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.

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.

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.

Bishop Ryle - Dead Mentors

"Few can have any idea how much wear and tear and anxiety of mind and body I had to go through for at lest five years before my wife died. I very rarely ever slept out of our own house, in order that I might be in the way if my wife wanted anything. I have frequently in the depth of winter driven distances of twelve, fifteen, twenty or even thirty miles in an open carriage to speak or preach, and then returned home the same distance immediately afterwards, rather than sleep away from my own house. As to holidays, rest and recreation in the year, I have never had any at all; while the whole business of entertaining and amusing the three boys in an evening devolved entirely upon me. In fact the whole state of things was a heavy strain upon me, both in body and mind, and I often wonder how I lived through it." A quote from this bio-sketch of J.C. Ryle.

It may not mean much to most, but this man wrote the first book I ever that could be considered anything near christian theology outside the bible, it was Holiness, I was sixteen with Pantera and Marylin Manson posters on my wall, full of uncertainty to who I was, and full of morbid thoughts and depression, and I had just met the Lord, and was completely undone by Ryle. What is so striking to me in this little quote above is the reality in which a man like Ryle lived for six years with a sick wife, and how crushing it is, to my very immature and chauvinistic views of life and marriage. This has been a small part in deepening my need for greater reality, and responsibility in my life. If I could some up my life lesson for 2008, it would be that my biggest problem isn't my circumstances, it never has been (even though I pray to my loving Father for them to change), it is that I am a hugely selfish sinner. If you know anything about the christian faith at all, you know that there is a river where mercy flows for that problem man, that is the most gracious gift to see, to have eyes to see your sins and shortcomings, and eyes to see the one who dying love changes you from the inside out..

Here is a quote from the first book that started me down an awesome journey on the path of walking with God, in community, even with those who have already gone to glory.

"Would you be holy? Would you become a new creature? Then you must begin with Christ. You will do just nothing at all, and make no progress till you feel your sin and weakness, and flee to Him. He is the root and beginning of all holiness, and the way to be holy is to come to Him by faith and be joined to Him. Christ is not wisdom and righteousness only to His people, but sanctification also. Men sometimes try to make themselves holy first of all, and sad work they make of it. They toil and labour, and turn over new leaves, and make many changes; and yet, like the woman with the issue of blood, before she came to Christ, they feel “nothing bettered, but rather worse” (Mark 5:26). They run in vain, and labour in vain; and little wonder, for they are beginning at the wrong end. They are building up a wall of sand; their work runs down as fast as they throw it up. They are baling water out of a leaky vessel; the leak gains on them, not they on the leak. Other foundation of “holiness” can no man lay than that which Paul laid, even Christ Jesus...

Holiness comes from Christ. It is the result of vital union with Him. It is the fruit of being a living branch of the True Vine. Go then to Christ and say, “Lord, not only save me from the guilt of sin, but send the Spirit, whom Thou didst promise, and save me from its power. Make me holy. Teach me to do Thy will.”

The man's man on fatherhood..

"Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? 0 you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful. carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.”

What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “0 God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers. or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? 0 how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.”

...

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools.

St. Cyprian, that great and admirable man and holy martyr, wrote that one should kiss the new-born infant, even before it is baptised, in honour of the hands of God here engaged in a brand new deed. What do you suppose he would have said about a baptised infant? There was a true Christian, who correctly recognised and regarded God’s work and creature. Therefore, I say that all nuns and monks who lack faith, and who trust in their own chastity and in their order, are not worthy of rocking a baptised child or preparing its pap, even if it were the child of a harlot." (Martin Luther Quote from Anesthetic Smoke Blog)

My pastor a few months ago talked about how Luther had been a single for decades, and you can always sense of certain coarseness in all his language that partly comes from it, but he echoes what I have had to learn and appreciate myself. The the school of marriage and fatherhood (and probably more so in motherhood but I'm not one) is one of the greatest schools of character. It is an radical challenge to real selflessness and like I tell a lot of folks its one of those things, that are as hard as they are worth it.

Make way for the King

The beheading of John the Baptist by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1869)

What the world did to John the Baptist, and to many who prepare the way for the world's rightful Lord.

During Christmastime you hear sermons about John the Baptist, who was the one to pave the way for the great King who was born in Bethlehem. It reminds me of my time in Kenya (in east Africa) where I spent almost a year after high school. Whenever the big man, the president would visit any part of the country, all of a sudden the money that was set aside to fix lights, straighten roads, and build new structures were shaken out of the hands of the corrupt. Now mind you, the working lights, the bulldozed squatter settlements, and every other means of whitewashing, only would occur exactly on the path the president would go, this of course is not a new thing at all in history.

Then my minds soars to a different place, how different it will be the next time our King (the true Lord of the earth, that we are blind to) comes. God does not give out his itinerary, which place he will visit first, or when he will come, but when He does, He will see every abuse, every bit of neglect, every crooked path.

When He comes He will come everywhere..

No whitewash will fool him, not even on ourselves, He will make judgment, and he will make changes, as he completely sets in order His kingdom reign.

The first time He came quietly, walked among us, spent time with the self-righteous, the hedonists who saw no life beyond the grave, the corrupt and powerful, and the sick and oppressed, all that matters in this life is that you recognize that the King came to this out of control, treasonous ghetto, the world, that you put your hope in Him, and his victory in this life and over death to become Lord again over your own soul. Nothing else matters, because when He comes again it will not be quietly and he will not walk by your whitewashed life and overlook the death and foulness that lurks in your heart.