Me preaching on 2 Peter 1:5-15

Here is me preaching on 2 Peter 1:5-15 on July 25th

http://www.mediafire.com/?e6a3qs6yhwdw9eh

Feminism Has Consequences

Here is an amazing article from the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. The ideas you teach your Children have consequences! Feminists need to read this, as well as every Christian. I really want conversation on this! Feminists, objectifying yourself is not empowering. It is degrading. It makes you an object. What do you want to be seen as? Biblical Christanity is the only place women can find true beauty, freedom and true self worth.

Please comment if you disagree with this. Or comment if you do. I have a daughter now...this stuff really scares me. What will she be dealing with in her day, if these ideas continue? You may find the original article HERE.

Exploited Miss America, Empowered Miss USA

Mary Kassian July 15, 2010
[Editor's note: The following post originally appeared on Mary Kassian's Girls Gone Wise blog]

In 1968, a group of “women-libbers” protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant. They argued that the pageant symbolized the cultural problem of men chauvinistically defining and exploiting women as sex objects. The protesters crowned a live sheep “Miss America” to parody that men treated women like animals at a county fair. They chained themselves to a life-size Miss America puppet which was paraded and auctioned off by a woman dressed up as a male Wall Street financier. “Step right up, gentlemen, get your late model woman right here–a lovely paper dolly to call your very own property … She can push your product, push your ego, or push your lawnmower …”

The highlight of the afternoon was the famous “Burn Your Bra” Freedom Trash Can. With elaborate ceremony and shouts of joy, the protesters threw away what they identified as male-promoted “instruments of torture”–high-heeled shoes, corsets, girdles, padded bras, stockings, false eyelashes, curlers, and copies of Playboy, Cosmopolitan, and Ladies Home Journal. They shouted “Freedom for Women!” and “No More Miss America” and hung a banner from the balcony reading “Women’s Liberation.”

The display marked the cultural launch of feminism—the philosophy that women have the right to define their own existence. Feminists argued that women had been wrongly defined by men as housewives and/or sex objects. They reasoned that women would find happiness, wholeness, and self-respect when they had the freedom to define themselves. And culture promptly set about giving them the power and right to do so.

Fast forward to 2010.

Last spring, Miss USA released the official contestant photos of 51 pageant hopefuls. The look? Lacy black lingerie, fishnets, smudged kohl eyeliner, knee-high boots, stilettos, voluptuous cleavage, and naked flesh, the like of which have traditionally been associated with prostitutes and porn stars, not beauty queens. The photo shoot, entitled “Waking up in Vegas,” featured steamy, seductive Playboy-like poses on a large bed and other bedroom furniture.

Rima Fakih made history as the first Arab-American to win the pageant. Besides being crowned Miss USA, she also has the dubious distinction of procuring top honors in a pole dancing competition. What’s even more startling than her lewd behavior, is that this behavior is supported by women. It’s women who uphold the right of Fakih and other contestants to break the “princess, good-girl” stereotype. According to female organizers, princess is passé – but the woman who exerts her sexual power is smart, sophisticated, and worthy of a Miss USA title.

What was once considered exploitative is now considered empowering.

How did this happen? The feminists of the past protested against the sexual objectification of women. Thus, it would appear that modern women have rejected the tenets of feminism. Ironically, however, quite the opposite is true. The raunch culture of today is due to the fact that young women have so thoroughly embraced feminist thought.

Feminism taught the new generation that:
1. Men have historically deprived women of power and freedom
2. Women need to reclaim their power and freedom
3. Women exert power and freedom by rejecting the restrictive, male-defined roles and boundaries of Judeo-Christianity
4. Women have the right to define their own behavior
5. Women have the right to define what womanhood is all about

The daughters of the feminist generation were raised on these ideas. They embraced them and took them to heart. Since sex is power, what better way for women to exert their power than through sexuality? They concluded that Girl Power is best expressed by throwing off all boundaries and becoming brazenly sexual. The Spice Girls, The Sex & the City stars, and celebrities such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan all modeled the idea that empowerment equals the right to be raunchy. The idea quickly caught on.

Joe Francis, the Hugh Hefner of Gen X and founder of the Girls Gone Wild porn video series, capitalized on the trend. Accompanied by his camera crews, Francis visited beaches, nightclubs, and parties across America seeking “everyday” college-age women who would flash their breasts, make out with each other, and be sexually lewd on camera in exchange for GGW-emblazoned T-shirts or hats. Francis raked in as much as forty million dollars a year from the sale of these videos. When asked why he thought thousands of young women were so eager to exhibit themselves for his cameras, so willing to objectify themselves in exchange for trucker hats and tank tops, Francis simply said: “It’s empowering. It’s freedom.”

This generation thinks that raunch equals power and freedom. Newsweek has dubbed this, “The Girls Gone Wild Effect.” Nowadays, raunchy sexuality has become the prevalent expression of a woman’s freedom and power.

Joe Francis sees the Girl-Gone-Wild phenomenon as the ultimate expression of feminism. Muzi Mei, the Carrie Bradshaw of Beijing who became a superstar by blogging about her sexual conquests, agrees. She told a reporter, “I express my freedom through sex. It’s my life, and I can do what I want.”

It’s the ultimate irony that the foundational beliefs of feminism have contributed to the increased sexual objectification and pornographication of women. Society’s thorough acceptance of feminist precepts is one of the reasons why behavior that was seen as destructive in 1968 is celebrated as desirable in 2010. When Miss America 1968 appeared in an evening gown and swimwear at the bequest of men, feminism identified her as “exploited.” But when Miss USA 2010 appears in fishnet stockings in sexy bedroom porn, and boldly rejects social convention by entering a pole dancing competition—and does so of her own choice, self-determination and exerting her right to freedom—she embraces and lives out feminism’s core tenets. Given a feminist belief system, culture has no choice but to identify her brash, immoral behavior as“empowered.”

Feminism didn’t provide the answer for woman’s happiness, wholeness, and self-identity. It’s just led us further away from the truth. Girls, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…. I think the time is ripe for a new movement—a seismic holy quake of counter-cultural men and women who dare to take God at his word, those who have the courage to stand against the popular tide, and believe and delight in God’s plan for male and female. A revolution of women embracing God’s design is the needed antidote to counter the self-deterministic feminist mindset that unwittingly justifies the Miss USA type of madness. © Mary A. Kassian, Girls Gone Wise. Visit Mary’s Website at: GirlsGoneWise.com

Now is the Time of Salvation!

Just a reminder from Samuel Davies that the time is now for salvation! Christ's hand is extended to you now! Don't wait, you cannot guarantee tomorrow. Come to the Lord! Seek him while he may be found!

Samuel Davies, "A New Year's Gift!" January 1, 1760

"Knowing the TIME, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep!" Romans 13:11

TIME, like an ever-running stream, is perpetually gliding on--and hurrying each of us into the boundless ocean of eternity!Consider the UNCERTAINTY of your time! You may die . . .

the next year,

the next month,

the next week,

the next hour,

or the next moment!

