Puritan Paradise!

Here we go, from fourth to fifth geek gear!

check this site out,

If your interested in puritan lit.,

It has pdfs and document scans of entire books that i could never find before in print or online.

It promises to include more and more, especially interesting is the British reformers, scans of old prints in the original middle English. kinda like.. my educated description of it is like germanfrenchgaeliclatenglish.. but it is readable with work.

God's Peace

Who said it? - Justification by faith

to the three people who read my blog, including my wife.. :)

can you guess who said it? (hint, its five different guys/ i added two)

Quote #1 Pope Benedict 16th

"It is precisely because of this personal experience of relationship with Jesus Christ that Paul henceforth places at the centre of his Gospel an irreducible opposition between the two alternative paths to justice: one built on the works of the Law, the other founded on the grace of faith in Christ."

Quote #2 N.T. Wright

One is not justified by faith by believing in justification by faith. One is justified by faith by believing in Jesus.

Quote #3 Martin Luther

“There is no justification without sanctification, no forgiveness without renewal of life, no real faith from which the fruits of new obedience do not grow.”

Quote #4 Walter Marshall

"So the words are a declaration of the gospel way of justification by the righteousness of God; and that so dearly and fully, and the benefit spoken of, so great and glorious, being the first benefit that we receive by union with Christ, and the foundation of all other benefits, that my text is accounted to be evangelium evangelii, a principal part of the written gospel"


Quote #5 Richard Baxter

"Faith causeth not justification at all but only is the condition of it but faith causeth the acts of other graces by a proper efficiency."

The Pilgrims Progress

A generation ago, required reading in public schools. The second most translated book in the world, second only to the Bible. From a 17th century uneducated baptist in Bedfordshire prison.

How did this happen? I don't know. But my firstborn sons namesake the great puritan mind John Owen, chaplian to the king, when asked why he would go hear the poor tinker preach from the King, he responded that he'd give up all his learning for the power of that tinker's preaching.I have recently been revisiting the Pilgrims Progress, with some mp3's from CCEL. Today I heard this picture which moved me by its simplicity and truth, which Bunyan gives us hundreds of, for our help in this life in this great story.

***

Then he took him by the hand, and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust, because never swept; the which after he had reviewed it a little while, the Interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now, when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about, that Christian had almost therewith been choked. Then said the Interpreter to a damsel that stood by, “Bring hither water, and sprinkle the room;” the which when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.

CHRISTIAN: Then said Christian, What means this?

INTERPRETER: The Interpreter answered, This parlor is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the Gospel. The dust is his original sin, and inward corruptions, that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first, is the law; but she that brought water, and did sprinkle it, is the Gospel. Now whereas thou sawest, that so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith; this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) from sin, doth revive, Rom. 7:9, put strength into, 1 Cor. 15:56, and increase it in the soul, Rom. 5:20, even as it doth discover and forbid it; for it doth not give power to subdue. Again, as thou sawest the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure, this is to show thee, that when the Gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences thereof to the heart, then, I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean, through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the King of glory to inhabit. John 15:3; Eph. 5:26; Acts 15:9; Rom. 16:25,26.

Abraham J Heschel

If you don't know this jewish scholar, and early civil rights and anti-war leader, get to know Abraham J Heschel.

"Instead of showing us a way through the elegant mansions of the mind, the prophets take us to the slums. They make much ado about paltry things, lavishing excessive language upon trifling subjects. What if somewhere in ancient Palestine poor people have not been treated properly by the rich? So what if some old women found pleasure and edification in worshiping "the Queen of Heaven"? Why such immoderate excitement? Why such intense indignation?

The things that horrified the prophets are eve now daily occurrences all over the world...

We ourselves witness continually acts of injustice, manifestations of hypocrisy, falsehood, outrage, misery, but we rarely grow indignant or overly excited. To the prophets even a minor injustice assumes cosmic proportions ...

Others may suffer from the terror of cosmic aloneness; the prophet is overwhelmed by the grandeur of divine presence. He is incapable of isolating the world. There is an interaction between man and God which to disregard is an act of insolence. Isolation is a fairy tale.
....

Prophetic sympathy is a response to the transcendent sensibility. It is not, like love, an attraction to the diving being, but the assimilation of the prophet's emotional life to the divine, an assimilation of the function, not of being. The emotional experience of the prophet becomes the focal point of the prophet's understanding of God."

Selections from "The Prophet"


Oh Lord, would you rise up your daughters and your son's to dream dreams and see visions, to have a sympathy with your thoughts, to live lives that are a protest to this world, and speak out against the injustice that we see as no big deal. Thank you that you speak through the voice of many. May we be cut to the heart, and see our need for justice, our need for restoration, our eternal need for you!

Martin Luther King "To Serve"

["They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." - Mark 9:33-35]

Let's praise God for what will happen this week (MLK Day and the inauguration of the first black president) even in this fading and passing city, let's learn serve harder those who are made in the image of God, and not cover our eyes to the pain of our own flesh and blood, and though we may disagree with each other on the methods and policies, let us not forget or deny the cry of the heart that still sings even from the shattered broken pieces that is mankind's fallen heart

"But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. " - Amos 5:24

And let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the forerunner, and completer.. The one who was made servant of all, and who is the greatest one of all, He hung on a criminals cross for the cosmic treason of the world and at whose inauguration the whole universe will echo.. the old things have passed away, and behold the new comes! He has done it praise the Lord, the great change, the great hope, the great consolation of the new city has come and now we see him face to face!

