For any interested in my outlines, I have uploaded my notes on the Psalms to date here.
Archives for 2009
by on 11.16.09
I’m convinced that what kids need today are parents – not buddies.
A quote from a pretty good article by Zig Ziglar. “Zig On…When the Motive Is Love. I’m sure I can find areas where I disagree with Ziglar, but I think the general philosophy he expresses in this article is very similar to my own. The homes of our nation are in disarray, including many Christian homes. May our mothers and fathers learn to be parents and fulfill all their Biblical responsibilities.
by on 11.10.09
the fundamentalist phenomenon
… to steal a phrase.
I ran across an article about the Reformed Church in America at the Christian news site, Christian Post. Entitled “Reformed Church in America Is Imploding, Professor Says”, the article describes turmoil in a denomination I don’t know a lot about.
Several things struck me about the way the conflict was described however. Note these key paragraphs:
Amid years of contention between liberals and conservatives over issues such as the civil-rights movement, women’s ordination and evangelism with regard to social witness, Luidens says "loyalists" emerged to keep the denomination together. They were more dedicated to denominational survival than to ideological purity, he notes.
Though the two extremes were held together then, today many liberals have left the RCA in significant numbers and conservatives have shifted their target to the loyalists and continue to "rail against ‘liberalism,’" he says.
Now before anyone shrieks, ‘none of these people are fundamentalists’, let me say I am quite aware of that. But the conflict illustrates exactly what fundamentalism is all about, how it came into existence, and why a need for it still exists.
by on 11.7.09
dumbing worldliness down?
Within fundamentalism, ongoing discussion of our views and practices inevitably leads to a discussion of worldliness. Traditionally fundamentalism has called for a separation not only from false teachers and modernism but also for a separation from the world. Fundamentalism has spoken out against an attitude of worldliness developing in the church.
In Dave Doran’s recent presentations concerning separation, he touched on the area of worldliness, some of which I objected to earlier. He continues this discussion by putting into writing a good deal of the material he covered in the presentations. This article deals with worldliness.
Dave starts off with a reasonable definition of worldliness:
Worldliness is having a heart and mind shaped by the world’s beliefs and values so that we engage in its sinful pleasures and pursue earthly treasures.
So far, so good. You can read any number of articles on worldliness and come up with similar definitions.
But it is the expansion of this definition that I find … what? Curious? Unusual? Discordant? Troubling? Perhaps all of the above…
by on 11.5.09
a man of the book
I’d like to recommend an excellent article by one of my old professors, Dr. Stewart Custer. In “Biblical Balance," he writes advocating that we become less shallow in our Scriptural understanding and really get to know our Bibles. I am afraid that most of us are ‘sound bite’ Christians. We treat the Bible like the media treats newsmakers – we take a slice of words that we think represents all of truth on a subject and think we know what the Author meant.
Dr. Custer starts his article this way:
Many people use Scripture for their own purposes. I am referring to sincere Christians who use the Scriptures to reinforce their own private interpretations of the Bible and of life. Many of these people are very godly individuals. I know of preachers whose personal dedication to the Lord is unquestioned, but who have certain doctrines for which they are notorious. They plug these things as though they were the great truths of revelation, when they happen to be of private interpretation.
Most fundamentalists would say they have a handle on the idea of holiness. Dr. Custer points out there are approximately 600 references to the word ‘holiness’ in the Bible (leaving aside passages that don’t specifically use that word). How many of those passages would you say you have thoroughly studied? What kind of grasp do you have on holiness, according to the Scriptures?
Our culture is filled with media, as Dr. Custer points out. All kinds of noise blares at us, demanding our attention. We live fast paced lives. We are ‘Martha’ Christians. We need to learn to be ‘Mary’ Christians, and sit at the feet of Jesus.
Turn off our televisions and our computers. Turn off our ipods and iphones. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Mt 11.29)
I can tell you that I was mightily convicted by this little article this evening
by on 11.5.09
navigating the wilderness
The analogy of map and compass is a useful one for considering our navigation the ‘wilderness of this world’ and especially useful for navigating the ecclesiastical wilderness.
For a good understanding of the analogy, though, one must have some understanding of how maps and compasses work. A much more full description can be found from a chapter of a book, The Backpacker’s Field Manual, excerpted here on the Princeton University site, but I’ll attempt a bit in this post.
I suppose when we think of ‘mapping’ the locations on the ecclesiastical landscape, we probably envision a political map, with nation-states and their boundaries. Such maps seem fairly objective and definite in allocating the bounds of various domains, but they are of limited value for navigation.
by on 11.3.09
a reminder of God’s blessing
An interview in the New York Times reminds me of a great blessing from God our family received a little over six years ago.
I have written about this before, but I just want to again give praise to the Lord for the gifts he gives to men.
