Many evangelicals today practice ChristiANDity. They know enough to know that they need Christ, but they also believe He is insufficient or inadequate to address certain issues, thoughts, practices, etc...
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Either Scripture is sufficient or it isn't. At some point, we have to decide. If it is, then we need to think more Biblically, be more acquainted with the content and context of the Bible and more interactive with the principles it provides and applying them to our practices and predicaments in everyday life.
To say that Scripture is sufficient is not to say that you cannot consult or consider any other source of information, but rather it informs which filters which. With what authority does the buck stop? Which worldview will prevail? The one the Bible provides or one of its competitors.
"The Bible is thought of as authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything. We do not mean that it speaks of football games, of atoms, etc., directly, but we do mean that it speaks of everything either directly or by implication." – Cornelius Van Til, Christian Apologetics
The Bible, in principle, speaks to everything. The more Biblically you begin to think -- that is to say, the more your thinking and assessment of situations is guided by underlying principles proclaimed and applied in the Scriptures -- the more you have a handle on life, breath and everything else that happens here on a Tuesday afternoon.
"In the Bible, we have a perfect library." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students: To Workers with Slender Apparatus
Hebrews 5:14
Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
It will not be easy, but it is possible. It will require constant practice. No let up, not give up. But if you keep up with it, you will find your powers of discernment growing like muscles that have been worked over. They will be stronger and able to lift today what they could not yesterday. They will be able to cut through crap they could not yesterday. They will be trained, sharpened, heightened... and they will be able to distinguish between good and evil. The clouded mind cannot tell the difference between bad and worse. The mind trained Biblically can distinguish good from evil and better from best.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
day no. 14,940: getting along to go along together
One piece of advise I give to every engaged couple or young married couple I meet with, talk to or preach to is to pursue oneness as much as possible. God is going to miraculously make you one on your wedding day or did exactly that looking back on that day if you are already married. Now live in light of what you are. Be one because you already are.
One last name, one address, one meal, one meal time, one bed, one bedtime, one God, one church, one church service, one show you're watching together, one bank account, one, one one...
Today, I came across this great line in one of Doug Wilson's blog posts
"A joint checking account makes getting along mandatory, and an inability to get along makes life impossible."
When you have one bank account, you have to talk. You cannot spend without conversation. You are dipping into the same funds and are watching the same numbers go up and down with deposits and withdrawals. You cannot do this without being committed to getting along in order to go along together. And this is a fundamental commitment to oneness.
One last name, one address, one meal, one meal time, one bed, one bedtime, one God, one church, one church service, one show you're watching together, one bank account, one, one one...
Today, I came across this great line in one of Doug Wilson's blog posts
"A joint checking account makes getting along mandatory, and an inability to get along makes life impossible."
When you have one bank account, you have to talk. You cannot spend without conversation. You are dipping into the same funds and are watching the same numbers go up and down with deposits and withdrawals. You cannot do this without being committed to getting along in order to go along together. And this is a fundamental commitment to oneness.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
day no. 14,939: harmonious
Romans 12:15-16
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another.
Harmonies are composed of different notes.
In every group of people, some will have reason for rejoicing and some will have reason for weeping. But these notes on their own cannot create harmony.
However, if those who are weeping make an effort to enter into the rejoicing of their neighbors instead of selfishly insisting on their pain being the center of everyone's universe, harmony is possible.
Likewise, if those who are rejoicing make an effort to enter into the suffering and weeping of their neighbors instead of selfishly trying to keep their buzz from being harshed, harmony is possible.
When different notes join together, beautiful music is performed.
It has already been composed by our Conductor.
Q: Will we join in and lend our voices, weeping or rejoicing, to His composition?
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another.
Harmonies are composed of different notes.
In every group of people, some will have reason for rejoicing and some will have reason for weeping. But these notes on their own cannot create harmony.
However, if those who are weeping make an effort to enter into the rejoicing of their neighbors instead of selfishly insisting on their pain being the center of everyone's universe, harmony is possible.