I once knew a minister who, while he was speaking on this same point--was made a striking illustration of it--and instantly dropped down dead in the pulpit!You cannot call one day of this next year your own! Before that day comes, you may be done with time--and have entered upon eternity! People presume upon time, as if it were guaranteed to them for so many years; and this is the delusion which ruins multitudes!

How many are now in eternity, who began the last year with as little expectation of death, and hopes of long life--as you have at the beginning of the present year! And this may be your doom!Should a prophet be sent to open the book of the divine decrees to you--as Jeremiah did to Hananiah; some of you would no doubt see it written there by your name, "This very year you are going to die!" Jeremiah 28:16.

Some unexpected moment in this year--will put an end to all the labors and enjoyments of the present state, and all the duties and opportunities peculiar to it!Therefore, if sinners would repent and believe--NOW is the time, because this is the ONLY time they are certain of! Sinners, you may be in hell before this year finishes its round--if you delay the great business of salvation any longer!For remember, time is uncertain! Youth, health, strength, business, riches, power, wisdom, and whatever this world contains--cannot insure it. No, the thread of life is held by the divine hand alone; and God can snap it asunder, without warning, in whatever moment He pleases!

"It is appointed unto men once to die--and after that to face judgment!" Hebrews 9:27

Updated link...it should work this time

The link should work this time...This is me preaching on the 6th of June to a Korean Presbyterian Youth Group

http://www.mediafire.com/ryancavanaugh

The Lion Of Princeton Teaching On The Difference Between Justification and Santification

What an amazing and clarifying quote from B.B. Warfield. Very clear and very precisely worded. We are justified by Faith and Faith alone. Our sanctification comes from the justification won by Christ on the Cross. The Cross and Jesus justifying us causes us to be Sanctified. Beautiful! So much Confusion about this in the church.

Dear Christian, if you have faith in Christ, you are Justified before The Father, Because of what Christ has done, and the work on the cross. Christ is interceding for you at the Right Hand of The Father, and has blessed you with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3). The will of God is your Sanctification (1 Thes 4:3). You cannot be Justified without faith, and you cannot be sanctified without being Justified. The original Post may be found HERE.

"There is no evidence presented here that the New Testament represents
sanctification as received immediately by faith. In point of fact there is no
direct statement to that effect in the New Testament. It is to Jellinghaus’*
credit that he does not adduce for it either Acts xv.9 or xxvi.18, which are
often made to do duty in this sense. His strong conviction that sanctification
is obtained directly and immediately by faith is a product not of his Scriptural
studies, but of his “mediating theology.” According to that theology, when we
receive Christ by faith we receive in Him all that He is to us at once; all the
benefits which we receive in Him are conceived as received immediately and
directly by the faith through which we are united with Him and become sharers in
all that He is. Justification and sanctification, for example, are thought of as
parallel products of faith. This is not, however, the New Testament
representation. According to its teaching, sanctification is not related to
faith directly and immediately, so that in believing in Jesus we receive both
justification and sanctification as parallel products of our faith; or either
the one or the other, according as our faith is directed to the one or the
other. Sanctification is related directly not to faith but to justification; and
as faith is the instrumental cause of justification, so is justification the
instrumental cause of sanctification. The vinculum which binds justification and
sanctification together is not that they are both effects of faith – so that he
who believes must have both – because faith is the prius of both alike. Nor is
it even that both are obtained in Christ, so that he who has Christ, who is made
to us both righteousness and sanctification, must have both because Christ is
the common source of both. It is true that he who has faith has and must have
both; and it is true that he who has Christ has and must have both. But they do
not come out of faith or from Christ in the same way. Justification comes
through faith; sanctification through justification, and only mediately, through
justification, through faith. So that the order is invariable, faith,
justification, sanctification; not arbitrarily, but in the nature of the case.
(B. B. Warfield, “The German Higher Life Movement,” in Perfectionism, vol. 1,
pp. 362-363)

*Theodore Jellinghaus was a German Lutheran missionary to India, and later a Lutheran pastor in the vicinity of Potsdam.

The Fruit of American Christanity

I guess they are trying to produce this...sad, sad, sad.....

Enthralled With The Doll Or The Rattle

What a wonderful God Exulting Quote from Thomas Brooks! Christ is our treasure! To look to anything else than Christ will not satisfy. To not be satisfied in God and him only is an egregious evil! Scripture says the same in Jeremiah 2:12-13, a passage worth memorizing for all Christians. Exult in the Lord Your God with all your heart! find all your joy in HIM, not on his gifts. Worship and praise the giver, not the trinket.

Enthralled with the doll or the rattle
(Thomas Brooks, "A Word in Season to Suffering Saints")

"O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You!" Psalm 63:1-3

Be sure that you don't take up your greatest delight . . .
in any creature,
in any comfort,
in any contentment,
in any worldly enjoyment.

When the mother sees that the child is enthralled with the doll or the rattle--she comes not in sight. If you take up your rest in any of the dolls and rattles--in any of the poor things of this world--God will certainly keep out of sight! He will never honor them
with His gracious presence--who enthralled with anything below Himself, below His presence.

When you begin to be tickled and enthralled with this and that worldly enjoyment, reason thus, "Here is a gracious spouse, here are precious children, here is a pleasant home, here is a wonderful climate, here is a gainful trade, etc. But what are all these to me--so long God has withdrawn His presence from me?"

Remember this once for all: that the whole world is but a barren wilderness--without the gracious presence of God!

Praying Beyond The Sick List

Here is a very intersting post from the the Web Magazine "BY FAITH," Which is the Web Magazine for the PCA. You Can find the Original HERE

Praying Beyond the Sick List
David Powlison, Issue Number 8, April 2006

It sounds so simple. Pastors could so easily pray for the sick—pointedly and intelligently—couldn’t they? But so often these prayers from the pulpit sound like a nursing report at shift change in your local hospital: "The colon cancer in room 103 with uncertain prognosis … the lady in 110 with a gall bladder that’s not yielding to treatment … the broken leg that’s mending well … the heart patient going into surgery on Tuesday under Dr. Jones’s skilled hands … .”

Visitors to many of our churches might understandably conclude that God isn’t very good at doing what we ask, that He is just there to perk up our health. Chronic illnesses gradually fill up our prayer lists, and deep down we know that every person in every pew will die sooner or later. Pastoral prayers, prayer meetings, and prayer lists can have the net effect of actually disheartening and distracting the faith of God’s people. Prayer becomes either a dreary litany of familiar words, or a magical superstition verging on hysteria. This kind of prayer either dulls our expectations of God, or hypes up fantasy presumptions.

Prayers for the sick can even become a breeding ground for cynicism: those who improve would have gotten better anyway, right? This is easy to believe as nature takes its course or as medical interventions bring about predictable results. Or those who don’t improve may be questioned about their faith. Prayer can become a breeding ground for bizarre ideas and practices—a spiritually sanctioned version of the exact same obsession with health and medicine that characterizes the wider culture, naming and claiming your healing, a superstitious belief that the quantity or the fervency of prayer is decisive in getting God’s ear; the notion that prayer has some intrinsic “power.”

