You all have by you a large treasure of divine knowledge, in that you have the Bible in your hands; therefore be not contented in possessing but little of this treasure. God hath spoken much to you in the Scripture; labor to understand as much of what he saith as you can. God hath made you all reasonable creatures; therefore let not the noble faculty of reason or understanding lie neglected. Content not yourselves with...divine truth...you accidentally gain in conversation; but let it be very much your business to search for it, and that with the same diligence and labor with which men are wont to dig in mines of silver and gold.
Jonathan Edwards
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Was Jesus a Calvinist?
On several occasions in John's Gospel divine election is described in terms of God the Father giving certain persons to God the Son (6:37, 39; 10:29; 17:1-2,6,9,24). In each of these cases the giving of men to Christ precedes and is the cause of their receiving eternal life. Those who are given to the Son include not only the present company of disciples who believe in Jesus but also the elect of future ages who will come to faith through the gospel. Jesus looks upon them as already his (John 17:20-21; see also John 10:16; Acts 18:10), even though they have not yet believed in his name. They are his because they were given to him by the Father in eternity past.
What is of special importance to us is what Jesus says about how those whom the Father has given to him come to him and whether or not those who come can ever lose their salvation. It will prove helpful to look at this in terms of three impossibilities.
A Gift Of Grace
If anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, or that we can be saved by assent to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, who makes all whom He calls gladly and willingly assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray from the plain teaching of Scripture by exalting the natural ability of man, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, "For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and the word of the Apostle, "Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God" (2 Cor. 3:5).
Adapted from The Council of Orange (529 AD)
Adapted from The Council of Orange (529 AD)
Johnny Winter - Ain't That Just Like A Woman
This song is from Johnny's album "The Winter Of 88". The guitar solo on this song is amazing. This song was written by B.B. King.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Believers Influence In The World - Salt - Part 3
"You are the salt of the earth" Salt’s Influence is simply “The Earth”.
Our commission is to the whole world, the scriptures tell us the disciples went everywhere preaching the word. We have been given the same commission, our influence is to affect the whole earth! We are in the world physically but we are not of the world spiritually. The world is a spiritual graveyard and Christians are the only people who are really alive. Salt makes people thirsty so our life should create a thirst in people to have what we have. Jesus attracted all kinds of people and so should we.
The Danger
“But if the salt loses its flavor” - this means to become tasteless, to make something flat and tasteless, used of salt that has lost its strength and flavor. A good example is of a Christian who has lost their zeal for God, and whose life is no longer influencing the world. Lot was a person like that, he choose the well watered plains of Sodom and he pitched his tent toward Sodom and eventually ended up moving into Sodom. The world doesn’t understand that it is the presence of God’s people that prevents total collapse and final judgment. Lot’s presence in Sodom made it impossible for God to judge the city, his absence condemned the city. Before God will judge this present world He will call His own out of it.
If salt loses its flavor, how can it receive flavor again? How can it be made salty again? The same is true with Christians. "It is no longer good for anything", Luke 14:35 says "It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill”, Godspeed's translation says, “It is fit neither for the ground nor the manure heap”. It would destroy the effectiveness of fertilization, so the only thing left is to toss it out and walk on it. The principle is that uselessness invites disaster. If a Christian is not fulfilling his purpose as salt he’s on his way to trouble. “It is then good for nothing” but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
Salt may still look like salt after it loses its effectiveness, the same is true with the church today. “Having a form of godliness but denying it’s power” — “Keeping up the forms of religion but not giving expression to its power, avoid such people”(2Tim.3:5 Williams). There are alot of buildings that look like Churches but are just an empty shell. Just as salt having lost its saltiness cannot be restored so also is it with those who have been trained in the knowledge of the truth but refuse to obey God. God will not be able to use them, they become disqualified and as a result are set on a shelf. “I do not want to preach to others and then to find that I myself have failed to stand the test” (1Cor.9:24-27 Barclay). This scripture has often been used as evidence that Christians can lose their salvation. The scripture teaches that what God starts in a persons life he also finishes (Phil. 1:6) but that doesn't minimize the seriousness of the warning.
Our commission is to the whole world, the scriptures tell us the disciples went everywhere preaching the word. We have been given the same commission, our influence is to affect the whole earth! We are in the world physically but we are not of the world spiritually. The world is a spiritual graveyard and Christians are the only people who are really alive. Salt makes people thirsty so our life should create a thirst in people to have what we have. Jesus attracted all kinds of people and so should we.
