I recently rediscovered a dear friend’s blog, which had fallen off my radar. Mike Beck is more eloquent than I, and while I am still trying to digest everything he says, I pretty much end up saying a hearty “Amen!” at the end. Here are some of my favorite posts:
- My Personal Definition of God
- What a beautiful summary! We do not serve a God of our own devising or an unknowable God. He is a magnificent God, and He reveals much about Himself to us
- The Bible: Inspiration and Inerrancy
- A beautiful defense of the Word and what we can and do know about it.
- Choosing a Church
- Amen! This is a tough thing about moving around every few years.
- Under the Law
- Well here is no light topic. I am still processing this one, and definitions can really mess us up here.
I hope you consider reading these and that they move you to a better understanding of God.
I found a recording of a sermon from a church in Arizona entitled “Right Thinking About Missions.” The church is going through the book of Romans, and in Romans 10 their Pastor Adam Roland turns aside for just a moment (OK, most of the sermon) to address a very important question:
Is God’s ultimate purpose to save men or to glorify Himself?
The way you answer this question impacts the way you live and especially the way you evangelize. I encourage you to listen to the sermon.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Romans 10:14–15 KJV)
[Update:]
A friend referred me to some related resources that I thought I should share. The first is a John Piper book called Let the Nations Be Glad! 2nd Edition
. There is a PDF excerpt available online.
The second is a John Piper article called Did Christ Die for Us or for God? What an eye opener. Here’s an excerpt:
That is what the passing over of sin communicates: God’s glory and his righteous governance are of minor value, or no value.
…
But, according to Romans, this is the most basic problem that God solved by the death of his Son. Let’s read it again: “He did this [put his Son forward to die] to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance (or patience) he had passed over sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous . . .” (verses 25b-26a) God would be unrighteous if he passed over sins as though the value of his glory were nothing.
I do not consider political leaders for whom I would not vote “enemies,” but I meet the recent scandal in Congress and the recent announcement of a representative stepping down with humility and sadness of heart. I am reminded of the following verse:
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
Or the LORD will see it and be displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.
(Proverbs 24:17–18 NAS95)
Instead let us remember to pray for our leaders.
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
(1 Timothy 2:1–4 NAS95)
Each morning we read our Bible together as a family. The last two years we have been following a “through the Bible in a year” plan, and it has been an eye-opener to read it all so close together. We intend to continue this.
(Continued)
The New York Times ran an article called Southern Baptists Adopt Plan to Appeal to Minorities, and I could see trouble right from the start—not with the article but with the state of affairs on which it was reporting.
Quote: “Southern Baptists Adopt Plan to Appeal to Minorities”
Problem: The only “appeal” any church organization should be thinking about is the Holy Spirit drawing sinners to repentance. Sorry to use a business analogy, but not focusing on “core competencies” is a losing proposition.
(Continued)
I stumbled across an, uh, interesting blog post called A Biblical Defense of Ethno-Nationalism. Apparently I am so out of touch on this topic that I did not even know it was a word, though I was able to sort of guess at its meaning, and it made me rather uncomfortable. Still “uncomfortable” helps me grow, and I was not really sure what I was getting into, so I thought I would give it a read.
First let me see if I can give the other blog post a fair summary. I think the argument goes something like this: Nations based on common ancestry are the biblical model, therefore we should embrace nationalism based on common ancestry; America was founded by white Europeans, so we should maintain America as a white European nation.
I think that’s the gist of it. (Continued)
A friend of mine recently preached a sermon on Denominationalism (mp3), and it got me thinking about some misgivings I have often had. He and I both seem to have an aversion to people identifying strongly with a denomination. Of course it would help to define “denominationalism,” but we’ll leave that be for the moment.
Sometimes I see people identify more strongly with a denomination than with truth, so that they are not willing to carefully examine the Bible if they think it might contradict what they’ve been taught. How absurd is that! Of course when they say, “No, no, I’m just a Christian, plain and true,” but in fact their words and actions betray them.
(Continued)