“You are not your own.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)

I find that kelp swaying in the ocean is a good analogy for my life. It wobbles and in the limbo of the current and never really finds its resting place because it is only committed in one area, the bottom. So I have not been wholly committed in life to Christ, but only at one point, yet grace demands all, more, fullness, because its free in fullness.

So I have the anchor of my soul, the blessed Savior of the weak, stupid, blind, downcast, lame, ugly, and totally unworthy as my holding place. He has kept me alive in this haze of life, with nutrients gained photosynthesizing His true word and the illumination of the Spirit. But in this mass of vacillation in trying to go to school and then failing, trying to get a career and failing. I realized a few things.

Firstly, that I was trying to do it in my own strength, and failing miserably. Lost because I did not have a direct revelation of Gods specific will and discontent in my current situation I was grasping for the wind and always coming up short in every aspect. I just wanted something to ‘do’! But the gospel says, “If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Tim 6:8), and I was not content because I was not where ‘I’ wanted to be. Not resting in grace, trusting in a finished, beautifully accomplished redemption. But, my life is ‘not my own’, its His will not mine. I was striving in all of mans ways to get things done.

Second, I tried to do it an ignorant naïve faith. Keep in mind those two adjectives before faith for they are crucial. I was in folly not working and just foolishly saying, when I knew better, ‘The Lord will provide’ and He does by his grace. I was banking on it while being lazy, a sluggard of sorts. Which in the end turned to nothing, because I was still discontent and using the promises of God to get what I wanted. Using God for my own ends. Saying such things and then not acting upon them in dependence is truly vile. And it mocks the ‘actual’ provision that we receive form the Lord.

Then, the Lord put it in me to work, and to have faith, and to remember that I am, ‘not my own’ but I do what He says, knowing that He definitely calls his people to serve him and provides all, even contentment when he does, “For he who called you is faithful, and he also will do it” (1 Thess 5:24). So I found the goodness of the Lord in waiting, “The Lord is good to those who wait on him” (Lam 3:26), and worked hard unto his glory in contentment Him, “whatever you do work at it as working for the Lord, not for man” (Col 3:23). I found myself at the end of my rope, only with submission to grace to hold onto singing ever so sweetly with tears welling up face, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound,…I once was lost(in myself and in discontentment outside of God) but now I’m found.” I was found in the general will of doing it all for His glory, then in contentment in that, I was given the specific. Let us learn from Jeremiah Burroughs on what is true contentment: “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in Gods wise and fatherly disposal in every condition” Perhaps one day we will be so wrapped up in Gods love that this mental utopia found in Gods grace shall truly penetrate us unto absolute solidity.

So in conclusion, let us not work for ourselves, but remember that the gift of grace is slavery, to call God ours and for Him to call us His(Gal 4:9). So when we come to God, we get God, and nothing but God, “For whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil 3:7).

Here Hudson Taylor says it better than I:

“It makes no matter where he places me or how; that is rather for him to consider than me. For the easiest positions he must give me grace, and in the most difficult, his grace is sufficient. So, if God places me in great perplexity, must he not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible or so difficult, but the weight and the strain are all gone. His resources are mine, for He is mine.”

Read it again.

Christian freedom is being able to be anywhere in fullness because of the fullness of grace given in Christ.

Found this Video on Pyromaniacs

Here is a video by Penn Jillette of "Penn and Telller" very interesting.

As I Lay Dying....(New Album, at least new to me)

For those of you who do not know, As I Lay Dying, is a metal band from San Diego.

This album is new to me because I pretty much know more about Jonathan Edwards than I do the metal scene, and I know nothing about Edwards. Did you want a short bio on his life by the way?

So about the album a little. This album is for you if you like chainsaw massacre guitar riffs that cannibalize harp-like beauty (thus destroying all previous conception of melodies) and want to have your own brain pried out of your head and put in your hand while you're staring slack-jawed at the wall. I submit that the recipient of the aforementioned aural assault will thereafter be broadsided by the tsunami of sound wrecking devastation upon his conscience, leaving him on the floor in his own drool, convulsing for more.

I listen to it when I read Carl Trueman who according to Pyromaniacs sponsors intelligence infusions while wielding a flamethrower set to 'Total Righteous Destruction'.

Carl Trueman Busts Out The Flamethrower

The blazing mass of lyrically amazing words thrown together by Carl Trueman here in his new article at Reformation21 pretty much melted my face off, let alone any postmodern communally driven, social anarchists.

A few excepts to season your tastebuds:

"He doesn't write books; he merely does the evangelical equivalent of lip-synching, more akin to Britney Spears than Martin Luther...

Before I switch my flamethrower to `Total Righteous Destruction' (did a Presbyterian just actually say that? Im not alone!) it is worth reflecting for a few moments on ....

I also believe it can involve clear intellectual theft, albeit a kind of ironic theft with permission (get ready for the massacre)...

It is rather like buying a Pink Floyd album, only to find that the music and the singing has been done by a cover group; all the original band have done is lip synch. We would regard that as unacceptable in secular pop music, as witness the cases of the awful Milli Vanilli and the unthinkably bad Boney-M...

Or is this just one more area where Christians actually in the vanguard of setting new levels of ethical and cultural mediocrity?

(drum roll please) Of course, this ties in with one of my pet peeves: that the evangelical subculture simply replicates (usually in a more mediocre way) the practices, values, and behavioral patterns of the advanced consumerist societies in which we live."

Well don Prof. Trueman. Like Driscol says your putting the 'Fun' back into 'Fundamentalism'.

Dr. Mohler On Study Bibles

Right so we have all been in Church and seen those people who have an entire library of church bulletins in their already bulging study bible, which you can tell upon engaging them in conversation, they don't use. Here is one of the brightest minds in Christendom(so smart he makes jokes about medieval Italian Law) talking about how to avoid that embarrassing paradigm of collecting a library of church bulletins in your study bible and rather using it to not be strangled from ignorance. Its like the prophet always says, 'Them peeps get lynched 'cause d'em dont know em bibles'(authors translation of Hosea 4:6).

Its short and really worth reading.

Authority of the Holy Spirit

In the fall of 1957 'the doctor' spoke to a group of students in Ontario Canada on 'Authority' what it means, what it is, and what it comes from. Here he is ending his message on the authority of God the Holy Spirit.

“What conclusion do we arrive at as the result of all this? Let us go on with our practical efforts and let us go on with our study, but God forbid that we should rely upon them. Let equip ourselves as best as we can. We shall never be as able and as learned as the apostle Paul, St. Augustine, Luther or Calvin. They were men of great learning and giant intellects. That is the kind of man God seems to use when He does His greatest things in the history of the Church. Let us go on, however, and seek knowledge and equip ourselves as perfectly as possible. But, in the name of God, let us not stop at that. Let us realize that even that, without the authority and the power of the Spirit, is of no value at all. ‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love (a product of the work of the Spirit), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal’ (1 Corinthians xiii.1). It does not matter who I am or what I may do: it will get me nowhere. It is the authority of the Spirit that alone avails.
Now this is what grieves me. I very rarely hear any Christians today, even Evangelicals, praying for revival. What do they pray for? They pray for their own organized efforts, either at home or in various other lands. In a typical prayer meeting this is what happens. ‘First of all let us have the reports’, says the chairman. Having heard them, he adds, ‘Let us go to prayer about it. You have heard the facts; let us pray about them.’ We pray only for blessing on our own efforts, whether it be a great evangelistic campaign, or work in the foreign field. That is quire right, of course, and we should do that. But the trouble is that we always start with ourselves and our efforts and ask God to bless them. When did you last hear anyone praying for revival, praying that God might open the windows of Heaven and pour out His Spirit? When did you last pray for that yourself? I suggest seriously that we are neglecting this almost entirely. We are guilty of forgetting the authority of the Holy Spirit. We are so interested in ourselves and in our won activities that we have forgotten the one thing that can make us effective. By all means let us continue to pray for the particular efforts, for the minister, and his preaching every Sunday, for all essential organizations and for evangelistic campaigns, if we feel led to have them. But before it all, and after it all, let us pray and plead for revival. When God sends revival He can do more in a single day that in fifty years of all our organization. That is the verdict of sheer history which emerges clearly from the long story of the Church.
This is the greatest need today, indeed it is the only hope. Let us therefore decide that day by day, and many times during the day, we will spend our time before God pleading for revival. But foolish as we are, we will never do so until we have come to the end of ourselves and of our own resources. We will do so only when everything else has failed, and we have realized our utter bankruptcy and impotence, and we have come to see that our Lord spoke the simple truth when He said ‘Without me ye can do nothing’ (John xv. 5).
Let us remind ourselves that God who in the past has come suddenly and unexpectedly upon the dying Church and has raised her to a new period of life and victory can do the same still, that His arm is not shortened, no His power in any sense diminished. Let us wait upon Him, let us plead with Him, let us learn to agonize in prayer and let our one prayer be:

Revive Thy work, O Lord,
Thy mighty arm make bare;
Speak wit the voice that wakes the dead,
And make Thy people hear.