Changing How We Pray

It’s hard to learn how to pray—for the sick as well as the healthy. How often do we make intelligent, honest requests for something we need from capable, trustworthy friends? Prayer is a lot like that. But somehow when the making of a request is termed “praying” and the capable party is termed “God,” things tend to get tangled. You’ve seen it, heard it, done it: the contorted syntax, formulaic phrasing, meaningless repetition, “just reallys,” vague non-requests, artificially pious tone of voice, air of confusion. If you talked to your friends or parents that way they’d think you’d lost your mind. But what if your understanding of prayer changes, and if your practice of prayer then changes? What then? What if the prayer requests you make—and the ones you ask others to make—change?

Consider a few factors that can bring about such change.

The Sick: Keeping Spiritual Issues in View

First, notice a few things about James 5:13-20. This passage is the warrant for praying for the sick. It is certainly significant that James explicitly envisions prayer not in a congregational setting, but in what we might think of as a counseling setting. The sick person asks for help, meets with a few elders, honestly confesses sins, repents, and draws near to God. James describes earnest prayer as affecting both the physical and spiritual state of that person. Is it wrong to pray from the pulpit for sick people? Of course not. But we should consider that the classic text on praying for the sick describes something highly personal and interpersonal.

Notice also how pointedly James keeps spiritual issues in view. His letter is about growing in wisdom, and he doesn’t change that emphasis when it comes to helping the sick. What he writes is predicated on his understanding that suffering presents an occasion to become wise, a good gift from above: “Count it all joy when you meet various trials … If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask … .” He has already illustrated this regarding the issues of poverty, injustice, and interpersonal conflict. Now he illustrates it regarding sickness.

James’ focus on spiritual issues does not mean that people get sick because they’ve sinned. They do sometimes: IV drug use and sexual immorality do, for instance, lead to AIDS on occasion. People do reap in sickness what they sow in sin. But made into a universal rule, that idea is mere superstition. Remember Job’s heartless counselors.

God meets us in sickness, and we experience new dynamics through that meeting. Sickness can force us to stop and face ourselves, to stop and find the Lord. We discover sins we’ve been too busy to notice: neglectfulness, irritability, indifference, self-indulgence, unbelief, joylessness, worries, complaining, drivenness in work, trust in our own health and ability. As our need for Jesus’ mercies is quickened, our delight in God deepens. We will develop fruit of the Spirit that can develop no other way than by suffering well: endurance of faith, hope and joy that transcend circumstances, mature character, richer knowledge of the love of God, living for God not self, the humility of weakness, the ability to help others who suffer. (See Jam. 1:3; Rom. 5:3-5; 1 Pet. 1:6-8, 4:1-3; 2 Cor. 12:9f.)

And sickness, like any weakness or trouble, is itself a temptation. Whether you face life-threatening disease or just feel lousy for a couple days, it is amazing what that experience can bring out of your heart. Some people complain and grumble, getting grouchiest with the people who care most. Others get angry—at God, at themselves, at others, at the inconvenience. Others pretend nothing is wrong, denying reality. Others pretend they’re sicker than they are, seeking an excuse to avoid the responsibilities of job, school, or family. Some invest vast hopes, time, and money in pursuing doctor after doctor, book after book, drug after drug, diet after diet, quack after quack. Still others keep pressing on with life, doing, doing, doing—when God really intends that they stop and learn the lessons of weakness. Others become deeply fearful—“perhaps this is the big one”—imagining the worst, And others get depressed. Feeling lousy physically becomes an occasion to question the meaning and value of their entire existence. Some are too proud or embarrassed to ask for help. Others manipulate everyone within reach to serve their every need. Some brood that God must be out to get them, becoming morbidly introspective about every real or imaginary failing.

Sickness provides one of the richest opportunities imaginable for spiritual growth and pastoral counseling, as James 5 makes clear. Is God interested in healing any particular illness? Sometimes, sometimes not. But is He always interested in making us wise, holy, trusting, and loving, even in the context of our pain, disability, and dying? Yes, yes again, and amen. People learn to pray beyond the “sick list” when they realize what God is really all about.

Longing for Christ’s Kingdom

Consider the vast biblical teaching on prayer. How many of Scripture’s prayers focus on sickness? A significant few, giving good warrant to plead passionately with God for healing. In Isaiah 38, Hezekiah pleads for restoration of health, and he is healed. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul prays earnestly three times to be delivered from a painful affliction—but this time God says no. Psalm 35:12-14 mentions heartfelt prayer for the restoration of the sick, and portrays this as a natural expression of loving concern. Both Elijah and Elisha passionately plead with God on behalf of only sons whose sicknesses end in death, devastating their mothers (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 4). In both cases God mercifully restores them.

Coming at the issue from the opposite direction, the Bible’s last word on Asa is negative because “his disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12). He is chided for failing to pray through sickness. Prayer has varying degrees of intensity, with supplication and outcry being the strongest. It is striking how passionate and blunt the prayers for healing are. These passages vividly challenge the perfunctory and medicine-centric prayers that often are said, even by people preoccupied with praying for the sick. When you pray for the sick, and as you teach the sick to seek God for themselves, it ought to be a fiercely thoughtful firestorm.

However, the majority of prayers in the Bible focus on other things. As shorthand, here are three emphases of biblical prayer: circumstantial prayers, wisdom prayers, and kingdom prayers. Praying for the sick is one form of the first.

1. Sometimes we ask God to change our circumstances—heal the sick, give us daily bread, protect us from suffering and evildoers, make our political leaders just, convert our friends and family, make our work and ministries prosper, provide us with a spouse, quiet this dangerous storm, send us rain, give us a child.

2. Sometimes we ask God to change us—deepen our faith, teach us to love each other, forgive our sins, make us wise where we tend to be foolish, help us know You better, give us understanding of Scripture, teach us how to encourage others.

3. Sometimes we ask God to change everything by revealing Himself more fully on the stage of real life, magnifying the degree to which His glory and rule are obvious—Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, be exalted above the heavens, let Your glory be over all of the earth, let Your glory fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, come Lord Jesus.

In the Lord’s prayer we see examples of all three. They are tightly interwoven when we pray rightly. The Lord’s kingdom (#3) involves the destruction of our sins (#2) and our sufferings (#1). His reign causes a flourishing of love’s perfect wisdom and a wealth of situational blessing. Prayers for God to change my circumstances and to change me are, in their inner logic, requests that He reveal His glory and mercy on the stage of this world.

