The Relationship Between Being Forgiven and Getting Better

I commend to you Tullian Tchividjian's blog post which is a response to an earlier post by Kevin DeYoung (You can link to DeYoung's original post from Tullian's blog). Go here.

Then, to read DeYoung's response to Tullian's response, go here.

Actually, reading these blogs is a good example of the effort required to become more like Jesus. It doesn't just happen. There is a balance to believing and striving. The reading is included in the striving. We can't become holy if we are content with what we currently understand about God and our relationship to Him. Progress in godliness demands training (1 Ti 4:7) and an increasing knowledge (2 Pe 3:18). Thank God for helpful teachers like Tullian and Kevin.

Help for Fruitful Thinking & Faithful Living

We all live in the light, or darkness, of what we believe about God. Whether you're a Christian, atheist, Buddhist, agnostic, Muslim, whatever. All of our lives are lived out as a response to our conception of God. In other words, we believe certain things about Him (or we believe He doesn't exist), and so we live accordingly. We are made (by Him, for all the atheists) so that we have no options here. We are all worshipers. That's our nature. We worship the Creator or a creature (see Romans 1 & 2, Ecclesiastes 3, etc). We all adore something. We can't help ourselves.

So to help us worship well by better understanding the God who made us and is redeeming some of us, I offer this testimony: that no resource outside of Scripture itself has helped me think more accurately about God than Modern Reformation Magazine. What a gift it is! It has proven useful to God Himself in shaping my understanding of His character and ways, especially His ways called redemptive history. 

Jesus says knowing the truth sets us free. Truth, known, is transformational. Modern Reformation (MR) is a wonderful tool that helps me get to know God better by understanding His Word better. Most of what I read are tools for this purpose. They are not extras, added to the Bible's teaching. They are instruments for helping me know what God has said in the Bible. They serve my sanctification as my teachers. I thank God for them.

To secure a FREE MR intro kit, visit http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=main&var1=Home

I hate that this is necessary, and perhaps it isn't. But in case it is, let me say to you that MR is not what might be called an "easy read". It's a theological magazine, though not a theological journal. It is written for the Christian in the pew. But it does not cater to our self-help tendencies. It is written in part to say to us that we can't help ourselves in the ways that matter most. It is written to help us know God better. So there's lots of pages in it about God, not us. After all, the Bible is about God, not us. I hope you'll give it a try, even if it means stopping current reads to make time for MR.

Whom is the Bible About?

For my 3 year old daughter's answer, visit my wife's blog (mariansmusingsfromhome.blogspot.com) where she captured the profound reply on video. And I suggest you read the accompanying article also.

Snapshots of Life

A special breakfast in bed -- Kit Kat candy

Tess fancies herself a doctor (both MD and veterinarian). She has bandaged the booties of these recently injured animals.

Joah is growing up -- 4 months old yesterday.

Only 20 Minutes Left

Six PM is almost here. I'm told by some that the end comes then. So I better type fast. My thought is, that if we could know the moment of the end, and I was not a believer in Jesus Christ for salvation from God's wrath, but I did believe in the wrath, I still would not be able to make myself believe in Jesus. Imagine it -- you are in the final minutes of your temporal existence and need saving from God's judgment in which you believe. Yet, you cannot believe in the Savior. This is because we believe according to evidence. We believe that which persuades us. And Scripture says without the persuading power of God the Holy Spirit, no one believes in Jesus, no matter the circumstances.

Jesus once said that even if our relatives, who had been in hell since their deaths, came back to tell us to believe in Him for salvation, we would not (Lk 16:31). Jesus says what we should listen to is "Moses and the Prophets". In other words, the Word of God recorded. For, "faith comes by hearing the Word of God" (Ro 10:17).

Now, I'm going out for a run. That's what I want to be doing when it all comes down.

"But concerning that day and hour no one knows. . ."  Jesus, Mt 24:36

God is. . .

"The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him."  

The Prophet Nahum, 1:7

The Myth of Heaven and other Random Thoughts

It's been more than a month since I posted. My wife commented on this to me. I replied that I haven't had anything to say. That hasn't changed, nevertheless, I can't sleep tonight. As Keith Green once sang, "My mind is filled with many thoughts that trouble and confuse. . ." So I might as well put them in print.

Thought #1 - Since Rob Bell is becoming wealthy by selling a book in which he suggests that God's love is of a kind that reaches even into hell to redeem postmortem sinners, perhaps I could earn a few dollars by writing a book that pontificates on the myth of heaven -- on how the wrath of God is of a kind that reaches into paradise to undo its benefits to saints. That would make as much sense as Bell's premise, and might sell more books.

Thought #2 -- Usama bin Laden is dead, or so we're told. This occurrence reminds me that "Government is God's servant to you for good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God's servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong" (Ro 13:4). Sometimes the hand of God's justice moves slowly. But it always moves sure. This should serve as a warning to each of us, for we are all guilty sinners. And it occurs to me that perhaps those dancing in the streets over the death and eternal damnation of an enemy of America have failed to understand that while he was justly an enemy of this country, we are more justly the enemies of God; enemies who have earned an eternal destruction (Ro 1:18-32; Re 20:11-15; Mt 25:31-46).

Thought #3 -- I am a great sinner. The amount and kind of unjustified hostility, bitterness, and arrogance that occupy my heart bring me to the edge of a complete resignation concerning any effort at holiness. Sometimes the mountain simply appears much too steep to climb, even for a Christian fueled by faith and enabled by God Himself. I notice my sinfulness most often by what comes out of my mouth (Mt 12:33-37).