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"Light Thoughts of Sin Breed Light Thoughts of the Savior" -Spurgeon

A deep sense of sin is often a blessedly impelling power to drive us to the Savior. I desire never, in this world, to be free from a deep sense of the bitterness and guiltiness of sin. Even though freed from the guilt of sin by the precious blood of Jesus, I still desire to feel what an abominable thing sin is, that I may go, eagerly and passionately, to my dear Lord’s wounds, and get the one only effectual remedy for all my soul diseases. Light thoughts of sin breed light thoughts of the Savior.

Open Letter to A Doubting Christian: Am I Christian Only Because I'm American?

Doubter's Statement: As a Christian, I want to be sure that I am not deceiving myself and believing Christianity simply because I emotionally feel good about it or because my acculturation in America and within Christian circles does not allow me to see all perspectives. Also, once God gets me through this I will be better able to counsel those who are struggling with similar questions.

Response: It is necessary, before succumbing to the desire to jump in and begin addressing individual issues with which you are concerned, to discuss the nature of these doubts and the task which you are attempting to undertake. Many times I think that because the subject matter of a discussion have proven beneficial in many circumstances, we can often be too brash to quickly take part in discussion of those things without considering the end the undertaking. In this case I feel that the big picture must be viewed and brought clearly into focus before we even begin to discuss the individual.

I want to make it clear that I am not relegating the defense of our faith to an obscure, unecessary position. Peter makes it clear in 1 Peter 3:15 that all Christians should be prepared to give a defense of our hope--necessarily having thoroughly thought through the why's of the faith. The Greek "give a defense" or "give an answer" in verse 15 is a legal, court-room term referring a defense attorney rebutting charges against his client (Wuest's Word Studies). The way in which we do this is no small matter. Peter refers to a preparedness which certainly requires forethought and obviously preparation so that enemies of God may be put to shame: God's glory is at stake. Paul, in 2 Timothy 2:24-25 calls the Lord's servant to be able to teach with an ability to correct opponents with gentleness. This ability is necessary (a must) because God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth: Lives are at stake. So I realize the necessity of considering objections to the Gospel which include objections against, the existence of God, the veracity of the Bible, our interpretation of the Bible, the essence of truth, the basis for our faith, and many others. Yet, in the midst of those, the two commands of the Peter must remain preeminent: (1) "In your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy" and (2) "Do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience."

I Have Done Something; I Created You by Mark Buchanan

An excerpt from a letter written by a missionary couple in Brazil:

Driving through the Christmas traffic, fighting the drizzling rain, I chanced on a four-year-old little girl. She was wet and cold and shaking. Her clothes were ragged, her hair was matted, and her nose was running. She walked between the cars at the stoplight, washing headlights because she was too short to wash windshields. A few gave her coins, others honked at her to get away from their vehicles.

As I drove away only some fifty cents poorer, I raged at God for the injustice in the world that allowed the situation. “God, how could you stand by, helpless?” Later that evening, God came to me softly with that still small voice and responded not in kind to my rage, but with tenderness, “I have done something. I created you.”

The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy

In 13 Short Chapters, Became One Of My All-Time Favorite Books

With only 83 pages and 13 chapters this book is pregnant with thought-provoking and soul-humbling truth that caused me often to just cry out as a beggar to God in awe, in love, in gratefulness, and in humble pleading for faith and grace.

Basically what Leahy does in this book is walk the reader through Christ's last hours on earth, His Passion. Dealing in 13 chapters with different aspects and scenes from those hours, the divinity of Christ and His humanness are both kept sharply in focus. The sin of mankind both for which Christ was dying and the sins of those who directly took part in His murder are not deminished, but neither is the fact that "It was the will of the Lord to crush him" that it was the Lord who "has put him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10).

I recommend that you read this book in a quiet place with little destraction with your Bible by your side. Read it one chapter at a time and then sit and re-read, and pray. Let the Spirit take you back to the foot of the cross where you gaze up at your only hope, the King of the universe hanging in misery, damnation, and ultimately victory. Look at the cross he bore and realize that with such a high price to secure our salvation, anything that we hope to add or to repay will only be an insult to His gift, diminishing its value and His glory. Let the Spirit take you to the foot of the cross where you realize who we are, we are all beggars.

The House Show by Derek Webb

Christ-Centered Preaching And the Intimacy of A House Show

I was so excited when I got my "House Show" cd. As I say in my "She Must and Shall Go Free" review of Webb's first cd, although I was annoyed at first by the style, I have grown to be challenged by his lyrics and his heart. He has challenged me to love the church, and by loving the church, loving those who are in it. He has challenged my weak view of my own sin and confronted me on one of my worst, hiding those sins from others to make myself more "worthy" to God and more attractive to others. This makes my sin small, and therefore makes my Savior small in my mind.

