Islamic Eschatology Overview

Below is a link to an online book which provides an overview of Islamic end times theology. What is so fascinating is that it matches Biblical eschatology like a matching key and lock. The Islamic eschatological plan is the exact evil counterpart to what the Bible reader sees unfolding in history. Of course the Muslims sees things differently, they are not the evil counterparts, but the good and true way.  For example, what we call the false prophet, they say is our Jesus assisting their great deliver (Mahdi), which ironically, we would call the Anti-Christ! 

 I highly recommend this to you for better understanding our enemies tactics and for the strengthening of your faith.  Pastor Ben. 

http://www.answering-islam.org/Authors/JR/Future/index.htm 

When Are We Going to Grow Up? The Juvenilization of American Christianity

A helpful article (cover story from Christianity Today, June 2012) that provides a brief introduction to a very real problem in the American church.  Is anybody listening?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/june/when-are-we-going-to-grow-up.html?paging=off

Here is a great book on the topic of perpetual adolescence and the many dire implications for society and western civilization. The author provides amazing insight into the profound changes in American culture over the past few decades, namely: "the decline of adulthood and the rise of a permanent adolescent class in American life." A very helpful book for all, but especially for parents and educators.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Death-Grown-Up-Development-Civilization/dp/0312340494/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Goodbye Jack

On Monday we dropped Jack off at the recruiting center in Scranton where he soon departed for Harrisburg.  There he underwent a physical, passed, and is now being transported by bus to a plane that will take him to flight school in Texas.  We will certainly miss Jack at Grace, he was faithful man who served the body with joy and humility. The kids in his Sunday School class will dearly miss him as well! We will be praying for Jack as he adjusts to the new demands of military life and all that the next few months hold for him. I praise the Lord for his abundant grace poured out into the life of this dear saint! 

Jack, we love you and look forward to having you visit us again in the near future. God be with you...

Wednesday Night Notes: Shaping our thoughts in conformity with God's thoughts when we pray.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” I John 5:14

1. The importance and confidence of knowing (v. 13, v. 15 twice, v. 18, v. 19, v. 20) the  things God is certain to answer when we pray, namely those things that are in accordance with God's revealed will found in the Scripture.

2. Our desire is for God's will to be done on earth. How can we know what God's will is for us on earth? He has disclosed Himself to us in a book, the Bible.

3. We are the people of the book, the Bible. We read it, sing it, preach it, and pray it. That means WE DESIRE TO SHAPE OUR THOUGHTS IN CONFORMITY WITH GOD'S THOUGHTS WHEN WE PRAY.   

4. "The more closely a prayer is framed according to the wording of the Lord himself, the more certain will be God's answer to that prayer. He has proven himself faithful to his word across the centuries. Not one word he has spoken has ever fallen to the ground. He delights in his own truth as it is 're-presented' to him in the form of the prayers of his people. He will hear and he will answer according to his Word . . . By continuing to shape your prayers in conformity with god's own words, your will find few disappointments in your fellowship with your heavenly Father. For he is more ready to give than you are to ask, if only your heart continues to conform to his." O. Palmer Robertson, Introduction to A Way to Pray: A Biblical Method for Enriching Your Prayer Life and Language by Shaping Your Words with Scripture by Matthew Henry (1710) Edited and Revised (2010)

5. "The main method of prayer in the fight for joy is to pray the Word of God, that is to read or recite the Word and turn it into prayer as you go. Most people (and Piper includes himself) do not have the power of mind to look at nothing and yet offer up to god significant spiritual desires for any length of time. I suspect this has always been the case. To pray for longer than a few minutes requires the help of God's Spirit, and the Spirit loves to help by the Word He inspired (Acts 4:24-26, 29)." John Piper, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy (2004)

6. When your words begin to be shaped by God words, something wonderful begins to happen! Reading and meditation and prayer become so intermingled that you can pray for long stretches of time, praying through books, praying with your Bibles open, praying with your eyes open--praying the Word or (the big idea) shaping our thoughts in conformity with God's thoughts when we pray.

