Of Resolutions and Gopel

Over at Pressing Save, Carolyn Weber has a great post on resolutions and the gospel. Here is an excerpt:

God's Resolution for each of us is not just for a new year, but a New Life.

Because He fulfilled His resolution with His own flesh and blood. Because His Word is restorative beyond all our understanding – a Love that falls beyond the margins of our lists. The movement from womb to tomb, conception to epiphany, death to resurrection … quite the ambitious list. And yet everything on it has been crossed off (if you pardon the pun) and burned in our hearts, even the most doubting ones, for us to see.

Read the whole thing here.

Peter Cockrell, at Already Not Yet, touches upon the gospel as well:


C.H. Spurgeon:

We ought not, as men in Christ Jesus, to be carried away by a childish love of novelty, for we worship a God who is ever the same, and of whose years there is no end. In some matters “the old is better.” There are certain things which are already so truly new, that to change them for anything else would be to lose old gold for new dross.

The old, old gospel is the newest thing in the world; in its very essence it is for ever good news. In the things of God the old is ever new, and if any man brings forward that which seems to be new doctrine and new truth, it is soon perceived that the new dogma is only worn-out heresy dexterously repaired, and the discovery in theology is the digging up of a carcase of error which had better have been left to rot in oblivion.

In the great matter of truth and godliness, we may safely say, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
(HT: Trevin Wax)

The importance of church history

Why understanding church history is important

Andy Naselli pens 8 very good reasons for reading church history:

I often tell people that I majored in history in college because I like stories. I still like stories, but I have pursued an ongoing study of church history because I think it makes me a better Christian and a better pastor. Here are some reasons I think you should read church history, too.

1. Theological
Millard Erickson is right, “History is theology’s laboratory, in which it can assess the ideas that it espouses or considers espousing.” (Christian Theology, 28). Church history shows us our theological blind spots, reminds us of crucial topics our era ignores, provides confessional guiderails, and gives us the writings of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Edwards–among others.

2. Inspirational
If you are like me, ministry is often hard work and the fruit sometimes seems slow growing. Reading stories of God’s work in revivals and awakenings stretches my faith and rouses me to pray bigger prayers. Also, reading about the fruits of long-term, faithful preaching and prayer helps keep me steadfast.

3. Ecclesiological  
Pragmatic approaches to “doing church” are so common today one might think that this is the way it has always been. Reading the Reformers, the Puritans, and others reveals they asked more than just, “What works?”  They thought the Bible teaches what the church is and what it should do.  Historical discussions of the nature and marks of a true church challenge the way we think about the church in a way the latest church growth manual simply cannot.

4. Missiological
We tend to be locally minded and even ethnocentric. Most of us envision a ministry in a place like the one we grew up in among a people that look like us. Learning what God has done to spread the Gospel over the past 2000 years helps broaden our vision.

5. Hermeneutical
Christians have not been using the same hermeneutics book for the past 2,000 years. We are now able to see some of the interpretive errors of earlier eras (for example, over-allegorizing), and try to avoid some of their pitfalls. However, we sometimes forget that our present cultural and intellectual context likely shapes our own biblical interpretation in unhelpful ways. Commentaries and sermons from other eras help reveal some of the errors in our own methods of interpreting God’s word.

6. Reformational
Jesus tells the church in Ephesus, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” (Rev 2:5). The problem is that we often don’t “remember.” We don’t realize we have fallen because we never look back to a time when the church was more faithful in certain ways. Church history can help us realize our need for reform and call us back to faithfulness.

7. Correctional
Studying church history shows us how small deviations from biblical truth play out over time. It is helpful to know if you or someone in your church is holding a deviant or unbalanced doctrine before it infects your entire theology. Church history is one tool that will help you do so.

8. Doxological
The sheer fact of believers across centuries and continents worshiping God reminds us that our Lord is over all and everywhere. A poem scratched out by a persecuted Christian in prison, or the testimony of a missionary’s communion with Christ as he faced imminent martyrdom, or the story of whole peoples in Burma coming to Christ, all point to the God who alone can satisfy every human heart.

