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Is Church Membership Biblical?
1 day ago
Friday, May 15, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Whats the church for?
You do not have to be a Christian very long to ask yourself, ‘What is the church for?’ Some would say that it is the backbone of the morality of this country. Others would say that the church is here to restore culture. Others think that it is ‘the’ culture, as the swarms of homeschoolers hover around Moscow Idahoe. However Machen says a little different:
“The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age. It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that the span of human life—nay, all the length of human history—is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious holy living God, Creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself in his Word and offered us communion with himself through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whosoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument of bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth—nay, all the wonders of the starry heavens—are as the dust of the street.”(J. Gresham Machen, "The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age," The Presbyterian Guardian 36:1 (January 1967), 13.)
The mission of the church here is much different, much more consistent. Instead of nipping always at the heals of amorphous culture, the pillar must bear the bloody witness of the ever luminous glory of the risen Christ through its marks. These being more worthy than any other treasure.
Let us be reminded of this, strengthened, renewed, and reminded of what we have been given as the church of Christ. This infinite privilege is here to escort us unto bliss.
“The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age. It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that the span of human life—nay, all the length of human history—is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious holy living God, Creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself in his Word and offered us communion with himself through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whosoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument of bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth—nay, all the wonders of the starry heavens—are as the dust of the street.”(J. Gresham Machen, "The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age," The Presbyterian Guardian 36:1 (January 1967), 13.)
The mission of the church here is much different, much more consistent. Instead of nipping always at the heals of amorphous culture, the pillar must bear the bloody witness of the ever luminous glory of the risen Christ through its marks. These being more worthy than any other treasure.
Let us be reminded of this, strengthened, renewed, and reminded of what we have been given as the church of Christ. This infinite privilege is here to escort us unto bliss.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Calvin on the Proper View of This World
On Matthew 5:11-12:
“This is the sense of Jesus’ teaching in this passage. To be rich, to be glad, to be satisfied is to be drunk on prosperity and to live the life of senseless beasts. If we are comfortably off, it is not so that we may cover ourselves with gold and silver, or boast of owning fields and meadows, alike those whose goal in life is to have everything they want. Those kinds of people are as good as dead: they bury themselves in their perishable possessions and are incapable of seeing heaven above. As for us, we must take heed to ourselves lest the Son of God condemn us with his own lips: only by looking to him for continual blessing can we escape the misfortune promised here. We are taught, then, to pass through this world as strangers, convinced, as St Paul says, that those who have should be as those who have not. No one would deny that those who have plenty to live on meet many more temptations and run more risk of falling. They need, therefore, to turn constantly to God, and to learn that his gifts are meant to draw them closer t him, to quicked their love and to encourage their obedience. The good things they receive must never bewitch them to point that they become captives of this world.” –John Calvin, Sermons On The Beatitudes p. 79, 80.
A few things like light to a newborn babe strike us:
1)That this world is constantly trying to lay hold upon us much like an octopus. Its tentacles are many, they come from the job, the friends, and even from inside the marketed church as people covet everything from books to fiancé’s. The subtly with which octopi stalk their enemies is no less encompassing then the night drawn up by the dusk. It is coming unless we with wide eyed sober defense resist and run to the city upon a hill, the cross of Christ.
2) We must be as strangers and aliens. As those who immigrate to this country know enough of the language to get by, but none of the slang so let us be so unfamiliar with this world and its ways that the slang of sin is never upon our lips, ‘innocent as doves’ and yet the beauties of heaven always sweetly sweeping silently into our conversations as snakes through the grass. This then will spark the joy of heaven, the sincerity of evil and sin, and the hope of the cross in others lives and God works through the preaching of his word. Marvelously wrapped up in light he will fold this world unto himself in the blissful cosmic redemption. Hope is real.
3)Obedience is paramount upon our being. That with our conversion we would obey our Lord. The duty given by grace induced imperatives shines light upon the path to the joy in times of midnight desperation. And in times of abundance the joy guides us along to the path of consistent, prayerful, duty. Let us do this and live, ‘those who live by the spirit fulfill the law’ (Romans 8:3,4).
“This is the sense of Jesus’ teaching in this passage. To be rich, to be glad, to be satisfied is to be drunk on prosperity and to live the life of senseless beasts. If we are comfortably off, it is not so that we may cover ourselves with gold and silver, or boast of owning fields and meadows, alike those whose goal in life is to have everything they want. Those kinds of people are as good as dead: they bury themselves in their perishable possessions and are incapable of seeing heaven above. As for us, we must take heed to ourselves lest the Son of God condemn us with his own lips: only by looking to him for continual blessing can we escape the misfortune promised here. We are taught, then, to pass through this world as strangers, convinced, as St Paul says, that those who have should be as those who have not. No one would deny that those who have plenty to live on meet many more temptations and run more risk of falling. They need, therefore, to turn constantly to God, and to learn that his gifts are meant to draw them closer t him, to quicked their love and to encourage their obedience. The good things they receive must never bewitch them to point that they become captives of this world.” –John Calvin, Sermons On The Beatitudes p. 79, 80.
A few things like light to a newborn babe strike us:
1)That this world is constantly trying to lay hold upon us much like an octopus. Its tentacles are many, they come from the job, the friends, and even from inside the marketed church as people covet everything from books to fiancé’s. The subtly with which octopi stalk their enemies is no less encompassing then the night drawn up by the dusk. It is coming unless we with wide eyed sober defense resist and run to the city upon a hill, the cross of Christ.
2) We must be as strangers and aliens. As those who immigrate to this country know enough of the language to get by, but none of the slang so let us be so unfamiliar with this world and its ways that the slang of sin is never upon our lips, ‘innocent as doves’ and yet the beauties of heaven always sweetly sweeping silently into our conversations as snakes through the grass. This then will spark the joy of heaven, the sincerity of evil and sin, and the hope of the cross in others lives and God works through the preaching of his word. Marvelously wrapped up in light he will fold this world unto himself in the blissful cosmic redemption. Hope is real.
3)Obedience is paramount upon our being. That with our conversion we would obey our Lord. The duty given by grace induced imperatives shines light upon the path to the joy in times of midnight desperation. And in times of abundance the joy guides us along to the path of consistent, prayerful, duty. Let us do this and live, ‘those who live by the spirit fulfill the law’ (Romans 8:3,4).
Thursday, April 23, 2009
“But not only are my sins forgiven, I know that I am in this new relationship. I am not only forgiven, I have become a child of god, even as I am; He has adopted me into His family. And if you do not feel that you are happy because of that, then you do not know anything about Christianity. When some great honour comes to you you are full of rejoicing , and you tell everybody, do you not? So then, if you have really believed that in Christ you are in the family of God, you must tell the whole world about it and you must be filled with rejoicing. You are a child of God, you have His Spirit in you- ‘joy in the Holy Ghost.’” -Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Kingdom of God p. 84
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
“ ‘Peace’---‘righteousness and peace’. It follows inevitably, does it not? How can people be at peace when they are worried about their souls? How can they have peace when they know they are damned? Or when they are afraid of death because they know that it is followed by judgment? How can men and women have peace when they are striving, only to find how unworthy they are? It is impossible. But the moment they believe this blessed truth of the kingdom of God and in Christ as God’s way of righteousness, then everything is changed immediately. ‘being justified by faith, we have peace with God.’ It is an end of all my futile struggles.” -Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Kingdom of God p.81
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