When any of these three strands of prayer gets detached from the other two, prayer tends to go sour. If you just pray for better circumstances, then God becomes the errand boy (usually somewhat disappointing) who exists to give you your shopping list of desires and pleasures—no sanctifying purposes, no higher glory. Prayer becomes gimme, gimme, gimme. If you only pray for personal change, then it tends to reveal an obsession with moral self improvement, a self-absorbed spirituality detached from engaging with other people and the tasks of life. Where is the longing for Christ’s kingdom to right all wrongs, not just to alleviate my sins so I don’t feel bad about myself? Prayer pursues self-centered, morally-strenuous asceticism, with little evidence of real love, trust, or joy. If we only pray for the sweeping invasion of the kingdom, then prayers tend towards irrelevance and overgeneralization, failing to work out how the actual kingdom rights real wrongs, wipes away real tears, and removes real sins. Such prayers pursue a God who never touches ground until the last day.

Practicing the Three Strands of Prayer

We could give countless examples of these three strands of prayer operating wisely. Let me note a few. Consider the Psalms, the book of talking with God. About 90 psalms are “minor key.” Intercessions regarding sin and suffering predominate—always in light of God revealing His mercies, power, and kingdom. The battle with personal sin and guilt appears in about one third of these intercessions. Often there are requests that God make us wiser: “teach me,” “make me understand,” “revive me.” God reveals Himself (“for your name’s sake”) by changing us. Many more psalms reveal requests to change circumstances: deliver us from evildoers, be our refuge and fortress amid suffering, destroy Your enemies. These, too, are always tied to requests that God arrive with kingdom glory and power. God reveals Himself by making all these bad things and bad people go away. Then there are the 60 or so “major key” psalms. In these you see emphasis on the joy and praise that characterize God’s kingdom reign in action. Look at the prayers of Philippians 1:9-11 and Colossians 1:9-14. There is no mention of circumstances, no requests to be healed, fed, protected, or for other people to change. The requests focus entirely on gaining wisdom in the light of the coming glory of God’s kingdom. These two prayers plead with God on behalf of other people that two kinds of love would deepen: May God make you know Him better. May God make your love for people more intelligent. Look too at Ephesians 1:15-23 and 3:14-21. These intercessions focus on wisdom in the light of Christ’s glory. Again, there are no circumstantial requests. In fact, there aren’t even requests to grow in intelligent love for others. But Paul zeroes in on what we most need: I ask that God would make you know Him better. Praying Beyond the Sick List
Why don’t people pray beyond the sick list? We want circumstances to improve so that we might feel better and life might get better. These are often honest and good prayers—unless they’re the only requests. Unhinged from the purposes of sanctification and from groaning for the coming of the King, prayers for circumstances become self-centered. Learn, and teach others, to pray with the three-stranded braid of our real need. You will pray far beyond the sick list. And you will pray in a noticeably different way for the sick.

Luther's Simple Way to Pray

In the spring of 1535 Martin Luther’s barber and good friend, Peter Beskendorf, asked Luther for his advice on a simple way to pray. In response Luther wrote a 34-page booklet. A portion of the introduction reads as follows:

Dear Master Peter:

I will tell you as best I can what I do personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you and to everybody to do it better that I! Amen.

First, when I feel that I have become cool and joyless in prayer because of other tasks or thoughts (for the flesh and the devil always impede and obstruct prayer), I take my little Psalter, hurry to my room, or, if it be the day and hour for it, to the church where a congregation is assembled and, as time permits, I say quietly to myself and word-for-word the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, the Creed, and, if I have time, some words of Christ or of Paul, or some psalms, just as a child might do.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false, deluding ideas that tell you, "Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that." Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs, which so hold your attention and involve you that noting comes of prayer for that day.

It may well be that you may have some tasks which are as good or better than prayer, especially in an emergency. There is a saying ascribed to St. Jerome that everything a believer does is prayer, and a proverb says, “Those who work faithfully pray twice.” This can be said because believers fear and honor God in their work and remember the commandment not to wrong anyone, or to try to steal, defraud, or cheat. Such thoughts and such faith undoubtedly transform their work into prayer and a sacrifice of praise….

Yet we must be careful not to break the habit of true prayer and imagine other works to be necessary which, after all, are nothing or the kind. Thus at the end we become lax and lazy, cool and listless toward prayer. The devil who besets us is not lazy or careless, and our flesh is too ready and eager to sin and is disinclined to the spirit of prayer….

Great Quotes From A Smart Dead Guy

Here is a great quote from Samuel Davies

Your salvation makes amends for all His sufferings!
(Samuel Davies, "The Sufferings of Christ, and Their Consequent Joys and Blessings")

"He shall see His seed! He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied!" Isaiah 53:10-11

Jesus is now exalted to His throne in the highest heavens; and from thence He takes a wide survey of the universe. He looks down upon our world--and beholds kings in their grandeur, victorious generals with all their power, nobles and great men in all their pomp. But these are not the objects that best please His eyes. "He shall see His seed!" He sees one here, and another there, bought with His blood, and born of His Spirit; and this is the most delightful sight our world can afford Him. Some of them may be oppressed with poverty, covered with rags, or ghastly with famine; they may make no great figure in mortal eyes; but He loves to look at them! He esteems them as His children, and the fruits of His dying pangs!

The happiness of His exalted state consists, in a great degree--in the pleasure of seeing the designs of His death accomplished in the conversion and salvation of sinners!

His eyes are graciously fixed upon this assembly today! And if there is one of His spiritual seed among us--He can distinguish them in the crowd. He sees you drinking in His Words with eager ears! He sees you at His table commemorating His love! He sees your hearts breaking with penitential sorrows, and melting at His cross!

But these are not the only children whom He delights to view; they are not all in such an abject, imperfect state. No! He sees a glorious company of them around His throne in heaven, arrived to maturity, enjoying their inheritance, and resembling their divine Parent!

How does His benevolent heart rejoice to look over the immense plains of heaven--and see them all peopled with His seed! When He takes a view of this numerous offspring, sprung from His blood, and when He looks down to our world--and sees so many infants in grace, gradually advancing to their adult age; when He sees some, perhaps every hour since He died upon Calvary, entering the gates of heaven, having finished their course of education upon earth; I say, when this prospect appears to Him on every hand--how does He rejoice!

Now the prophecy in my text is fulfilled! "He shall see of the travail of His soul--and shall be satisfied!" If you put the sentiments of His benevolent heart into language, methinks He would say, "Since My death has been so fruitful of such a glorious posterity--I am well satisfied. I desire no other reward for all My agonies for them. If this end is but answered--I am fully satisfied by My hanging on the tree for them!"

Suppose that He should this day appear to you in that suffering form--sweating great drops of blood, accused, insulted, bruised, scourged, nailed upon the cross! And suppose He should turn to you with a countenance full of love and pity, and drenched with blood and tears, and address you in such moving language as this:"See! sinners--see what I suffer for you! See at what a dear rate I purchase your salvation! See how I love you! And now I have only this to ask of you in return: that you would forsake those murderous sins which thus torment Me; that you would love and serve Me; and receive that salvation which I am now purchasing with the blood of My heart! This I ask, with all the importunity--of My last breath, of My bleeding wounds, and My expiring groans. Grant Me but this--and I am well satisfied! I shall think of all My sufferings, as well bestowed."

