide who leads the people into the text, teaching the arts of Bible study and interpretations even as he demonstrates the same.

The preaching ministry is not a profession to be joined but a call to be answered.

Standing on the authority of Scripture, the preacher declares a truth received, not a message invented. The teaching office is not an advisory role based in religious expertise but a prophetic function whereby God speaks to His people.

Rarely do we hear these days of a church that is distinguished primarily by its faithful, powerful, expository preaching. Instead, when we hear persons speak about their churches, they usually point to something other than preaching. They may speak of its specialized ministry to senior adults, or its children’s ministry, or its youth ministry. They may speak of its music or its arts program or its drama team, or of things far more superficial than those. Sometime they may even speak of the church’s Great Commission vigor and its commitment to world missions – and for that we are certainly thankful. But sadly, it is rare to hear a church described first and foremost by the character, power, and content of its preaching.

The Doctor: Our Trouble in Prayer Is Our Little Troubles

Our trouble usually is, that we are so deeply concerned about our little problem and our particular difficulty, that we forget everything else, as if our problem was the one thing that mattered in the whole universe. Pray for the success of God’s kingdom, for the spread of His Kingdom, for the success of His work. It is always safe to pray for a greater knowledge of God, a greater knowledge of His love, a greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, a greater understanding of His love towards you. You need never hesitate about offering such prayers; they are always acceptable to God, they are always well-pleasing in His sight. He delights in them, and the more we pray in that way the more God will be pleased with us. Prayer for greater holiness, greater sanctification, greater strength, and help in the battle against sin, is always right. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Vol. 8, p. 152

Genesis 26:1-33 & Consonance and Dissonance

The first verse of this chapter tells us that there is both consonance and dissonance between Abraham and Isaac. As his son takes the stage there is a famine, not the same famine, but a famine just as there was in the days of his father. We are to distinguish yet remember.

Abraham would face two famines, Isaac one. God would allow Abraham to sin in self-reliance by going to Egypt, He would prevent Isaac from sinning. With Abraham He would protect the covenant using the miraculous, both plagues (Genesis 12:17) and a dream (Genesis 20:6), whereas with Isaac subtle providence would be his tool (Genesis 26:8). Still it is the same covenant, the same promises, the same faithfulness, the same God who permeates both of their lives.

God’s mysterious ways and methods may be different, he may sovereignly order circumstances in a different way, but His covenant faithfulness is unchanging. Do not look to circumstances as a gauge of God’s faithfulness, look to His covenant, look to His Christ. God will be with Isaac exactly as He was with Abraham (Genesis 26:3) exactly as He will be with you.

Addendum: Last night I mentioned how Genesis 26:12-17 is a favorite passage for proponents of the “prosperity gospel”. Al Mohler has written a post reflecting upon the life of Oral Roberts. Concerning the prosperity gospel he writes:

Prosperity theology teaches that God promises his people financial gain and bodily health. It is a false Gospel that turns the Gospel of Christ upside-down. The true Gospel offers forgiveness of sins and leads to a life of discipleship. Following Christ demands poverty more often than wealth, and we are not promised relief from physical ills, injury, sickness, or death. Christians die along with all other mortals, but we are promised the gift of eternal life in Christ.

8 Years, More than Tears

Bethany,

Your 20’s are years normally fraught with big decisions. I regret many decisions made at that time, mostly my choices regarding my education. The one decision I do not regret is the best one I made, you. This decision was owing more to God’s grace than personal wisdom. I thank God that my many rash and unstudied decisions led to our lives colliding.

The past eight years include the most painful and hard seasons of my short life, however, they are also the best years of my life. I love my God more, I love you more. Marriage is hard, marriage is glorious. Our God has been gracious.

Happy Anniversary,

Yours

Tolle Lege: Polishing God’s Monuments

Readability: 1

Length: 294 pgs

Author: Jim Andrews

I’ve read a good number of books on suffering; Polishing God’s Monuments might be the best one. In it deep theology comes to you refined out of the fires of affliction. The big issues are not dodged, and personal experience is not lacking. In addition Jim Andrews is simply an incredible crafter of words. The book is a mixture of theology and biography. Jim Andrews tells of the unimaginable suffering of his daughter and son-in-law. The biography is not meant to outshine the theology, he uses their story to illustrate principles and glory in the truths that undergird them. If you read just one book on suffering, make it this one. The main principle of the book is that in the midst of suffering we must polish God’s monuments. We must look to our past, this includes all of redemptive history, and “polish”, that is remember our God, and that who He was, He is, and forever will be. We don’t look back to live in the past, but to anticipate the God of all grace and peace in the present.

God’s people are buffeted in two ways: sometimes we suffer for the faith and other times we suffer with faith. Either way our faith remains a work in progress.

The logic of monumental faith is simple. If God loved and cared for me in the past; if God displayed his wisdom and power for me in the past; if God in his essential and moral being is the same yesterday and today and forever; if I myself am on the same spiritual page as before when the Lord showed his glory on my behalf, then nothing in this baffling instance has changed except his secret purposes.

God has not changed, and you have not changed, but his purpose is different this time around. Be still, rest in the shade of his monuments, and wait patiently for him to finish his work. In the end he’ll be there just as he was before.

For us it has been polish or perish.

The truth is a life of suffering is a better benchmark of God’s favor than a life of surfing. God’s love is more likely to reveal itself in the presence of pain than in the absence of it.