The Particular Selective Love of God

From Jonathan Edwards' sermon on 1 Pet. 2:9-10, Christians are a Chosen Generation, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a Peculiar People:

The electing love of God is singly of every particular person. Some deny a particular election, and say that there is no other election than a general determination, that all that believe and obey shall be saved. Some also own no more than an absolute election of nations. But God did from all eternity singly and distinctly choose, and set his love upon, every particular person that ever believes, as is evident from Gal. 2:20: 'Who loved me and gave himself for me' (Works, vol. 2, Hickman ed., 938).

You'll perhaps notice that Edwards addresses here the same Arminian arguments thrown up today, which still blow away like chaff before the mighty rushing wind of the Word of God.

Wencel Bible Reading Plan 2011

Emily and I have now read the Scriptures together at least three times in our shortly more than three years of marriage. Some portions we've read more. For example, we read the New Testament and Psalms twice while reading the rest of the Old Testament once during our first year of marriage. But each year, thus far, we've gone through the whole of Scripture together.

Now by together I mean that we've been on the same reading plan. We've actually only read about half of the scheduled reading aloud in each other's presence while sitting down together. There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament, 260 in the New Testament, making 1189 total. Maybe we've done about 500 to 600 hundred of these actually together aloud each year, usually in the morning and evening as we start and end our days together in prayer. The sweet effect this has had on our marriage is untold and inestimable. And these have been, without a doubt, some of our sweetest and deepest times together in conversation and reflection and planning and hoping and longing.

Going Home

In 1856, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon the Sunday before Christmas called "Going Home." In it he prepared his growing church to speak of Christ's salvation at Christmas gatherings through their testimonies of what God had done for them.

Spurgeon had become pastor of New Park Street Church in 1854. The church had 232 members. The membership rose to 4,000 by Christmas of 1856. So Spurgeon prepared the large number of new converts for returning home at Christmas.

Among many practical points of counsel, including "Christmas is suited for sharing the gospel with family and friends," "Don't expect sharing to be easy," and "Tell your story seriously, not flippantly," the most helpful for me was this: "Be alert for one-on-one opportunities to share your story." Spurgeon enlarges on this point:

Do not tell this story to your ungodly friends when they are all together, for they will laugh at you. Take them one by one, when you can get them alone, and begin to tell it to them, and they will hear you seriously. . . . You may be the means of bringing a man to Christ who has often heard the Word and only laughed at it, but who cannot resist a gentle admonition.

HT: Sovereign Grace Ministries' blog

What is Necessary for a Good Prayer

Martin Luther was a man who knew how to pray. And so it is good to listen to his counsel on this matter. It is especially good for those of us who, with undoubtedly virtually every last modern American, scarcely know what it means to be devoted to prayer.

What follows is from the introduction to a sermon Luther preached in 1519 called "On Rogationtide Prayer and Procession":

Two things are necessary so that a prayer is good and so that it is heard. First, we must have a promise or a pledge from God. We must reflect on this promise and remind God of it, and in that way be emboldened to pray with confidence. . . . No one obtains anything from God by his own virtue or the worthiness of his prayer, but solely by reason of the boundless mercy of God. . . . Second, it is necessary that we never doubt the promise of the truthful and faithful God. . . .

Sounds like 1 John 5:14-15. Now meditate on Mk. 11:24; Lk. 11:9-13; Jas. 1:5-8. And pray.

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged

From Dorothy Sayers' The Greatest Drama Ever Staged:

"We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine—‘dull dogma,' as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama."

Hebrew Man Is No More

My wife is celebrating that the "Hebrew man" (which name she gave me during intensive Hebrew in the summer) is no more. I've formally finished my studies in Hebrew, having passed the Hebrew competency exam at Wheaton College on Monday and my final on Wednesday. Now the fun stuff begins--Hebrew exegesis!