‘O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy’ (Habakkuk iii. 2).” -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Sin...Who wants to talk about it?

The beloved MLJ(Martin Lloyd-Jones) gives us a clear cut, not legalistic, anti-religious, view of sin in its reality. The brevity of this statement should gut you like a hunters fresh catch. Can you feel the blood flow?

"Nothing is quite so fallacious as to think of sin only in terms of actions; and as long as we think of sin only in terms of things actually done, we fail to understand it. The essence of biblical teaching on sin is that it is essentially a disposition. It is a state of heart. I suppose we can sum it up by saying that sin is ultimately self-worship and self-adulation; and our Lord shows (what to me is an alarming and terrifying thing) that this tendency on our part to self-adulation is something that follows us even into the very presence of God. It sometimes produces this result; that even when we try to persuade ourselves that we are worshiping God, we are actually worshipping ourselves and doing nothing more." -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Sermon on the Mount, p301.

He is pretty much saying that even in your best times, when you are praying your best, on a mission trip, serving the Lord, you are in the greatest danger of becoming prideful. Keep watch on yourself lest you be strong and forget the Lord

The Shack Review

The Resurgence just put out a review on the immensely popular book 'The Shack' and they pretty much said what I've been saying since I heard about the book.

"I believe that those who are well-grounded in the Word won’t be harmed by the weaknesses and deficiencies of the book. Unfortunately, few people these days are well-grounded in the Word." -Scott Lindsey, Review on 'The Shack'

Beware those of you who 'search the scriptures' the Zombie armies of The Shack equipped with 'anti-intellectual' helmets, mysticism bracelets, and negative discipline belt are coming to a neighborhood near you. They will be groaning, 'It only a story, it doesnt actually effect your theology.'

Read Old Dead Guys people. Seriously.

The Name of My Blog

I was going to write an explanation of why I named my blog 'Contra Mundum' and then I waited, and waited, and finally the guys over at Pyromaniacs did it for me. So if you were wondering what my blog name means check out this.

Grace is not a feeling?

“Grace is never haphazard in its method. Grace is in no sense contingent upon or dependent upon what man does. It is essential that we should emphasize that…We often tend to think of grace in a somewhat sentimental manner. We persist in setting it in contrast with Law in a manner that is not true. Grace, as we have seen, is not weak; because it is righteous it is strong. Grace neither breaks the Law nor abrogates(cancels) it. It must not be thought of in terms of sentiment or feeling. That is an entirely wrong way of thinking of grace. The very term that Paul uses here, ‘the reign of grace’, should rid us at once and for ever of all sentimental notions with respect to grace, and should enable us to see its strength and its power.”–Martyn Lloyd-Jones preaching on Romans 5:20,21; taken from: Romans 5: Assurance, p327.

Essentially grace is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. A mental conglomeration of heart moving forensic truths that constantly throw us back to the cross and into the fires of risk for the glory of God.

"A thousand errors may live in peace with one another, but truth is the hammer that breaks them all in pieces. A hundred lying religions may sleep peaceably in one bed, but wherever the Christian religion goes as the truth, it is like a fire-brand, and it abideth nothing that is not more substantial than the wood, the hay, and the stubble of carnal error." -C.H. Spurgeon, taken from Pyromaniacs blog who weekly give us our shot of Spurgeon

Assurance Not Based On How It Makes Me Feel?

Here the Doctor is explaining how we get assurance of our salvation. How when the winds of plague come in trials to try and erode our faith away, what keeps our anchor held, or fights the rust of sin? The assurance of what Christ forensically accomplished on the cross for all who confess His name:

“…if you want to have assurance of salvation, the place to start is not with your feelings, but with your understanding; then feelings follow. The way to get assurance is not to try and feel something, but it is to grasp this objective truth. Look at yourself in Adam; though you had done nothing you were declared a sinner. Look at yourself in Christ; and see that, though you have done nothing, you are declared to be righteous. That is the parallel. We must get rid of all thoughts of our actions there is no boasting. We do nothing; all we are and have results from the obedience of the One – our Lord.” –Martyn Lloyd-Jones preaching on Romans 5:18,19, taken from: Romans 5: Assurance, p274.

Twilight of Taylor

At the twilight of his death Hudson Taylor, over 50 years of being a missionary to China which included over 80,000 Chinese coming to faith in Christ and all the provinces of China receiving the witness of Christ, he spoke these words to young missionaries:

"You do not know what lies before you. I give you one word of advice: Walk with the Lord! Count on Him, enjoy Him... He will not disappoint you...Forty years I have made it the chief business of my life to cultivate a personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ...No(trifling) with self-indulgence or sin-and there is no reason why the Holy Spirit should not be outpoured.
It is a great privilege to meet many of you here. I have met many here in days gone by. My dear wife died by me here...In spirit our loved ones may be nearer to us than we think; and HE is near, nearer than we think. The Lord Jesus will never leave nor forsake us... Do, dear friends, be true to Him and His Word." -Taken from: It Is Not Death To Die, by Jim Cromarty, p476.

Yup...Ive Been Saying it for Years: I need to Grow up.

Some well needed words said by Carl Trueman. Hard work, wherever it is is good.

Go to Church...

Dan Phillips over at the Pyromaniacs blog just beat the crap out of all you granola type, organic, hyppie, anti-authoritarian, re-hash the 60s to destroy all organized institution, dont go to church because 'you are the church', Frank Viola self contradicting house church movement people. Try to respond to it. Seriously. You know, I just thank the Lord for people who call it how it is, and talk well deserved and needed crap about bad doctrine. Dont take that the wrong way, and if you do dont forget what 1st Cor 13 is in the middle of, oh Chapters 12 and 14. If your confused 1)Try to actually pay attention to church history, 2) Read this J. Gresham Machen quote:

"Men tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end.

Some years ago I was in a company of teachers of the Bible in the colleges and other educational institutions of America. One of the most eminent theological professors in the country made an address. In it he admitted that there are unfortunate controversies about doctrine in the Epistles of Paul; but, said he in effect, the real essence of Paul's teaching is found in the hymn to Christian love in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians; and we can avoid controversy today, if we will only devote the chief attention to that inspiring hymn.
In reply, I am bound to say that the example was singularly ill-chosen. That hymn to Christian love is in the midst of a great polemic passage; it would never have been written if Paul had been opposed to controversy with error in the Church. It was because his soul was stirred within him by a wrong use of the spiritual gifts that he was able to write that glorious hymn. So it is always in the Church. Every really great Christian utterance, it may almost be said, is born in controversy. It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of truth." -J. Gresham Machen

The Doctor on Romans 4:23-25

"That is the final word-Abraham did not stagger at the greatness of the promise. The devil will come to you, and voices within you will say, 'How can I possibly say a thing like that? Look at this life which I am entering as seen in the Sermon on the Mount, the lives of saints, and the life of Jesus Christ. I am so weak, I am constantly falling- how can I?' You must just say, 'I believe this word of the resurrection, I believe the old word spoken unto Abraham. That man was dead, as it were, physically, and so was Sarah's womb. But God told him that they would have a child. He believed God, and I believe God. I believe that though I am weak and helpless and hopeless and vile and without strength, I believe this God of the resurrection, this God who can "bring to life" the things that are not, "who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were". I believe He can call into life within me a new man and a new nature and give me strength and power.' That is Christian faith That is justifying faith. It is faith that enables the believer to dare to believe on the bare word of God, that one day
he will be 'faultless and blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing'. Though this faith he can believe 'that which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ'(Philippians 1:6), and can stand confidently and defy everybody and everything Possessing it he not longer fears death and the grave. Indeed, he no longer fears the final judgment because he knows that he has 'passed from judgment into life' in Christ Jesus." -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans 3:20-4:25, p249.

Karma v. Grace

So at the end of last summer I was in the middle of a 6 foot trench shoveling dirt with the passion of a landslide when a major revelation came upon me. Not the 'Gabriel in the hole in the side of a mountain' type of revelation, because we all know those are bunk. I was working with the most self-righteous, stoned out of his mind all the time, relativistic, self contradictory, spring loaded in the pissed off position, 220lb construction guy. He definitely needed to smoke pot, otherwise he would of gone postal, more than once leaving a trail of dead bodies and broken machinery in his wake. He contributed to this because he was so ridiculously contradictory and driven by caveman like logic to get the job done while destroying all persons in the way. This forced me to analyze him and see why he was such a hypocrite in action and speech. And come to think of it, it was more of an illumination than a revelation. This is because it was a new light on an old truth. This illumination meandered into my conscience along the river course of experience like this, "Karma does not give me enough Justice, this world is way too screwed up for that idea to work." Essentially this world is too evil to have it all repayed in a thousand lifetimes. And secondly it gives no good definition of 'where' good comes from. Like to say that fathers loving their sons, nuns binding up the wounds of aids victims in Africa, or US Marines doing humanitarian aid in southeast Asia is from some non-sensical, ominous, pseudo light power being above all and in all things at all times even when they are evil(I don't think that made much sense, but that's how it comes across). But in contradistinction the God of the Bible is supremely good and ordains evil that He might become more and more glorious at all times. The reason I'm writing this is to get you to read this interview with Bono from U2 where he picks up on kind of the same thing. Its really good.

