Here is another servant of Christ pouring out his love on an underserving world...
"Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple."
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Street Preachers...
Last night my family and I had the annual privilege of watching the fireworks in Colonial Williamsburg. We took our chairs, blankets, water and patience. To get one of the many best seats you have to arrive about two hours early. Fireworks of another sort had already started. Unlike any other year the street was lined with Gospel preachers, who set up thier stools right in the middle of the street and started preaching the "law"! God bless them for thier boldness, love for Christ and His elect. The reaction was volatile at some points, turn up your sound and see how Williamsburg reacts to the Gospel, it looked like something out of Acts...
Friday, July 3, 2009
The simple gospel...
I have been reading the biography of Adoniram Judson, the first missionary sent from America, and although there are many very compelling events from his life one struck me yesterday as I was reading an excerpt from his third wife's journal.
"As he sat down it was evident, even to the most unobservant eye, that most of the listeners were disappointed. After the exercises were over, several persons inquired of me, frankly, why Dr. Judson had not talked of something else; why he had not told a story...
On the way home, I mentioned the subject to him.
"Why, what did they want?" he inquired; "I presented the most interesting subject in the world, to the best of my ability."
"But they wanted something different... a story."
"Well, I am sure I gave them a story... the most thrilling one that can be conceived of."
"But they had heard it before. They wanted something new of a man who had just come from the antipodes."
"Then I am glad they have it to say, that a man coming from the antipodes had nothing better to tell than the wondrous story of Jesus' dying love."
Here is a man who has buried four children, two wives, been imprisoned, tortured, captured by pirates, waited six years for the first convert, sat in the courts with kings, seen great revival, completely translated the Bible into a foreign language from the Greek and Hebrew, and was the only original survivor of the mission outpost. His testimony? 1 Cor 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I thought it strange too with all of the emphasis on the miraculous in the church today, that there was not one mention of a miraculous healing in 505 pages. God chose to glorify Himself through this suffering servant. I'm not saying God doesn't heal, but what I am saying is that He of His own free will may chose not to if it fulfills His purposes. If He can get more glory from my life through suffering, regardless of what kind, who am I to argue with the creator of the universe. Am I promised my full inheritance while living in this body?
What about you? Does the story of God's redemption bore you? Do you need funny, or compelling stories to keep your eyes open during the Sunday service? Are you praying for the miraculous and forgetting about your neighbor? Do you feel that's its your right as a believer to walk in perfect health, to never endure suffering? Is your freedom more important than God's? Who are you living for?
"As he sat down it was evident, even to the most unobservant eye, that most of the listeners were disappointed. After the exercises were over, several persons inquired of me, frankly, why Dr. Judson had not talked of something else; why he had not told a story...
On the way home, I mentioned the subject to him.
"Why, what did they want?" he inquired; "I presented the most interesting subject in the world, to the best of my ability."
"But they wanted something different... a story."
"Well, I am sure I gave them a story... the most thrilling one that can be conceived of."
"But they had heard it before. They wanted something new of a man who had just come from the antipodes."
"Then I am glad they have it to say, that a man coming from the antipodes had nothing better to tell than the wondrous story of Jesus' dying love."
Here is a man who has buried four children, two wives, been imprisoned, tortured, captured by pirates, waited six years for the first convert, sat in the courts with kings, seen great revival, completely translated the Bible into a foreign language from the Greek and Hebrew, and was the only original survivor of the mission outpost. His testimony? 1 Cor 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I thought it strange too with all of the emphasis on the miraculous in the church today, that there was not one mention of a miraculous healing in 505 pages. God chose to glorify Himself through this suffering servant. I'm not saying God doesn't heal, but what I am saying is that He of His own free will may chose not to if it fulfills His purposes. If He can get more glory from my life through suffering, regardless of what kind, who am I to argue with the creator of the universe. Am I promised my full inheritance while living in this body?
What about you? Does the story of God's redemption bore you? Do you need funny, or compelling stories to keep your eyes open during the Sunday service? Are you praying for the miraculous and forgetting about your neighbor? Do you feel that's its your right as a believer to walk in perfect health, to never endure suffering? Is your freedom more important than God's? Who are you living for?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Holiness vs. Moralism
Lately we have been blessed by the ministry of Arturo Azurdia and although most of his messages are challenging, convicting, and saturated with truth, one passage gave me a new perspective on holiness. I will try (with removing some contextual references that would not apply in this format) to pass this on to you, and I hope it enriches you as it has me these past few days.
"God wants a holy people, not a moral people mind you, but a holy people. Is there a difference between the two? Absolutely, positively; to capture it most clearly, it's the difference between the pharisees, the most zealous of all the religious leaders in ancient Isreal and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is the dichotomy you see, they were moral, He was Holy. Morality is the negative concept, it defines itself in terms of what one refrains from doing. More often than not it's preoccupation is with externals. Holiness on the other hand is the much more positive concept. Like its related term, it is much more holistic. It embraces the externals to be sure, but it doesn't stop there it's far more penetrating, far more thorough going, far more comprehensive.
Let's illustrate the difference;
The moral person abstains from wrong actions; the holy person hates the very thought of doing wrong.
The moral person is driven by what people percieve him to be; the holy person is consumed with what God wants him to be.