Three resources, not to imitate but as sources of inspiration from other brothers and sisters who learned to pray the Word.

1. Matthew Henry, A Way To Pray: A Biblical Method for Enriching Your Prayer Life and Language by Shaping Your Words with Scripture (1710) Edited and Revised by O. Palmer Robertson (2010) Banner of Truth. I've ordered 7 copies for our book table.

2. Charles Spurgeon, The Pastor in Prayer: A Collection of the Sunday Morning Prayers of C.H. Spurgeon (1893) Banner of Truth (2004)

3. The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth (2009)

Thanks for the great blessing each of you all have been, are, and will be to the body at Grace. We love you guys!

Doc

     

A lady to remember, consider, and imitate.

This is a letter sent from the wife of puritan Christopher Love to him on the eve of his execution in August of 1651. She was three months pregnant and had three other children. It needs no introduction or further explanation.

July 14, 1651
Before I write a word further, I beseech thee think not that it is thy wife but a friend now that writes to thee. I hope thou hast freely given up thy wife and children to God, who hath said in Jeremiah 49:11, “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widow trust in me.” Thy Maker will be my husband, and a Father to thy children. O that the Lord would keep thee from having one troubled thought for thy relations. I desire to freely give thee up into thy Father’s hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for thee to die for Christ, but as an honor to me that I should have a husband to leave for Christ.

I dare not speak to thee, nor have a thought within my own heart of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed on thy inexpressible and inconceivable gain. Thou leavest but a sinful, mortal wife to be everlastingly married to the Lord of glory. Thou leavest but children, brothers, and sisters to go to the Lord Jesus, thy eldest Brother. Thou leavest friends on earth to go to the enjoyment of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory. Thou dost but leave earth for heaven and changest a prison for a palace. And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within thee will quell them, knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know thou keepest thine eye fixed on the hope of glory which makes thy feet trample on the loss of earth. My dear, I know God hath not only prepared glory for thee, and thee for it, but I am persuaded that he will sweeten the way for thee to come to the enjoyment of it. When thou art putting on thy clothes that morning, O think, “I am now putting on my wedding garments to go to be everlastingly married to my Redeemer.”

When the messenger of death comes to thee, let him not seem dreadful to thee, but look on him as a messenger that brings thee tidings of eternal life. When thou goest up the scaffold, think (as thou saidest to me) that it is but thy fiery chariot to take thee up to thy Father’s house.
And when thou layest down thy precious head to receive thy Father’s stroke, remember what thou saidest to me: Though thy head was severed from thy body, yet in a moment thy soul should be united to thy Head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been, yet let us consider that it is the decree and will of our Father, and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again.

Let us comfort one another with these sayings. Be comforted my dear heart. It is but a little stroke and thou shalt be there where the weary shall be at rest and where the wicked shall cease from troubling. Remember that thou mayest eat thy dinner with bitter herbs, yet thou shalt have a sweet supper with Christ that night. My dear, by what I write unto thee, I do not hereby undertake to teach thee; for these comforts I have received from the Lord by thee. I will write no more, nor trouble thee any further, but commit thee into the arms of God with whom ere long thee and I shall be.

Farewell, my dear. I shall never see thy face more till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at that great day.

Mary Love

"Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you; an considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." Hebrews 13:7

Cited in Don Kistler, A Spectacle unto God: The Life and Death of Christopher Love (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1994)

T.D. Jakes and The Elephant Room

Brothers and Sisters,

Perhaps some of you have heard that T.D. Jakes was recently invited by a group of  evangelical pastors to participate in a public event entitled The Elephant Room. This blog by Kevin DeYoung is short, fair, and helpful in explaining why it was a "serious mistake" to invite T.D. Jakes to this event. Here's the link.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/02/01/seven-thoughts-on-the-elephant-room-and-t-d-jakes/

The Work of the Pastor by William Still

Ben and Dave and I have or [in my case] are reading The Work of the Pastor by William Still. Great read! I think it would be helpful for every church member to read and to meditate on a great question: What is the work of the Pastor? Here's a quote that I found to be very convicting:

"The pastor is called to feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and let them do it out in goatland. You will certainly not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness." William Still [1911-1997] The Work of the Pastor

"The pastor is called to feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and let them do it out in goatland. You will certainly not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness." William Still [1911-1997] The Work of the Pastor

feeling the weight of our lawlessness so that we can wonder at the lustre of God's grace "in Christ."