Likewise, if those who are rejoicing make an effort to enter into the suffering and weeping of their neighbors instead of selfishly trying to keep their buzz from being harshed, harmony is possible.
When different notes join together, beautiful music is performed.
It has already been composed by our Conductor.
Q: Will we join in and lend our voices, weeping or rejoicing, to His composition?
Monday, September 16, 2019
day no. 14,938: working hard while going unnoticed
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
There is something amazingly spectacular about living a regular, day in-day out, hour by hour life for Christ. Faith is not just a mountain top Sunday morning experience, but a Tuesday afternoon just doing work.
To live for Christ means to be committed to having everything you need in Him and through His provision. This includes the air we breath, the energy He gives us, the opportunities He provides to us and the industry He allows us to participate in. He gives men shoulders in order to lift weights and carry heavy loads. He blesses us with good, hard work. It is hard, so we cry out to Him for help. It is good because without Him we would fall short.
May God grant you the ability to aspire, to zealously pursue with gusto and chutzpah the quiet life of shouldering heavy burdens and being reliable, dependable, resolute, dignified, integrous, and full of gravitas as you go about ordinary business.
Gravity is common, everyday, and often taken for granted, but it is powerful and consistent and gives us the ability to be grounded. Men are to be like that. Willing to be taken for granted and overlooked while zealously, fearlessly committed to doing work.
When we work hard to go unnoticed, guess what happens? People take notice. And what they see is something out of this world. And if they ask us the source of this, we reply, "You are correct. It is out of this world. It does not come up from within, but has been given to me as a gift from without." We point people to Christ by living quietly, working hard, walking properly and using God's blessing to meet our daily needs.
Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
There is something amazingly spectacular about living a regular, day in-day out, hour by hour life for Christ. Faith is not just a mountain top Sunday morning experience, but a Tuesday afternoon just doing work.
To live for Christ means to be committed to having everything you need in Him and through His provision. This includes the air we breath, the energy He gives us, the opportunities He provides to us and the industry He allows us to participate in. He gives men shoulders in order to lift weights and carry heavy loads. He blesses us with good, hard work. It is hard, so we cry out to Him for help. It is good because without Him we would fall short.
May God grant you the ability to aspire, to zealously pursue with gusto and chutzpah the quiet life of shouldering heavy burdens and being reliable, dependable, resolute, dignified, integrous, and full of gravitas as you go about ordinary business.
Gravity is common, everyday, and often taken for granted, but it is powerful and consistent and gives us the ability to be grounded. Men are to be like that. Willing to be taken for granted and overlooked while zealously, fearlessly committed to doing work.
When we work hard to go unnoticed, guess what happens? People take notice. And what they see is something out of this world. And if they ask us the source of this, we reply, "You are correct. It is out of this world. It does not come up from within, but has been given to me as a gift from without." We point people to Christ by living quietly, working hard, walking properly and using God's blessing to meet our daily needs.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
day no. 14,937: to refuse to engage evil in battle is to embrace it in defeat
Romans 7:22-23
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind
Every Christian is at war. If you refuse to believe it, acknowledge it, prepare for it or engage in it, you are accepting defeat, flattering yourself and embracing the enemy.
To refuse to engage evil in battle is to embrace it in defeat.
There is a battle going on in the mind and in the body and between the mind and the body. The law of your members (your body) is, "Don't tell me what I can't do and don't tell me what I must do!!!" The law of the renewed mind in Christ is, "Please tell me what I must do and please warn me against that which I must not."
The Christian man is already, but not yet. We are made new, but we live in old bodies. We have new minds which are being trained in righteousness and old habits well-versed in jumping through wicked hoops.
We live in tension like no others. Those who do not serve Christ do not have the Spirit tugging them in God's direction. They do what they want. They may feel bad or feel bad when the get caught or wish the consequences weren't so severe, etc... But they do not fear God or repent before Him of their inordinate affections.