Maybe I started to get comfortable with the heart-wrenching lyrics of "She Must and Shall Go Free," and then comes "The House Show." The cd is a live recording of one of Derek Webb's many house shows, nothing more than intimate, livingroom concerts. Not only are many of the songs that made the first cd great on this one, but there are a couple Caedmon's Call songs, and one from his following cd, "I See Things Upside Down." The best thing though is the talking between tracks. Normally I despise talking on a cd saying, "I bought this cd for the music, not your preaching." But that's the thing, Derek's music has prepared my heart for his preaching during the last 6 month's that I've owned his first album and listened to it at least two times a week. Now, his heart is poured out as he explains his songs and preaches the same message that make his lyrics so poignant: We must hear the gospel, preaching it to ourselves and each other, every day; we must never diminish our own sin; If we love Jesus, we will love the church (and all those in the church); community is a necessary part of Christianity. (We also get a personal glimpse into his life as he tells the story of his grandma and the song "Dance."

If you do not yet own "She Must and Shall Go Free," go buy that and let its message penetrate your soul. It may take a few listenings, but listen and pray through the very needed message that Derek Webb brings us there. Then buy "The House Show."

If you already own and love "She Must and Shall Go Free," then immediately buy this cd. It will be one of your favorite.

Preaching the Hard Sayings of Jesus by Carrol

Some Good Exegesis; Some Poor Assumptions

My ultimate opinion on this book is that it is neither extremely helpful nor extremely harmful once the problems are acknowledged; then you can eat the meat and spit out the bones. When the authors stick to the text, they do a great job of exposing the words of Jesus. However, I have seen that the work is fraught with redactionistic assumptions (deciding Jesus did or didn't say something based on "additions" or "subtractions" from the story based on our interpretations of the author's biases). An excellent example of this is found in their exposition of Matthew 22:1-14 and Luke 14:16-24 - The Parable of the Wedding Feast. Ultimately, rather than recognizing that Jesus could have told the same story differently on two occassions or that Luke could have left details out, the authors decide that since Matthew was written post-Jerusalem-destruction, the verses referring to the king sending troops to destroy and burn the city could not have been in Jesus' original words. So rather than actually dealing with the hard words of Jesus recorded in Matthew, they opt to talk solely about Luke.

I'm afraid that this sort of thing happens over and over again. So while I have found some helpful nuggets and some deep thinking to challenge my soul, I fear that liberal-leaning of their scholarship makes this text dangerous to use. Nevertheless, with this hermeneutic identified, I do feel that the book can be a useful addition to one's library when used with caution.

Share the Well by Caedmon's Call

So Different That Maybe It Will Make Us Pray

My first thought when I heard this album was, "What the heck?!" Had I written a review on a first listening, it may have been one or maybe two stars. The sound is nothing like Caedmon's normal sound. The content is definitely a step away from the normal. But on my second and third and fourth and now on probably my fifteenth, I think I see what this album is all about.

Many of the fans of Caedmon's Call are much like me. We prize theology and view a literal interpretation of the Bible as the best way for us to know who God is and how we should live in response to that knowledge. We love to hear of God's sovereignty, power, holiness, justice, love, and grace. We can explain how that knowledge should lead a Christian a Christian to love others, to share the gospel, to be gracious, to pursue godliness and the things of God over worldly pleasures and aspirations...the problem is that I think that we get so comfortable in our theology and in our conceptualizations that we forget the billions of people that we do not reach. The songwriters for Caedmon's Call have always been concerned with this struggle that they have identified within themselves; we see it in their former cds; we see it in Derek Webb's solo works (all of which I HIGHLY recommend). But I think that even when we are challenged in those things, we can grow comfortable in the abstractness of it.

That's where this disc comes in. With its narrative inserts, its world style, and very different sort of lyrics and sounds, Caedmon's Call confronts us with a world that we are often guilty of not thinking much about, not doing much about, and certainly not praying much about. My prayer is that this disc will not disappoint you because it is different, but its difference will snap us-the hearers out of our comfort zones-and knock us to our knees in prayer for these countries and maybe some of us out of our suburbs and onto planes or boats or whatever to share our Savior with the billions who do not know Him.

Frosty Fix 'n Mix

Just in case any of you out there are like me and absolutely love Wendy's Frosties (Frosty's, any grammar gurus might want to let me know how that would be correctly written), I would like to take a few seconds out of my busy life to let you and the rest of the world know not to fall prey to the Frosty Fix 'n Mix. It's a rip off. I love Frosties (Frosty's?); my wife loves them more. So we pull up to Wendy's and for our regular $0.99 small Frosty and our curiosity lead us away: "A Frosty Fix 'n Mix? What is that? Oh it's a Frosty with Oreo's, Butterfinger, or M&M's. Must be like a McFlurry or a Blizzard."

Nope. Instead for my extra forty cents or so, they take my small frost and make it a mini, give it to me in a short and squatty clear plastic cup and then give me a little baggy of crumbled Oreos. If I had known that's all it was I would have crumbled my own Oreo.

So anyway, just in case you are curious and want to try a Wendy's Frosty Fix 'n Mix, don't.

