The Blood of Their Faithlessness is on Our Hands

Regarding younger evangelicals and their pathetically weak stance on the exclusivity of Christ, that faith in Him alone is the ONLY way of salvation, Al Mohler says this:

Educated in a culture of postmodern relativism and ideological pluralism, this generation has been taught to avoid making any exclusive claim to truth. Speak of your truth, if you must–but never claim to know the Truth. Unless this course is reversed, there will be no evangelicals in the next generation.

I’ve personally experienced this and heard the mumblings from others (adults, mind you) when I have stated with no reservation that I know the truth. “How arrogant you are”, their body language and indirect comments  proclaim. “Who are you to presume that you know the truth?”, they are really saying when making remarks about ‘balance’ in response to some direct statement about the truth contained in Scripture.

There will be no evangelicals in the next generation because the evangelicals in this generation have sold their soul to the devil for the price of relevancy and wanting to appear loving to all.

God have mercy on us.

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done – Judges 2:10

Burdens Rather than Benefits

Perhaps there is no one circumstance in the history of our Savior so little laid to heart, so generally overlooked, by those who acknowledge him as their Master and their Lord–as that state of poverty to which He submitted, while upon earth. He had no home. He did not even have money to pay His tax…

Alas! the rich followers of this poor Savior have more reason to be ashamed of . . .
their gorgeous apparel,
their fine houses,
their elegant furniture, and
their sumptuous feastings
–than to value themselves upon such trifles!
They are unavoidable appendages to people in some situations; but, I believe, those who have drank deeply into our Lord’s spirit, account them rather burdens than benefits!

from the letters of John Newton

Hear No Evil

No. The rockets’ red glare hasn’t even started yet. Attendees at the local community church’s July 4th extravaganza prepare to listen to the pastor’s evangelistic “gospel” presentation…

Is It Thus With You

A portion of a poem from John Newton:

Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love the Lord or no?
Am I His–or am I not?

If I love–why am I thus?
Why this dull and lifeless frame?
Hardly, sure, can they be worse,
Who have never heard His name!

Could my heart so hard remain,
Prayer a task and burden prove,
Every trifle give me pain,
If I knew a Savior’s love?

When I turn my eyes within,
All is dark, and vain, and wild;
Filled with unbelief and sin,
Can I deem myself a child?

If I pray, or hear, or read,
Sin is mixed with all I do!
You who love the Lord indeed,
Tell me–Is it thus with you?

Bone Fragments Confirmed to be from Apostle Paul

This news bit should be read and then quickly filed in the “Allrighty Then!”, section…

Pope Benedict XVI said scientific tests confirmed shards found in the underground chamber at the church of St Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls in Rome were from the apostle…It took three years for archeologists to subject the remains to the first ever scientific tests and establish that they belonged to Saint Paul, a Jewish Roman citizen from Tarsus, in what is now Turkey.

Tests? What tests? Genetic markers? DNA? Blood type? What?

Read the rest of this amazing find HERE.

A “Killer” Question…

Matt Osgood, from blog.worship.com, asks this question:

If someone who’d never been to church before came and listened to a typical set of worship songs, who would they learn more about? You or God?

That’s what I call a “killer” question, because it kills the self and refocuses us on the proper and biblical and God-pleasing object of our worship, God Himself. Perspective, even when singing about the truths of God, matter a great deal. Osgood also asks these questions:

For example – do we sing about the cross and resurrection because it means ‘I am saved’ or because it represents God’s victory over the power of evil? Do we sing about God’s faithfulness because it means ‘you will never let me down’ or because it means that God will fulfill every promise he has made in Scripture? Do we sing ‘You are amazing’ or ‘You amaze me’? Is it all about God? Or is it about God in terms of what he means to us?

In my lesson last week, one of the things I said was that I am convinced that the three most favorite words, not in the world, but in the church, are: me, myself and I. Check your worship songs this week and see how many times they (or variations of them) are used. You might be surprised.

Read Matt’s full article HERE.

Moore on Orphans

We’ve been defined by our commitment to evangelism, and there is no greater field as `white unto harvest’ right now as children in orphanages, group homes, and the foster care system, children who don’t know a parent’s love and who don’t know the name of Jesus. When Satan wars against children, we should be the ones who have compassion on them, even as Jesus did and does…

Russell Moore

Quote of the Day

Allow me to say, that it excites both my wonder and concern, that a Christian minister such as yourself, should think it worth his while to attempt political reforms. When I look around upon the present state of the nation, such an attempt appears to me, to be no less vain and foolish, than it would be to paint the cabin–while the ship is sinking! Or to decorate the parlor–while the house is on fire!

John Newton

Putting My Children Up for Adoption

In reflecting upon my wonderful Father’s Day yesterday with my house full of family (including mine and my wife’s parents who came over for dinner), and in considering the subject matter of the lesson I taught yesterday morning, I have come to realize that I want my children to be adopted. I do not desire that they go through life with me as their heritage. I wish for them to be known as children of Abraham, not children of Brian!

Part of the Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 that I taught on yesterday states the following:

As God has appointed the elect unto glory, so, by the eternal and completely free intention of His will, He has foreordained all the means. Accordingly, those who are elected, being fallen in Adam:

- are redeemed by Christ,

- are effectually called to faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season,

- are justified, adopted, sanctified,

- and are kept by His power through faith unto salvation;

- neither are any but the elect redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved. – 3.6

As much as I love my children and relish in the truth that they are a great gift and have come from me (that they are just as much a part of me as my own skin), I do not want their ultimate heritage to be that which I have given them, which is their fallen state in Adam. My prayer to Almighty God is that He would, in the good and kind intention of His will, adopt my kids.

One of My All-Time Favorites – The Land Shark

more about “Saturday Night Live – Season 1 – Land…“, posted with vodpod