Jun 23, 2020 | Notable Quotations
I call “piety” that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him—they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly to him.
—John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
Jun 20, 2020 | Theology
Our pastor last Sunday preached on one of the most profound Psalms in the Psalter, the first one, that which serves as the gateway to all the rest. Psalm 1 starts with the words, “Blessed is the man who . . . ” The writer starts with the negative, that this blessed man does not walk, stand, or sit, in the counsel, way, or seat, of the wicked, sinners, or scoffers. The point is clear, this person does not get comfortable in the company of the God-less, does not think as they think, or live as they live. Then he contrasts this way with what makes this man blessed, he delights “in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” The question becomes, who defines our reality, God or man. There is no in between. (more…)
Jun 14, 2020 | Gratitude
Thorns and thistles . . . . Most biblically literate Christians will immediately get this reference found in the third chapter of Genesis where we find the account of the fall, and mankind’s descent into the abyss of sin and death. Yahweh told Adam in chapter two that he was free to eat of any tree in the garden, but of one tree he must not eat, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” If he does (the text says “when”) he “will surely die.” The consequences of Adam and Eve’s decision introduced hell on earth, and as history has shown us, it’s not a pretty picture. God in judgement explains the fallout of this disastrous decision:
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
(more…)
Jun 10, 2020 | Apologetics
What? Don’t I believe that Ravi Zacharias was saved? That when he died recently he went directly to heaven, to meet the Savior he so boldly proclaimed all over the world for 57 years? Of course I believe that, absolutely! What I mean by that question, or want to imply, is that I have a really hard time believing in an afterlife, that there is an actual eternal, forever life after we die. Don’t you too? It’s intuitively easier for me to believe that when we die we just become worm food, and that’s it. We pass out, the heart stops beating, the brain goes silent, and it’s darkness forever. Part of the reason for my incredulity is that the communications apparatus of the entire Western world is secular from beginning to end: our education, media, entertainment, all of it asserts and implies, 24/7, that this life is it! So of course it’s difficult to believe that this life isn’t it! (more…)
Jun 2, 2020 | Epistemology - Trust, Theology
In my previous post I related how a sermon by our pastor on Psalm 115 inspired me to write about God verses idols. There is something else about this Psalm that after more than four decades as a follower of Christ has proved to be the very essence of my faith, and it is found in these three verses in the middle of the Psalm:
9 All you Israelites, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
11 You who fear him, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
A perfectly biblical three times, trust in the Lord! The context, God verses idols, and the claims of the nations (v.2) that God is MIA, is what makes these exhortations so powerful. If we don’t trust in the Lord, what or who do we trust? The older I get, and the more I learn, the more significant I realize how important it is to always consider the alternative. I call this in a phrase, the consideration of the alternative. As I argued previously, there is no Switzerland, no metaphysical or spiritual neutrality. We have to believe, or trust (the biblical Greek word translated faith), in something or someone. People don’t give up belief or trust without religion, they just place it somewhere else. (more…)
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