Affections Fixed Above

It don't matter where you bury me!I

2011-01-13T22:39:00.000-05:00

Thinking supports loving

2010-11-11T09:14:00.001-05:00

From John Piper's book Think:

Any knowledge that does not stand in the service of love is not real knowing. It is prostituted knowing. It's as though God put surgical tools in our hands and taught us how to save the sick, but we turned them into a clever juggling act while the patients died. Knowing and thinking exist for the sake of love -- for the sake of building people up in faith. Thinking that produces pride instead of love is not true thinking. We only imagine that we are thinking. God does not see it as thinking. It's not surgery; it's juggling.

Reformed Eye for the Arminian Guy

2010-11-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

via Tim Challies: An oldie-but-goodie blog post:
"I offer you Reformed Eye for the Arminian Guy, a new production currently filming pilot episodes in New York City. This exciting new program will offer theological assistance to those men who need it most. In each episode a fabulous team of Reformed men will track down an Arminian guy and offer him the makeover of a lifetime. Each of the five team members is an expert in a different field. Each will assist the subject of the program in a unique way."
Click to read the whole thing

Beautiful Redemption

2010-11-07T13:30:00.001-05:00

Songs to Relieve Sorrow Numbers 6 thru 77

2010-11-06T13:40:00.001-04:00

I'm well. I've discovered that I'm not able to be sorrowful AND listen to Taylor Swift. So, I pipe Taylor thru my headphones via Napster. It will have to do until my precious Lord Jesus returns from God's Right Hand in the flesh.

Vigorous Writing

2010-11-03T09:59:00.001-04:00

It’s muscular, forceful. Vigorous English comes from passion, focus and intention. It’s the difference between putting in a good effort and TRYING to move a boulder… and actually sweating, grunting, straining your muscles to the point of exhaustion… and MOVING the thing!

From Ben Arment

2010-11-01T18:59:00.000-04:00

"We tend to send honor up.
We turn Ps into VIPs, rooms into greenrooms, and Americans into idols.
But here's the paradigm shift with Jesus.
He sent honor down.
Those who were last became first, those who had least gave most, and those in the lowest seats got promoted."

Click to begin enjoying Ben's blog

PART 2 Bible Exposition: Ephesians 3, Part 2 | The Lausanne Global Conversation

2010-10-23T18:54:00.000-04:00

Bible Exposition: Ephesians 3, Part 2 | The Lausanne Global Conversation

Bible Exposition: Ephesians 3, Part 1 | The Lausanne Global Conversation

2010-10-23T18:47:00.000-04:00

Bible Exposition: Ephesians 3, Part 1 | The Lausanne Global Conversation

Sorrowful, yet rejoicing

2010-10-20T09:31:00.000-04:00

Starts today through Oct. 25th

2010-10-16T21:28:00.000-04:00

http://www.lausanne.org/

RECONCILIATION

2010-10-12T23:23:00.000-04:00

Reconciliation with a brother or sister takes precedence even over worship. This is truly astounding. It is also one of the most frequently disobeyed commands in all of Scripture.

More here

In honor of adding "Take your Vitamin Z" to my blogroll

2010-10-11T14:16:00.000-04:00

A quote from Piper's new book

Songs to Relieve Sorrow No. 5

2010-10-06T17:24:00.000-04:00

For the genuine believer in Christ, nothing relieves sorrow like this proclamation:

Songs to Relieve Sorrow No. 4

2010-10-05T01:48:00.001-04:00

On Writing, Blaise Pascal

2010-10-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

In what I am writing, let no one think I am saying anything new. It is only the arrangement of my material that may be new. For it is like a game of tennis, where we both play with the same ball, but one of us uses it to better advantage. So I would like it to be said that I am simply using well-worn words in a new framework. For when familiar thoughts are rearranged, they simply present a different way of communicating the truth. [So too, we can rearrange Truthful words to edify the Body of Christ].