Study Bibles for CHEEP ! ! !

Reformation Study Bibles for really cheap!(As cheap as you can afford)

"Oh, if you have the hearts of Christians or of men in you, let them yearn towards your poor ignorant, ungodly neighbours. Alas, there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell; many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seize on them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever.

Have you hearts of rock, that cannot pity men in such a case as this? If you believe not the Word of God, and the danger of sinners, why are you Christians yourselves? If you do believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to the helping of others? Do you not care who is damned, so you be saved? If so, you have sufficient cause to pity yourselves, for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with grace. . . .

Dost thou live close by them, or meet them in the streets, or labour with them, or travel with them, or sit and talk with them, and say nothing to them of their souls, or the life to come? If their houses were on fire, thou wouldst run and help them; and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of hell?" -Richard Baxter


(Cited in I. D. E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977], 92–93)

Post Taken From The Pulpit Magazine

Short Term Vacations?

Ever go on a short term mission trip? I have, and this article scared me.

The Last Days of the Doctor

To see a saint not fade out early into the twilight hours of his faith, is something beyond incredible to say the least. How many of us have currently travailed to heed the call to, "stand fast" against this world even to the last of our Days. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was this man. He preached up until he could not physically do it. His mind was sharper than the most, never loosing his memory even to the last. He spoke the following words at the end of his life, in the last of his sermons, dying...he worshiped.

Here is a quote from a sermon from Psalm 2:
“Do you still believe in the wrath of God? There are people in England-evangelicals- who think modern man needs entertainment. There is a mania for singing, for drama, for mime. ‘People cannot take preaching,’ it is said, ‘Give them singing. Teach them how to dance…’ In the name of God I say that is to do violence to Scripture. The church is not here to entertain. It is here to call people to ‘be wise’, to ‘be instructed’ (v10). It is not just an appeal to ‘come to Jesus’ – they are to be ‘instructed’, taught. People are dying through lack of knowledge. We are not here to be popular, but to tell the naked truth: ‘Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling…’ (v11).”

and

“Our greatest trouble is that we really don’t believe the Bible and exactly what it says. We think we know it but do we really appropriate it and actually believe it is true for us? That is Christianity to me. ‘Our short, uncertain life’ is the most difficult thing to realize. We do not put the emphasis as the New Testament does. We are not mean to despise this life but we are certainly mean to keep it in proportion –‘our light affliction, which is but a moment’ (2 Cor 4:17). We have to take these statements literally. They are facts, not merely ideas. That is what I feel you people have got to emphasize more and more…”

Be strong oh beloved of the Lord, lift up your eyes, your redemption draws nigh. Praise him in this world while ye still can. Be not left unto silence for the longer we live, the more Glory He is due.

"But the most impressive statement of all, the perfect summary of this entire argument, is provided by the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, beginning at verse eighteen and going on to the end of the first chapter. He says that as nations and peoples in supposed ‘wisdom’ have turned their backs upon God the Creator, they have always become fools - ‘Imagining themselves to be wise, they became fools’. Then he proceeds to give an account of their terrible moral degradation, the perversions and obscenities into which they fell. ‘Ah,’ says our modern lecturer, ‘the Church must speak specifically about sex . . .’ Very well, the Church does so! If you want to know what she has to say, read the second half of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and you will find an account of all the modern perversions, all the foulnesses that are disgracing life at the present time. They have occurred many times before. But when has that happened? It is always when man in his supposed wisdom has turned from the Creator and has given his worship to the creature. The whole history of the human race substantiates what the Apostle claims. Before Christ ever came into the world everything else had had its opportunity. The Greek philosophers had flourished, the greatest of them had already taught their beliefs. But they could not deal with the problem of sin; their teaching was not adequate and had already failed. There was also the great Roman Empire with its system of law; but there was a canker at the very heart of the Empire; and it finally collapsed, not because of the superior prowess of the Goths and the Vandals and the Barbarians, but because of the moral rot at its very heart. That was the cause of the ‘Decline and Fall’ of the great Roman Empire, as is admitted by all. In other words, history substantiates the Apostle’s teaching." -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Only Way, Sermon on Ephesians 6:10,11.

Old White Guys talk about Art and Writing

So I just finished listening to the Panel Discussion with Piper, Taylor, Tripp, and Kauflin, from this years Desiring God 2008 National Conference called 'The Power of God and the Wonder of Words', and it was amazingly helpful. This morning I first listened to a message by Dan Taylor about how the idea of a story relates to the bible. And then in the Panel discussion they talked about depression, stories and literature, and art. I know I have been really confused on this subject before. Definitely worth checking it out. Dan Taylor's was incredibly worth the hour and twenty minutes.

The Specific Will of God for Our Lives.

Times of absolute turmoil assail our minds when we are on the cusp of the fork in the road for our lives. In knowing that we are, 'not our own, but we were bought at a price' (1 Cor 7:23) we must take into consideration the will of another, namely that of the Lord we profess. For if he is Lord, then he is to be obeyed (Luke 6:46). So we are under divine mandate to 'consider him who endured so much' (Heb 12:3) when we are at the crossroads of our lives.

I have struggled immensely in my life in trying to discern the specific will of God for me. Looking back to entire epochs of my life, under the urging of the Spirit, through the new illumination of the Word of God, I was cut unto repenting for years of serving him in arrogant ignorance. I realized that in the things concerning God I had been, '...brutish and ignorant;' (Ps 73:22) because I had used the word of God to justify my own actions. I was calling myself a Christian, but doing what I wanted, and defining 'ministry' in my own terms, not those of God(Matt 16:18). I picked and choose the passages of scripture that I fancied, like picking good and bad fruit from a tree, while ignoring Gods way of the Christian life (Rom 12:1,2; Eph 6:6; 1 Thes 4:3, 5:18). I did not, 'turn my feet to your testimonies;'(Ps 119:59) and thus fully and completely live for his glory.
This view upon the past valleys that I have trekked comes clear when I consider 'how' I have gone about trying to understand the will of God for my life. To this error I give the following advice by Martin Lloyd-Jones. If you struggle with trying to find out his will. If know nothing of the light and easy yoke of our so merciful savior, then heed the following words by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. They will be a comfort to your soul as God comes into the dark night of your life and illuminates His own worth.
Some would say, "We dont need the words of man, we have the words of God. Dont elevate this mans word to the position of God. And to this I respond: I dont elevate MLJ to this position in my heart, but I know that I am week and need the guidance of others to the path of Christ. I want to feast upon the wisdom of the ages so as to cease from wandering in the desert of my own ambition. Do what he says, not what I have done. Follow not yourself but the kind merciful shepherd. Follow him as he follows Christ.

“The one vital, all-important thing is to know the will of God. It is not as easy as it sometimes sounds. I was for over two years in a state of uncertainty and indecision before leaving medicine for the pulpit. But in the end it was made perfectly clear and mainly by means of things which God did.
These are the rules which I would advice you to observe:
1. Never speak to anyone about it. Don’t tell people what you are feeling and discuss it and ask for advice. That always leads to still more uncertainty and confusion. Make an absolute rule of this at all costs. Say nothing until you are absolutely certain, because we are all subject to self suggestion.
2. Do not even think about it and discuss the pros and cons with yourself. Once more this leads to auto suggestion and confusion.
3. In meetings, ect. do not start with the thought in your mind, ‘I wonder whether this is going to throw light on my questions or help in any way?’
4. In other words, you must not try to anticipate God’s leading. Believing as I do that God does ‘call’ very definitely, and in a distinct and definite doctrine of a call, and a vocation is distinct from ‘the need is the call’ idea, I believe that God will always make His will and His way plain and clear. With reverence, therefore I say leave it to God entirely as regards purpose, time and all else.
All you have to do is to tell God that you are content to do His will whatever it may be and, more, that you will rejoice to do His will. Surrender yourself, your life, your future entirely to Him and leave it at that…You must not go on asking God to show you His way. Leave it to Him and refuse to consider it until He makes it impossible for you not to do so.” –Murray, Iain, The Fight of Faith, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, p. 177.

"I am not advocating that people spend all their time reading, but there is a great need of more familiarity with the Scriptures and their teaching in order that we may be crushed to our knees with a sense of humility and be made to cry to God that He would visit us again." -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Fight of Faith, by Iain Murray, p.353.