HT: Already Not Yet

Let the Good News sink in

Gospel transformation

“The gospel transforms us in heart, mind, will, and actions precisely because it is not itself a message about our transformation. Nothing that I am or that I feel, choose, or do qualifies as Good News. On my best days, my experience of transformation is weak, but the gospel is an announcement of a certain state of affairs that exists because of something in God, not something in me; something that God has done, not something that I have done; the love in God’s heart which he has shown in his Son, not the love in my heart that I exhibit in my relationships. Precisely as the Good News of a completed, sufficient, and perfect work of God in Christ accomplished for me and outside of me in history, the gospel is ‘the power of God unto salvation’ not only at the beginning but throughout the Christian life. In fact, our sanctification is simply a lifelong process of letting that Good News sink in and responding appropriately; becoming the people whom God says that we already are in Christ.”
— Michael Horton
The Gospel-Driven Life  (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2009), 77

(HT: Already Not Yet via  Of First Importance)

Decision making

Good stuff from John Bloom via Peter Cockrell:

When God’s Will Isn’t Clear

Wonderfully helpful, from John Bloom:

Most of the decisions you will make today aren’t explicitly addressed in the Bible. Questions like, should I eat out today? What should I wear? Should I respond to this instance of my child’s sin with correction or forbearance? Should I shop today or tomorrow? Should I check my email again?

The Bible doesn’t even give specific guidance on huge, life-shaping decisions like should I marry this person? Should I give more or save for retirement? Should we adopt a child? Should I pursue a different vocation? Should we homeschool? Should I pursue chemo or try an alternative cancer treatment? Should we buy this home or a less expensive one? Which college should I attend? Is it time to put my elderly parent in a nursing home? Should I go to the mission field? Should I separate from my spouse while we work on these very painful issues?

These kinds of decisions tend to have multiple acceptable options within the scope of God’s revealed moral will, his commandments. Yet he cares deeply about the details and course of our lives. So what guidance does he give to help us navigate ambiguous decisions? He says,

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).

What does this mean? It means that God has a design in the difficulty of discerning. The motives and affections of our hearts, or “renewed minds,” are more clearly revealed in such decision making.

If God made more things explicit, we would tend to focus more on what we do rather than what we love. Like Pharisees, we would tend to whitewash our tombs with the appearance of obedience — to impress others — rather than deal with the dead bones of our self-righteous pride.

But in decisions that require discernment, the wheat is distinguished from the tares. We make such decisions based on what we really love. If deep down we love the world, this will become apparent in the pattern of decisions that we make — we will conform to this world.

But if we really love Jesus we will increasingly love what he loves — we will be transformed by renewed minds. And our love for him and his kingdom will be revealed in the pattern of small and large decisions that we make.

I say “pattern of decisions” because all of us sin and make mistakes. But conformity to the world or to Jesus is most clearly seen in the pattern of decisions we make over time.

That’s why God makes us wrestle. He wants us to mature and have our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

The wonderful thing to remember in all of our decisions is that Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He laid down his life for us so that all of our sins (including every sinful or defective decision) are covered. He will never leave or forsake us. He has a staff long enough to pull us out of every hole and a rod to guide us back when we stray.

And someday we will see that it really was him leading us through the confusing terrain of difficult decisions.

Glorify God at Work

From Already Not Yet:

12 Ways to Glorify God at Work

Josh Etter writes:

Mark Twain once said, “Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.” Although there may be days when we feel like he got it right, we know God has ordained work as a stewardship of his created world (Genesis 1:28; 2:15). He has designed work for his glory and our good. But how might we glorify God at work? This list is not exhaustive, but here’s at least 12 ways —

1. Believe that all legitimate work is holy or unholy before God based on our faith, not the nature of the work itself.

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

2. Be just and honest in all your dealings with money.

A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight (Proverbs 11:1)

3. Be prayerfully dependent upon God, pouring contempt on self-sufficiency.

Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain (Psalms 127:1).

4. Use the wages earned by your work to provide for and bless others.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1Timothy 5:8).

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need (Ephesians 4:28).

5. Grow in our skill-set, work hard, and strive for excellence.

Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men (Proverbs 22:29).

