Are Ye So Foolish?

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? - Galatians 3:3

"Yes, in response to the question in our text, we are this foolish. Folly is bound up not only in the heart of a child, but even in the heart of a child of God; and though the rod may be said to bring folly out of a child (Prov.22:15), it will take many repetitions of the rod of affliction upon the shoulders of a Christian before that folly is taken out of him."

- C.H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit, pg. 9

The Word of the Lord

Psalm 12:6, "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." 

"Every word of the Lord Jesus ought to be most precious to professing Christians. It is the voice of the chief Shepherd. It is the charge of the great Bishop and Head of the Church. It is the Master speaking. It is the word of Him who 'spake as never man spake,' and by whom we shall all be judged on the last day."

- J.C. Ryle - Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 1, pg. 32

I Will Take Joy in the God of My Slavation

"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places."

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;

Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true Word;

I ever with thee and Thou with me, Lord.

Thou my great Father, I thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight; 

Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;

Thou my soul's Shelter, Thou my High Tower:

Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,

Thou my Inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory one, 

May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's Sun!

Heart of my own Heart, whatever befall ,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

The Revelation of Christ

"The revelation made of Christ in the blessed Gospel is far more excellent, more glorious, and more filled with the rays of divine wisdom and goodness, than the whole creation and the just comprehension of it, if attainable, can contain or afford. Without the knowledge hereof, the mind of man, however priding itself in other inventions and discoveries, is wrapped up in darkness and confusion."
   
- John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ in His Person, Office, and Grace, in The Works of John Owen, Vol. 1, pg. 275

Revealing the Creator's Handywork

The moon tonight.

"The creation of the material world, including our bodies with all five senses, was God's idea. He did not do it mainly as a temptation to idolatry, but mainly as a display of his glory. 'The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1). That is the purpose of a million species of animals and plants, and a million galaxies."

- John Piper, God is the Gospel, pg. 138 

Humility - the Rarest and Most Beautiful of Graces

In reference to the amazing humility shown by Christ in His incarnation and life on this earth, J. C. Ryle states,

“Let us learn wisdom from our Saviour’s example. We are far too ready to ‘seek great things’ in this world. Let us seek them not. To have a place, and a title, and a position in society, is not nearly so important as people think. It is a great sin to be covetous, and worldly, and proud and carnal minded. But it is no sin to be poor. It matters not so much where we live, as what we are in the sight of God. Where are we going when we die? Shall we live forever in heaven? These are the main things to which we should attend.

“Above all, let us daily strive to copy our Saviour’s humility. Pride is the oldest and commonest of sins. Humility is the rarest and most beautiful of graces. For humility let us labor. For humility let us pray. Our knowledge may be scanty. Our faith may be weak. Our strength may be small. But if we are disciples of Him who ‘dwelt at Nazareth,’ let us at any rate be humble.”
     -   Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. I, pg. 17

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
     -   Philippians 2:5-11

Food for Thought - For Man Shall not Live by Bread Alone, but by Every Word That Proceedeth out of the Mouth of God

I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. - Job 23:12

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. - Matthew 6:28-34

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. - Psalm 90:2 

I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. - Psalm 50:11

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. - Revelation 22:1-5

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. - Psalm 51:7 

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? - 2 Peter 3:10-11

Gratitude for the Cross - Can it be Idolatry?

(I realize some people struggle with getting posts out on a regular basis. I struggle with figuring out how to post everything I want to - and one way is multiple posts a day as I have the time... So this is post three for today.)

John Piper offers some interesting, thought provoking, and convicting insights into biblical gratitude in the wonderful book, God Is the Gospel.

He shows that biblical gratitude does not end on the gift, but rather the Giver. The gifts of God have one focus - God himself. If our gratefulness ends with a focus on the gifts we receive, it is idolatry because we are more thankful for the gifts than we are the ultimate gift of the gospel - God himself.

"What then do we learn here about the gospel? It was the gospel that purchased and promised all our answers to prayer. What we learn is that the aim of the gospel is not to mainly give us God's gifts, but to give us God. All his gifts are good. But in and through them all, the aim is to see more of God's glory and to savor more of his infinitely beautiful moral perfections displayed in the gospel."

"[I]t is possible to feel truly thankful to someone for a gift and not love the giver."

"Jonathan Edwards saw to the bottom of this problem as he studied the hearts of people in the first Great Awakening. He helps us beware of how the gospel can bring forth thanks that has no moral worth.

"True gratitude or thankfulness to God for his kindness to us, arises from a foundation laid before, of love to God for what he is in himself; whereas natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation. The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds, viz. God's own excellency."

So, why the title of this blog post? Because of one of the applications of the above the Piper brings to the table.

"It is amazing that this same idolatry is sometimes even true when people thank God for sending Christ to die for them. Perhaps you have heard people say how thankful we should be for the death of Christ because it shows how much value God puts on us. In other words, they are thankful for the cross as an echo of our worth. What is the foundation of this gratitude?

"Jonathan Edwards calls it the gratitude of hypocrites. Why? Because 'they first rejoice, and are elevated with the fact that they are made much of by God; and then on that ground, [God] seems in a sort lovely to them....They are pleased in the highest degree, in hearing how much God and Christ make of them. So that their joy is really a joy in themselves, and not in God.'"