The moral person mindlessly adheres to a cold list of do's and don'ts; the holy man ponders what brings the greatest pleasure to his Holy Father.
The moral person keeps a meticulous record of all his good deeds expecting by them to win the favor of God; the holy person greives that nothing he ever does even for God is completely free of sinful and selfish motives, and so he knows then that every blessing he ever receives from God is pure grace.
The moral person lives by his own definition of what is right and wrong and he delights to impose that definition upon other people; the holy person allows the word of God to direct his life and in anything beyond that, he gaurds the silences of the Bible and relishes the freedom that Jesus Christ has purchased for His people, honoring the differences that that freedom allows among those that dearly love the same Saviour.
Holiness effects the heart, it effects the mind, it effects the action, the will, the conscience, the motives. Holiness effects the totality of a person. What he is, where he goes, how he feels, what he thinks.
Unfortunately we are living in a time when the vast majority of our american evangelical subculture is morality driven rather than holiness driven. Because we have failed to rightly understand that mans real problem is rooted in an evil heart our preoccupations have been focused on the actions that flow from that evil heart rather than on the heart itself. Consequently if we can just get a person to clean up his act just a little bit, get a bit more moral we as the church can slap ourselves on the back in congratulations and conclude that we have won the day. If we could just get prayer back in public schools, if we could just shut down all of the planned parenthood clinics, if we can just elect more christians to congress, it's morality driven not holiness driven revealing our failure to understand the radical difference between moral improvement and life from death. The record of the sacred text tells us that God's great delight is fulfilling His purposes in the world not through the means of a moral majority, but through the means of a holy minority. It is holiness that God wants for His people, not morality." (Arturo G. Azurdia III, Engaging the Culture, John 17: 17-19, Session 2, compliments of Monergism)
Does any of this define you, if you said no, have someone check your pulse.
God, drive the stench of this world out of us, your people, Amen.
"God wants a holy people, not a moral people mind you, but a holy people. Is there a difference between the two? Absolutely, positively; to capture it most clearly, it's the difference between the pharisees, the most zealous of all the religious leaders in ancient Isreal and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is the dichotomy you see, they were moral, He was Holy. Morality is the negative concept, it defines itself in terms of what one refrains from doing. More often than not it's preoccupation is with externals. Holiness on the other hand is the much more positive concept. Like its related term, it is much more holistic. It embraces the externals to be sure, but it doesn't stop there it's far more penetrating, far more thorough going, far more comprehensive.
Let's illustrate the difference;
The moral person abstains from wrong actions; the holy person hates the very thought of doing wrong.
The moral person is driven by what people percieve him to be; the holy person is consumed with what God wants him to be.
The moral person mindlessly adheres to a cold list of do's and don'ts; the holy man ponders what brings the greatest pleasure to his Holy Father.
The moral person keeps a meticulous record of all his good deeds expecting by them to win the favor of God; the holy person greives that nothing he ever does even for God is completely free of sinful and selfish motives, and so he knows then that every blessing he ever receives from God is pure grace.
The moral person lives by his own definition of what is right and wrong and he delights to impose that definition upon other people; the holy person allows the word of God to direct his life and in anything beyond that, he gaurds the silences of the Bible and relishes the freedom that Jesus Christ has purchased for His people, honoring the differences that that freedom allows among those that dearly love the same Saviour.
Holiness effects the heart, it effects the mind, it effects the action, the will, the conscience, the motives. Holiness effects the totality of a person. What he is, where he goes, how he feels, what he thinks.
Unfortunately we are living in a time when the vast majority of our american evangelical subculture is morality driven rather than holiness driven. Because we have failed to rightly understand that mans real problem is rooted in an evil heart our preoccupations have been focused on the actions that flow from that evil heart rather than on the heart itself. Consequently if we can just get a person to clean up his act just a little bit, get a bit more moral we as the church can slap ourselves on the back in congratulations and conclude that we have won the day. If we could just get prayer back in public schools, if we could just shut down all of the planned parenthood clinics, if we can just elect more christians to congress, it's morality driven not holiness driven revealing our failure to understand the radical difference between moral improvement and life from death. The record of the sacred text tells us that God's great delight is fulfilling His purposes in the world not through the means of a moral majority, but through the means of a holy minority. It is holiness that God wants for His people, not morality." (Arturo G. Azurdia III, Engaging the Culture, John 17: 17-19, Session 2, compliments of Monergism)
Does any of this define you, if you said no, have someone check your pulse.
God, drive the stench of this world out of us, your people, Amen.
Back!
All,
I'd like to use this site for the Bible Study again. Updated, thoughts and things we would like to do in the future. We can post here and proof read before sending to Dead Saints. It's just a thought, but this site had a more personal touch for our group. Dead Saints is more for those outside our group. Let me know what you think.
Please consider the following as well. Go to Heart Cry and pray about supporting a missionary as a group. I'd like to adopt a Missionary as a group and raise money for him if that is something you all would be interested in?
I'd like to use this site for the Bible Study again. Updated, thoughts and things we would like to do in the future. We can post here and proof read before sending to Dead Saints. It's just a thought, but this site had a more personal touch for our group. Dead Saints is more for those outside our group. Let me know what you think.
Please consider the following as well. Go to Heart Cry and pray about supporting a missionary as a group. I'd like to adopt a Missionary as a group and raise money for him if that is something you all would be interested in?
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