Pure Church

Below are a few clips and bits that have been helpful to my soul over the last week or so....


Mark Dever on Ambrose baptizing Augustine: Ambrose "baptized Augustine in this pool on Easter, 387AD. Ambrose was the same age then that I am now. So when I was there, I prayed that God would lead people to Christ through my preaching, and that I would have the joy of baptizing those this year who would be of immense use to the kingdom." I don't think I pray this nearly enough. I'm going to start.


Because of John Piper (HT: via Rebelution via Non Nobis Domine), I'm thinking about giving my girls a holy ambition as the mark of moving from childhood to adulthood. My parenting needs to be more intentional and spiritually-minded right now.


Reading JT's notes on Piper's address "The Triumph of the Gospel in the New Heavens and the New Earth" at the Gospel Coalition left me longing a bit more for heaven. I'm looking forward to hearing the audio.


DG is beginning to post a 7-part series from Piper's Wednesday night series called "Why Even Deal with Racial Issues?" Great question. Here's part 1. Here's the audio.

Michael A.G. Haykin has done the world a great favor with the Profiles in Reformed Spirituality series. It's a series of small books that provide an introduction to a pastor/theologian in the Reformed tradition, surfaces lesons for us from their person piety, and provides a series of short selections from their writings. I'm currently reading A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte in my quiet times. Here is the short selection I read this morning:

Ashamed of the Gospel
There is an inwardness, and there is an absoluteness, and there is an abidingness, and there is an exclusiveness inn the cross of Christ, that is neither easily preached, nor easily believed, nor easily practised. To keep our own hearts shut up to the cross, and thatnot only at our first conversion, but to the end of our best sanctification, and to preach the cross always and to every one as the one and the alone ground of peace with God amid all the ups and downs of the spiritual life: that staggers many, and offends many, and it becomes, sometimes, a casue of shame and pain even to those who have succeeded Paul best in his revelation of Christ that God made to him, and who have also succeeded him best in his experience of all that....

Now, my brethren, you will go to so-called Christian churches, both in town and country, where you would never discover that Paul's Epistle to the Romans had ever been written, and where you will never be put to shame with such old-fashioned doctrines as the imputed righteousness of Christ of which Paul is full. Christ's suretyship, and his substitution, and his finished work are not known in those churches. The imputation of your sin to the Lamb of God, and the imputation of his righteousness to you; no such offensive things are ever uttered there. Speak for yourselves, my brethren: speak for yourselves and make your choice. As for me, the longer I live--the longer I really live--these things, and the things they represent, are becoming every day more and more necessary and more and more precious to me.

Last night's Bible study in Galatians 2:11-13 focused on Paul's correction of Peter for his hypocrisy. It was a good study with good reflections on the need to have in our lives and in the church people willing to lovingly confront us when we are wrong. We focused a little on Paul's statement that Peter "was clearly in the wrong," and emphasized our need to be certain of a person's wrong when confronting them the way Paul did and to have a standard against which to judge right and wrong, a standard more enduring, objective, and universal than our own opinions and perceptions, the Word of God.

It reminded me of the fact that the thing that most frees us in the local church and the Christian life is the Word of God. If our preferences and opinions and traditions and wisdom are our guide rather than the Word, then our preferences and opinions and traditions and wisdom will inevitably choke out someone's freedom in Christ and exalt reason above revelation. But if we would all be genuinely free, genuinely able to exercise our liberty in Christ and simultaneously able to restrain one another when in the wrong, we must chain ourselves to the Word of God as the authority for faith and conduct. Interestingly it's when we chain ourselves to the Word that we're set free--all of us.

Here's how Ligon Dunan expressed it in Give God Praise:

The biblical doctrine of Christian freedom is vital to our doctrine of worship and can be protected only by the regulative principle. The Westminster Confession makes the bold declaration that "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his word, or beside it in matters of fairth or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also" (20.2). This manifesto of Christian freedom is based on Pauline principles found in Romans 14:1-4, Galatians 4:8-11, and Colossians 2:16-23. The regulative principle is designed to secure the believer's freedom from the dominion of human opinion in worship. But some people view the regulative principle as legalistic and constraining. They rightly note that it forbids a variety of activities and restrains others; but this is simply to say that it helps enforce biblical norms that are, upon reflection, freeing! Freedom from human opinions can be found only in the rule of God's good and graceious and wise law. If humans can dictate how we may worship, apart from the word or in addition to the word, then we are captive to their command. The only way we can really experience one of the key blessings of Christian freedom in the context of corporate worship--freedom from human doctrines and commandments--is if corporate worship is directed only according to the word of God, and that means following the regulative principle. Furthermore "God requires us to worship Him only as He has revealed. Therefore, to require a person in corporate worship, to do something that God has not required, forces the person to sin against his/her conscience, by making them do what they do not believe God has called them to do." (pp. 57-58).

And speaking of Lig', here's an interview with Lig on preparing to preach from Preaching Today.

The best statement on the blog I've read so far this week:

If I am committed to my sin above a humble, self-revealing honesty, then I can't rely on any accountability structure or loving friendships to expose my sin and protect my soul. I must remember that if I am to war against sin, I must labor to be embarassingly transparent.

(Read the whole thing: Two Painfully Learned and Immensely Important Lessons. HT: Justin)

I'd hate to be this guy: Oops! Techie wipes out $38 billion fund.

Humble Orthodoxy offers a helpful look at how to evaluate books before recommending them to others and ruining their souls. See here.