Those who trust in the Lord will not be put to shame.

Written Word

The foundation of Christianity, is Christ, the living word, but I believe the clearest and best way/means to know Him is through the written word, which is the Bible. Read and mediate on what "is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2nd Tim 3:16-17)

If you care about God, and you want to be useful to your fellow brother's and sisters in good works, take and eat..

BiblePlan.org has 13 different plans (from reading gospels every month to reading the whole bible a couple times a year), in 35 different languages, and several different translations in English.

They e-mail you daily the scriptures for the day, that is very helpful to me, because if I don't read it, it remains 'unread' in a special folder till I catch up. This has been really helpful for both me and my wife, who both sometimes struggle to keep this discipline.

We have no excuse. Come to the feast of life.

Rembrant - three crosses - 1653

Go, Labor On: Spend, and Be Spent

Go, Labor On: Spend, and Be Spent -Horatius Bonar

Go, labor on while it is day:
The world’s dark night is hastening on;
Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away;
It is not thus that souls are won.

Men die in darkness at thy side,
Without a hope to cheer the tomb;
Take up the torch and wave it wide,
The torch that lights time’s thickest gloom.

Toil on, faint not, keep watch and pray,
Be wise the erring soul to win;
Go forth into the world’s highway,
Compel the wanderer to come in.

Toil on, and in thy toil rejoice!
For toil comes rest, for exile home;
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom’s voice,
The midnight peal, “Behold, I come!”

Doing Missions When Dying is Gain

This sermon is why I thank God for John Piper.

I have no zeal, no strength to love even those closest to me, to move past my addiction to my comforts, nor the courage to speak into the lives around me whom I fear the opinion of. How can I weep any time I hear this sermon as I did this morning at work, and than act as if all is okay with those around me, who are living a Christless existence.

Than I remember Peter, who fell time and time again, and than I remember the Holy Spirit who is willing, and powerful and lives in me as a christian.

Father, I believe, help my unbelief.. I know more now than ever that though my heart is untamed and wild and utterly evil, you have crucified the power and reign of sin in my life, I am only enslaved in my own willful disobedience, forgive this double-minded, unyielding, unrepentant sinner. Help me to not weep for my sin, weep for the lost, and than treat myself with good and evil things that I don't need, that steal my usefulness to others and my joy in you, and than stand closed mouthed, before those who are enslaved to sin, and do not know where their life is heading. Oh God, I will worship you, I will come to you as a son, who can never loose that name, I will come to you, before the throne that is of grace, not of judgment, I will I not stop to seek your way, for you have always been with me, and always treated me better than I deserve. Make me a man of your word, a man of action, a man of love, and a man that dares never to let go of the hand of the only guide, or leave the only one who has the word's of life.

Edmund Clowney - 1964

(from Called to the Ministry, page 10) The Deepest secret of your idenity is in that name. Only God knows your real name, but that is the name by which he calls you. The Horror of lost idenitity - namelessness - haunts modern liturature. Madison Avenue knows about it, too. A bank recently invited customers from the subway crowds with billboards asserting that at Marine Midland they call account number 9557446, "Harry." How appealing: a city bank with huge resources, but a place where they know me!

Still, there is pathos in that appeal. A man may flee the computers of metropolis to Centerville where everyone will call him, "Harry" - at least everyone who stays on speaking terms with him. Will he then find himself? No, the metropolitan millions serve only to confuse the issue. The tragedy of alienation is not that so many people do not know me; it is that no one knows me, for I do not know myself. The terror of modern thought does not spring from the addition of millions in mass population. It springs from the substration of one - the Lord my God.

Proverbs 4:18-19

I use to share this bit of scripture every time I was tell of the story of what God did in me, and for me back when I first became a christian. The passage was Proverbs 4:18-19 (esv)

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.

I have come to appreciate this simple proverb more and more. I have tasted true darkness, but you know what I still taste it. It's like driving in a bad part of the city without working street lights, and crater sized potholes, you're afraid, the guys on the corner are looking for you. Life outside the light of the gospel, is full of danger and fear. When you have lied, to yourself, to others, and to God nothing you do can keep you from this anxiety and frustration, unless you are completely blind, and dead and God's mercy to this point has passed over you.

I don't speak from theory, I have tasted the dark side of life, the depression, the darkness, the hopelessness, once I was cut off from the people of God, without Him, and with out hope, alone in this world. But I thank God that I have been brought into this light, which starts only as the dawn, but grows more and more to noonday.

I appreciate the analogy of Pastor Doug, He speaks of getting converted as not simply 'getting out' which is the way we sometimes frame the whole thing. You get out of your sense of guilt, and the penalty of sin, you did your five years, here is 20 bucks, and a bus ride. Let's see how you do on your own.. Why do so many go right back to the way they were before?

We get saved 'into' something, into a community, a family. John Piper once said, sanctification is a community project. I say right on to that. Together we see the way to the land of the living.