The Humanist by RC Sproul

The humanist exalts the dignity of man and the importance of various virtues while at the same time declaring that we are cosmic accidents. Slime has no virtue, and the humanist can give no compelling reason why any human being should have any rights because he has no justifying grounds for rights in the first place. He has only sentiment, which proves nothing except the emotional state of the avower.

Relativists by RC Sproul

Most relativists are only relatively relativists. That is, they want to express their own rights of preference and will tolerate other people's preferences--until they bump up against their own.

Blogspotting?

I just wanted to see if by simply posting a picture and a link to Phil Johnson's excellent blog, PyroManiac, would get me a link in his next Blogspotting post. It's pretty amazing the impact that his blog has made on the blogosphere in such a short amount of time. Mine on the other hand is a great place for me to post random thoughts for no reader other than myself and those that Phil has thrown my way. So, I'm sorry if you got here by such a pointless post as this, but I hope that you click around and find some sort of edification. I recommend you start at the homepage.

Early Christian Worship: A Basic Introduction to Ideas and Practice by Bradshaw

Helpful, But I Fear Credibility

By incorporating a wide array of extrabiblical evidence from shortly after the dispersion of Christianity to the nations, Bradshaw definitely provides a service to the reader on the various forms of "worship." He does a very good job at demonstrating how architecture can reveal purpose, belief, and practice. Also, by drawing from a wide variety of sources from a multitude of persuasions he does show effort at presenting as unbiased a presentation as possible. Bradshaw breaks the book up into three basic sections:
(1) Development of how Christians were initiated into the Church (quite a bit of work goes into analyzing forms of baptism on this point).
(2) The Eucharist or Lord's Supper.
(3) The daily and ceremonial disciplines/celebrations that united the Body.

The book is very accessible. The scholar may wish for some more detail and probably more thorough documentation. However for the lay reader who is interested in the subject, the format makes it a very easy read.

Unfortunately, at this point my compliments cease. I am not writing this review from a standpoint of one very knowledgeable of the archaeological evidence or one intimate in understanding of the primary sources, so I can not speak to his responsible use of those. I do, however, speak from the advantage of one who accepts the Bible (in its autographic form) as the final authority on matters of both history and faith, as both infallible and inerrant, and from this perspective, I am very disappointed in the book. Don't get me wrong. I trust the Bible because of both internal and external evidence to its credibility. But Bradshaw consistently questions Biblical record when they are not consistent with his extrabiblical findings, even if those extrabiblical findings rely on many assumptions and guesses. For example, a number of times he casts doubt on the reliability of Matthew 28:18-20 (The Great Commission) as being added to the text later when there is absolutely no textual evidence of this. According to the Metzger's Textual Commentary, there is no question among the textual critics that the rendering that we have for these verses is autographic. Yet, Bradshaw in true redaction form, flippantly, as if it were common knowledge that these were added, blows them off as not being acceptable as a true saying of Jesus. From this example and others with which I am familiar, I fear for the accuracy and trustworthiness of Bradshaw's conclusions. Therefore, I cannot recommend this book.

Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God by CJ Mahaney

That simple phrase is what all of us men need to hear: "Before you touch her body, touch her heart and mind." Cursorily using Song of Solomon as an illustration of true biblical covenant love, C.J. Mahaney has written one of the most useful books that I have ever read.

This book is written for men. Men need to step up and lead in romancing the marriage. Therefore Mahaney asks that men don't read this book with their wives. Great intimacy, including sex is something that every marriage should be full of. If that is missing, it is primarily the husband's issue that he needs to fix. Then in chapter 2 he moves on to give the biblical God-given purpose for marriage from Ephesians 5: "A profound mystery, revealed to all to see."

My favorite chapters then follow (3-6) in which Mahaney lets the readers draw from his life experiences, his successes and his failures, to help us with romancing our wives, touching their hearts and minds so that then touching their bodies is so much more intimate, frequent, and amazing. These chapters have been so useful to me. I'm not going to ruin it for you by giving you any of the advice here. But let me tell you that just taking advantage of the advice that he gives and the motivation that comes knowing that greater intimacy better glorifies God has already had a very noticeable impact in the two weeks since I finished my first reading of the book...so much so that my wife has told me whatever I read has changed me for the better.

Finally he ends in chapter 7 with a mild exposition of Song of Solomon 8:5-7, "Strong as Death, The Enduring Power of Covenant Love." Marital love goes beyond just sex, but sex is truly only as amazing as God designed it to be in the context of marriage. Marital love is forever, it isn't dependent on sexual ability; it isn't dependent on perfection; it isn't dependent on emotions. Marital love comes for God and is a reflection of God's love for the church.

Carolyn Mahaney, C.J.'s wife wrote the an appendix, "A Word to Wives" which I haven't read but have been told by my wife is very good. I too have noticed a difference in her since she has read that chapter and the book from which it comes "Feminine Appeal."

I strongly recommend you read this book. I am in the middle of reading it a second time and plan on reading it and putting to action its suggestions until the day I die.