DG reprints an earlier article from Piper called "Being Loved and Being Hated." A brief excerpt: "Would you pray with me that hundreds among us would embrace being hated for the sake of love? If your driving motive in life is to be liked and loved, you will find it almost impossible to be a Christian. "

And from the DG blog, a listing of provoking and helpful quotes regarding television and our spiritual lives.

And Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum wants to know what ever happened to the Holy Spirit in the church.

While skimming through Bridges' Christian Ministry again, several quotes jumped out at me. Some are quotes Bridges lifts from other saints. I hope they're an encouragement and challenge to you this Monday!

"The most effectual hindrances, therefore, to our work are those which impede our personal communion with the Lord. When the great enemy thus successfully intercepts our spiritual supplies, the work of God in our hearts, and connected with it, the work of God in our hands, languishes fromt eh want of its accustomed and needful support. We have great need to watch, lest public activity should be considered to atone for neglect of privated intercourse with God; and thus our profession should become a snare to ourselves, and divested of all spiritual savour to our flock" (Bridges, p. 150).

"Men frequently admire me, and I am pleased; but I abhor the pleasure that I feel" (Henry Martyn in Bridges, p. 153).

"They are not our best friends, that stir the pride of our hearts by the flattery of their lips. The graces of God in others (I confess) are thankfully to be owned, and under discouragements and temptations to be wisely and modestly spoken of; but the strongest Christians do scarcely show their own weakness in any one thing more than they do in hearing their own praises. Christian! thou knowest thou carriest gunpowder about thee.--Desire those that carry fire, to keep at a distance from thee. It is a dangerous crisis, when a proud heart meets with flattering lips. Faithful, seasonable, and discreet reproofs are much more safe for us, and advantageous to the mortification of sin in our souls" (p. 153, footnote 1).

"Verily, it is the common danger and calamity of the Church, to have unregenerate and unexperienced Pastors, and to have so many men become preachers, before they are Christians; to be sanctified by dedication to the altar as God's Priests, before they are sanctified by hearty dedication to Christ as his disciples; and so to worship an unknown God, and to preach an unknown Christ, an unknown Spirit, an unknown state of holiness and communion with God, and a glory that is unknown for ever. He is like to be but a heartless preacher, that hath not the Christ and grace that he preacheth in his heart" (Richard Baxter, p. 155-156).

"Like John the Baptist, we should point out the Saviour to our people from our own perception of his glory and love" (Bridges, p. 158).

"We cannot live by feeding others; or heal ourselves by the mere employment of healing our people; and therefore by this course of official service, our familiarity with the awful realities of death and eternity may be rather like that of the grave-digger, the physician, and the soldier, than the man of God, viewing eternity with deep seriousness and concern, and bringing to his people the profitable fruit of his contemplations" (Bridges, p. 163).

"The leaven of Antinomianism is indeed most congenial wiht the corruption of the heart; and its deadly influence is but too apparent in the inconsistent lives of its professors" (Bridges, 227).

2007 is here! The New Year's Eve parties are all held, the ball has dropped, the fireworks are all exploded, confetti is being swept away, the parades are over, and minds are slowly turning to the reality of work tomorrow.

Awww maannnn!

Like most people, this has been a reflective time for me. It's natural... between the year now sunk into eternity past and the year that lays ahead should Jesus tarry (come, Lord Jesus!)... to speculate about, plan for, and pray over the year ahead. Thanks to having to prepare a sermon for New Year's Eve, I've done less of than than normal, but I've done some.

What about you? What are your hopes, plans, and prayers for 2007? Please share. And I encourage all who read this post and any comments to pray for what others share.

My main reflection is summed up by Ligon Duncan's opening response to the opening question on the opening panel of 2006's T4G Conference. The question was, "What are you doing with your life and why?" Okay, a great question right. Lig' responded:

"When people ask me what my job is, I tell them that it is to minister to the people of God by preaching the Gospel. I:

1. preach the word;
2. love the people;
3. pray down heaven;
4. promote family religion; and
5. train the elders of the church.

Underneath all that, I'm called to live a godly life."

Lig' shared this without batting an eye. I think it's in his bones. I can spend the entire year immersing myself in this rather full and absorbing summation of pastoral ministry. I'm both emotionally encouraged and spiritually challenged and practically helped by this.

My New Year's reflection: I want to be like Lig' Duncan when I grow up.

It's been fun cruisin' around the blogosphere this morning. Recently, I've not had an opportunity to really enjoy other blogs the way I'd like. Here's a couple of things that caught my eye.

Quotes:
Ray Van Neste over at Oversight of Souls has three quotes well worth the consideration. One on Goodwin, one from Spurgeon, one from a student, and a particularly convicting one for me from Calvin.

Reformissionary includes an interesting Tim Keller quote on small churches and decision-making. I'm still thinking about whether or not I agree, or to what extent, but it's a provocative statement.

If you haven't been reading Mark's series on Censorious Thouhts, you owe it to yourself and everyone you know! Too much good stuff to quote. Check out the posts!

"I wish that being a racist church leader was a sexual sin." (Anthony Bradley on the problem of "closeted" racism and silence)

Quibble:
Peggy Noonan has an op-ed on Barack Obama (HT: Denny Burk). Her punch-line is we don't really know what the Sen. believes so we should not get so excited; he could be another "knee jerk" selection for president. A slight quibble: I think we do know what the senator believes; we just don't like it. A fantasy ticket: How about the doomed presidential ticket of Barack Obama and Harold Ford, Jr? Whatever your politics, it would be the most photogenic presidential ticket in history... and two African-Americans to boot! A slightly more entertaining race would feature the feminine strength and intelligence of Condi Rice and Hillary Clinton. I'd have a bucket of popcorn for all the debates in either race!