The Danger
“But if the salt loses its flavor” - this means to become tasteless, to make something flat and tasteless, used of salt that has lost its strength and flavor. A good example is of a Christian who has lost their zeal for God, and whose life is no longer influencing the world. Lot was a person like that, he choose the well watered plains of Sodom and he pitched his tent toward Sodom and eventually ended up moving into Sodom. The world doesn’t understand that it is the presence of God’s people that prevents total collapse and final judgment. Lot’s presence in Sodom made it impossible for God to judge the city, his absence condemned the city. Before God will judge this present world He will call His own out of it.
If salt loses its flavor, how can it receive flavor again? How can it be made salty again? The same is true with Christians. "It is no longer good for anything", Luke 14:35 says "It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill”, Godspeed's translation says, “It is fit neither for the ground nor the manure heap”. It would destroy the effectiveness of fertilization, so the only thing left is to toss it out and walk on it. The principle is that uselessness invites disaster. If a Christian is not fulfilling his purpose as salt he’s on his way to trouble. “It is then good for nothing” but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
Salt may still look like salt after it loses its effectiveness, the same is true with the church today. “Having a form of godliness but denying it’s power” — “Keeping up the forms of religion but not giving expression to its power, avoid such people”(2Tim.3:5 Williams). There are alot of buildings that look like Churches but are just an empty shell. Just as salt having lost its saltiness cannot be restored so also is it with those who have been trained in the knowledge of the truth but refuse to obey God. God will not be able to use them, they become disqualified and as a result are set on a shelf. “I do not want to preach to others and then to find that I myself have failed to stand the test” (1Cor.9:24-27 Barclay). This scripture has often been used as evidence that Christians can lose their salvation. The scripture teaches that what God starts in a persons life he also finishes (Phil. 1:6) but that doesn't minimize the seriousness of the warning.
Election - God Choses His Own by J I Packer
For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ROMANS 9:15-16
The verb elect means “to select, or choose out.” The biblical doctrine of election is that before Creation God selected out of the human race, foreseen as fallen, those whom he would redeem, bring to faith, justify, and glorify in and through Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-39; Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:9-10). This divine choice is an expression of free and sovereign grace, for it is unconstrained and unconditional, not merited by anything in those who are its subjects. God owes sinners no mercy of any kind, only condemnation; so it is a wonder, and matter for endless praise, that he should choose to save any of us; and doubly so when his choice involved the giving of his own Son to suffer as sin-bearer for the elect (Rom. 8:32).
The doctrine of election, like every truth about God, involves mystery and sometimes stirs controversy. But in Scripture it is a pastoral doctrine, brought in to help Christians see how great is the grace that saves them, and to move them to humility, confidence, joy, praise, faithfulness, and holiness in response. It is the family secret of the children of God. We do not know who else he has chosen among those who do not yet believe, nor why it was his good pleasure to choose us in particular. What we do know is, first, that had we not been chosen for life we would not be believers now (for only the elect are brought to faith), and, second, that as elect believers we may rely on God to finish in us the good work that he started (1 Cor. 1:8-9; Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:18). Knowledge of one’s election thus brings comfort and joy.
Peter tells us we should be “eager to make [our] calling and election sure” (2 Pet. 1:10)—that is, certain to us. Election is known by its fruits. Paul knew the election of the Thessalonians from their faith, hope, and love, the inward and outward transformation of their lives that the gospel had brought about (1 Thess. 1:3-6). The more that the qualities to which Peter has been exhorting his readers appear in our lives (goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love: 2 Pet. 1:5-7), the surer of our own election we are entitled to be.
The elect are, from one standpoint, the Father’s gift to the Son (John 6:39; 10:29; 17:2, 24). Jesus testifies that he came into this world specifically to save them (John 6:37-40; 10:14-16, 26-29; 15:16; 17:6-26; Eph. 5:25-27), and any account of his mission must emphasize this.
Reprobation is the name given to God’s eternal decision regarding those sinners whom he has not chosen for life. His decision is in essence a decision not to change them, as the elect are destined to be changed, but to leave them to sin as in their hearts they already want to do, and finally to judge them as they deserve for what they have done. When in particular instances God gives them over to their sins (i.e., removes restraints on their doing the disobedient things they desire), this is itself the beginning of judgment. It is called “hardening” (Rom. 9:18; 11:25; cf. Ps. 81:12; Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), and it inevitably leads to greater guilt.
