11 Weird Things That Have Washed Ashore
I’m a nerd so I find things like this interesting.
How Do You Know When You Are Ready to Shepherd?
This is a bit lengthy but its well worth your time to read.
I love things like this for us parents who are prone to freaking out.
This is a neat little app/website which analyzes what you’ve written.
In case you ever need to start a fire with a lemon:
I earned my degree from a Christian college in Northwest Missouri. I’m not sure if all Christian colleges are like this, but we were often more focused on getting our marriage license than our degree. In fact, on one particular tour of the campus the tour guide joked that the slogan was a “ring by spring or your money back”.
At our school there was a bell which the students would flip once they had gotten engaged. I remember the bell being turned upside down more than I remember it being right side up. Almost every weekend a different young couple were glowing with excitement and telling everyone the good news of their engagement.
Good news is meant to be told. Unless you buy into that quote that Francis of Assisi likely never said:
“Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”
Our campus would have looked and sounded much different if we extended this advice into other good news. Can you imagine a young lady who says “I don’t want to use words to tell people our good news”?
Perhaps one would notice after a bit a few differences in this young lady. You’d notice that she seemed to spend lots of time with one particular boy and that she never went on dates with other guys. You might even notice that she is wearing a bit fancier ring than normal—and on that sacred finger too. If you are really close to her you might notice her new subscriptions to wedding magazines. You might even notice that her diet has changed to tiny carrots and kale (this of course for the sake of fitting into that wedding dress).
You would likely deduce after a season that this young lady had been engaged. But you’d have to wonder how excited she really was about the thing if she was only dropping subtle hints. Good news is meant to be shared. And its meant to be shared explosively. Maybe explosively isn’t the best word—but I mean shared in such a way that it is obvious that such news cannot be contained.
God the Father raised Jesus, His Son, from the dead as a statement that his sacrifice was complete and full atonement had been made for our sins. News doesn’t get any better than this. Such a thing is meant to be proclaimed and in such a way that a young lady cannot fool around with dropping subtle hints to let people know she is engaged—she has to tell people.
There is, though, one way in which this analogy somewhat breaks down. Not many people are going to persecute a young lady for sharing her joy in being engaged. It’s not terribly offensive. The gospel is offensive. Good news that is offensive. And so that is why it is a bit more than just sharing what God has done—and of what God has done in your life.
If we really want to use the newly engaged lady as a picture of evangelism we should add a bit more to it. Rather than having her going around telling friends and strangers we should tell the story as if she has to tell another boy. Perhaps, we could say it was her childhood friend who had hopes of some day putting that ring on her finger. He doesn’t like this new man in her life. Now, we are a bit closer to what its like sharing the gospel.
The good news we share with people is the type of good news that demands a response and a change on the part of the hearer. We aren’t looking for the hearer to say, “I’m so happy for you.” What we are asking is that they reshape their lives around this good news we are proclaiming. Just as the childhood friend will have to reorient his life around this news of engagement.
Furthermore, we are sharing with people who do not necessarily like our good news or believe that our good news is good. To the jilted lover this engagement isn’t going to seem like good news. The gospel, though, is different in that unlike an engagement there is room enough for everyone. It’s an invitation not only to celebrate what has happened to me but to also enter into the wedding feast yourself.
So, yes, the gospel must be proclaimed. And it ought to stir up exponentially more joy in us than a newly engaged couple. But let’s not pretend that sharing this good news is quite the same thing.
Do you remember when you became aware of your sin before God?
Do you remember the increasing dread of realization that you deserve hell?
It took months of my friend talking about God and sharing the gospel with me as well as listening to the word preached on my own for me to arrive there. However, by God’s grace that is where he put me; under conviction for my sin and unable to do anything about it.
This is where God put Adam and Eve. They sinned and broke God’s law in the Garden and upon doing so had no better action than to hide from him in shame. (Genesis 3) It was God who questioned Adam and Eve and brought confession from them. They were convicted of their own sin by their own admission. He proceeded to pronounce judgment on the Serpent, Eve, and finally Adam for their sin.
