Monday, December 31, 2012

Plan to Read the Bible in 2013

As Christians, we desire to hear the words of our God. We want to read his words in the Bible in order to see him more clearly, follow him more nearly, and love him more dearly. The problem is, in a world of distractions and short attention spans, we often fail to read consistently for lack of planning. Maybe you do fine without a plan, but I bet most of us do not. So, I encourage you to get a Bible reading plan to help you fulfill your desire of being in God's word this year.  Check out the GCOT website for links to some Bible reading plans .

Where Was God in All the Goodness of 2012?

Great article by John Piper. A good way to end 2012, reflecting on God's goodness.
As this year ends, the question I am asking is: Where was God when so many good things happened this past year?
How can God be a God of justice, yet allow so much good to happen to people who dishonor him by disbelieving in him, or giving lip service to his existence, or paying no more attention to him than the carpet in their den, or rejecting the kingship of his Son, or scorning his word, or preferring a hundred pleasures before him?
How can God be righteous and do so much good to us who are so unrighteous?
Where was God in 2012?
  • Where was God when nine million planes landed safely in the United States?
  • Where was God when the world revolved around the sun so accurately that it achieved the Winter solstice perfectly at 5:12 AM December 21 and headed back toward Spring?
  • Where was God when the President was not shot at a thousand public appearances?
  • Where was God when American farms produced ten million bushels of corn, and 2.8 million bushels of soybeans — enough food to sell $100 billions worth to other nations?
  • Where was God when no terrorist plot brought down a single American building or plane or industry?
  • Where was God when the sun maintained its heat and its gravitational pull precisely enough that we were not incinerated or frozen?
  • Where was God when three hundred million Americans drank water in homes and restaurants without getting sick?
  • Where was God when no new plague swept away a third of our race?
  • Where was God when Americans drove three trillion accident free miles?
  • Where was God when over three million healthy babies were born in America?

He goes on to look at Scripture to find out why God has been so good to us and others even though, in his righteousness, he should not have been. 

Monday, December 24, 2012

The Wonder of The Incarnation

That man should be made in God’s image is a wonder,
but that God should be made in man’s image is a greater wonder.
That the Ancient of Days would be born.
That He who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle?
—Thomas Watson

Monday, December 17, 2012

Are You Quick to Defend Yourself?

Do you find that when you face criticism your reflex is to go into defense mode? You become your own defense attorney and your friend, spouse, etc. is the prosecutor?  Or maybe you find your knee jerk reaction to your sin, failure, or weakness is to make excuses.

I came across this great quote on how the gospel, rightly understood, reveals how silly all our attempts to justify our sins, mistakes and failures are.
The person who defends self when God gave Himself to save us from His wrath doesn't understand grace. The man who offers excuses for his sin when God offered His Son to pay for it has no real apprehension of the gospel. The individual who diminishes the offense of his sin before others also treats the cross like a poignant gesture of a well-meaning God. The man who won't admit the truth about his life can't truly enjoy the benefits of Christ's...

But, we can come clean. What Jesus has done for us on the cross relieves us of the need to defend self....We no longer have to offer excuses because Jesus has dealt with all our failures. There are no real excuses anyway. We don't have to dodge the severity of our sin because He forgave it. To acknowledge this draws more attention to His grace than it does to our sin...

Once you get here, you'll know true freedom. You won't be imprisoned by the need to defend, or to be though well of by men.
You will allow people to speak into your life without qualifying every word they say. You'll be open to criticism without being defensive. You'll accept help and admit defeat. Insecurities- which are our nervous efforts to keep the truth about us away from other people- meet their match in Jesus, who knew the truth and died for us anyway.
(Byron Yawn, What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him, pg. 114).
Freed to honestly assess our sins, failures, and weakness and to trust in God's grace. Freed to genuinely repent and not just wallow in self-pity.  Freed to respond to criticism like George Whitefield did when he received a stinging letter of personal attacks from someone. In response, Whitefield wrote the malicious attacker back with these words, "Thank you sir for your criticism. If you knew about me what I know about me, you would have written a longer letter" (Yawn, pg. 111). That is a person who understands the grace of God and believes it.

If you, like me, struggle in this area, I strongly encourage you to read the article "The Cross and Criticism" by Alfred Priori.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Massacre in Connecticut

Friday brought the horrific tragedy in which 20 children and 6 adults were killed in Connecticut. Most of those children were ages 5-6. How should we come to grips with such indescribable evil? How should we think about this tragedy and talk to others about it? Let me recommend a few resources to help you:

Al Mohler's article Rachel's Weeping for Her Children- The Massacre in Connecticut (you can also listen to a special edition of his podcast about this tragedy here).  In his article he says:

  • We Affirm the Sinfulness of Sin, and the Full Reality of Human Evil
  • We Affirm the Cross of Christ as the Only Adequate Remedy for Evil
  • We Acknowledge the Necessity of Justice, Knowing that Perfect Justice Awaits the Day of the Lord
  • We Grieve with Those Who Grieve

Russel Moore's Article School Shootings and Spiritual Warfare 

John Piper's Article How Does Jesus Come to Newtown?

Denny Burk's Article Speaking of "Evil" in Connecticut

Monday, December 10, 2012

Royal Baby or Royal Fetus?

In a great, short article entitled "Why aren't we calling it the 'royal fetus'?", Denny Burke discusses Kate Middleton's royal baby. He notes that no one is referring the her child as a fetus. He goes on to show how our language in regards to a "wanted" pregnancy verses an "unwanted" one reveals the tragic logic of abortion rights. Below is an excerpt
Most people have not pondered the fact that their language about the unborn is shaped less by the personhood of the unborn than by whether or not the baby is wanted. Is there any other class of people whose personhood depends solely on whether or not they are wanted?
Our language often reveals fundamental truths about the way we view the world. In this case, the way we speak of the unborn reveals whether or not we view them as a part of the human community with an unalienable right to life. Obviously, the world has agreed to call Kate Middleton’s unborn child a “baby.” Why wouldn’t we do the same for every other unborn child? Could it be that such terminology would imply a moral monstrosity that we are unwilling to face?

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Reflecting on the Greatest Miracle

The month of December brings a great opportunity to devote focused attention towards what I think is the most amazing miracle ever: The Incarnation. The second person of the Trinity taking on human flesh. God the Son, God whom even the highest heavens cannot contain (2 Chronicles 2:6) became flesh.  In Jesus Christ, we have the fullness of deity dwelling bodily (Col. 2:9). 

Such a wondrous act of condescension by our God is worthy of some deep reflection on our part.  My suggestion for you is to spend the 25 days of December up until Christmas reflecting on this great and glorious mystery by doing some advent reading (yes I know this post is a little late as we are already 4 days in).  Below are two suggested resources.

Come Though Long Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas edited by Nancy Guthrie.  This book contains daily excerpts from great pastors and theologians on Christmas (people like John Piper, Tim Keller, J.C. Ryle, Martyn Lloyd Jones, RC Sproul, St. Augustine, and many more).  Beth and I have used this one and loved it.

Good News of Great Joy by John Piper. I have not read this one (it just came out) but it is made of up sermon excerpts from John Piper on Christmas and is a free e-book.