Reprobation is a biblical reality (Rom. 9:14-24; 1 Pet. 2:8), but not one that bears directly on Christian behavior. The reprobates are faceless so far as Christians are concerned, and it is not for us to try to identify them. Rather, we should live in light of the certainty that anyone may be saved if he or she will but repent and put faith in Christ.
We should view all persons that we meet as possibly being numbered among the elect.
From: Concise Theology: A Guide To Historic Christian Beliefs
Election
No, not the kind of election you're thinking of:
...the conversion of a sinner being not owing to a man's self determination, but to God's determination, and eternal election, which is absolute, and depending on the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free will of man; as is evident from what has been said : and it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the eternal election of saints to the faith and holiness, is also an election of them to eternal salvation; hence their appointment to salvation must also be absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining Will."
- JONATHAN EDWARDS
...the conversion of a sinner being not owing to a man's self determination, but to God's determination, and eternal election, which is absolute, and depending on the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free will of man; as is evident from what has been said : and it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the eternal election of saints to the faith and holiness, is also an election of them to eternal salvation; hence their appointment to salvation must also be absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining Will."
- JONATHAN EDWARDS
The Blind Boys Of Alabama - Way Down In The Hole
This is an old Tom Waits song sung by The Blind Boys Of Alabama on their CD "Spirit Of The Century". This is a great CD.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Ligon Duncan on How You Should Pray for President-elect Obama
We ought to commit ourselves to pray for our new President, for his wife and family, for his administration, and for the nation. We will do this, not only because of the biblical command to pray for our rulers, but because of the second greatest commandment "Love your neighbor" and what better way to love your neighbor, than to pray for his well-being. Those with the greatest moral and political differences with the President-Elect ought to ask God to engender in them, by His Spirit, genuine neighbor-love for Mr. Obama.
We will also pray for our new President because he (and we) face challenges that are not only daunting but potentially disastrous. We will pray that God will grant him wisdom. He and his family will face new challenges and the pressures of this office. May God protect them, give them joy in their family life, and hold them close together.
We will pray that God will protect this nation even as our new President settles into his role as Commander in Chief, and that God will grant peace as he leads the nation through times of trial and international conflict and tension.
We will pray that God would change President-Elect Obama's mind and heart on issues of crucial moral concern. May God change his heart and open his eyes to see abortion as the murder of the innocent unborn, to see marriage as an institution to be defended, and to see a host of issues in a new light. We must pray this from this day until the day he leaves office. God is sovereign, after all.
To read the whole thing click here:
Admonition by John Calvin on the Election
Let us then continue to honor the good appointment of God, which may be easily done, provided we impute to ourselves whatever evil may accompany it. Hence he teaches us here the end for which magistrates are instituted by the Lord; the happy effects of which would always appear, were not so noble and salutary an institution marred through our fault. At the same time, princes do never so far abuse their power, by harassing the good and innocent, that they do not retain in their tyranny some kind of just government: there can then be no tyranny which does not in some respects assist in consolidating the society of men.
John Calvin, commentary on Romans 13:3.
John Calvin, commentary on Romans 13:3.
President Obama
It's very easy to forget--especially for those of us who are on the younger side--that it was only a little over 40 years ago that there were Jim Crow laws in the US. Just a generation ago, many African Americans were segregated from whites in public schools, transportation, restrooms, and restaurants.
Last night, the United States has elected a biracial man to serve as its leader.
It would be an understatement to call this a watershed cultural moment in our country's history.
No matter who you voted for--or whether you voted at all--it's important to remember that, as President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/11/president-obama.html
Last night, the United States has elected a biracial man to serve as its leader.
It would be an understatement to call this a watershed cultural moment in our country's history.
No matter who you voted for--or whether you voted at all--it's important to remember that, as President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).
- We are to pray for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
- We are to thank God for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
- We are to respect Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7).
- We are to honor Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7; 1 Pet. 2:17).
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/11/president-obama.html
Charles Spurgeon on Providence
I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sear leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.
(Charles Spurgeon, ‘God's Providence’, sermon on Ezekiel 1:15-19, 1908.)
