Back...at last!

It's been a long time since I posted. A lot's been going on....

Anyway, I thought I would come back with an encouraging thought from my buddy, Samuel Rutherford. First a little story:

Last summer I was in a friend's wedding. Nathan and I have been friends since high school, and I really enjoy our friendship, so of course I was excited when he asked me to be in his wedding. The last you think about at a time like that is, "Oh, I wonder what my groom's gift will be." Nevertheless, at the rehearsal dinner, Nathan gave all his groomsmen their gifts. For some reason when he came to give me mine, lots of people gathered around with big smiles on their faces and cameras poised and waiting. Obviously they knew something I did not!

The moment had come. I closed my eyes and ripped off the paper. It was a book. I knew that before I opened it. But what book? That was my question. I finally turned and looked, and I was in shock. The title was Quaint Sermons of Samuel Rutherford. That was not the shock. The book didn't look like this one:
It looked much different. (I'll put a pic up soon.) It was not the fancy little reprint from recent days. It was an original 1885 copy! Now, granted that's still 200 years after Rutherford himself, but this book is a rare jewel! Needless to say I was flabergasted!

Anyway, today I read part of one of the sermons in there. Rutherford speaks on the text, "Fear not, thou worm, Jacob," from Isaiah 41. The whole text is as follows:

Isaiah 41:14-16 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. 16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.

It was an encouragement to hear Rutherford remind me, in typical Puritan meditative style, that even worm Jacob need not fear when his redeemer promises, "I will help thee." What an amazing thought! I need not fear. My Redeemer has promised to be my help. And he has promised that the result will be that I will rejoice in the Lord and will glory in the Holy One of Israel! All troubles and difficulties are put into perspective when I am reminded that God sees the end of the wicked; he sees their schemes and laughs at them, for he knows the end of their deeds.

Thank you, Rutherford, for reminding me of that!

Piper on Prosperity Preaching

I've posted several times on Joel Osteen and his false teaching. John Piper explains why this teaching is so devious. I would stronlgy encourage you to read this brief article to understand why I despise the preaching of Osteen and those like him. Read it here.

Reviving Rutherford

It's been a while since I posted on Samuel Rutherford, so let me take the time right now to commend to you again The Letters of Samuel Rutherford.

Charles Spurgeon said of them, "When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford’s Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men."
Richard Baxter also said that apart from the Bible, "such a book as Mr. Rutherford’s Letters the world never saw the like."

On November 22, 1636, writing from his exile in Aberdeen, Rutherford declares, "[Men] talk of Christ by the book and the tongue and no more; but to come nigh Christ and [clasp] him and embrace him is another thing." Rutherford knew what it meant to come near to Christ and to embrace him, and his letters show that reality.

Rutherford was radically out of step with 21st century American Christianity when he said, "I would fain learn not to idolize comfort, sense, joy, and sweet felt presence. All these are but creatures and nothing but the kingly robe, the gold ring, and the bracelets of the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom himself is better than all the ornaments that are about him."

Oh that we might learn from Samuel Rutherford to embrace the Bridegroom himself and not settle for the mere bracelets of comfort! For anyone who wants an intimate communion with "sweet, lovely Christ" I wholeheartedly commend to you The Letters of Samuel Rutherford.

Gospel Tracts

I have always been concerned about the nature of gospel tracts. I find it very disgusting to see cartoons present a weak or "scary" gospel instead of the Christ-centered good news that the New Testament presents. In addition, most tracts that I've come across have several things in common (please remember these are generalities and do not necessarily apply to all tracts):

1. Weak theology (as already mentioned) -- Salvation is presented as something less glorious than the accomplishment of the redemption of God's people at an infinite cost. Mankind is made out to be the "diamond in the rough" that God just couldn't do without instead of the biblical concept that man is born in sin and deserves nothing from God.

2. Deceptive hooks -- Many tracts use deceptive hooks to get people to read. Some are meant to be left at a restaurant and say, "Your tip is inside" (or something like that). Others say something such as, "Free gift inside." The sad thing is that people often leave these tracts on the table after their meal at a restaurant...without a decent tip!

3. Pray this prayer -- This is one of my pet peaves. Tracts almost always include a "pray this prayer section." Why is that such a big deal to me? It's not in the Bible! Sola fide, not sola prayer! My hope for eternity does not rest in a prayer I prayed. In fact, we are never even told in Scripture that we must "pray a prayer" in order to become right with God. Yet nearly every tract I've ever seen includes a "pray this prayer" section at the end.

All that to say, I have good news! Erik just posted this week over at Irish Calvinist several good free tracts. You can download the front (picture) and back (text) and have them printed at your local FedEx Kinko's (shameless plug for my employer!).

