Today in Blogworld 06.03.13

Mike Leake

Does God Like Making You Suffer?

Great words from Stephen Altrogge.

A Humble Plea for Church Revitalization

I’m with Thom Rainer on this one.

6 Pillars of a Christian View on Suffering

I relied heavily on D.A. Carson’s book, How Long O, Lord?, while working on my book. Here is a video an a synopsis of Carson’s view on suffering.

Heralding the Gospel in Our Jerusalem

Ever notice that it’s harder to share the gospel to your neighbor than it is to share the gospel with people while you are on a mission trip? Matt Chandler helps us to see why this is.

This is insane tornado footage. (You might want to mute your speakers because of some of the language):

What Can We Learn From Voltaire?

Mike Leake 2 Comments

Voltaire isn’t an evil robot from an 80’s cartoon, nor is he the bad guy from Harry Potter. Voltaire was an atheist that hated God and the Bible. Near the end of his life he claimed that within 100 hundred years Christianity would be stamped out and known only as a relic of history. Voltaire died in 1778. In God’s irony, within 25 years of Voltaire’s death his mansion housed the Geneva Bible Society. His former residence is now used to churn out Bibles.

Isn’t God amazing? Doesn’t this show us that God is sovereign and that His word will last for ever?

Yes to the first, no to the second. It doesn’t show us anything about God because the story isn’t true. First, Voltaire was a deist not an atheist. Second, there is no record of his having predicted that Christianity would be stamped out within 100 years. Now don’t misunderstand me—Voltaire was no follower of Jesus. Such a statement would not be surprising. But there is no record of his having said it.

Furthermore, it is not true that any of his houses were ever used for a Bible society. It’s a great sermon illustration. It leaves people in awe at the power of God. But it’s simply not historically accurate.

What is true is that the Hotel Gibbon which Voltaire often frequented became a depository of the Bible Society* in 1849. But that is it. Not quite as good of a sermon illustration. And so, like any good fishing story, the catch has gotten a little bigger over the years.

We ought to learn a couple lessons from this false story of Voltaire:

  1. Check your facts and stories. What is intended to be a “point for Jesus” ends up being a point for unbelievers. Christians look like blind people groping for anything to believe in. It’s okay that we look like idiots—after all the gospel is offensive and seen as foolish to an unbelieving mind. But we shouldn’t look like idiots because didn’t fact check.
  2. Let the Word of God be the anchor and the stories be the servants—not the other way around. The fact that this story is not true should not do anything to your faith other than to make you say, “ah man, that would have been a great sermon illustration”. The truth of God’s word is unchanging. If we find out these stories are untrue we have only lost a servant to our gospel proclamation—not it’s foundation.
  3. We will have an eternity filled with TRUE stories like this. God is in the process of rooting out of his kingdom all sin and unbelief and replacing it with passionate worshippers. Therefore, there will be in heaven a million true stories of light overcoming darkness. I can’t wait!

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*Information take from here.

Today in Blogworld 05.31.13

Mike Leake

Unity, Bad Theology, and the SBC: The Heart of the Problem

Dave Miller encourages Southern Baptists to have a solid theology of unity and to live it out.

Think Small

This is helpful advice for anyone.

Doubt Your Doubts

Lore Ferguson is back from her sabbatical. I’m glad.

A Statement From the Calvinism Advisory Committee

This will be presented at the SBC Annual Meeting. I find it a helpful statement.

I just preached on James 3. This is much better:

Why Does God Permit Believers to Lose Peace?

Mike Leake

When a believer loses his/her sense of peace it is a terrible thing. Many of souls have been crushed by this trial. This often leaves those on the outside looking in, as well as those going through the trial, wondering why a loving God would permit a believer to lose peace. William Bridge, in his excellent work A Lifting Up for the Downcast, gives six reasons why “permits his own people and dearest children to be discouraged, and their peace to be interrupted”:

  1. Because “so long as man has encouragement elsewhere, he does not encourage himself in the Lord his God”. Our peace is interrupted so that we might run to Him who is our greatest good.
  2. Because “the interruption of an ordinary blessing does raise it to an extraordinary”. We are at times discouraged so that we might further appreciate the graces we take for granted.
  3. Because “He would not have His children to love their nurse more than Himself.” In other words, so that we will not be ripped off by pursuing inferior lovers.
  4. So that “He might train them up unto more perfection”. “Because as [God’s] comforts do wean us from the world’s comforts, so we have need to be weaned again from these weaners.”
  5. Because “many times the children of God…grow secure, vain, frothy and wanton under their peace and comfort”.
  6. Because Christ is a great surgeon. “He sees that the comforts of His people sometimes are not right laid, and therefore, says He, though I desire this poor wounded soul may be quickly cured, yet because this comfort, this promise, this experience does not lie right, it must be taken off again”. The Lord would have us to be truly and deeply healed.

This book is a great resource for those that feel crushed and those that minister to those that do. Get it here.