Thursday, May 19, 2011

Ware on Prayer

"God's knowledge is infinite, and his wisdom is impeccable. We simply cannot rightly understand prayer to provide God any item of information or insight that would assist him in determining what is best to do. As I've noted elsewhere, when Jesus instructs his disciples how to pray, he does not encourage them to pray, 'Your will be formed', but rather 'Your will be done'! Prayer cannot rightly be seen as a source of added knowledge or wisdom for God. God alone knows all, and he alone knows best. Period."

Bruce Ware, from For The Fame of God's Name

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Driscoll on Church Marketing

"The assumption that everyone is a customer to be marketed is a great pitfall for those who proclaim the gospel, because we tend to cast God as a product, and as mainstream a product as possible. After all, scriptural teaching about the curse, death as the wages of sin, the flooding of the earth, the killing of Egyptian babies, the slaughter of perverts in Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fiery torments of hell is a tough sell even for the best of marketing firms...Businesses of all sorts shamelessly pander to felt needs, and customers love the benefits they reap from fierce competition. People often take the same approach when they 'shop' for a new church that emphasizes their felt needs and offers more amenities for them to consume...People with this transaction mindset about God and church will even see ministry not as something they do with the spiritual gifts that God has given them but rather as something that is done for them as a religious service by someone else. Consequently, churches pandering to this mindset are filled with consumers who take more than they give and with observers who watch more than they participate."

Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The End of Time?

My morning routine consists of hot coffee-black, no cream, no sugar, since I actually like coffee-and the daily copy of the USA Today newspaper. Yesterday, as I was reading the national news section, imagine my surprise when I found out that the world is going to end on May 21. As in May 21 of this year, 2011. That's less than two weeks away! This headline, however, was not written by the newspaper staff, but was captured in a full page ad sponsored by a religious group. Granted, the beginning of the end may start on May 21. Or it may start by the time you finish reading this blog entry. Or it may not be seen in our lifetimes. I don't know; you don't know. But some things are certain. First of all, whenever these types of predictions are made, Christianity as a whole often suffers. We are perceived as just another group of doomsday prophets, spouting empty jargon about the end of time. I pray that our witness will be protected from such prejudice. Secondly, we must understand, that at some point, the end is coming. That is why we must labor for the Gospel while we have opportunity. Finally, we must recognize that for many, the end is near by way of death. Read the obituaries. People of all ages and life experiences die every day. Some in the grace of Jesus; others in condemnation. We need to understand that the end for most will not be announced in a national newspaper. As servants of Christ, we are to herald the Good News that whenever or however the end comes, people may be ready to meet God as sinners saved by the grace of Jesus. Whether it be today, tomorrow, or May 21.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Faith's Certain Object

"If you believe that Jesus rose from the dead when in fact Jesus did not rise from the dead, your faith is worthless because faith's validation depends in part on the truthfulness of faith's object.
That is why the Bible never encourages you to believe something that is not true or that is not prepared to declare to be true. That is why in the Bible faith is strengthened by articulating and defending the truth. The Bible never says, 'Just believe, believe, believe, believe, believe-it doesn't matter if it's true, just believe. So long as you are sincere in your belief, that's good.' So as long as you are convinced that Christ did not rise from the dead, I am the last person who is going to urge you to sort of tighten your stomach muscles and pretend to believe it. That is not faith. It might be the onset of a stomach ulcer, but it is not faith."

D.A. Carson, The God Who Is There

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Comprehending God...In Part!

"Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it...How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:4-6, 17

Ravi Zacharias once observed that although it is impossible to know God exhaustively, it is possible, even expected, that we may know God meaningfully. These verses, lifted from Psalm 139, serve to remind us of the nature of the Creator/creation relationship. Standing on the edge of the ocean, with the waves gently rolling over our feet, we cannot begin to fathom the depth or reach of the waters before us. But we are aware of the awe-inspiring spectacle that is the ocean. So it is with God. While we cannot, as David joyfully confesses, humanly comprehend the "vast sum" of our Creator, we can celebrate God knowing what we do know: God as he has chosen to reveal himself to us, chiefly through his son Jesus! Don't ever let our finite understanding of God inhibit your adoration and praise of him. David doesn't lament his lack of understanding the fullness of his Lord; he embraces his own limitations while glorifying the greatness of God. As we learn to know God in a meaningful way, let us also, in humble worship, celebrate that because he alone is God, we do not know him in an exhaustive way. And may we, like David, count that to be a good thing.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Solid Rock

I appreciate any song with a lyric of biblical faithfulness and Christ-centered focus. Here are the words to one of my many favorites I sang frequently as a child, The Solid Rock, written by Edward Mote:

vs.1
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand-All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

vs. 2
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid rock I stand-All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

vs. 3
His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid rock I stand-All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

vs. 4
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the solid rock I stand-All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Packer on Answered Prayer

"Our Father in heaven does not always answer his children's prayers in the form in which we offer them. Sometimes we ask for the wrong thing! It is God's prerogative to give good things, things we have need of, and if in our unwisdom we ask for things that do not come under these headings, God, like any good parent, reserves the right to say, 'No, not that; it wouldn't be good for you-but have this instead.' Good parents never simply ignore what their children are saying, nor simply disregard their feelings of need, and neither does God. But often he gives us what we should have asked for rather than what we actually requested. Paul asked the Lord Jesus graciously to remove his thorn in the flesh, and the Lord replied by graciously leaving it and strengthening Paul to live with it. The Lord knew best! To suggest that because Paul's prayer was answered this way it was not answered at all would be utterly wrong."-J.I. Packer