Praying Confidently in Faith

Luther praying confidently in faith:

O God and Father, I do not doubt that the things for which I have prayed are promised, not because I prayed for them, but because you have commanded me to pray and have surely promised to grant them. God, I am certain that you keep your promise and cannot deceive us. It is not the worthiness of my prayer but the certainty of your truth that makes me firmly believe beyond doubt that it will be and remain yes and amen. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 26.

Finish the Mission Conference Messages

The audio and video from "Finishing the Mission" are now available at Desiring God. Sessions 2, 4, and 7 are particularly worth watching or listening to. Em, Ruslan, and I were agreed, I think, that these were the best messages and worth listening to again and again.

What Is Worldliness?

David Wells on worldliness:

Worldliness is not simply an innocent cultural escapade, still less a matter merely of inconsequential breaches in behavior or the breaking of trivial rules of the church or the expected practices of piety. Worldliness is a religious matter. The world, as the New Testament authors speak of it, is an alternative to God. It offers itself as an alternative center of allegiance. It provides counterfeit meaning. It is the means used by Satan in his warfare with God. To be part of that "world" is to be part of the Satanic hostility to God. That is why worldliness is so often idolatrous and why the biblical sanctions against it are so stringent. "Do you not know," asks James, "that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).  

Today, evangelicalism reverberates with worldliness. In first impressions, this worldliness does not appear ugly at all. Quite the opposite. It maintains a warm and friendly countenance, parading itself as successful entrepreneurship, organizational wizardry, and a package of slick public relations insights that are essential to the facilitation of evangelical business.

—David Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 54. 

(Written almost twenty years ago, Well's analysis still holds profound relevance and insight for our worldly world. And I do not think that this indictment of evangelicalism has been adequately heeded. Worldliness so pervades the "evangelical" church that it is hardly ever identified as worldliness anymore.)

Luther's Prayers Against Temptation

Luther praying for help against temptation:

We are weak and sick, O Father, and the temptations of the flesh and the world are great and many. O Father, keep us, and let us not fall again into temptation and sin. Give us grace that we may remain steadfast and fight bravely to the end. Without your grace and help we can do nothing. Amen.

And again:

Since evil blocks our way with temptation and brings us in conflict with sin, dear Father, deliver us from it. Redeemed from all sin and evil according to your will, may we belong to your kingdom to praise, honor, and hallow you forever. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 25.

Finish the Mission Conference

Em and I are taking a short vacation with Em's brother in Minneapolis this weekend. The occasion: the global glory and cause of Christ. It's Desiring God's national conference: Finish the Mission. Em and I have gone for years now. It's been our main vacation. Beats the beach any day!

Living in the suburbs of Chicago surrounded by Middle America concerns 24/7, this weekend should prove to be a corrective. Surrounded by worldliness, a vision of the Church's mission should prove salutary. At least that's my prayer. And I also pray that my brother-in-law Ruslan will be stirred to persevere toward the goal of one day doing missionary work in the Ukraine, his birthplace.

The Beautiful and the Ugly

See Pastor Steve Brandon's post on these two views of marriage when the going gets tough. Here we have the ugly over against the beautiful, infidelity versus faithfulness, lies face to face with the gospel. (Be sure to watch the two videos.) Which will yours be? By the grace of God, as for us, we already settled this one at the altar. As we declared then—all to the glory of God, whose faithfulness in Christ endures forever!

Literary Criticism: What Is Plot?

What is plot? According to Aristotle, it is a continuous sequence of events or actions with a beginning, middle, and end. He says, "A beginning is that which does not itself follow necessarily from something else, but after which a further event or process naturally occurs. An end, by contrast, is that which itself naturally occurs, whether necessarily or usually, after a preceding event, but need not be followed by anything else. A middle is that which both follows a preceding event, and has further consequences" (Aristotle, Poetics 7 (1450 27-31; trans. Halliwell, LCL)).

According to James Resseguie, plot "is the designing principle that contributes to our understanding of the meaning of a narrative. More concretely, the plot is the sequence of events or incidents that make up a narrative (James L. Resseguie, Narrative Criticism of the New Testament: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 198).

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

Expounding the doctrine of the Spirit from 1 Cor. 2, John Owen asks, "Who is this Spirit?" He answers, of course, with scriptural clarity (unlike so many fuzzy, cloudy claims to truth today):

The apostle [Paul] tells us that the "judgments of God are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out' (Rom. 11:33); and he asketh, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" (Rom. 11:34). And yet this Spirit is said to "search all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10), such as to all creatures are absolutely unsearchable and past finding out. This, then, is the Spirit of God himself, who is God also; for so it is in the prophet from whence these words are taken: "Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" (Isa. 40:13).

—John Owen, "Pneumatologia," Works, vol. 3, p.79.

Christ's Infinite Purchase

Q: What did the crucified Christ purchase for his people?

A: "The Holy Ghost immediately communicates to us the thing purchased by communicating himself, and he is the thing purchased. The sum of all that Christ purchased for man was the Holy Ghost. . . . What Christ purchased for us, was that we have communion with God in his good, which consists in partaking of the Holy Ghost. . . . All the blessedness of the redeemed consists in their partaking of Christ's fullness, which consists in partaking of that Spirit which is given not by measure unto him (Jonathan Edwards, "Discourse on the Trinity," Works, vol. 21, Yale, p. 136).