"We are meant to talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ and to tell them he is the Son of God and that he has come into this world in order to save men and women... We are meant to tell men exactly why the world is as it is; we are meanet to tell them about sin in the human heart and that nobody and nothing can deal with it save the Son of God... We are ready to talk about our doctors, and to praise the man who cured us when so many failed; we talk about some business which is better than others, or about films and plays and actors and actresses, and a thousand and one other things. We are always glorifying people, the world is full of it, and the Christian is meant to be praising and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ" -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

“Dr. Lloyd-Jones told them… ‘While I am a great advocate of looking to the past, I would warn anybody against living in the past. The only justification for looking to the past is that we may learn great lessons from it and apply them.’ Arguing that, ‘the gospel is literally the only hope for the world today’, he showed how the gospel always makes a powerful effect upon the world after there has first been a distinct quickening in the life of the church. The modern church was bypassing her primary need. She was adopting ‘methods of big business and advertising’ instead of praying for a visitation of God. As the Belfast press reported his words: ‘The Church has never tried so hard to deal with the situation as she has tried in this century. We have never had so many organizations, we have never worked so hard, but we are not touching the situation.’ –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Fight of Faith, Iain Murray, p. 371

"There is nothing more tragic or short-sighted or lacking in insight than the assumption, made by so many, that the Church herself is all right and all she has to do is to evangelize the world outside." -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Awake oh postmodernist from your anti-historical sleep and Christ will shine on you.

So during WWII Lloyd-Jones had many foreigners there ffor the war. and so westminster had tons of visitors. when preaching on Christian fellowship about 20 years later, because by that time the congregation had no idea of this unique fellowship with all the foreigners he preached:

"There were troops, you remember, in this country; they came from Canada, from America, from Holland, from Norway-they came from almost every part of the world Here they were for a while in London and they would come to the service and at the end of the service they would come to see me. I had never seen them before but I knew them and they knew me. We had never spoken before but you recognize a brother, you know at once, you belong together immediately. It does no matter what the colour is, you are speaking the same language, you are bretheren!"

Let us love and live like this.

Some help in evangelism

Check out this link to this podcast by Piper. I did not know about it until I was shown it by Johnny and Angie Hansen. I have found it really useful. Enjoy this one, and consider how to engage your non believing friends.

Grace of Uncommited Homicide (1 Samuel 24)

Remember, about being disciplined, it is a work of grace. A work of God doing what we cannot do, the only thing we can, ‘do’ is just submit to His reality pervading our lives in a totally absolute sense. I realized today while reading 1 Sam 24 that David, in not murdering the Lords anointed, Saul, was submitting to a higher authority, and showing grace. He had realized that God had his plan, to anoint Saul as king, no matter the pains, murders, genocide that would occur because of it, God would get the glory. Even to the extent of great personal pain he would do anything so as not to directly oppose the Lords anointed. This is a hard thing because leaders in churches today are such like Saul. And yet if Christ is on the throne then we are to submit to him, and thus recognize, and respect where God has placed them. We don’t blindly do what they say, but we do no slander, or murder them, their witness, or their ministries in anyway. It is God who brings the fruit, who separates the wheat from the chaff, and who burns with unquenchable fire. Not us. We are held responsible for all we do before God.
One thing is that David, as a type of Christ gave grace to the totally undeserving Saul, he did not kill him, take advantage of him in weakness, he left him because he was Gods to deal with. So does not Christ deal so kindly with us that when we sin, when we are crusading upon our lives hoping to establish the flag of our own rights, the things we think we deserve, taking no prisoners, saying, ‘They deserved that!’ or ‘Im totally right, they are wrong’ or even, ‘I just feel I had to react that way.’ The clutch is that often we do this in the name of Christ, using scripture to justify ourselves. Christ could come in wrath, proving himself to be just and totally damning all our actions, because none are good. Even in our greatest moments it is only the Holy Spirit working out Christs love in us. None of the good things we do we can credit to ourselves because they are all fruits of faith in Christ, him working through us despite our sin (Gal 2:20). Christ however leads us kindly in this life, so slowly teaching us his will. We act, He gives mercy that we might praise him for his grace to continually be faithful to his own word about his love(Ps 103:17), and then to show his worth in our lives by then repenting and choosing to be drawn to his will rather than our own lusts(Phil 3:7,8; 1 Pet 4:1,2). So then as David showed grace to Saul not giving him his just due, and then preached the truth to Saul as a very accurate foreshadowing the ‘grace and truth’ that came through Christ. God preached to us through Christ both in example, and in word. As David showed his men in example to love your enemies, and in word to preach the value of trusting god above all else.

"Consider the nature of your calling, my brothers. The preacher brings to a fallen humanity the testimony of God centered on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, a work that by nature shatters all human self-sufficiency. To employ methods, in turn, that reflect the wizardry of men is to eviscerate the gospel of its own content. If God has supremely disclosed Himself in the cross, and if following Jesus Christ means dying daily, then to adopt a style of ministry that is triumphalistic, designed to impress, and calculated to win acclaim is a serious contradiction of the gospel; perhaps, even, anti-Christian." -Arturo Azurdia III, The Spurgeon Fellowship, Winter

Out of Control Grace

"Salvation is a blessing peculiar to the righteous. The ungodly do not, as a rule, believe that they have any need of salvation: therefore they do not desire it, or seek after it. The righteous know that they are born in a fallen state; they acknowledge that they have destroyed themselves by personal sin; and they are conscious of a thousand dangers which surround them. Hence they need salvation, and seek it, and find it. It is to them that salvation has come to make them righteous, for until they are saved they are unrighteous, even as others; but now that salvation has come to their house, they bring forth the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God their Saviour." -Charles Spurgeon

I have been thinking about 'Sovereign Grace' a lot lately. Have you realized that Grace is out of control? That it is free, and because it is free, you cant control it? How many times do we try to control our own salvation by defining the parameters by which it comes to us. Free and Sovereign means that you dont define how much you read your bible, you dont decide how many times you witness, or who or how you witness. Because its free, and not merited, God can ask anything of us. If we earned it by what we did(merited)then we could lever God into doing what we want. But because its free, we dont define the parameters, he does, and he says,

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. " -1 Peter 2:9,10

The entire idea behind the divine conjunction, but, is that you did not do it. God in his power did it. He accomplished your salvation. You were dead, and he made you alive, "raised us up with him" (Eph 2:6), You were weak, and he was strong, "while we were still weak Christ died" (Rom 5:6), and when you were ungodly (stop thinking you are a good person, or that anyone else is) he died for you, "Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom 5:6).

Praise God that his grace is out of control. Out of our control.

Learn from the Fathers

Why we need to study the Bible.

How to Outline a Book in the Bible

Justin Taylor, of the blog, Between Two Worlds, Put this link to how to outline a book in the bible. Super helpful. I have fumbled myself into all these things through failures, and here he saves all that effort and just helps us figure it out. Start and outline today! Doing this has been some of the richest gleanings I have ever had from reading the Bible.

Check out the ESV Study Bible as well.

"When our hearts throb with our own self-absorption, of course we are unable to be passionately committed to the person of Christ. It is essential that the cross and our memory of its power daily act as lance that pierces our hearts, allowing the self-centeredness of our sin to be drained. Only then can the cross change us and allow godliness and passion for Christ to grow within our hearts. Just like those early believers, once we have experienced it’s ongoing power in our own lives, we will never be able to forget it!" -Rich Gregory, from The Pulpit Magazine, September 10th, 2008

Quotes on Theology of Missions

Read this selection of quotes from a missions class at R.T.S. with Thabiti Anyabwile, its really great.

The Shack

If your not aware of "The Shack" its a new christian fiction about the modalism (oops i mean the trinity but not really).Seriously lets read something thats biblical....watch this:

Unstoppable Hope

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" -Romans 8:18

People under the shadow of incorruptible hope are those who are defined as unstoppable. Like a mighty behemoth they roll always increasing in momentum tearing through all obstacles that encumber their pilgrimage. With the mighty fortress of a heart, mind, ambitions, and then actions girded with the hope that the redemption of all things is near(Luke 21:28). And this hope, this hope of glory that we have been given the radical imputation of Christ righteousness, merited to our account freely, as a gift is the strength to endure this falable, fickle generation(Matt 24:12-14) and to preach with unbounded grace to all the greatest joy of all, to worship the one true God who brings unity into diversity. Let us unswervingly hold to our confession, the hope of Christ. And let despair die beneath the foot of the cross so as to have same fate as those whose walk ends with the guillotine.

Do we not gaze upon such hope that fueled the life of Christ and how he always hoped in the sufficiency of Scripture to deliver him from this world(Matt 4:10). And then Paul, herald of the eternal gospel and his unstoppable pilgrimage, sparked by the ethanol hope of Christ, "And thus I make it my ambition to preach Christ we he has not been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, as it is written, 'Those who have never been told of him will see(hope), and those who have never heard of him will believe(hope)'"(Romans 15:20,21). And last but not least the martyrs in the first three centuries of the church scream of radical purity, radical generosity, and radical hope as they laid next to decaying plague victims, abandoned by all who knew them for fear of rot forming within their own bones. They were to become victims themselves by the ethanol of hope steeled into their muscles by the gospel. But as the least of these are those saddled with disease, so many shall become first in the kingdom of heaven due to the galvanization of the gospel in the hearts of our forefathers in the faith. Forever immune to the rust of this world. Galvanize us oh great father by your love, "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5).

