Treasuring the letters of a Scottish Preacher

I'm convinced that the letters of Samuel Rutherford [1600?-1661] are some of the smartest, sweetest, and perhaps overlooked treasures available to the 21st century church.
There are 365 letters in the Banner of Truth reprint [2006]. You could spend a year with a great preacher.
In his 2nd letter entitled, To a Christian Gentlewoman on the death of her daughter, Rutherford writes:
"Do you think her lost, when she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty? Think her not absent who is in such a friend's house. Is she lost to you who is found to Christ? If she were with a dear friend, although you should never see her again, your care for her would be but small. Oh, now, is she not with a dear friend? And gone higher, upon a certain hope that ye shall, in the Resurrection, see her again, when [be ye sure] she shall never be hectic ['of relating to a fever' or 'flushed'] nor consumed in body."
Here's a link where you can order the letters. They're worth the wade.
http://www.cvbbs.com/inventory.php?target=indiv&search_back=keywords%3DSamuel+Rutherford%26searchstyle%3Dall%26page%3D1%26session%3Dbde72bfae5e96752ef6d6bb5468e98d5%26title_keyword%3D%26isbn_keyword%3D%26publisher_keyword%3D%26author_keyword%3D%26sort_by%3D&bookid=7840

The end of the story is like its beginning

As Adam Miller was publicly reading Revelation 22 this morning, I saw again that the end of the story of the Bible [recreation] is like its beginning [creation] -- only better in Christ. 1. We begin with creation. [Genesis 1.1] We end with recreation. [Revelation 21.1]2. We begin with darkness over the face of the deep. [Genesis 1.2]We end with no need of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. [Revelation 22.5]3. We begin with a river flowing out of Eden. [Genesis 2.10]We end with a river of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. [Revelation 22.1-2]4. We begin with a serpent. [Genesis 3.1]We end with the Serpent-crusher. [Revelation 22.21]5. We begin with the first man Adam's sin. [Genesis 3.6-7]We end with the second man Adam's salvation. [Revelation 22.14] 6. We begin with sin's curse. [Genesis 3. 14-19]We end in a place where no longer will there be anything accursed. [Revelation 22.15]7. We begin with God driving the man from the garden. [Genesis 3.23]We end with the Spirit and the Bride saying, "Come." [Revelation 22.17]8. We begin with the tree of life guarded by a cherubim and flaming sword. [Genesis 3.24]We end with the tree of life with 12 kinds of fruit, its leaves for the healing of the nations. [Revelation 22.2]9. We begin with the destruction of the world. [Genesis 7.11-12]We end with the construction of the new world. [Revelation 22.3]

Satisfied and Excited

It's 11:47 p.m. I've just put the finishing touches on tomorrow's worship folders. Although it's late, my heart is light with the satisfaction and excitement of having shared our Church with others in Newton this morning.Pastor is right. It is fun to be able tell someone else about what God is doing at Grace. The joy is in the sharing. God will give the increase. In fact, he may give us increase in ways we don't expect as we patiently tell others that God has raised up a local church for the praise of His glory in Newton, PA.It was also a great time of fellowship with Luke and Pastor Ben. Yes, we made it all the way to the end of School Street.I look forward to the Lord's table tomorrow morning. My prayer is that I will come hungry and thirsty for spiritual meat and drink. Jesus is our Passover Lamb. I love the line we'll sing in the morning from the hymn Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent:"Lord of lords, in human vesture, in the body and the blood, / He will give to all the faithful his own self for heav'nly food."See you tomorrow!

Velvet Elvis and "Heavy Petting" with Heresy

Wow! It's really crazy that today's evangelical church, instead of lamenting and repenting its abandonment of Scripture, continues to flirt with heresy -- that ancient, painted prostitute who in the shadows looks young and inviting but laughs the morning after at the disease the church has contracted from her.Notice how Rob Bell in his recent book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith [2005], playfully questions the necessity of the Virgin Birth while personally affirming its validity [Bell compares Biblical doctrines with the metaphor of springs underneath a trampoline]:"What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry's tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if as you study the origin of the word virgin, you discover that the word virgin in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being 'born of a virgin' also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? What if that spring was seriously questioned? Could a person keep jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?" [pp. 26-27]This is really nothing more than "heavy petting" with heresy. Innocently maintaining that you haven't "gone all the way" won't hide the fact that the perfumed bed is only inches away.Paul, at the end of his grand systematic theology, says it this way to his brothers and sisters in Rome:"I appeal to you brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive." Romans 16. 17-18