Filial Boldness Modeled by Luther

One of Luther's prayers:

Lord God, heavenly Father, I ask for and need assurance that my petitions may be nothing less than yes and amen. Otherwise I will not pray or have intercession made for me. Not that I am righteous or worthy, for I know very well and confess that I am unworthy. With my great and many sins I have earned your eternal wrath and hell fire. 

But because you command and constrain me to pray in the name of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, I am still somewhat obedient. Not because of my own righteousness, but because of your infinite goodness, do I kneel or stand before you. I pray for what is upon my heart concerning those in need of your help. If you do not help them, O Lord, you will offend and dishonor your name. Surely you will save your reputation so that the world will not say you are an ungracious and a dreadful God. Preserve us from such misfortune. 

Remember, dear heavenly Father, how you have at all times supported and helped your people. I will not stop knocking but will continue crying aloud and pleading to the end of my life. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 17-18.


(Incidentally, note how much Scripture has informed and shaped this prayer! It's everywhere. Luther was full of Scripture. I don't think he was looking up verses when he composed these prayers. I think they just came out reflexively as he expressed his desperate need and sincere faith.) 

The Business of Ministers

C. H. Spurgeon on the ministry of ministers of the Gospel: "Our business as ministers, when the young lambs are brought in, is to remember the injunction, 'Feed my lambs'; take care of them; give them plenty of meat" (Spurgeon's Sermons, vol. 3, Baker, 238).

Can this be accomplished in our churches with one thirty-five minute shot per week, however good that message may be? What else must a minister do to ensure a steady diet of the Word of God in the life of his flock? What else must he do by way of caring for his people to see to it that the Word of God nourishes and strengthens each and every lamb?

Calvinism Everywhere, Part 36

Well, I'm rounding off the series on "Calvinism Everywhere" with this post. We shall never leave our subject matter, however; how could we? We'd have to cease existing to get away from it, that is, away from the sovereignty of God everywhere.

As I said in an earlier post, much of Chronicles covers the same ground that was covered trekking through Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This is certainly true for 2 Chronicles. With this final post, I'm simply going to cite the starkest texts that highlight what we've been going on about. In part I'm doing this feeling the press of other responsibilities (I do hope to expand and refine this brief study on Calvinism, Lord willing, at a later date). In some cases, the verses cited alone will not give you enough sense of what is going on in context unless you know 2 Chronicles well. I hope you will peruse the texts in their contexts and be moved to bow low, knees knocking, before your mighty Maker. He is the Holy One of Israel, Lord of all.

Now, Calvinism everywhere in 2 Chronicles: 2 Chr. 7:13; 10:15; 11:4; 12:2, 7-8; 13:16; 15:6; 20:37; 21:14-18; 22:7; 24:24; 25:20; 26:20; 28:5; 28:20; 30:12; 33:10-11; 35:22; 36:17, 22.

Behold your God!

The Infinite Society or Family of the Three

Speaking of "the society or family of the three," Jonathan Edwards speaks of realities with which we should all be caught up with with rapturous joy and delight (Works, vol. 21, Yale, 135):

They [the holy Trinity] are equal in honor besides the honor which is common to 'em all, viz., that they are all God; each has his peculiar honor in the society or family. They are equal not only in essence. The Father's honor is that he is as it were the author of perfect and divine wisdom. The Son's honor is that he is that perfect and divine wisdom itself, the excellency of which is that from whence arises the honor of being the author or generator of it. The honor of the Father and the Son is that they are infinitely excellent, or that from them infinite excellency proceeds. But the honor of the Holy Ghost is equal, for he is that divine excellency and beauty itself. 'Tis the honor of the Father and the Son that they are infinitely holy and are the fountain of holiness; but the honor of the Holy Ghost is that he is that holiness itself. The honor of the Father and the Son is, they are infinitely happy and are the original and fountain of happiness; and the honor of the Holy Ghost is equal, for he is infinite happiness and joy itself. The honor of the Father is that he is the fountain of the Deity, or he from whom proceed both divine wisdom and also excellency and happiness. The honor of the Son is equal, for he is himself the divine wisdom, and is he from whom proceeds the divine excellency and happiness. And the honor of the Holy Ghost is equal, for he is the beauty and happiness of both the other persons.

Oh to be swallowed up in the life of this holy and happy society!

The Forgotten Trinity

Is the doctrine of the Trinity important? And how important is it? Well, here is the witness of at least one robust trinitarian (with whom I cast my lot). Jown Owen says:

God has revealed or manisfested himself as three in one, and, therefore, as such is to be worshipped and glorified by us—that is, as three distinct persons, subsisting in the same infinitely holy one undivided essence. . . . There are [those], and those not a few, who either reject the doctrine as false, or despise it as unintelligible, or neglect it as useless, or of no great importance. . . . [But as] God hath revealed himself as three in one, he is in all our worship of him so to be considered. And, therefore, in our initiation into the profession and practice of the worship of God, according to the gospel, we are in our baptism engaged to it, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). This is the foundation of our doing all the things that Christ commands us (Matt. 28:20). Unto this service we are solemnly dedicated, namely, of God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; as they are each of them equally participant of the same divine nature (John Owen, Works, vol. 3, p. 66).

So we're not left in doubt how Owen answered the question. How do we answer the question? By default? Do the baptized in our midst even know the first thing about the Trinity in either profession or conscious experience? We are baptized into the name of the triune God, and then off we often go with something else, forgetting God's triunity and tripersonal existence and fellowship, forgetting God's fundamental nature, forgetting our all.