Yet with Adam and Eve there is a glimmer of hope. In verse 15 God foreshadows the coming war between man and sin. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” We know this to be fully and finally fulfilled in Christ. Christ was not fully and finally injured. Death could not keep him. Hence, his heel was bruised. He most assuredly crushed the power of the serpent at the cross. He crushed the head of the Serpent under his foot by his atoning sacrifice on the cross and victorious resurrection. This foreshadowing of redemption in verse 15 is called the protoevangelion.
Was this a plan or a reaction to our sin?
The question often then comes up; was this all in God’s plan or was this a reaction to our rebellion?
It was most definitely a plan. Let the Bible speak for itself. Acts 2:22-24 says: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”
Definite plan and foreknowledge. Jesus was delivered up to crucifixion and his subsequent resurrection according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. The fall was not a surprise, Jesus was not plan B, and God knows and decrees the end from the beginning. He is God. He is knows everything. He is all powerful. He does not change. Not only that, the redemption of sinners is trinitarian. “It is the Father who conceives, plans, and wills the work of salvation; it is the Son who guarantees it and effectively acquires it; it is the Spirit who implements and applies it.” Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3 , 195.
A Covenant of Grace
He has made a covenant of Grace which he guarantees by his blood. God does not lie nor change his mind. This redemption is sure. He planned from the foundation of the world who would be His and how He would redeem them. He elects, calls, regenerates, and saves those whom He chooses. Many hear this and accuse God of being a puppet master or of reducing humanity to a robot like state. Not so.
“At the same time, the covenant of grace also allows the rational and moral nature of human beings to come into their own. Here it differs from election, in which humans are strictly passive. The covenant of grace describes the road by which elect people attain their destiny; it is the channel by which the stream of election flows toward eternity. Christ sends his Spirit to instruct and enable his own so that they consciously and voluntarily consent to this covenant. The covenant of grace comes with the demand of faith and repentance, which may in some sense be said to be its “conditions.” Yet, this must not be misunderstood. God himself supplies what he demands; the covenant of grace is thus truly unilateral—it comes from God, who designed, defines, maintains, and implements it. It is, however, designed to become bilateral, to be consciously and voluntarily accepted by believers in the power of God. In the covenant of grace, God’s honor is not at the expense of but for the benefit of human persons by renewing the whole person and restoring personal freedom and dignity.” Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, 195–196.
After the fall we are unable to approach God. We are totally unable to choose him. (Romans 3) Yet as Bavinck says, God supplies what he demands. Praise God! Without his sovereign action, we would remain dead in our tresspasses and sins.
I’m at Together For the Gospel this week…which means I get lots of free books and hear great sermons.
Here is what I got from Band of Bloggers:
Passion Cry by Robbie Symons
Anchored in Grace by Jeremy Walker
The Community of Jesus by Kendell Easley/Christopher Morgan
All Authority by Joey Shaw
Do More Better by Tim Challies
Who Moved My Pulpit? by Thom Rainer
Core Christianity by Michael Horton
The People of God by Trevor Joy/Spence Shelton
Rescuing the Gospel by Erwin Lutzer
Habits of Grace by David Mathis
Theology of Biblical Counseling by Heath Lambert
Visual Theology by Tim Challies/Josh Byers
This Changed Everything DVD
Then from T4G with four more books to come…
Thoughts for Young Men by JC Ryle
Simplicity in Preaching by JC Ryle
Discipling by Mark Dever
Christ-Centered Exposition on Matthew by David Platt
Church in Hard Places by Mez McConnell/Mike McKinley
Understanding the Great Commission by Mark Dever
Reviving the Black Church by Thabiti Anyabwile
Ligonier Statement of Christology
A Camaraderie of Confidence by John Piper (Swans Series)
No Adam, No Gospel by Richard Gaffin Jr.
Faith Alone by RC Sproul
Are We Together by RC Sproul
Justified by Faith Alone DVD
I also went to Band of Bloggers so I got about 15 more.