"If we were suspended over a chasm by a chain of ten links, how many links have to break before we fall? If while driving down the highway, we're pulled over by a police officer because we're speeding, does it make any difference to the officer that we haven't broken the income tax laws or stolen anything from our neighbors? Obedience to one law doesn't negate disobedience to another law. To break one is to become a lawless person." Warren Wiersbe on Zechariah 5:4

Really excited about tonight!

Hey, I'm at my office printing the programs for tonight's concert at the Waverly Community House. The program is beautiful. The choir sounds great, the Scripture and other readings are true, and the location is ideal. Hope you can make it. The concert starts at 7:00 p.m.

Unhelpful

Because of the inherent power of music, the texts we sing about God can be especially helpful [texts that teach and admonish], harmful [texts that are heretical or theologically inaccurate], or unhelpful [texts that are superficial or shallow]. Having just listened to a raft of new worship songs at worshiptogether.com, I can't say the texts I listened to were either helpful or harmful—just musically unsingable and textually unhelpful.

Cancer cannot determine when you go home. Only your Father can.

Amazing faith from R.C. Sproul Jr. whose wife Denise is battling Leukemia.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/rc-sproul-jr/the-kingdom-notes-the-terminal/201453839936152

Racism and "the ethnic universality of God's Mercy"

Racism contradicts "the ethnic universality of God's mercy" as seen in Jonah: "And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city?" [Jonah 4:11]

Jesus and Paul: We preach Christ crucified

“It’s startling that Jesus’ response to the clamoring of the Jewish sign-seekers in Matthew 12:39-40 is essentially Paul’s response to the Jewish sign-seekers in I Corinthians 1:23. ‘So you want a sign” Jesus says in Matthew 12:39-40? OK I’ll give you one. Remember Jonah? He was in the belly of the great fish for three days—so here’s the sign I’m going to give you. Like Jonah who was in the belly of the great fish for three days, so I’m going to die and lay in the belly of the earth for three days.’ And Paul’s response to the Jewish sign seekers in I Corinthians 1:23–it’s like Jesus’ response to the sign seekers of Matthew 12:39-40. Paul’s response goes something like this. ‘When Jews everywhere are seeking for signs, we’ll preach Christ crucified.’”
Lord's Day Sermon December 4, 2011

God Substitutes (and their dangers)

From Tim Keller's notes in "The Reason For God."


If you centre your life and identity on your spouse or partner, you will be emotionally dependent, jealous and controlling. The other person’s problems will be overwhelming to you.

If you centre your life and identity on your family and children, you will try to live your life through your children until they resent you or have no self of their own. At worst, you may abuse them when they displease you.

If you centre your life and identity on your work and career, you will be a driven workaholic and a boring, shallow person. At worst you will lose family and friends and, if your career goes poorly, develop deep depression.

If you centre your life and identity on money and possessions, you’ll be eaten up by worry or jealousy about money. You’ll be willing to do unethical things to maintain your lifestyle, which will eventually blow up your life.

If you centre your life and identity on pleasure, gratification and comfort, you will find yourself getting addicted to something. You will become chained to the ‘escape strategies’ by which you avoid the hardness of life.

If you centre your life and identity on relationships and approval, you will be constantly overly hurt by criticism and thus always losing friends. You will fear confronting others and therefore will be a useless friend.

If you centre your life and identity on a ‘noble cause‘, you will divide the world into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and demonise your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose.

If you centre your life and identity on religion and morality, you will, if you are living up to your moral standards, be proud, self-righteous and cruel. If you don’t live up to your standards, your guilt will be utterly devastating.