John Piper, God Is the Gospel, pgs. 135-137

I could go on with more quoting, but you really should just get the book and read it for yourself to get the breadth of Piper's point. It really get's you think about many things though. For example, why are we so grateful for salvation? Is it mostly because we are saved from hell, or mostly because we may now know God? Yes, we should be grateful for deliverance from the pains of death, but the end of that deliverance is not merely heaven. It is to know God and glorify Him forever. It is to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Longing to be with Christ

To Jesus, the crown of my hope,

My soul is in haste to be gone;

O bear me, ye cherubim, up,

And waft me away to His throne!

My Saviour, whom absent I love,

Whom, not having seen I adore;

Whose name is exalted above

All glory, dominion, and power;

Dissolve thou these bonds that detain

My soul from her portion in thee.

Ah! strike off this adamant chain,

And make me eternally free.

When that happy era begins,

When arrayed in Thy glories I shine,

Nor grieve any more, by my sins,

The bosom on which I recline.

Oh then shall the veil be removed,

And round me Thy brightness be pour'd,

I shall meet Him whom absent I loved,

Shall see Him whom unseen I adored.

And then, never more shall the fears,

The trials, temptation, and woes,

Which darken this valley of tears,

Intrude on my blissful repose.

Or, if yet remember'd above,

Remembrance no sadness shall raise,

They will be but new signs of Thy love,

New themes for my wonder and praise.

Thus the strokes which from sin and from pain

Shall set me eternally free,

Will but strengthen and rivet the chain

Which binds me, my Saviour, to Thee.

A Biblical Economy - The Opportunity of Our Century

Watch this!

A Biblical Economy - The Opportunity of Our Century from Kevin Swanson on Vimeo.

Eternal Pleasure in Christ

Will heaven ever be boring?

"If God's pleasure in the Son becomes our pleasure, then the object of our pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never become boring or disappointing or frustrating. No greater treasure can be conceived than the very Son of God. Moreover, our ability to savor this inexhaustible treasure will not be limited by human weaknesses. We will enjoy the Son of God with the very enjoyment of his omnipotently happy Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us, and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them, and therefore our loving them will never die."

    - John Piper, God is the Gospel, p. 102

Tornado!

Out of the south cometh the whirlwind... Job 37:9

So here is the Doppler Radar from a little while after I took the pictures below it:

A tornado was reported on the ground by law enforcement after I took the following pictures from my subdivision as well as down the road a little ways.

Some other pictures I took before and during the above shots:

If only I had know what I was photographing, I could have jumped in my car and actually photographed a tornado on the ground...:-P.

Nahum 1:3, "The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet."

This Is War - Paul Washer

A Call to Anguish

"If God promise riches, the way thereto is poverty. Whom he loveth, he chaseneth, whom he exalteth, he casteth down, whom he saveth, he damneth first, he bringeth no man to heaven except he send him to hell first. If he promise life, he slayeth it first, when he buildeth, he casteth all down first. He is no patcher, he cannot build on another man's foundation. He will not work until all be past remedy and brought unto such a case, that men may see how that his hand, his power, his mercy, his goodness and truth hath wrought all together. He will let no man be partaker with him of his praise and glory....Let us therefor look diligently whereunto we are called, that we deceive not ourselves. We are called, not to dispute as the pope's disciples do, but to die with Christ that we may live with him, and to suffer with him that we may reign with him."

William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man, pg. 6

Visual Death - When a Look Can Kill

This morning I was reading in Job 31 - a passage that deals with morality and the seriousness of impure thoughts, looks and actions. It can truly be said, a look can kill.

"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? ....If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out. If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase."


Recall from James that a man is tempted by his own lust and when lust is conceived, it brings forth sin, and  sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. The look of lust can and will kill you. Solomon tells us that the place of the adulterous woman is the place of the dead and that many strong men are slain by her. But does this not just apply to the physical adultery? What can be so bad about a look? Job answers that adultery - even the looking upon a maid - is a fire that consumes to destruction. Jesus reveals that the look of lust is adultery. Paul agrees, saying, I had not known lust except that the law said, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

So young man, flee fornication and youthful lusts. Though the women of this world delight to expose their shame, the dead are there. Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? Can a man look upon a woman with lust and not be harmed? Go not by the way of her street corner. Avoid temptation and set no wicked thing before your eyes: for if you harbor iniquity in your heart, God will not hear you.

Our world is a hideous world to live in - it is at war with purity. John says the whole world lies in wickedness. There is not a better way of stating it. Now more than ever it is clear that to be pure before God we must have the supernatural strength of the Spirit of God abiding in us. Consider this though - the state of affairs is the judgment of God on our people. If moral sin makes a man so low that he may be bought by a piece of bread, if it will consume him and remove all his substance, if by it the mighty are slain, then open and shameless uncovering of women all over society is a judgment against men for by it the vast majority of men - who are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God - will be brought to destruction. But this is also a judgment against women. It is for their shame and destruction as well. In Isaiah 47:1-3, God says, "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man."

How may we fight this destruction? By the love of one who is better than sin. And that one is Christ. For if we love Christ, we will do His commandments. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Be pure, O child of God, by loving Him who died for us and living every moment to the glory of our risen King.   

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.