Christians embrace the tension, fight the good fight, die to self, live for God, flee the slavery of the old man, flee to the slavery of Jesus Christ, decommission as an enemy combatant and enlist as a soldier in the service of your new Commanding Officer: Jesus Christ.
There will be slavery and their will be enlisted service. If you are a slave to sin, you are free to righteousness, a soldier fighting on the front lines against godliness. If you are a slave to righteousness, you are free from sin, a soldier fighting on the front lines against darkness.
Romans 8:6-8
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind
Every Christian is at war. If you refuse to believe it, acknowledge it, prepare for it or engage in it, you are accepting defeat, flattering yourself and embracing the enemy.
To refuse to engage evil in battle is to embrace it in defeat.
There is a battle going on in the mind and in the body and between the mind and the body. The law of your members (your body) is, "Don't tell me what I can't do and don't tell me what I must do!!!" The law of the renewed mind in Christ is, "Please tell me what I must do and please warn me against that which I must not."
The Christian man is already, but not yet. We are made new, but we live in old bodies. We have new minds which are being trained in righteousness and old habits well-versed in jumping through wicked hoops.
We live in tension like no others. Those who do not serve Christ do not have the Spirit tugging them in God's direction. They do what they want. They may feel bad or feel bad when the get caught or wish the consequences weren't so severe, etc... But they do not fear God or repent before Him of their inordinate affections.
Christians embrace the tension, fight the good fight, die to self, live for God, flee the slavery of the old man, flee to the slavery of Jesus Christ, decommission as an enemy combatant and enlist as a soldier in the service of your new Commanding Officer: Jesus Christ.
There will be slavery and their will be enlisted service. If you are a slave to sin, you are free to righteousness, a soldier fighting on the front lines against godliness. If you are a slave to righteousness, you are free from sin, a soldier fighting on the front lines against darkness.
Romans 8:6-8
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
day no. 14,936: grateful hearts and gritty hands
Romans 6:17
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed
The obedience of faith is the aim of the Roman epistle. Paul's desire is that those who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior would live in accordance with His teachings and die to themselves.
This goal of living up to the standard you proclaim is not unique to the the Roman letter however.
Ephesians 4:1
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called
Colossians 1:10
Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God
We have been called and we have expressed commitment to that call. May God empower us to live in a manner worthy of our calling, pleasing to God, increasing in the knowledge of God and good works to our neighbors with grateful hearts and gritty hands.
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed
The obedience of faith is the aim of the Roman epistle. Paul's desire is that those who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior would live in accordance with His teachings and die to themselves.
This goal of living up to the standard you proclaim is not unique to the the Roman letter however.
Ephesians 4:1
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called
Colossians 1:10
Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God
We have been called and we have expressed commitment to that call. May God empower us to live in a manner worthy of our calling, pleasing to God, increasing in the knowledge of God and good works to our neighbors with grateful hearts and gritty hands.
Friday, September 13, 2019
day no. 14,935: without excuse
The following is taken directly from section three of Doug Wilson's, Plodcast (see below) and THIS blog post quoting from his book, Mere Fundamentalism
-------------
The Greek word translated "without excuse," "no excuse," or "inexcusable" is anapologétos
and it appears in the New Testament twice, both in the epistle the Romans.
Romans 1:19-20
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 2:1
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
In the first instance, we see it applied as a statement regarding those who refuse to live by what God declares and makes evident in His creation.
In the second instance, we see it applied as a statement regarding those who insist upon applying that same standard to other people without applying it first to themselves.
When combined, we see the picture even more clearly: natural revelation cannot tell me what to do, but it certainly can tell you what you must do.
It is inexcusable to ignore God's clear commands myself and it is inexcusable to apply them to others without first applying it to myself.
If someone invented a cure for cancer and walked through a cancer ward and gave the cure to as many as wanted it, but some refused it and some he didn't get to in time, those who died didn't die of a thing called "not taking the cure." They died from cancer. Similarly, those who die without hearing the Gospel do not die of a thing called "not hearing the Gospel." They die because of their sin. They are condemned for their awareness of the standards they ought to have kept and their insistence that others ought to have lived up to that same standard.