O sirs, must not your heart melt away within you, to hear such language as this? See the strength of the love of Jesus! If you are but saved--He does not begrudge His blood and life for you! Your salvation makes amends for all His sufferings! This He accounts His greatest joy--a joy more than equivalent to all the pains He endured for you! He has full satisfaction for all the sorrows you have caused Him!

But alas! If you are not saved--then you will perish forever under the weight of His righteous vengeance--and He will rejoice over your damnation! He will glorify Himself in your destruction! The flames of hell will burn dreadfully bright--when He will please Himself in the execution of His justice upon you!Alas! Is the happiness of heaven--the only kind of happiness that you are careless about? Is the salvation of your immortal soul--the only deliverance for which you have no desire? Alas! Have you become so stupidly wicked!!

"He shall see His seed! He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied!" Isaiah 53:10-11

A Check Up For Your Mouth

If there is one thing (and there are more than that) that i hate about myself, It would be my filthy mouth. I know that my mouth, the words I use, and what comes out and how is such a gauge of my spiritual growth. I do not like what comes out, or how i speak. I love how my wonderful wife reminds me of my mouth and helps me to change my speech.

This is commonly overlooked and neglected as a teaching. When it is taught, it seems to be taught as law. We should go back to preaching our filthy mouths as a test to our spiritual growth.
With that in mind, Dr. Greg Bahnsen (Who coincidental preaches at a church with the same name as mine only in California) prepared this. It is called "A Check Up For Your Mouth." Please go through this and let it test your words. Perhaps also, consider putting the sanctification of our speech into our prayer time. I know it will be in mine much more. I failed all of these. The original may be seen HERE.

It is every Christian’s heart-felt desire to live a more holy life, one that better glorifies God and displays His love. The process by which believers grow in holiness is called "sanctification." It is the result of God’s powerful, transforming grace within us.

The outworking of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work is not as vague or mystical as many well-meaning Christians imagine. It can be seen in very definite ways in our conduct—particularly in the way we use our mouths. About our linguistic habits God tells us: "All of us stumble in many ways, but if anyone is never at fault in what he says, then he is mature, able to control his whole body" (James 3:2).

Reforming the way we use our words, then, is a key to sanctification. The mouth is so troublesome and sinful that, if it can be made more holy, so can other areas of our conduct. For that reason, the following "oral check-up" has been devised, summarizing much of what the Bible teaches us about the way we should speak. If Christian morality were more evident here, God would surely receive greater glory—not only among us, but also through us before the world.

Notice the Destructive Power of Words

"Thy tongue devises very wickedness: like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.... Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue" (Psalm 52:2, 4).

"Who have whet their tongue like a sword, and have aimed their arrows, even bitter words. (Psalm 64:3)

"There is rash speaking which is like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings health" (Proverbs 12:18).

"A worthless man devises mischief, and in his lips there is as a scorching fire" (Proverbs 16:27).

"Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit: the poison of asps is under their lips" (Romans 3:13).

Do You Defame Fellow Believers with Harsh Language?

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a grievous word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise utters

knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pours out folly... A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit" (Proverbs 15:1-4).

"The tongue is a fire, the world of iniquity among our members which defiles the whole body...and is set on fire by hell.... It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith we bless the Lord and Father, and therewith we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God: out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.... If you have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.... But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits..." (James 3:5-18).

Do You Criticize Unnecessarily or Talk Too Much?

"In the multitude of words there is no lack of transgression, but he who refrains his lips does wisely" (Proverbs 10:19).

"He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter" (Proverbs 11:13).

"A perverse man scatters abroad strife, and a whisperer separates best friends" (Proverbs 16:28).

"He who spares his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise. (Proverbs 17:27-28).

"For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention ceases. As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to inflame strife. (Proverbs 26:20-21).

Do You Judgmentally or Maliciously Speak Evil of Fellow Believers?

"Speak not one against another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law...[and so] is not a doer of the law" (James 4:11).

"You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son" (Psalm 50:20).

"Who are you to judge the servant of another? Before his own lord he stands or falls.... But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you set at nought your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God.... Let us not therefore judge one another any more. (Romans 14:4, 8-13).

"All the day long they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil" (Psalm 56:5).

"I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be...a reviler.... Be not deceived: neither fornicators...nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 5:11; 6:10).

Do You Speak Uncharitably?

"Love is longsuffering and is kind...does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, is not provoked, takes not account of evil, rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Do You Interpret People In The Best Light?

The man with unsound and ungodly attitudes] is puffed up...whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil suspicion..." (1 Timothy 6:4).

[By contrast, the inspired writer, after speaking of evil actions, said:] "But beloved we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation..." (Hebrews 6:9).

[Examples of seeing others in the worst light: 1 Samuel 1:13-15; 17:28; 2 Samuel 10:3; 16:3; 19:25-27; Nehemiah 6:6-8; Acts 24:2,5. We can take one instance —] "And when the barbarians saw the venomous creature hanging from [Paul’s] hand, they said one to another, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live (Acts 28:4).}

Is What You Say Kind?

"Let not kindness and truth forsake you; bind them about your neck: write them upon the tablet of your heart" (Proverbs 3:3).

"The wise in heart shall be called prudent; and the sweetness of the lips increases learning.... Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones" (Proverbs 16:21, 24).

"She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue" (Proverbs 31:26).

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).

"And be kind one to another, tenderhearted" (Ephesians 4:32).

"Put on...a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering...and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:12,14).

"Finally, be all of you like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tenderhearted, humble-minded (1 Peter 3:8).

Does Your Speaking Show Humility?

"Do nothing through faction or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each count the other as better than himself" (Philippians 2:3).

"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think....In love of the brethren be tenderly affectionate one to another; in honor preferring one another" (Romans 12:3, 10).

"With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).

Do You Speak Carelessly?

"He who guards his mouth keeps his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction" (Proverbs 13:3).

"The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things" (Proverbs 15:28).

"Whosoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles" (Proverbs 21:23).

"See a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him" (Proverbs 29:20).

"If any man thinks himself to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives himself and this man's religion is vain" (James 1:26).

"He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile" (1 Peter 3:10).

Do You Choose Your Words Cautiously and Fairly, or Do You Press into Service Provocative (Emotive) and Unqualified (Categorical) Expressions?

" I say unto you that...whoever shall say to his brother "Raca" [a term of contempt] shall be in danger of the council, and whoever shall say "You fool" shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5:22).

"I said in my haste, ‘All men are liars’" (Psalm 116:11).

[When we oversimplify and lump together the righteous and unrighteous under one condemning rubric, note:] "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord" (Proverbs 17:15).

"Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear" (Ephesians 4:29).

"Let us follow after things which make for peace and things whereby we may edify one another" (Romans 14:19).

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in network of silver. As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear" (Proverbs 25:11-12).