Be sure to check out these theologically sound gospel tracts. They present the gospel in terms of the crucified and risen Christ. It's not a "I'm scared of hell, so I'll pray this prayer" kind of tract. It's a "I've offended a holy God and Jesus is my only hope for a restored relationship with him" kind of tract. Christ is exalted, and faith--not merely a prayer--is the goal. These are good!

Songs with Meaning

These two songs have become very special to me recently:

Be Still My Soul

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Day by Day

Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find, to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He Whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best—
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day, the Lord Himself is near me
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,
He Whose Name is Counselor and Power;
The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
Ever to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.

Asahel Nettleton on Divine Election

I came across this at the Reformation Theolgoy blog. It's so good I wanted to post the whole thing right here. But I think I'll just link to it instead. It's short--check it out. You'll be glad you did!

Practical Calvinism

Dr. D. Clair Davis gives some humorous yet insightful answers to the question, "What's so good about being a Calvinist?" Here's part of his answer as to just how practical these "lofty" doctrines of grace really are:

"Think through the basics. Jesus died for you personally (Personal Atonement). He loves you, not what he can get out of you (Unconditional Election). He pours out his love on every bit of you, not just on what you think is your sweeter and nicer side (Total Depravity). His love is stronger than all your doubt and foolishness and fear put together (Irresistible Grace). He keeps on loving you, all the way through to the end (Perseverance of the Saints). That’s the Five Points of your Father’s love!"

Be sure to read the entire thing.

Reading

Al Mohler sums up his post about books this way:

"Do our own young people read books? Do they know the pleasures of the solitary reading of a life-changing page? Have they ever lost themselves in a story, framed by their own imaginations rather than by digital images? Have they ever marked up a page, urgently engaged in a debate with the author? Can they even think of a book that has changed the way they see the world . . . or the Christian faith? If not, why not?"

Good questions!

My Theology...sort of

You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology. Karl Barth 87% Anselm 87% Martin Luther 73% Jonathan Edwards 73% John Calvin 67% Friedrich Schleiermacher 60% Charles Finney 33% Jürgen Moltmann 20% Augustine 20% Paul Tillich 7% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Keller on Repentance

Justin Buzzard posted this amazing quote on the Buzzard Blog today:

"In Christian repentance we do not 'take our sins' to Mt. Sinai, but to Mt. Calvary. Sinai represents only the law of God, and makes us fear God will reject us. But Calvary represents both the law of God and his commitment to save us no matter what--even if his Son has to fulfill and pay our debt to the law. 'Going to Sinai' with our sins means we use the painful fear of rejection to motivate us to change. 'Going to Calvary' with our sins means we use gratitude for his love to motivate us to change. The free love of Christ means that in disobedience, you have not just broken the rules, but spurned the One who lost his Father rather than lose you." --Tim Keller

What's an RSS Feed?

You may have seen this symbol somewhere on the web. Then again, maybe not. So what is it, and why does it matter?

I never had much use for RSS feeds until I started using the Netvibes homepage (see post below). RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a way of syndicating material like news stories or blog posts.

Here's the kicker: I don't understand the nitty-gritty details of RSS or the difference between RSS and XML. I've done some reading on how it works and how it came to be, but I still don't get it. The good news is that it doesn't matte! I use RSS feeds like crazy and have found them immensely helpful. That's why I'm writing this post. I think if you're online much at all or if you visit news sites and blogs, then you will find RSS feeds very useful.

So what do you need to do to start benefitting from RSS feeds? On a news site like foxnews.com or cnn.com or on a blogs site like this one you can look for either the orange symbol you see in this post or the words "RSS Feed" or "Atom Feed" or something like that. For example, if you scroll to the bottom of this blog page, you'll see "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)." That's what you would click on to subscribe to the Anwoth feed. Now, if you're using the Firefox browser you'll see the little orange symbol in the address bar like this:

If you're using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, you'll see the orange symbol on the little toolbar at the top right like this:

In either case, click the symbol and see what happens. For me it's been helpful for seeing what's going on at numerous blogs all at once. At a glance I can see whether there are any posts I want to read.

Okay, so I hope that helps some of you. If you have more questions on how it works, let me know and I'll see if I can help. If you don't want to use it after all, so be it. Either way, keep reading the blog posts here and at other good blogs (see my list).

Netvibes--the Coolest Homepage Ever!