Have ye any hope to speak of today? Are the cares of this world binding themselves to you like leaches upon a cow in a rice field? Then come, awake, find hope, strength and fortitude back at the simple message of the gospel, "Rise your sins are forgiven." Let us hold fast unswervingly to this hope of the gospel and the unstoppable force that it is.Christus Victus

Oh, Sleeper (Album Review)

Oh, Sleeper

(The following is a CD review of Oh Sleeper, if you don’t like metalcore, feel free not to read.)

So I was talking to a friend at work and I realized that when I said, ‘I like metal’ and so did he, we were really talking about two different types of music. When he meant Pantera, I was talking about As I Lay Dying. This intense realization required me to sharpen the sword that I call my music expertise (right….) into the genre of what we call metalcore.

Embrace…Oh Sleeper. The first few seconds start slow and have you thinking, ‘What is this, I thought it was a metalcore album?” Then within the blinking of an eyelid harp like accurate and just as delicately sounding slice through what you thought was your brain and now realized was an overpowered emotional outburst like that of a car whose red line was hit 5 minutes ago, and your still driving. Fortunately for the car of “When I Am God” for Oh, Sleeper, it never overheats, but only grows in speed and thuds. You will be singing along within the first of the anthems that rip through your brain. They precisely put in the right place all of the breakdowns helping you to want for more. The vocals are very well placed and as far as hardcore goes, understandable which is nice. Break out the liner notes (do you young ones even know what that is?) and start following along for it is definitely worth it. The arrows of this armored march definitely blot out the sun.

The one thing that makes this album, and most other Christian hardcore (and by most I mean all, not unlike when Calvinist talk about their definition of the word ‘world’) is that they are constantly on the search to create something interesting, something unique. And on the line of the anti-historical cocaine that they inherited from the postmodern world, they sniff up only shadows of a false interpretation of biblical reality. They create a world very cleverly masked by amazing music that makes no accurate reference to the bible. They are fighting a bible that has more to do with Frank Perreti’s books about ‘so called spiritual reality’ that does not exist in the bible. They make great allusions, but to what? Have they no understanding of the historical context of the word bishop? Well, like most other Christian Hardcore/Metalcore bands their music is radically progressive and thoroughly entertaining, but about as empty of actual Christian witness as a shadow is the substance of a real person. Great music, but try again on your theology. Perhaps this is a little harsh of a criticism, but I say like Carl Trueman that the world needs a cold hearted cynical historian to look down the annals of history and critique things in the light of the continual vomit of history repeating itself.

However I would say this: that they gave the album a great shot. It does lift up the soul in a kind of honestly that has not been engrained in since the old days. Not a total loss, but what isn’t nowadays. If you buy it for metalcore, your stoked, but don’t try to get any good reasoning out of it.

Did I buy the album? Yes. Did I like it? Yes, will I recommend it? Yes. Will I pray for their theology to be biblical? Yes.

Oh abundant mercy I cry to you,
Oh gracious king make my heart anew,
Steadfast the shade for sorrow for sin,
Light dawns for all he claims as kin.

Dreadful phantoms swirl around,
Deep in my mind they are found,
Changing creations true culture,
To the parasite kingdoms opposite order.

Yet in simple submission, alas oh surrender,
Thy kingdom come is sins own murder,
Sins severed nerve never knows such a defeat,
Then at the cross where Gods covenant is complete.

Oh rain down precious unmerited favor,
Let us rest unfailingly in its sweet savor,
Darkest horrid winters cold night,
Ended forever by Christs second flight.

Praise be to the God who reigns,
High from heaven, even through our pains,
The heavenly orchestra brings praise,
To the God of the cross, the Ancient of days.

Lloyd-Jones, comments on his first sermon

In one of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones first major sermons entitled, "The Tragedy of Modern Wales” he was severely criticized for being overly harsh and untrue in his recommendation of the situation that had led in 20 years from a massive revival to utter licentiousness covering the small country in England. He was asked later to repeat the message at a conference for pastors and he followed up the criticisms by the following comments:

In prelude to this quote they accused him of being unfaithful to Wales due to the harsh nature of his criticism:
“It is because I love Wales passionately and devotedly, it is because I am proud of her glorious past and jealous for her future, that I talk about the tragedy of Modern Wales”

Could we not also all have the same jealous zeal for the purity of our own country found only the healing that only the gospel of penal substitutionary atonement of Christ can bring? Do we see this highly of the gospel that we see how lowly we are and the desperate need of repentance? How high is our view of God that we can accurately describe the horrors of men rejecting all that is most assuredly and highly majesctic, namely God in his holiness.

Following the complaint that he is ‘too negative’ he responds:

“It is a criticism which I can understand and with which I have a certain amount of sympathy. Indeed it appealed to me to this extent, that I hesitated and pondered over the question for some time before I decided or realized that it also was based on a fallacy. Now what is the fallacy? It is, that people who hold to the view no longer remember that conviction of sin is the essential prelude to salvation…It is not sufficient merely to tell a man that he is a sinner – you must prove it too him – give him examples and make him think, then there may be some hope for him.”

If you think that preachers are too harsh, hard, or rough, then you don’t understand the depth of sin (Isaiah 1:5,6) and its total corruption within your body (Matt 12:34). And second, you do not fully grasp the ministry of Gods word, which is that of sword which devastatingly pierces you and then radically brings out and exposes all that is within you. All your entrails come into full view before your eyes. The hidden and essential elements of your life become exposed and useless at the preaching of Gods word. He comes to cut down, destroy, create, rebuild, and lead home to glory (Hosea 6:1-3, 6; Hebrews 4:12,13).

And speaking then of the hope of the future he adds,

“But I regret so deeply that I have come here in the hope that I may kindle into flame a smoldering prejudice for truth in some young heart, and that as young people may we go onwards believing in our cause and fighting with resolution all the forces of sin and corruption that are arrayed against us, until we shall guaranteed that the Wales of the future will be worthy of the Wales of the past.”

Christians of America let us fight harder to kill sin, take greater risks of faith in light and sigh of the love of God, that we may be guaranteed a future in glory that will be worthy of the glory of the saints of the past.

Quotes taken from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "The First Forty Years" by Iain Murray, p.86-88.

"Many people come to listen to the gospel who have been brought up in a religious atmostphere, in religious homes, who have always gone to church and Sunday School, Never missed meetings; yet they may be unregenerate. They need the same salvation as the man who may have come to listen, who has never been inside a House of god before. He may have come out of some moral gutter; it does not matter. It is the same way, the same gospel for both, the both must come in the same way. Religiosity is of no value; morality does not count; nothing matters. We are all reduced to the same level because it is, "by faith", because it is, "by grace" '. D. Martyn LLoyd-Jones, speaking about the reality of his conversion close to the year of 1925. Quote taken from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "The First Forty Years" by Iain Murray, p.78.

i feel like i got saved today when i read this, when i contemplated Gods sovereign grace. this quote flys in the face of post-modern Christianity's worldly OCD unbiblical concern for the underprivileged. salvation is for all. thankfully, because if it was not, it would not of come to me. i am truly better than i deserve today.

"But I am commanded to stand content for it is God himself that performs the word of his own true messengers. His justice and order cannot be perverted" -John Knox

i was wholly encouraged to destroy my sin, and live for the building of the kingdom of God through the recalling of this blessed quote. how truly the echoes of the saints of old can revive the soul and bring into remembrance the deliverance from Egypt that we have been give. recall, meditate, hope, trust, go.

Gods Busy

a friend of mine who is a marine was trying to get me to understand his 'worldview' with this story. i hope it enlightens you.

If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!!!

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between
Assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and
Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist
And a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in He looked to the
Ceiling and flatly stated, 'God, if you are real, then I want you to
Knock me off this platform; I'll give you exactly 15 minutes.' The
Lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.

Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am God, I'm
Still waiting.' It got down to the last couple of minutes when the
Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked
Him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The
Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students
Were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine
And asked, 'What the heck is the matter with you?' 'Why did you do that?'
The Marine calmly replied, 'God was too busy today protecting America's
Soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like
An idiot, So, He sent me.'

Revival

a lot of you have heard about the revival in Lakewood with that tattooed guy named Bentley.

what are we to make of these things? is it real? is it pentacost? John Piper gives an accurate explanation of what really goes on here. please read and consider.

help with killing sin

John Owen said, “He who pleads with God for the remission of sin also pleads with his own heart to detest it.”

i got this from the 'pulpit magazine' link is on my blog.