Ambrose Bierce, in the Devil's Dictionary, famously defined a Christian as, "one who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.”
Imagine that God placed a tape recorder around your neck which only recorded moral judgments you applied to others. It recorded all your conversations and reactions with particular attention to phrases like,
"He should not have..."
"I can't believe she..."
"You should..."
"We can't just..."
Now, imagine God employed a set of angels with the task of editing those recordings down to individualized moral code distilled from your pronouncements. This moral code was made up of your own statements and neatly organized into a code of personal conduct.
Now imagine God judged you by your own moral code. You would fail and fall short of your own judgments. Just like everyone else would.
And God says that this is INEXCUSABLE. There is no excuse, no apology, no defense to be made. You condemn yourself by your own mouth. You pronounce your own judgment.
We defy what our moral sense tells us we ought to do and then,
we apply that same standard that we've rejected for ourselves to others.
BOTH are utterly WITHOUT EXCUSE and deserve the judgment they receive.
You may say then, "If that is the case, then who could be saved? Who could be judged worthy or up to snuff?" The answer is obvious, "No one."
Romans 3:9-12
both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Where does that leave us? Up a creek without a paddle, in need of something outside of ourselves to save us. If someone or something doesn't save us, we are dead at the bottom of the pool.
Plodcast Ep. 70 Secularism, Sleuthing C.S. Lewis, Harmartiology
RSS Feed: http://canonpress.libsyn.com/rss-------------
The Greek word translated "without excuse," "no excuse," or "inexcusable" is anapologétos
and it appears in the New Testament twice, both in the epistle the Romans.
Romans 1:19-20
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 2:1
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
In the first instance, we see it applied as a statement regarding those who refuse to live by what God declares and makes evident in His creation.
In the second instance, we see it applied as a statement regarding those who insist upon applying that same standard to other people without applying it first to themselves.
When combined, we see the picture even more clearly: natural revelation cannot tell me what to do, but it certainly can tell you what you must do.
It is inexcusable to ignore God's clear commands myself and it is inexcusable to apply them to others without first applying it to myself.
If someone invented a cure for cancer and walked through a cancer ward and gave the cure to as many as wanted it, but some refused it and some he didn't get to in time, those who died didn't die of a thing called "not taking the cure." They died from cancer. Similarly, those who die without hearing the Gospel do not die of a thing called "not hearing the Gospel." They die because of their sin. They are condemned for their awareness of the standards they ought to have kept and their insistence that others ought to have lived up to that same standard.
Ambrose Bierce, in the Devil's Dictionary, famously defined a Christian as, "one who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.”
Imagine that God placed a tape recorder around your neck which only recorded moral judgments you applied to others. It recorded all your conversations and reactions with particular attention to phrases like,
"He should not have..."
"I can't believe she..."
"You should..."
"We can't just..."
Now, imagine God employed a set of angels with the task of editing those recordings down to individualized moral code distilled from your pronouncements. This moral code was made up of your own statements and neatly organized into a code of personal conduct.
Now imagine God judged you by your own moral code. You would fail and fall short of your own judgments. Just like everyone else would.
And God says that this is INEXCUSABLE. There is no excuse, no apology, no defense to be made. You condemn yourself by your own mouth. You pronounce your own judgment.
We defy what our moral sense tells us we ought to do and then,
we apply that same standard that we've rejected for ourselves to others.
BOTH are utterly WITHOUT EXCUSE and deserve the judgment they receive.
You may say then, "If that is the case, then who could be saved? Who could be judged worthy or up to snuff?" The answer is obvious, "No one."
Romans 3:9-12
both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Where does that leave us? Up a creek without a paddle, in need of something outside of ourselves to save us. If someone or something doesn't save us, we are dead at the bottom of the pool.
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