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty (Proverbs 14:23).

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

6. Exemplify love for your neighbor in how you interact with your colleagues.

Let all that you do be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14).

7. Plan ahead and sincerely preface future tasks with “if God wills.”

Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house (Proverbs 24:27).

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13-15)

8. Speak the gospel to your colleagues.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).

9. Work as unto the Lord and as unto men.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24).

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust (1 Peter 2:18 ).

10. Focus on the work you’ve been given

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty (Proverbs 28:19).

11. Speak words of grace.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29)

12. Rest in your justification by faith alone in Christ alone.

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16).

Two great posts at Already Not Yet

Already Not Yet is a great blog by Peter Cockrell. I came across these two posts there.

Theology Destroys Small Thoughts Of God

From Tullian Tchividjian:

I love these lines from Mike Horton’s excellent little book, Too Good To Be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype:

Christian theology is specifically charged with the task of making problematic our relationship with God, of presenting God to ourselves and others in such a way as to be confronted with a person who cannot be conformed to the narrow and sinful precincts of our own longings, expectations, and concepts. The God who comes to us in revelation is not a projection, but a person. He wrestles us to the ground, takes away our pride, and leaves us walking away from the match with a limp so that we will never forget the encounter.

Mike’s profound point is that, far from putting God into a box, theology done right actually destroys our little boxes, showing us that God is God and we are not; He is big and we are small. Theology reminds us that there is no God but God and to encounter him is to be forever changed!

What is good preaching?

From Adrian Reynolds.

Good preaching is:

• Biblical – the Bible, God’s word, sets the agenda, rather than the speaker. Anything else is little better than an interesting talk. “Arsenal goalkeepers 1950-1978″ is atalk, you might be interested or not. A sermon is expounding the Bible. Ultimately God talks. It’s always interesting (even if it’s not engaging) because he is talking.



• Intellectual – I don’t mean high brow or complex; the preacher must not confuse profundity and complexity. But it must be thought through. This means it must be based on studying God’s word to rightly understand its meaning.


• Spiritual – unlike my Arsenal goalkeepers talk a sermon is a sermon because it is spiritual. How else could God be speaking unless something miraculous is going on? This is the theme of our EMA next week. “We ought to be driven forth with abhorrence from the society of honest men for daring to speak in the name of the Lord if the Spirit rests not upon us” (CH Spurgeon). It is the Spirit who ensures that the words of men are also received as the words of God.


• Prophetic – it speaks into situations and is intimately connected with the lives of those to whom it is spoken. This isn’t a comment on prophecy (that’s a whole different issue) – but true preaching is prophetic in that it connects with people and calls for a response. For this reason, I maintain that every person’s favourite preacher must be their pastor – not some internet celebrity. It is only he that engages with you in this truly week-in week-out prophetic manner.

Therefore, the chief tools of the preacher are careful Bible study/preparation and heartfelt prayer. Many, if not most, preachers have deficiencies in one of these areas – if you’re like me, quite possibly both! It’s basic stuff, but good to remind ourselves what our calling requires of us.

O my! O my!

At Peter Cockrell's blog Already Not Yet, I came across this post. As I am an English teacher who has to read works of fiction that are part of my student's curriculum, I appreciate finding Christ and theology in the works that we are studying. This is a good example by Peter on just such a thing.

Among other things (serious masters reading), when enjoying a break from ministry here in Rwanda, I’m reading Kenneth Graham’s ‘Wind in the Willows.’ I love the colourful descriptions of the country-side and close friendships.

One line caught my attention near the beginning of the book, and literally took my breath away. Mole is unpacking a picnic basket, filled with all kinds of, previously un-experienced, morsels and delicacies. In shear delight he exclaims, “‘O my! O my!’ at each fresh revelation.”

It struck me that this is exactly the kind of fitting response of the believer, who, upon opening the word of God is struck over and over again with fresh revelations of the Saviour. I don’t think we begin to worship worthily until revelation of God and the gospel of Christ causes us to gasp a fresh, ‘O my! O my!’ or some such spontaneous ejaculation of praise.