"The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver.... The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked speaks perverseness" (Proverbs 10:20,32).

"A man has joy in the answer of his mouth, and a word in due season, how good it is!" (Proverbs 15:23)

"The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked" (Proverbs 10:11).

"A grievous word stirs up anger...the mouth of fools pours forth folly" (Proverbs 15:1,2).

Do You Gossip or Publicly Discredit People?

"You shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people" (Leviticus 19:16).

"Who shall dwell with Jehovah?... He who slanders not with his tongue...nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor" (Psalm 15:3).

"And withal they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not" (1 Timothy 5:13).

"He who utters a slander is a fool" (Proverbs 10:18).

"The mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit have they opened against me.... They have compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause" (Psalm 109:2,3).

"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile" (Psalm 34:13; 1 Peter 3:10).

"Let all bitterness...clamor and railing be put away from you, with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31).

"Put them in mind...to speak evil of no man, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all gentleness toward all men" (Titus 3:1-2).

[Whisperers and backbiters are condemned: Psalm 101:5; Romans 1:29,30; 2 Corinthians 12:20] "The north wind drives away rain, so does an angry countenance a backbiting tongue" (Proverbs 25:23).

Do You Publicly Criticize People Before First Speaking with Them and Seeking Their Restoration?

"He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him.... He who pleads his cause first seems just, but his neighbor comes and searches him out" (Proverbs 18:13, 17).

"Go not hastily to strive, lest you know not what to do in the end thereof, when your neighbor has put you to shame. Debate your cause with your neighbor himself, and disclose not the secret of another, lest he who hears it revile thee and your infamy turn not away" (Proverbs 25:8-10).

"Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.... Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:1-2).

"My brethren, if any among you err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins" (James 5:19-20).

"Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them who hear" (Ephesians 4:29; cf. Romans 14:19).

"And if your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone; if he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it unto the church" (Matthew 18:15-17).

Do You Speak with Sensitivity, the Way You Would Have Others Speak of You?

[See preceding passages about kindness, humility, and gentleness: for instance, 1 Peter 3:8; Ephesians 4:32; Titus 3:2; Romans 12:10]

"If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, make full my joy that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord" (Philippians 2:1-2).

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19; Romans 13:9).

"For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Galatians 5:14).

"All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, even so do also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7:12).

Do You Exemplify the Very Things for Which You Criticize Others?

" Judge not that you be not judged. For by the same standard you judge, you shall be judged; and with the measure you mete it out, it shall be meted out to you.... You hypocrite, first cast out the beam in your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to cast out the speck from your brother’s eye" (Matthew 7:1-5).

"Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whosoever you are who judges. For in that very thing you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who who judges practices the same things" (Romans 2:1).

Do Your Words about Others Amount to Humiliation or Mockery?

" With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor" (Proverbs 11:9).

"A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit" (Proverbs 15:4).

"But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you not be consumed of one another" (Galatians 5:15).

[Examples of the sin of mockery: Genesis 21:9 with Galatians 4:29; Psalm 35:16, 21; Matthew 27:24]

[The opposite of humiliating words is commended: Proverbs 16:21, 24; 27:9, and preceding passages about kindness, sensitivity, etc.]

Do You Later Try to Evade Responsibility for Your Words

"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.... And I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned" (Matthew 12:34b, 36-37).

"As a madman who casts firebrands and deadly arrows, so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I was only kidding’" (Proverbs 26:18-19).

"He who covers his transgressions shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

"Yet you say ‘I am innocent....’ Surely I will enter into judgment with you because you say ‘I have not sinned’" (Jeremiah 2:35).

[Examples of attempting to evade responsibility and making excuses: Proverbs 30:20; Genesis 3:12-13; 4:9; Matthew 27:24; Luke 14:18]

Are You Always Careful to Tell the Truth When You Speak?

"A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow" (Proverbs 25:18).

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20; Matthew 19:18).

"For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts...false witness, railings: these are the things which defile the man" (Matthew 15:19-20).

"You shall not take up a false report; put not your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness" (Exodus 23:1).

"You shall not...lie one to another" (Leviticus 19:11).

"Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak the truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another" (Ephesians 4:25).

"Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings" (Colossians 3:9).

"There are six things which Jehovah hates, yes seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue...a false witness who utters lies" (Proverbs 6:16-19).

"He who utters truth shows forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit.... The lip of truth shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment" (Proverbs 12:17, 19).

"Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and deceive not with your lips" (Proverbs 24:28).

"A false witness shall not go unpunished, and he who utters lies shall perish" (Proverbs 19:9; cf. 21:28).

[The mouths of unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, must be stopped by strong reproof (Titus 1:10-13).

"But for...all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).

Do You Keep the Promises that You Make?

[Who shall dwell with the Lord?] "He who swears to his own hurt and changes not" (Psalm 15:4).

[Among those who stand condemned by God are covenant-breakers (Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:3).

Does Your Mouth Use Coarse Humor or Foolish Jesting?

"But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as becomes saints: nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting (Ephesians 5:3-4).

"Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth" (Ephesians 4:29).

"Put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth" (Colossians 3:8).

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be anything praiseworthy, think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).

Do You Use Words to Boast or Flatter Yourself?

"The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things" (Psalm 12:3).

"For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters" (2 Timothy 3:2).

"Be not wise in your own conceits" (Romans 12:16).

"I hate pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth" (Proverbs 8:13).

"Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think" (Romans 12:3).

"Let another praise you and not your own mouth—a stranger and not your own lips" (Proverbs 27:2).

Does Your Conversation Use God’s Name Taken in Vain?

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11).

"After this manner are you to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name" (Matthew 6:9).

[This requires that we reverence all of God's titles, attributes, works, etc.:] "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 29:2).

"O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth" (Psalm 7:1).

"Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; neither by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black" (Matthew 5:34-36).

[It also requires that we profess the name of Christ and praise Him:] "If you shall confess with your mouth Jesus as the Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.... Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:9,13).

"No man speaking in the Spirit of God says ‘Jesus is anathema,’ and no man can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ but by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).

"Through Him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to His name" (Hebrews 13:15).

[This entails that all of our speaking must be pleasing to God:] "And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17).

[We must not dishonor our profession of His name by our behavior:] "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you" (Romans 2:24).

"Let your lifestyle [conduct] be such as becomes the gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:27).

A Beautiful Testimony From A Pastor, Professor And Man Of God

After I graduate with my Bachelors, I intend (of course it could change at some time if the Lord plans it so) to attend Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI (I would hope you get to know this seminary, the more I learn about it the more I love it). I was so pleased to hear that TIM CHALLIES, one of my hero's, (I have always thought if i could be so gifted I would love to read as much and with the retention of Charles Spurgeon, and analyze what is read like Tim Challies) began a podcast called "THE CONNECTED KINGDOM." His co-host is a man named David Murray, who is the Professor of Old Testament, Pastoral Counseling and Practical Theology. On the fifth episode of the podcast David Murray gave his testimony on how he became a child of God, a Pastor and Professor. David Murray is also the author of the Blog HEAD, HEART, HAND. I listened to it and it so encouraged me and made me so praising God for giving us such men to train up men for ministry. Please listen and I know it will bless you greatly
http://www.challies.com/writings/podcast/connected-kingdom-podcast-episode-5

How Close the Pentacostals and Catholics Are!