Are We Preaching The Same Message Jesus Preached?
Tim Keller, from his new book The Prodigal God (pg.15-16):
Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishoners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.
Participating in God’s Providence
“Hereafter you will consider that everything that happens to you , both great and small, is sent by God to help you in your warfare. He alone knows what is necessary for you and what you need at the moment: adversity and prosperity, temptation and fall. Nothing happens accidentally or in such a way that you cannot learn from it; you must understand this at once, for this is how your trust grows in the Lord whom you have chosen to follow.”
-From Way of the Ascetics by Tito Colliander
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Believers Influence In The World - Salt - Part 2
The Fact: “You are salt” or literally, “You only are the salt.”
The word “you” is plural indicating the whole church is to be salt and light. The salt of the earth is you! Every Christian! The fact you are salt shows you are living in a decaying world. This is both a privilege and a responsibility.
This is our nature, not what we should be, but what we are! We cannot change what we are but we can waste what we are. Salt can lose its effectiveness and the light can be put under a bushel. This does not deny the miracle that changed us, it only defeats the ministry that challenges us.
The Importance of Salt: It’s Three-fold Usage
First, salt purifies. Salt is an antiseptic, used to clean teeth or as a mouth or eye wash. One of the characteristics of the world is impurity, the lowering of standards. This stands for the believer’s purity of mind, conduct and motive. He has a purifying influence on the world. This combats the error that because the world is rotten, Christians should disassociate from the world as much as possible. Some people think you should let the world go to hell. But the fact is that salt never does any good on the shelf. To be effective it must be applied at work, at home, in politics, in art, in science. You must get out of the salt shaker!
Second, salt preserves. Salt is used to cure meats and keep them from rotting, there were no refrigerators back then and salt was the key to preserving meat. This is the believer’s influence in the world to keep it from rotting and receiving God’s judgment. Decay is caused by death. On the outside some of the structures of our society look sound but inside they are rotting away and it is only a matter of time before they fall (government, courts, law and order, marriage, etc.). This combats the error that so many people have embraced, "man is good", "the world is good and getting better". The world systems, its governments, its science, its philosophy are not getting better, the world and the people in it are basically rotten to the core. This doesn't sit well with many Christians but it does with the bible.
Third, salt seasons, adds flavors. Christianity is to life what salt is to food, it is to add a good flavor not a bad one. Some Christians are so narrow so legalistic so religious that the flavor they add turn people away. The world proves over and over again that life without Jesus is tasteless. Just look at all the pleasure mania, the brainless entertainment, the perversion in literature, movies and music, then add murder, hatred, wars, injustice, and so on. The believer is to minister God’s life, healing, deliverance, the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit adding flavor to the world. Christians have no business being boring, being brainless, being unable to thoughtfully make an argument for the faith. In the world’s eyes Christians are the ones who take the flavor out of life and it shouldn't be that way.
The word “you” is plural indicating the whole church is to be salt and light. The salt of the earth is you! Every Christian! The fact you are salt shows you are living in a decaying world. This is both a privilege and a responsibility.
This is our nature, not what we should be, but what we are! We cannot change what we are but we can waste what we are. Salt can lose its effectiveness and the light can be put under a bushel. This does not deny the miracle that changed us, it only defeats the ministry that challenges us.
The Importance of Salt: It’s Three-fold Usage
First, salt purifies. Salt is an antiseptic, used to clean teeth or as a mouth or eye wash. One of the characteristics of the world is impurity, the lowering of standards. This stands for the believer’s purity of mind, conduct and motive. He has a purifying influence on the world. This combats the error that because the world is rotten, Christians should disassociate from the world as much as possible. Some people think you should let the world go to hell. But the fact is that salt never does any good on the shelf. To be effective it must be applied at work, at home, in politics, in art, in science. You must get out of the salt shaker!
Second, salt preserves. Salt is used to cure meats and keep them from rotting, there were no refrigerators back then and salt was the key to preserving meat. This is the believer’s influence in the world to keep it from rotting and receiving God’s judgment. Decay is caused by death. On the outside some of the structures of our society look sound but inside they are rotting away and it is only a matter of time before they fall (government, courts, law and order, marriage, etc.). This combats the error that so many people have embraced, "man is good", "the world is good and getting better". The world systems, its governments, its science, its philosophy are not getting better, the world and the people in it are basically rotten to the core. This doesn't sit well with many Christians but it does with the bible.
