I am a student of church history. And there is a certain sadness to such study, for whenever I study popular figures in Christian history, I am always left with a bittersweet taste. I admire them. But I also don’t aspire to be like them (at least not precisely). I recognize their flaws.
However, I’ve been looking and listening to Jesus and reading about him for two decades now, and I haven’t yet found a flaw… I like Jesus more. I love Jesus more. I want to be like Jesus more.
Category: Christian Living
Guaranteed
David Platt’s foreword to Nik Ripken’s The Insanity of God:
The Great Commission will one day be complete. One day, disciples will have been made and churches will have been multiplied in every nation and among every people group on the planet. Thousands of these people groups remain unreached today, but one day (hopefully soon), they will be reached. In the words of Jesus, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matt. 24:14).
Spreading to the Nations
When we think of the word viral, we usually think of Justin Bieber’s Youtube video that got him to stardom, or any online video, embarrassing or otherwise, that gets viewed by millions of people. Gone are the days when the word viral exclusively has anything to do with virus and biochemical weapons. Today, viral is anything that gets the attention of the public and is spreading quickly via social media. Continue reading Spreading to the Nations
The Fundamental Problem With Preaching
John Piper on Luke 13:1-5:
Some people came to Jesus and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Jesus responded in shockingly unsentimental words: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” In other words, Jesus says, “Are you amazed that few Galileans were killed by Pilate? What you ought to be amazed at is that all of you haven’t been killed, and that you will be someday if you don’t repent.”
What Romans 8:28 Means
Though it is to the eternal damage of the saints, ordinarily, when they yield to, and are overcome by temptations, yet Satan and other enemies of the saints by whom these temptations come, are always wholly disappointed in their temptations, and baffled in their design to hurt the saints, inasmuch as the temptation and the sin that comes by it, is for the saints’ good, and they receive a greater benefit in the issue, than if the temptation had not been, and yet less than if the temptation had been overcome.
–Jonathan Edwards, letter to Thomas Gillespie, Scottish pastor, 1746; in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Yale ed., 2:488-89
HT: Dane Ortlund of Strawberry- Rhubarb Theology
Like a Dog Begging for Grace
Interesting insight from David E. Garland on the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus on behalf of her daughter who was oppressed by a demon (Mark 7:24-30). Jesus seemed to refuse to help her at first, saying that it was not right to take the children’s food and give it to dogs. This is one of the most perplexing passages of the Bible, Jesus comparing someone to a dog:
The woman’s attitude in the face of refusal is the key to this passage. She comes empty-handed and can make no claim. She has no merit, no priority standing, nothing to commend her. Her manner is the opposite of the snippy “you-owe-me” attitude that prevails among so many today. She does not argue that her case was an exception or lobby for special treatment. She does not point that Jesus is not even in the land of Israel; how could he deprive Jews of bread by helping her? On the other hand, she does not cut herself off from the miraculous power of Jesus by thinking that she is too unworthy to receive anything at all. She accepts his judgment and bows down as a beggar for grace…
Jojo Agot 