"...the creeds and confessions of the church offer us points of continuity with the church of the past. As I noted above, there is no need to reinvent Christianity every Sunday, and in an anti-historical, future-oriented age like ours, what more counter-cultural move can we as Christians make than to self-consciously identify with so many brothers and sisters who have gone before? Furthermore, while Protestants take justifiable pride in the fact that every believer has the right to read the Scriptures and has direct access to God in Christ, we should still acknowledge that Christianity is first and foremost a corporate religion. God’s means of working in history has been the church; the contributions of individual Christians have been great, but these all pale in comparison with God’s great work in and through the church as a whole. This holds good for theology as for any other area. The insights of individual teachers and theologians over the centuries have been profound, but nothing quite matches the corporate wisdom of the godly when gathered together in the great councils and assemblies in the history of the church." -Carl Trueman, TableTalk (August 2008)

yup...closer to being a straightjacket presbyterian...that hurts....but its....just so right on! ahhhhhh.

“A world, and a church, which is hooked on novelty like some cultural equivalent of crack cocaine needs the cold, cynical eye of the historian to stand as a prophetic witness against it. And make no mistake, when it comes to my approach to trendy evangelical claims to epoch-making insights, beneath the cold, cynical exterior of this particular historian beats a heart of stone.”
-Carl Trueman, Minority Report (Scotland: Christian Focus, 2008), p. 26


this quote is so...how do you say...for me personally...just...devastatingly refreshing. ahhhhh.

almost on the floor laughing

so i found this new blog team(yes they have shirts, freeeking awesome!) and one of the members blog wrote about how rediculeeeeso the apple store is. you know the ones that look like your walking into the insane assylum in 12 monkeys, all white and crap. well...its freeking hilarious. seriously please read this.

hopefully...

...this will inspire/piss-off you to know what an why you believe it. this is awesome. make sure to find the emergent church motivational posters. ouch.

good blogs

i read two blogs today that were really awesome

the first one is by Stephen Nichols on Reformation21 about being selfish with the gospel. it really provoked me as it climaxed an illumination that had been working in my soul as of recent. Please read any of his books. they are like really, really, really, good.

the second one is by Gene Edward Veith about Islam and Christianity. He presupposes Islam ruling the European continent and what its effects would be. This volcano creates flowing magma of thankfulness to live in the west.

these blogs are both linked on my blog, they are awesome because they read a lot of dead guys.

Observations.

This is a continuing article from the vein of Mike Neglia who I have had the privilege of being connected to through the umbilical cord of Christ since 2005 (I think). Please read his latest blog to understand how frivoliciously pivotal our continual thought on everything is. Thanks.

My current observation which I am ridiculously indebted to one Buell Newman for this is that... V-Neck t-shirts are Polo shirts minus the respectability.

Let me explain how I came to this thought. I was meandering in my thoughts away from the usual current theological preoccupation with Deut 6:4(seriously who really understands that verse?) and found my brain residing in the pool of thought around how much I love V-Neck shirts. Then I realized that Polo shirts have the same neck gap when the buttons are not buttoned (who really buttons those anyway? they are impossible to get the shirt on if the buttons are in use).

For sake of argument let me define what I mean by Polo Shirt. 1) It is made of a heavier cloth which for the most part is more course, 2) 3 buttons descend from the top of the neck, and not all the way down the shirt, 3) it has a collar, if you could call it that which starts where the buttons end then proceeds to wrap around the neck in a fashion similar to a noose, 4) Usual camouflage consists of the a pastel array, 5) They most commonly reside in Yacht Clubs with their cousins, the infamous Deck Shoes.

So then why is a V-Neck a Polo without the respectability?
1) More lightweight and flexible cloth is used for the body piece making it much more useful for combat missions. And you are not respectable if you go on combat missions, you are tuff.
2) Permanent neck opening allows for easy removal of shirt in case of emergency.
3) It has no collar which immediately makes you working class, thus you are not an office worker. Collars are also a universal sign of respectability, if you don’t believe me try to get a job at a bank without one.
4) It has no buttons therefore it has no pomp, no show, no gaudy appeal and therefore no respectability.
5) They NEVER come in a pastel array with a man on a horse on the breast, and if they ever do, its a joke not something to be taken serious like your cricket score against the Scottish.
6) Nic wears them all the time with much honor and has full consent to authorize this opinion due to the distribution of the authority of Buell Newman.


For sake of argument let me define what I mean by Polo Shirt. 1) It is made of a heavier cloth which for the most part is more course, 2) 3 buttons descend from the top of the neck, and not all the way down the shirt, 3) it has a collar, if you could call it that which starts where the buttons end then proceeds to wrap around the neck in a fashion similar to a noose, 4) Usual camouflage consists of the a pastel array, 5)They most commonly reside in Yacht Clubs with their cousins, the infamous Deck Shoes.

So then why is a V-Neck a Polo without the respectability?
1) More lightweight and flexible cloth is used for the body piece making it much more useful for combat missions. And you are not respectable if you go on combat missions, you are tuff.
2) Permanent neck opening allows for easy removal of shirt in case of emergency.
3) It has no collar which immediately makes you working class, thus you are not a office worker. Collars are also a universal sign of respectability, if you dont believe me try to get a job at a bank without one.
4) It has no buttons therefore it has no pomp, no show, no gaudy appeal and therefore no respectability.
5) They NEVER come in a pastel array with a man on a horse on the breast, and if they ever do, its a joke not something to be taken serious like your cricket score against the Scottish.
6)Nic wears them all the time with much honor and has full consent to authorize this opinion due to the distribution of the authority of Buell Newman.

... And the Angel is Overcome.

Why always must we fight? What is so worth keeping on? Why not just give up. No fancy words here, just simply when life is hard, when bank accounts shrink, friends abandon you, despair creeps in and continually leeches your soul the substinence of a raisin, why keep on?

A man not so long ago, fought with a man in great vehemence in similar fashion to how we fight with life, with the curse of this world. One came from out of the night overtaking the other in the quiet fog of an ambush. The second came from dark hopelessness, he was separated from his family, certain that his brother would come with the sword, hoping to wet it on his neck. So in the midst of this the two men engage in hand to hand combat. Nothing makes men what they are like the rawness of struggling against another’s hands that are encircling your neck to strangle you to death. One not letting go of the other, the two are gripped in desperate struggle. Sweat pussing from their pores like blood from a scrape. Two fumbling shadows camouflage in and out of the grass as dusk lurks upon them with the silence of an alligator upon the Nile. The first man, seeing sun upon the horizon, realizing the end of the night is come, reaches down and with a mighty hand striking the hip from the other, crippling him, and voiding any future attack. Helpless the second man falls to the ground, all is lost except one thing, his grip upon the other man. Iron clad he will not let go. Hands gripped as if a curse upon a villain at the end of a fairy tail. From the canyon of a throat dry from the drought of exasperation emits the final word, “Bless me.” Dusk has ended, the sun has risen, leaving one broken, beaten, blessed man.

This is the situation that Jacob, “the deceiver” found himself in at the end of Genesis 32. The twilight of his life seemed to embark upon his prosperous reality as Esau his brother had come with over 400 men to do who knows what to him and his family. Knowing the danger Jacob splits up his family for safety so that his attendance would not attain their demise at the revelation of Esau. How would one feel, knowing that you are going to die within the night, alone without one to speak to for comfort. The cold must have been creeping into his bones with tremors of frigid temperature cutting his marrow and seizing his ambition and strength. And then he is attacked by another man, and they wrestle. But the thing that we must pay more attention to is that Jacob realized one important thing, that this man was greater than him, and he could not let him go, for as the author the Hebrews eternally inked, “It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior” or better yet, as Bono says, “Jacob wrestles with the angel, and the angel is overcome.”

Do you wrestle? Im not talking about physical wrestling, cast that image of Nacho Libre out of your head, however funny the movie really is. Im talking about in life, is it hard? Do you forget the promises of God. That he has ‘overcome the world’ (John 16:33), that you will ‘see God’ if you are pure in heart (Matt 5:8), that ‘all things’ are given to us for continually relationship with him (2 Pet 1:3)?

I think its because when God ambushes us with trials, we don’t fight, we give up, we don’t hold on, we let go because if we did hold fast, we would have to let go of our agenda, our schedule, not his agenda, his schedule, his kingdom, his will.

“Test everything; hold fast to what is good” (1 Thess 5:21)

I think this anecdote from the life of Jacob could be here to tell us in this pluralistic world that scorns any type of conflict, that its okay to fight, its okay to struggle. In fact as a follower of Christ, you are supposed to, and its usually how you grow. So take heart in that.