A Day of Feasting or Fasting?

18 Now kJohn's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, l“Why do John's disciples and mthe disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, n“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 oThe days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and pthen they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old qwineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” Mark 2:18-22

The question is: is today a a day of feasting or fasting? Several have questioned my understanding of this text which I preached this past Sunday. So for them and others who may be questioning but not asking, let me explain more carefully why I think that today is a day of feasting and not fasting.

First, is context. The two attendant parables give strong support to today as a day of feasting. In both of the illustrations there are two new things, a new patch and new wine. These two news things stand opposite to the two old things, an old garment and an old wineskin. The two new things refer to what has been introduced by the revealed Messiah. What He is replacing is old and unrepairable, being made obsolete by what has been introduced through him. Although the Messiah will be physically taken away from them in death, he will shortly return in spirit to continue what he inaugurated, represented by the new patch and new wine. There is no going back to the old now that the new is come. The new is here to stay and the old is gone for good. Grace and faith reign, while law and works are dead! That calls for a feast, not fasting.

Second, is other scripture. Right before his ascension Christ promised the eleven disciples that they had all authority under heaven and earth to go and make disciples of all the nations. And they would not be alone, for he would be with them, even to the end of the age - see Matt 28:20. Though he would not be with then physically, he would be with them in spirit. Another text is Hebrews 13:5 which states: Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” According to this text, Christ is with us. He has not left or forsaken us. The only possible way to harmonize these texts with Mark 2:20 is to understand Jesus as referring to the time between his death when he was violently taken away (see Isa 53:8) and the coming of his Spirit on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the small band of believers with great power and joy (see Acts 2:13)

Hope that helps.

Is Depression a Sin?

This past Sunday I made the rather abrupt comment that “depression is a sin.” Several have asked me to clarify what I meant by that statement, and I need to because there are important qualifiers that I left unsaid that need to be said. Ironically, what I should have not said (as I did), I didn’t say enough about!

What I did not mean by that statement was that all forms of depression are to be categorically traced to willful sinful thoughts or actions in a persons life. I do believe that chemical imbalances can induce depression in a person. In such cases, this kind of depression cannot be treated as you would a spiritual issue, but requires expert medical intervention. While we must be careful not excuse personal sin on medical grounds, we must not fail to recognize that our minds, like the rest of our bodies, can at times become sick and require medical solutions.

What I did mean by this statement was that depression, as is commonly experienced by most, feelings such as unfounded fear and anxiety, extreme discouragement, self-pity, lack of hope, etc., has at its’ root, sin - specifically the sin of unbelief. When these feelings and thought patterns engulf us, I believe that it is due ultimately to a failure to grasp all we have and are in Christ. If we believe Romans 8 then we have no legitimate reason for any of these fears and anxieties. God is, after all, for us! This is the form or kind of depression I was referring to in my statement. The divine treatment is such cases is prayer, the Word of God, fellowship and service.

God's Abounding Grace…

John Milton reminds us in this beautiful sonnet that God holds us accountable only for what we have, even if it is just a little. Incredibly John Milton goes on to write Paradise Lost blind. Truly, does God’s grace abound each of our lives!



On His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

The Slow Death of Congregational Singing

http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/briefing/library/5175/

singing congregationally with piano has become too important to us

Jeremiah Burroughs reminded me this week that superstition is raising anything higher than it has in it by nature. For instance, singing hymns congregationally with a piano is wonderful. It sort of naturally fits us as a local church, and we have good reasons for singing in this way; however if singing hymns with a piano causes us to become critical of others who sing orthodox, gospel-doctrine perhaps differently than we do, than singing congregationally with a piano has become too important to us, and the seeds of idolatry have perhaps been sown. Freedom from man’s commands is found in worshipping in accordance with God’s Word.

Really, Martin?

"This is a short epistle, but a model of Christian doctrine, in which is comprehended in a masterful way all that is necessary for a Christian to know and to live."

(Martin Luther on the book of Titus)