Here is a wonderful post from Scott Clark and his blog THE HEIDELBLOG. I have been saying for a long time that Pentecostals have more in common with Roman Catholicism than they would care to realize. The search for counterfeit miracles is just one example. The relying on outside knowledge beyond the word of God is another. Allowing people to speak Ex CATHEDRA, (not papal Ex Cathedra but allowing people to speak with the authority of Jesus none the less) is so prevalent with men claiming words from God over and sometimes completely against what is said in scripture.
Let us return to the 5 Solas! Let us truly be Protestants! Let us fight for what the reformation was about and return to the Scriptures!
The original post may be seen HERE

Rome, Pentacostals, and Credulity

One of the creepier aspects of both Romanist and Pentecostalist piety is their virtually indistinguishable credulity about alleged “miracles.” I use the pejorative adjective intentionally because, at bottom, despite the formal differences between them, both are peddling magic and superstition and that’s creepy. John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801–90) is about to be “beatified.” (HT: Beggars All) but some questions have arisen about the truthfulness of the claims made by a Romanist deacon that he prayed to JHCN and that the latter heard his prayer and healed him miraculously. The late Roman high priest (pontifex maximus) is on the fast track for beatification and canonization but he too has hit a speed bump.

In Romanist piety “beatification” is part of the process of canonization whereby a dead Christian is recognized as a true object of veneration. The process requires that it be proved that this dead Christian heard and answered a prayer and performed a miracle. Hence the requirement for credulity in both senses of the word. The theological problems with such claims are not insignificant. First, one has to agree that finite, dead, humans, can, because they are glorified, hear prayers. This assumes a sort of omnipresence and omniscience that neither Scripture nor Christian theology confers upon them. Second, it assumes that humans, because they are glorified and particularly pious, are able to do that which only God can do: interrupt what we understand as the ordinary providence of God.

In medieval theology Credulitas referred to assent to and trust in the magisterial teaching of the church. In modern usage “credulity” denotes a “disposition to believe on weak or insufficient grounds” (Oxford English Dictionary). The Reformation attacked this confidence in conciliar and papal dogmas as misplaced. Only the triune God and his self-disclosure in Scripture is worthy of implicit faith and unquestioned (not to say unreasoning) confidence. Hence, against the medieval and the Tridentine (Romanist) doctrine of credulity and fides implicita the Protestants asserted and taught the doctrine of sola scriptura, that only Scripture is God’s Word, that only Scripture deserves the sort of authority Rome confers upon the church. Scripture forms the church; the church does not form the Scripture.


Reading about the controversies over whether JHCN and JPII heard and answered prayer and are thus qualified, according to Rome, for beatification, I was struck by how similar the language and rhetoric of the Romanist is to that of Benny Hinn and his ilk. Neither the Romanist nor the neo-Pentecostalist (neo-Montantist!) confesses the sole, unique authority of the Word of God. Neither the Romanist nor the neo-Pentecostalist recognizes the unique nature of the canonical revelation or of the canonical apostolic and prophetic offices. The piety of the Romanist and the neo-Pentecostalist depends to a considerable degree upon their claims of ongoing apostolic authority and demonstrations of power (e.g., “signs and wonders”). Neither of them is satisfied with the finished work of Christ. Neither of them understands the sufficiency of Christ, how that all of redemptive history pointed to and was fulfilled by Christ. Each, in his own tawdry way, wants us to think that what he claims happens today is substantially identical to what happened in canonical redemptive history. If Paul survived stoning and serpents, the neo-Pentecostalist has done the same and more! If the apostles put people to death and raised them from the grave, the neo-Pentecostalist has done the same. Of course both Rome and neo-Pentecostalism really specialize in claims of healing. That’s where the discussion usually focuses.

Since the rise of Wayne Grudem’s more sophisticated revision of neo-Pentecostalism (attempting to affirm a predestinarian version of neo-Pentecostalism and to synthesize it with the Reformed doctrine of canonicity) it is considered by some to be bad form to invoke Warfield but I must. We should all go back and read his marvelous de-bunking of the neo-Pentecostal and Romanist nonsense: Counterfeit Miracles. The question has never been whether our sovereign triune God can perform the canonical signs and wonders. After all, he did it the first time! The questions are whether Scripture promises that he will and whether we can honestly say that he has done and is doing now. The exegetical case for ongoing signs and wonders is precarious at best. As to empirical evidence, Warfield was right. It usually comes down either to lowering the standards of what happened in the apostolic (or more broadly) the canonical period or in elevating what is alleged to have happened in our time. Thus, the biblical glossolalia is re-defined and identified with a universal religious phenomenon. Alleged occurrences of “healing” and other modern signs and wonders become as hard to verify as the Romanist claims that the JHCN or JPII performed a miracle.

I am not saying that God is absent from the universe or that he is not active constantly and wonderfully. Not at all. The Biblical doctrine of providence says that God exercises the same power manifested in creation to uphold and govern and sustain and work through his creation today. He has promised to work wonders through the preaching of the holy gospel to bring his elect to faith and to sustain and confirm that faith through the use of the holy sacraments. I am not saying that God never wonderfully and unexpectedly heals anyone. I’m sure he does but I am as unsure that he has done so either through the intercession of dead cardinals and popes as I am that he does so through the imprecations and invocations of jet-setting, white-suited charlatans.

It is striking how, on examination, the cardinal, the pope, and the pentecostalist all begin to look the same but ironically none of them sees himself in the other.

Comming Soon

In so many churches this is coming Sunday

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

It Must Be Tough Being A Hypocrite

I'm really trying hard to understand exactly how sodomizing a Christian Man for trimming a Muslim man's beard shows how righteous you are. I can't understand this. I thought homosexuality is a sin for Muslims? How much good do you have to do to erase sodomizing a man? This shows what a true "Religion of Peace" looks like doesn't it. It must be tough to be a hypocrite.

Read what I'm talking about right HERE

Does Matthew 25 Teach Social Gospel?

It seems that every time i get into an discussion with a "Social Justice Christian" He/She drops on me what they believe to be their trump card. This is the proof-text that the believe that I cannot respond to (the face is similar to those in the reformed community who, when getting into a discussion about election and predestination drops Eph 1:4, John 6:44, Rom 9:10-24, or any other of the glorious verses that teach the five points) . This is the Crux of their whole theology so it seems. that is Matthew 25. They will drop it on me and smile with the smile of someone who just believes that they have won the argument. That is until you actually tell them what Matthew 25 is talking about. Their face then drops and they have to disagree, but can't come back with any facts for their disagreement.