Jacob tested the strength and integrity of this man he wrestled with. Saw that he was greater than him, knew the promise of God, and held fast until the promised blessing came. Do you? Do we? Its worth it. The blessing of God is only given to those who hold fast. Is God good, then hold on we’re in for a wild ride, and like John G. Patton says, we’re “Immortal until our work is done.” Think about that next time you hesitate for sake of fear of man at obeying the Lord. Be strong, because he has made you that way, and has given all things for your good, especially the fist fights. Be like Jacob, don’t let go of God until you see the cold blooded reality of his blessings.

ahhhh...siblings

so i was at my fathers house yesterday because now two of the 4 lazz clan progeny are casualties of providence by a great right hand of God pulling the strings of heaven in the means of Job instead of Abraham. My little bro broke his ankle, trying to tre-flip a four stair and Iris destroyed her knee on a rail. So my little bro recently made the national volcom team, yes he is on the website, WOOT WOOT HOLLA HOLLA and decided to deck me out with volcom gear. Little did i know of the pride destroying alligator that was lurking beneath the surface of this supposed kindness. i gripped a sweet pair of pairs out of the air, tossed with the utmost accuracy by my non-team sports killing it little bro only to realize that they are a size 32. The alligator suddenly spring from beneath the muddy waters sinking its teath into my tan, smooth olive skin. Yes, my little brother is now bigger than me, i wear a size 30 in my pants.

i knew this day was coming, when the awesomness of my siblings would over take me in physical size, i just had no idea it would be 16 of July 2008.

Joelle my second little sister(lazz clan progeny #3) comes home in 10 days after being in Thailand for a year, and apparently she is fat and cant fit into her pants that she brought there. i am hoping that she will be so fat that she will only be able to fit into the Thai fisherman pants! oh man she might never hear the end of this one.

are you cool?

the emergent church, with their unhindered fascination with aestetics is trying to show the world that christianity is not old, stoic, rule centered, and unloving. Their trying to make christianity cool.

lets remember what Ravi says,

"Jesus did not come to make bad(religious or unloving) people good(cool), but the make dead men alive."

"wake up oh sleeper and rise from the dead." -a man who was sawed in half(from scalp to scrotum)

art for arts sake...caution...windy curves ahead

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" -Exodus 20:4

The common thing amongst our generation is that of rebellion and questioning authority. When confronted with sin the postmodern mind says, “What is your definition of sin?” And my mind when I was confronted with the Presbyterian view of the covenant, which is rough, rigid, serious, and strong like and iron beam holding up a skyscraper, I was a bit disillusioned, asking, “Why so serious? Why that definition of the law?” They take the law very seriously, like so serious that moms make sure there are no images in the house of anything representing Christ because that would break one of the ten commandments. They desire to obey him sincerely and accurately and in that they can seem legalistic, doing the right thing because it’s the right thing. Morality for the sake of good morality.

So I was in the category of thinking that the Presbyterian view of the law is, “A little strict, I mean come on. Wheres the grace? Just chill, don you know your turning people off to the gospel by being so legalistic?” I thought they were too stiff, taking things way to seriously, until yesterday. Yesterday the stone fell upon me and broke me to pieces.

I was in my local tattoo shop hanging out with my friend who works there, and I was scanning the walls taking in all the art. Then I realized a couple of things, First, there was a lot of vulgar racy art. Second, there was a lot of pictures of Christ mostly from catholic origin. Third, they all misrepresented Christ, his perfect sinless life, his perfect sacrifice and the anchor of our souls, his resurrection. Fourth, this misrepresentation was a mockery to God.

The picture that set this snowball in motion was picturing a catholic Christ with the sacred heart and peace sign fingers, then next to it was praying hands to a glorified virgin Mary, asking for the forgiveness of sin. It was art that was a graven image, because it belittled the work of Christ, making him only a cartoon, a fairy tale, a myth of the old world. The images were worshipped by those in the tattoo shop because that is what they spend the most time looking to, to be better at art, for their own sake, for their own glory, not Gods. They were making graven images. The images suppress God and his eternal attributes because they misrepresent him, they box him in. Its like talking crap on someone, when it aint true. Those images were talking crap on Christ and belittling his work. Graven images mock him because they suppress him. The image did not listen to the law of God but to the culture of man. Gods law is his culture it is his boast, it is his glory, especially and explicitly when Christ fulfills it (Matt 5:17, Rom 8:3,4).

God needs nothing to show his power, on the entire universe, he is not served by human hands, only his perfect triune being in which he is perfectly content.

Im realizing that my slackness in observing the law, is leading to a slack in giving glory to God. I need to be way more careful in what and how I think about God and what that leads me to do.

Im not against art or culture, im not against tattoos, but I am against idolatry.

One Young Consistent Lawyer

The following article is a review of the book, "The Expository Genius of John Calvin" by Stephen Lawson.

I sometimes meander my thoughts along the lines of why things are the way they are. For example, what puts the buzz in coffee, or the vibrancy in shotgun blasts, or better yet what is the bang in a NOS system in a rice rocket? These thoughts can be summarized by one question, what in essence gives things their power? Because we know that some things are more effective than others. But why?

So what makes one preacher better than another? Obviously William Farrell knew something of this sort, when he gripped Calvin by the terror of God with his witch crooked finger one winter night in Geneva. The young author of The Institutes was only passing through yet this night, solidified a young John Calvin to come up from the gave of the study and herald the shattering truth of Christ to the common people in the crisp, cold Genevan air. To labor like Christ in laying down his life for the sheep of the reformation who were wandering, bruised, beaten, desperate for truth in a spiritual famine. This famine was ended like Joseph opening up grain stores in Egypt when Calvin took the pulpit, not only for that generation so far removed, but for ever preceding one that would join in the crystal clear, God centered, Christ exalting exposition of Gods word through the man John Calvin. So then what put the buzz, vibrancy, or bang in the life of John Calvin and his preaching? Or why is Calvin better than, lets say, Joel Olsteen? This is the question that Steve Lawson takes up in his book, The Expository Genius of John Calvin. Why John and not Joel.

What is the book about? well, lets let him tell us because, I simply cant say it any better, “the aim of this book is to raise the bar for a new generation of expositors. The method is to see what a commitment to biblical preaching looks like by examining the work of a man who was sold out to this sacred duty” (p xiv).

To be about the book. Line by line. Verse by verse.

So this book sets sail with 32 distinctives of Calvin's preaching. These came from the man whom the German reformer Philip Melanchthon labeled as simply, “’the theologian,” which was, as Lawson says, “an indication of the respect Calvin was accorded for his abilities as an interpreter of Scripture” (p 3). Here we see that the new world of the reformation was looking to this man as the theological leader, a mind so rigorously disciplined through scholastic training to attack the text, and bring forth the truth. And how can this effect us? How does the past break into our present? Let us continue with a personal thought.

This book was exceedingly exciting to read because of the viscous content therein. Not because it was a new experience to add to my globtrotting, or an intellectual heroin from which I could selfishly enjoy, or even just to read it as a slight social commentary for future discussion at the coffee shop. It was exciting because it was a swift kick in the rear, to stand up, be strong, be biblical, and to do it for the long haul. This message is desperately needed in for young men in our time whose high octane emotion will only be corralled by the consistency of Gods word. We are truly saplings in he world of redwoods when we consider the men of the past on whose shoulders we so truly ride upon. Yes even America is still profiting from the thoughts of John Calvin, the Frenchman, and we need to pay our thanks.

This book, as a whole, inspires me not to be a man of my culture, not to be a man of history, not to be a man dedicated to my work or my family foremost, but simply to be a man of the book, a man dedicated in season and out of season to the text. For as Thabiti Anyabwile said to R.C. Sproul before his preaching, “Bring the book” so Calvin brought the book through his entire ministry at Geneva.

The book is not long, but it makes up for it in intensity, if I might just share a few quotes to inspire you to read it:

“The church is always looking for better methods in order to reach the world. But God is looking for better men who will devote themselves to His biblically mandated method for advancing His kingdom, namely, preaching—and not just any kind of preaching, but
expository preaching” (p 18,19).

“Calvin rises to expound the biblical text. Hearts are astounded; souls are arrested. Under the conviction and challenge of his expository preaching, the Huguenots (who were slaughtered by the thousands in France by the Catholics in the 16th century) are galvanized in their faith” (p 23).

“This former Roman Catholic bastion is now a fortress of biblical truth. It has become a house of Reformed worship—a place where the exposition of Scripture is preeminent” (p 22).

Lawsons writing is incredible, so fluid and free, clear, concise, bringing out all of the greatness of our God and his work of grace in this man.. It is as if we were walking into the cathedral in Geneva, smelling the cold stone and hard pews, but warmed by the stupendous preaching we are translated to this world by Steve Lawson, and then brought to the realities of our own with a strength to change it and the convictions like that of structural steel organized and engineered, will not bend in submission to the worlds demands.

Let us then as men and women of the book be galvanized in our faith, able to withstand any rust of sin this world can bring, through any season.

High Hopes Deferred by High Octane Emotion

What excites you? How does your blood pump faster? What makes adrenalin seep out of the middle of your back with every breath? What brings forth emotion? Does being involved in God’s kingdom just bring shivers to your bones with the coming ambition of seeing the gospel being realized in some ones eyes? How about helping the poor? Going to ‘do’ something for the gospel? Well, I get excited about those things. And if you do too, then keep reading.