A word about learning a language. This is undoubtedly a good exercise for anyone to do, not least children. The mental, and even physical discipline, necessary for accumulating all the necessary machinery to work with a language is undoubtedly strengthening and potentially character building. It requires a discipline and toughness (especially if you don't particularly enjoy the language and are working as a clinician!) that most other kinds of coursework do not require.

Prayer for Acceptable Words and Meditation

The Bible provides us with many, many models of prayer, which, of course, are aids (for cripples like me) to praying. Here is one I find myself regularly in need of using from Psalm 19:

"Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O YHWH, my rock and my redeemer."

PNEUMATOLOGIA

That's the title of a comprehensive work on the Holy Spirit produced by John Owen in 1674. I'm beginning to poke away at it, and it looks to be exhilarating material. No one, to my knowledge, has ever produced such a fulsome treatment of the Spirit. It is two volumes in the Gould edition (vols. 3 and 4) and totals about 1200 pages. No doubt I'll be posting here and there as light breaks into my study morning by morning. Reading Owen for me is almost always illuminating. Grand and solid truths pour forth with such force and clarity.

Pneumatologia is the title. The fuller title with subtitle is this: A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit. An Account is Given of his Name, Nature, Personality, Dispensation, Operations, and Effects; His Whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained; the Doctrine concerning it Vindicated from Opposition and Reproaches. The Nature also and Necessity of Gospel Holiness; the Difference between Grace and Morality, or a Spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a Course of Moral Virtues, are Stated and Declared.

Christ and Culture Revisited

Recently I finished up a good book I'd been poking away at for some time (not because it's long, but because I'm slow). It's called Christ and Culture Revisited by D. A. Carson. A helpful, even-handed, fair-minded book. I've wrestled with this issue a good deal (that is, for an ordinary Christian), not from a theoretical standpoint as much as from the standpoint of a perplexed practitioner. And I got help in two main areas. First (and this was really only an aside in the book), Carson discussed what the Church is called to do as Church and what individual Christians are called to do in society as those who have particular callings and circumstances. Second, I was also convinced that the standard models are all of them truncated and reductionistic. Many have good things to say, but none of the standard models covers all the ground.

I recommend this book as a way of steering clear of extremes and reductionisms. Carson attempts to ground an understanding of Christ and Culture in the Bible's storyline, such that any model which is jarring to the Bible's narrative and teleology is judged wanting. He also discusses some of the main movers and shakers, which helps with orientation. Now while I've found this book helpful, I don't think it's the last word on this issue, nor does it address all the issues. But it is a good way into the discussion and thinking through the tensions we feel.

God's Clear Voice

You won't want to miss the NCC sermon from last Lord's Day on Gal. 1:6-9, which may be found at the website. Andrew Fulton preached a God- and Word-centered message that is timely as we consider commitments in the new year, like regular, day in and day out Bible reading. So if you're looking for encouragement to take in God's Word like your life depended on it (for it does), the sermon won't dissappoint. Andrew urges upon us a "diligent delight" in "God's clear voice" in Scripture. Who wouldn't want to heed that call?

Puritan Spirituality and American Evangelicalism

And here's the third and final point of J. I. Packer's three particular points of contrast between Puritan spirituality and American evangelicalism:

It seems undeniable that the Puritans' passion for spiritual integrity and moral honesty before God, their fear of hypocrisy in themselves as well as in others, and the humble self-distrust that led them constantly to check whether they had not lapsed into religious play-acting before men with hearts that had gone cold towards God, has no counterpart in the modern-day evangelical ethos. They were characteristically cautious, serious, realistic, steady, patient, persistent in well-doing and avid for holiness of heart; we, by contrast, too often show ourselves to be characteristically brash, euphoric, frivolous, superficial, naive, hollow and shallow (A Quest for Godliness, Packer, 217).

Well, this finishes Packer's three points of contrast between the Puritans and American evangelicals. But you can be sure that there will be more of Packer and the Puritans at this site before too long.