Six and a half years ago, my wife began to lose weight rapidly and was bruising easily. She was becoming more and more exhausted each day. (She was enjoying the weight loss part!) We called our doctor who immediately got the ball rolling in our health care system, no small feat. The diagnosis was Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Our hematologist was very upbeat, however. The new therapy for this disease was a drug called Gleevec, just approved for CML treatment two years previously. We haven’t looked back. Gleevec has very minimal side-effects (we haven’t really noticed any). My wife is living a normal life.
The interview with Bryan Druker, the doctor in charge of developing Gleevec reminded me of how close my dear wife was to death’s door:
The problem [with a CML diagnosis] was that the death rate in the first year was 25 to 50 percent.
The life expectancy after diagnosis before Gleevec was about 5 years. And the previous treatments would make those years pretty miserable.
This interview gives you a bit of insight into the persistence and dedication of Dr. Druker in bringing Gleevec into production. It is now approved for ten different forms of cancer, but is most successful with CML, I believe.
My wife takes a couple of little orange pills every morning and God has given her six and a half years of normal life. If there is a drawback, as I was commenting to a friend, is that she would have been in heaven these last five years or so … instead, she gets to live with me.
Maybe there is a purgatory?
by on 11.2.09
lost in the woods
There’s something right and something wrong about the "compass and map" analogy. The purpose of the analogy is to teach us that it is more important to have the right philosophy and direction (spiritual discernment) internally rather than depend upon uncertain and changeable labels that might be attached to various individuals in the ecclesiastical world.
I think we can agree with the point being made to this extent: it is vital that men in the ministry develop their spiritual discernment so that they can wisely guard the flocks the Lord gives them. This includes making decisions about who you might enter into ministry partnership with and who you might recommend as a resource to your people, or why you might give various levels of cautions concerning some resources.
Likewise, men in the ministry need to be able to develop the same kind of discernment in those whom they train for future ministry.
And it is more important to understand the Biblical principles of separation than it is to know exactly where every prominent figure in the current ecclesiastical landscape stands. We need to understand the principles ourselves to make good judgements and evaluations.
by on 11.1.09
11.1.09 gbcvic sermons
Glorying in Tribulations [Romans]
Rm 5.3a
One of the blessings of salvation is a new way of thinking God grants us by enlivening our spirit and giving us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Instead of looking at troubles as evidence that God is not good or sinking by them into bitter despair, the believer has the blessing of glorying in trouble because of what God will do in our lives through them. In this message we concentrate on the expectation of troubles in the Christian life and the examples of the new mind provided for us in the apostle Paul and our Lord Jesus.
The Imputation of Sin (1) [Basic Theology]
We begin to look at the aspect of sin which determines the physical death of all men – the imputation of Adam’s sin. Imputed sin differs from inherited sin in that it involves our participation in the guilt of Adam’s sin whereas inherited sin involves the transmission of corrupted human nature from father to son from Adam to each succeeding generation.
Eating Holy Food [Leviticus, Communion]
In this lesson we see how God regulated access to the holy food of the Old Testament (the priests portions of the sacrifices) but how in the new dispensation the Bread of Life (our Lord Jesus) is open to all, the blind, the lame, the diseased, the disfigured, the Jew, the Gentile – to all who will believe on our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. The banquet table is open to all who receive Christ.
~~~
A great day in the Lord’s house in spite of several of our members being out of town. Several visitors made up the difference including a young fellow newly converted to Christ. His enthusiasm for the things of the Lord added much to our services.
by on 10.29.09
our Wednesday service
I have been posting our Sunday service summaries here since we started this blog. We haven’t been recording our Wednesday studies, but some have inquired about our notes (we are going through the Psalms). Also, we had a few who were unable to attend this last week, so we decided to record last night’s study.
I thought I would post the summary for this Wednesday in case anyone is interested. I may publish the notes to our previous studies in the Psalms later, but for now we will put them up going forward. I am not sure if I will put the weekly summary up on oxgoad, but if you would like to follow our church RSS feed, you can find it at gbcvic.org.
The Psalms have been an especially blessed study for us. I am not offering my normal preaching style for these studies, it is more of a question answer session. We are trying to help our people learn how to read the Psalms for themselves. So I ask questions about key details I want our folks to see so they can get the flow of the psalm and a bit of the emotional impact of the poetry.
Here is this week’s installment:
O God, do not remain quiet [Psalms]
Ps 83
Psalm 83 is the last of the psalms of Asaph, probably written by members of the Asaph choir. The psalm calls on God to thoroughly rout the enemies surrounding His people. The prayer looks far beyond the original circumstances to the final miraculous victory God will provide for Israel when he overthrows all enemies, ushers in the kingdoms and causes the nations to seek Him.
~~~
Comments