Being myself singularly prone to wide varieties of ‘things to be done for the kingdom,’ I see my ambition coupled with the catalyst of zeal. We have all had those bursts of emotion or intolerance leading to action, but eventually these fizzle out like the end of a candle This then leading to trying to do everything and then accomplishing nothing. This flaw most prominently gets blamed on my Italian pedigree and the geography of my adolescence instead of the deceitfulness of my indwelling sin. I see myself vacillating like the waves in a bathtub that I get into. I control them by my movements. But eventually they get out of control, bouncing off the walls and slamming into each other, causing more chaos than it does good. And so my life is similar because I try to control the ministry I get into. I try and control the works that I do by being excited about them, but eventually it becomes too much for me because emotion does not last. But a committed labor of unconditional love knows no fatigue. Fatigue ensues because I can’t be committed to a sole issue for a long time because I am only committed on an emotional level, not the level of the will. It’s always, ‘lets go volunteer at the homeless shelter!’ for one day, or ‘Lets go on a mission trip!’ for a week instead of a lifetime. See the distinction. One is only doing works, the other is following Christ, because his entire life was on mission. He was called out of heaven from the virgin birth to the ascension. He had one purpose, not his will, but the Father’s. It takes years to build friendships, a lifetime to build trust, and hours of prayer to be submitted to God, and thus involved in his kingdom.

This is a recurring pattern in my life: that when I get excited about something it only lasts for about the time of a bath. But by contrast, in the Bible we see a lasting consistency in the fathers of our faith through the continual obedience to God’s word. The halls of faith are lined with a work of faith, a labor of love, and steadfastness of hope (1 Thes 1:3), they hold to it, and are kept in it. Case in point: Moses. In Hebrews 11:23-28 we see about 80 years covered, and it was all the same faith, continually for the same work, the salvation of Israel. Ouch. Breathe. We have been given the same faith. Go.

I lack the commitment to anything for a long period of time to consistently follow things to the end, especially if it hurts or gets in the way of my schedule. I am not like the godly man in Psalm 15:4 who “swears to his own hurt.” He takes an oath so strong that even when the double edge of that sword pierces his own agenda he keeps to it. Being committed is not a signature at a car dealer forcing you into exorbitant interest with menacing threats of bad credit if you don’t pay. But a vow, an oath, simply, an ‘I’ll cover you bro’ or, ‘yeah man I got you’ and following it out to the end, no matter the cost, no matter the cell phone minutes or gas wasted. But being there, without complaint. Thinking of others instead of yourself, as Christ thought of our great insult and drank his cup, willingly. Are you willing to drink the same? Even if they insult you? How about if they rob your house, steal your ipod, or steal your identity?

We followers of Christ here in the States, who see the truth, who labor to defend his righteousness, and love and hold onto the gospel often wonder why the world is so blind to the reality of Christ. Why are they so ignorant of his graciousness, and so headlong into their sin, calling Christians hypocrites as they plummet down the rabbit hole of idolatry. Could this chasm between our understanding of Christ and their view of the church be because we as believers don’t keep our word? We don’t follow through with what we say? And we don’t really know how to be committed friends to both people in the world and in the body of Christ?

I see this in my own life and in others so clearly in this single anecdote. I have more than a few Christian friends who when I call them don’t call me back. When I leave messages for them to call me back ASAP, they wait a week. And when they call me out of the blue, they don’t leave messages, because, well, I guess they don’t have time to leave a message for me. And when you don’t have time for something, it’s not a priority to you, and if something is not a priority for you, you don’t care about it. And thus in this situation they don’t care about people, because they don’t take the time for them.


This is one solitary symptom, but not a lynchpin, showing us how deep sin really goes. We see what Christ is talking about in Matt 5:47, “And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” We tend to think, ‘yeah, the world only does that, I go out of my way to talk to people.” To which I respond: when was the last time any of us invited even one of our closer non-Christian to a friend’s Bible study or church? When was the last time you helped someone move? When was the last time you reorganized your agenda to share the gospel? When did you last consider what pleases God? How many orphans and widows have you been taking care of? Or better yet, what did you last buy for yourself and how does that help you reflect the glory of God? Did you keep all your promises or did you slip out of them because something more fun came up? It’s not that the opportunities are not there, it’s that we don’t have flexible agendas and schedules to serve others. Its that we don’t care about the schedule of the wind, the schedule of the spirit, which only God knows where it goes.

But the point is this: we don’t even greet our own brothers. We don’t take the time to leave them messages using technology for the glory of God. We wait to call people, even our Christian friends. So the lack of care, concern, and value of even the body of Christ shows that the world does not know who we serve because we don’t love each other. Because we don’t take the time to be involved in each others lives.

It seems that this gas tank of emotion runs dry quickly because it was pushed to redline RPM’s too quickly and then overheated because of over commitment. The redline danger I have found here is in too much vacillation and lack of long term commitment, varied and false expectations leading to a false hope for the future, and an always present discontentment by always trying to be on the greener side of the grass.

I see us in danger of wanting to do so much in for the future of this world that we forget the ‘grace of the now.’ That we are invincible in the moment and put exactly where we are by the great architect of the universe to work by his love for his glory. Do not be dismayed by how seemingly tedious and boring the current job or task at hand. God is watching with intricate design, love, and care at all things that are happening (Prov 15:3). Be about the grace of the now: You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” (Tit 2:1). This is the gospel of the now: “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). The breathing, living God is with you.

its all in the blood

for those of you who dont know i am 1 of 4 children and my little brother and sister #1 kill it at snoboarding like Van Gogh at art. dont believe me? check out my little bro winning like 5K in the most prominent snowboard am rail jam of the year and my little sis taking 2nd. the proof is in the pudding.

they rock.

i love em so much!

this is how serious religion is.

unreal, or maybe, so real.

substitution is no joke.

desperation...

“And what you think your good enough? Is that it? You’re hip enough? Cool enough? Creative enough? Smart enough? Oh you read Kellers book that came out on the 14^th, okay. Oh, you’ve been online; you’ve read everything you can get your hands on? Alright. Listen, there is a power that you don’t get to control, you just get to submit to it. And the ones who are truly going to missionally engage this culture are those who understand the might and sheer power of the glory of God in Christ. And find there spirits overwhelmed to the point of prayer and the pursuit of him, to see his weight established in the hearts of those around him.” –Matt Chandler, Vision of a Church Planter, preached at ‘Text and Context’ in February 2008 at Mars Hill Church Seattle.

i confess, that i dont pray enough, im not broken enough because my schedule takes priyority over preaching the gospel.

what is hell nic? do you believe it? then why are you so afraid, or more modern, to busy to talk to people who have NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL AND WILL SPEND AND ENTIRE ETERNITY IN SUFFERING!

God help us to get beyond our privatized schedule and onto his glory in the preached word.

oh....and all you reformed folk, lets stop talking about double predestination, and start watching it happen (that means go share the love of Christ in the gospel with someone you have never met).

...and pray that i would as well, give us courage LORD.

we all need a little more boar in our yard...

"Chrirst desires to have our hearts so free and divested(of our own righteousness[good things you do that you talk about] and wisdom) that for our sins we fear no denial of grace and for our virtue (good skills you have) we seek no glory and vain satisfaction." -Martin Luther, Romans, p29.

its funny how you find the key to your spiritual life after you have banged into the door so many times it has red stains in it.

this quote, sets us free to live for the Lord. That serving the Lord is not some worrysome tumor on our brain constantly nagging, 'is it sin? i dont know? i cant watch movies! thats bad.' which eventually leads to suffocation and life staring into a corner. Nor is it a life so free that if you put up our lives to the lives of others in the world that there is no contrast but only blended grey.

But only here, knowing that Christ is sufficient to keep us, and forgive us, to draw us back, to continually(that means continuing, not giving up) guide us because his grace allows us to. And if anything is accomplished, its because of God.

i need this humility and God centered view of reality.

be free, remember the cross, and take up yours, for your joy, and his glory.






i started blogging again because of mike neglia, he is amazing. check him out, its way worth it.

"...doctrines are like lenses or prisms that make it possible to see things in a new way. We need to look at the world through a doctrinal framework, rather than allow ourselves to become fixated on those doctrines themselves...Herberts poem(Quoted earlier) challenges us to avoid being mere theological mechanics, and instead to open our eyes to the new world of ideas that theology makes possible." -Alister Mcgrath, Creation, p.27.

As a child who is always playing on the railroad tracks so I am in constant danger of studying the theology, nature, culture, and even the bible as means in themselves. Instead of looking, observing, and analyzing them to see more the glory of God in the dispersion of his attributes to the giving of thanks for his common grace and mercy. This inturn would inevitably lead to a richer, fuller, more complete worship of him, to the praise of the manifestation of his glory. Let us look upon this world and glory in Him.

"All creatures of this tangible world lead the soul of the wise and contemplative person to the eternal God, since they are his shadows, echoes and pictures...They are set before us for the sake of our knowing God, and are divinely given signs. For every creature is by its very nature a kind of portrayal and likeness of that eternal Wisdom" -Bonaventure (1217-74)