Here I Go Again

I'm going to give this another run -- blogging that is. I quit for a bit because I was concerned of being, or falling into, what RC Sproul Jr calls "The Narcissism Machine", meaning the Internet. He says it was given this name by the demons in research and development. He goes on to say that, "It was invented to tickle and titillate the egos of everyone logging on. Pornography exists to tell us how desirable we are, beautiful women just throwing themselves at us. Facebook and Twitter exist to tell us how much we are 'liked.' And blogs, complete with sundry analytics, tell us how smart and influential we are. Blistering posts about the other guy will not win this war. Sound theology and its defense will not win this war. It will take stronger stuff. . . like humility."

I am highly concerned about these things in me.

Having said that, I am also highly concerned for God's church, a spiritual nation that has always needed and had a prophetic ministry. By prophetic I don't mean future-telling; I mean truth-telling. What the prophets mostly did was call God's people to God, or back to God. They served in some sense as prosecuting attorneys, laying God's case concerning the sin of His people before those people, and commanding them to wake up, repent, and believe the gospel. But not only believe the gospel, but live in its light. We desperately need a functioning gospel that is the center of our thinking, values, feelings, choices, working, parenting, marriages, spending, etc. The gospel is not just the front door into the church, or even into heaven. The gospel functions to teach us how to live in the presence of God on earth, and in heaven.

Also, the Apostle Paul is clear that the Scriptures are useful not only for teaching and training in righteousness, but also for correction and reproof (2 Ti 3:16). Again, the prophetic ministry of the Word.

I'm bent toward this prophetic ministry. It's how I think without even trying. I've come to accept that God has built me this way to serve in such a capacity within the church. And so I embrace it, but with ongoing concern that I am not careless. I pray not to be one who believes the lie that by making my case via blogging, I have become more than the dust, grass, and vapor that the Scriptures call me. I pray almost daily to be made humble, while holding ever more tightly to the truthfulness of God's written Word. As Mark Dever has said, it is not humble to be hesitant where God has been clear and plain.

In addition, I've returned because apparently I had some readers. Who knew? Not me. Until I stopped blogging, and folks began to ask me why, I didn't know those folks were reading. A few of them said the blog had helped them. So as I said earlier, I'll give it another run. Let me begin with this:

"Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I ofter fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that you gradually become dead to its power. I fear lest your religion should sink down into a little vague talk about your own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ's side is altogether neglected. Oh, beware of this state of mind! 'Be doers of the Word , and not hearers only.' 
No victory--no crown! 
Fight and overcome!"  

JC Ryle