I ran across a link to Netvibes at challies.com. I checked it out and found the best free homepage ever! And best of all...it's free. You can put as many tabs (different pages) as you want, and you can customize those pages. For example, I have a page that contains RSS feeds from all my favorite blogs. On my homepage I have RSS feeds from Fox news, I get a daily Garfield comic, I get unread messages from my gmail account and a local weather forecast. What more could you ask for? Here's a picture of my homepage:

On the left-hand side is the bar that lets me add content. That bar can be closed to give me even more room on my page.

At the top of the page is a search box to search my Netvibes pages (it also includes a nifty filtering option for my searches). Below that you can see my two current tabs: "General" and "Blogs." Under that you see my RSS feed of National News from Fox News. I move my mouse over a headline and the first part of the story pops up.

Give it a shot. You'll love it!

My Last Semester!

Yes, that's right this will be my LAST SEMESTER, Lord willing! I didn't think I would be this excited about graduating, but as it turns out, it's one of the most exciting things I've ever had to look forward to. Here's my schedule this semester:

Wednesdays, 7:25-8:55 -- NT Greek Exegesis (The Synoptic Gospels)
Thursdays, 7:25-8:55 -- Chapel
Thursdays, 9:00-12:05 -- Apologetics
Thursdays, 12:10-1:40 -- MDiv Seminar
Fridays, 7:25-8:55 -- NT Greek Exegesis (The Synoptic Gospels)
Fridays, 12:10-1:40 -- MDiv Seminar

It looks like a lot, but it's actually only 3 classes. I'm also taking a correspondence course from RTS. Please pray for me and my other friends who are also graduating this semester.

Two Sermons

I recently had the privilege of speaking to our church family from 1 Corinthians 1. Here are the two messages I preached:

1. Becoming a Gospel-Oriented Church (1 Cor 1:1-17).

2. Understanding the Gospel (1 Cor 1:17-31).

Ministry to the Elderly

I just got back from taking a group from our church Christmas caroling. We went to visit some of the elderly in our church family. We took them cookies and Christmas cards and, of course, sang Christmas carols. Besides enjoying the fellowship, there were several things that made this an amazing event for me personally:

1. Their neighbors stood outside and listened as we sang. I can only wonder what opportunities that may open up for the people we visited to share the gospel with their neighbors. I can imagine an over-the-fence conversation of, "Who were those people?" blossoming into a wonderful expression of the greatness and goodness of God.
   
2. Everyone who went caroling enjoyed it. It's impossible to be grumpy and minister to people at the same time, especially when you're singing.
   
3. All of the elderly people we visited expressed great appreciation. This is why I'm writing this post. We have a responsibility to love those who are a part of the family of faith. We have the privilege to reach out and serve people like this who often just need someone to stop by and bring a plate of cookies and chat for a few minutes. One lady said, "I was just lying in bed feeling sorry for myself." Our visit to her changed her whole evening and gave her a fresh glimpse of the compassion and love that a church ought to demonstrate.

So the burning question in my heart now is, What more can we do for the elderly, for the widows, for the men and women in our church who may need little more than a compassionate conversation? How can we help them more often? Will we visit them only at Christmas? What can we do to show the kind of familial love that we ought to be expressing to this precious group of people?

And those are not rhetorical questions.

Check Out The Buzzard Blog

I recently received a comment from Justin Buzzard, a pastor at Central Peninsula Church in Foster City, CA. Justin's responsibilities include ministry to the twenty-somethings. He has a very thoughtful and Christ-filled blog that I think you would enjoy. Check it out here.

A Little More "Left Behind" Humor

I don't know why I'm into a humor thing all of a sudden here, but this was too good to pass up:

Yes, you can actually buy those shorts here.

Left Behind

If you were hoping for a serious discussion on the rapture question, you'll have to come back later. At some point I will write about that eschatological concept. For now, though, a little humor is in order.

The Left Behind series has become immensely popular, like it or not. So I couldn't resist linking to this great picture at "The Sacred Sandwich."

You Might Be a Dispensationalist If...

If you don't get it, I can't help you; but it sure is funny: click here.

HT: Russel

Benny Hinn -- Christianity's Fraud Maker

I have had Benny Hinn on my mind for several weeks now, but I have refrained from writing about him. Here's why I have not written about Hinn so far:

1. I thought there was no way people could actually be fooled by Hinn's claims

2. I could not write in a good attitude; he makes me very angry.

I would strongly encourage you to watch the following video for some brief insights into why Benny Hinn upsets me so much. It's about 10 minutes long.

Watch it here. (I'm working on embedding a YouTube version, but this link will do for now.)

If you have about 45 minutes to invest, check out this special done by a Canadian news agency.

Now for the kicker, here is "Pastor Benny's" latest trick: Let's see if I can raise $6 million for my new private jet that I need to do the ministry. Read his letter here.