The other thing that "Social Justice Christians" do is to guilt trip you. They teach a works righteousness system. They are trying to put such a heavy yoke on you that it should make them shudder to think what it would mean if they had to lift it. "See," they say, "Salvation is based on what you did or didn't do to the poor, remember Jesus said, 'blessed are you poor!' We have to right the injustice in this world, or we are not doing the will of God." That might be an over-simplified reproduction of their statements, I am not trying to straw man them. They do however teach a works righteousness system. I'm sick and tired of having them say that if you are not for government intervention in the lives of the citizens, or if your against government health care, or you think that there should be lower, not higher taxes, then I am not doing the will of Christ.

I appeal to a wiser man than myself to help you to know what Matthew 25 means and how to respond to someone who tries to guilt you with this verse. If you are not acquainted with Kevin De Young's Blog, you should get to know it. He is a fount of wisdom and a wonderful brother in Christ.

By the way, I am not against social justice. I believe that we are mandated by the bible to correct INJUSTICE. Being poor is not dishonorable, nor is it injustice. I see the "Social Gospel" as almost another form of the "Prosperity Gospel." The difference, is that instead of thinking God is your magic Genie who grants you wishes like the Prosperity Heretics seem to think, The "Social Justice" Pharisees would rather treat you unjustly by taking your hard earned money and forcibly give it to those poorer, who have not earned it. Charity is a Christian virtue, and it is a determiner of whether or not someone is in the faith (1 John 3:17), But two things to remember.

1. "Brother in need" brothers and sisters are those who are in the faith! (Matt 12:46-50)

2. We are to love our neighbor, and that does mean meeting physical needs. I will never argue that we have to help those who do not have. I will argue that it should never be forced. You cannot force charity. If you do then it is not charity, it is a tax.

Here is Mr. DeYoung and his explanation

Seven Passages on Social Justice (4)
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an entry in this series, but I haven’t forgotten about it. There are seven “social justice” passages I want to examine: Isaiah 1, Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 22, Amos 5, Micah 6, Matthew 25, and Luke 4. I’d like to jump ahead today and deal with Matthew 25:31-46.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with
him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all
the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right,
but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I
was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I
was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and
you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did
we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did
we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did
we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them,
‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,
you did it to me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I
was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I
was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick
and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or
in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying,
‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did
not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25 has become a favorite passage for many progressives and younger evangelicals. Even in the mainstream media it seems like hardly a day goes by without someone referencing Jesus’ command to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. And few biblical phrases have gotten as much traction as “the least of these.” Whole movements have emerged whose central tenet is to care for “the least of these” ala Matthew 25. The implications–whether it be increased government spending, increased concern for “social justice,” or a general shame over not doing enough–are usually thought to be obvious from the text.

But in popular usage of the phrase, there’s almost no careful examination of what Jesus actually means by “the least of these.” Even brilliant scholars are not immune to this oversight. In his important book To Change the World, James Davison Hunter argues at one point that Christ makes “our treatment of strangers” a “measure of righteousness.” He then quotes from Matthew 25:34-40, followed by this conclusion: “To welcome the stranger–those outside of the community of faith–is to welcome Christ. Believer or nonbeliever, attractive or unattractive, admirable or disreputable, upstanding or vile–the stranger is marked by the image of God” (245). Now, it’s certainly true that we all are made in God’s image. It’s also true, on other grounds, that dealing kindly with strangers, even those outside the church, is a good thing (Gal. 6:10). But it’s difficult to conclude this is Jesus’ point in Matthew 25.
So who are “the least of these” if they are not society’s poor and downtrodden? “The least of these” refers to other Christians in need, in particular itinerant Christian teachers dependent on hospitality from their family of faith. Let me explain.

Four Supporting Points

1. In verse 45 Jesus uses the phrase “the least of these,” but in verse 40 he uses the more exact phrase “the least of these of my brothers.” The two phrases refer to the same group. So the more complete phrase in verse 40 should be used to explain the shorter phrase in verse 45. The reference to “my brothers” cannot be a reference to all of suffering humanity. “Brother” is not used that way in the New Testament. The word always refers to a physical-blood brother or to the spiritual family of God. Clearly Jesus is not asking us to only care for his brother James. So he must be insisting that whatever we do for our fellow Christians in need we do for him.
This interpretation is confirmed when we look at the last time before chapter 25 where Jesus talks about “brothers.” In Matthew 23, Jesus tells the crowds and disciples (1) that they are all brothers (8). The group of “brothers” is narrowed in the following verses to those who have one Father, who is in heaven (9) and have one instructor, Christ (10). Jesus does not call all people everywhere brothers. Those who belong to him and do his will are his brothers (Mark 3:35).

2. Likewise, it makes more sense to think Jesus is comparing service to fellow believers with service to him rather than imagining Jesus to be saying, “You should see my image in the faces of the poor.” Granted, Jesus was a “man of sorrows,” so to understand that sufferers may be able to identify with Jesus in a special way is wholly appropriate. But in the rest of the New Testament it’s the body of Christ that represents Christ on earth, not the poor. Christ “in us” is the promise of the gospel for those who believe, not for those living in a certain economic condition. Matthew 25 equates caring for Jesus’ spiritual family with caring for Jesus. The passage does not offer the generic message: “care for the poor and you’re caring for me.”

3. The word “least” is the superlative from of mikroi (little ones), which always refers to the disciples in Matthew’s gospel (10:42; 18:6, 10, 14; see also 11:11).

4. The similarity between Matthew 10 and 25 is not accidental. They are talking about the same thing. “Whoever receives you receive me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matt. 10:40-42). Clearly Jesus is speaking hear of disciples. The context is Jesus sending out his disciples to do itinerant ministry (vv 5-15). In the face of persecution and a hostile world (vv. 16-39), Jesus wants to encourage his followers to care for the traveling minister no matter the cost. The disciples would be solely dependent upon the good will of others to welcome them, feed them, and support them in their traveling work. So Jesus assures his followers that to show love in this way is actually to love him.

One of the first post-canon documents, The Didache, demonstrates that caring for traveling ministers was a pressing issue in the first centuries of the church’s history. The Didache, which has been compared to a church constitution, contains 15 short chapters, three of which deal with the protocol for welcoming itinerant teachers, apostles, and prophets. Some so-called ministers, the document concludes, are cheats looking for a hand-out. But as for the true teacher: “welcome him as you would the Lord” (11:2).

Conclusion

Matthew 25 is about social justice in the sense that it is about caring for the needy. But the needy in view are fellow Christians, especially those dependent on our hospitality and generosity for their ministry. “The least of these” is not a blanket statement about the church’s responsibility to meet the needs of all the poor (though we do not want to be indifferent to hurting people). Nor should the phrase be used as a general cover for anything and everything we want to promote under the banner of social justice. Jesus says if we are too embarrassed, too lazy, or too cowardly to support our fellow Christians who depend on our assistance and are suffering for the sake of the gospel, we will go to hell. We should not make this passage say anything more or less than this.