Third, salt seasons, adds flavors. Christianity is to life what salt is to food, it is to add a good flavor not a bad one. Some Christians are so narrow so legalistic so religious that the flavor they add turn people away. The world proves over and over again that life without Jesus is tasteless. Just look at all the pleasure mania, the brainless entertainment, the perversion in literature, movies and music, then add murder, hatred, wars, injustice, and so on. The believer is to minister God’s life, healing, deliverance, the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit adding flavor to the world. Christians have no business being boring, being brainless, being unable to thoughtfully make an argument for the faith. In the world’s eyes Christians are the ones who take the flavor out of life and it shouldn't be that way.
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Today I picked up a new boxed set on Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. There are two CD's of music that includes all the music from the two concerts many songs that were never released and a two hour documentary film on the single most important day in Cash's career. I can't wait to watch and listen. If you've never watched this music video it is very powerful. Trent Razor of Nine Inch Nails wrote the song but Cash made it his own.
B.B. King - Paying The Cost To Be The Boss
Here's a song from B.B. King in his prime. When I was learning to play lead guitar I would sit in my bedroom with my stereo my B.B. King records and my electric guitar copying the licks he played. I once covered this song but I don't think the lyrics would go over big today.
Charles Spurgeon: Life from a Dying Savior
"Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior. All other topics in Holy Scripture are important, and none of them are to be cast into the shade. But the death of the Son of God is the central sun of all these other minor luminaries. May this house be utterly consumed with fire before the day should come here when there should be given an uncertain sound about the atonement. This is not merely a doctrine of the church; it is the doctrine of the church. Leave this out, and you have no truth, you have no Savior, and you have no church."--Charles Spurgeon
The Believers Influence In The World - Salt - Part 1
In Matthew 5:13 Jesus said "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." This verse is the start of a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. We are moving from abstract definition of a Christian to a functional one. This teaching on the believer as salt and the next teaching on the believer as light deal with the believer’s influence in the world in which he lives. If you live according to the Beatitudes you will function as salt and light. Salt acts secretly, its work is not noticed immediately, but is seen afterward. To live as salt means that your life as a Christian will make a difference in the long run. By contrast light is something that is seen right away and makes immediate changes. To live as light means that your life as a Christian will have obvious and clear impact on others around you.
Salt was greatly valued in the ancient world, the Greeks called salt divine. Roman soldiers were given salt rations and would revolt if these rations were changed. The Romans held that except for the sun nothing was more valuable than salt. The English word “salary” literally means “salt money”, this is where we get the expression “that person’s not worth their salt”. In the ancient world salt was a symbol of purity and faithfulness, and Jesus dared to apply this symbol to those who trust Him. This says something about the character and conduct of a Christian's life.
Do you know what Salt Is? Salt comes from the union of chlorine (a gas, vapor, from above) and sodium (a dark metal of the earth). We could say that Chlorine represents the Holy Spirit and sodium represents the unregenerate man that when combined produce salt, a white pure substance which represents a new creation, someone who as Jesus said has been born again. in John 3:3 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Salt was greatly valued in the ancient world, the Greeks called salt divine. Roman soldiers were given salt rations and would revolt if these rations were changed. The Romans held that except for the sun nothing was more valuable than salt. The English word “salary” literally means “salt money”, this is where we get the expression “that person’s not worth their salt”. In the ancient world salt was a symbol of purity and faithfulness, and Jesus dared to apply this symbol to those who trust Him. This says something about the character and conduct of a Christian's life.
Do you know what Salt Is? Salt comes from the union of chlorine (a gas, vapor, from above) and sodium (a dark metal of the earth). We could say that Chlorine represents the Holy Spirit and sodium represents the unregenerate man that when combined produce salt, a white pure substance which represents a new creation, someone who as Jesus said has been born again. in John 3:3 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Monday, November 3, 2008
Johnny Winter - Highway 61
When I play with The Sam Lay Blues Band we opened for Johnny. After the concert we sat in the dressing room playing acoustic blues. Johnny got out his national steel guitar out and we played the blues for quite awhile and drank a few beverages. Johnny is an albino and is a strange looking dude. This was recorded at Bob Dylan's birthday party at Madison Square Garden 10/16/1992.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
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