Songs to Relieve Sorrow No. 3

2010-10-02T23:45:00.003-04:00

Songs to Relieve Sorrow No. 2

2010-09-29T22:43:00.002-04:00

The fundamental principle ON PRODUCTIVITY

2010-09-28T10:36:00.009-04:00

This from Matt Perman, one of just a few in my blog roll there on the left:
3. In a nutshell, what is the most important and fundamental principle for being productive?
I would actually say: realize that you don’t have to be productive. By this I mean: your significance does not come from your productivity. It comes from Christ, who obeyed God perfectly on our behalf such that our significance and standing before God comes from him, not anything we do. Then, on that basis, we pursue good works (which is what productivity is) and do so eagerly, as it says in Titus 2:14.

When it comes to day-to-day application, the main principle is this: The key denominator of effectiveness is not intelligence or even hard work, as important as those are. It is the discipline to put first things first. You need to operate from a center of sound principles and organize and execute around priorities. This means that instead of prioritizing your schedule, you schedule your priorities.

A TULIP for my Reformed friends

2010-09-25T08:42:00.001-04:00

Songs to Relieve Sorrow No. 1

2010-09-23T01:15:00.003-04:00

For those who think their foolishness is the problem

2010-09-22T16:41:00.002-04:00

HT: Challies

God's gracious arrow named "Sorrow"

2010-09-18T14:12:00.001-04:00

Some Rock & Rollers know "satan's kingdom MUST come down"

2010-09-15T14:38:00.002-04:00

Coming Soon

2010-09-10T10:37:00.007-04:00

Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization

To be held in Cape Town, South Africa, 16-25 October 2010
And at GlobaLink sites around the world

Cape Town 2010, held in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance, will bring together 4,000 leaders from more than 200 countries to confront the critical issues of our time – other world faiths, poverty, HIV/AIDS, persecution, among others - as they relate to the future of the Church and world evangelization.
Thousands more leaders will participate in the discussion on the issues through the Lausanne Global Conversation and at remote Congress sites through the Cape Town GlobaLink.

Oh, Lord raise up a huge army of men like this

2010-09-09T23:32:00.001-04:00

"And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be 'fools for Christ's sake', who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth's accolades, but to win the Master's approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness 'signs and wonders following' in the transformation of multitudes of human lives." George Whitefield during America's pre-Revolutionary War Great Awakening.
HT: Josh Harris

The Ant's Nest

2010-09-09T11:51:00.002-04:00

Yet another reason to keep our Affections Set Above. HT: www.GraceGems.org

Receiving from God Indirectly through Others

2010-09-08T10:44:00.002-04:00

The main theme this season of this blog is Christians connecting with one another to benefit one another. This brief, fresh YouTube video by John Piper gives insight into how God's manner of spreading out spiritual gifts amongst his people should cause us to reflect on how we receive answers to prayer not directly from God, but rather indirectly through His Body of People:

Happy Labor Day to all

2010-09-06T23:27:00.002-04:00

Book Review of CHRIST FORMED IN YOU

2010-09-06T14:28:00.000-04:00

I’m glad Brian Hedges decided to begin publishing. In the computer industry, of which I’m a part, there is the clichéd programmer’s acronym of GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you input bad thinking and bad ideas into a computer, you will get the same out. Brian’s new book is rather a product of DWIDWO, Depth & Wisdom In, Depth & Wisdom Out. In his introduction, he lists the contemporary and older authors who have influenced him. As I read his book, I heard the echoes of the men he listed: Paul David Tripp, Tim Keller, David Powlison, John Piper, Don Whitney, Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, Augustine, John Calvin, and John Owen. The result of Brian’s preparation has produced a surprisingly excellent first outing.

My favorite chapter was Chapter 4 on The Heart. As Scripture pulls no punches in its indictment of the fallen, human heart, neither does Brian. He begins the chapter with the declaration that we all inherit monstrous hearts. Unless our distorted, disordered hearts change, we don’t change. In this chapter, Brian drew on insights from David Powlison about how our hearts are the seat of desires, aspirations, cravings, motivations, and murmurings. The heart is also the seat of worship, and this chapter develops the idea that we worship that which controls us—you worship that which you serve. One thing that made this chapter my favorite was Brian’s listing of “ten affections of the heart that God both requires, and gives.” There are years-worth of reflection (and the scripture references to consult) on the implications of these ten affections and the struggle we have to keep them centered on the Trinity. Even in light of all the competitors, I highly recommend this book. It is available at Amazon for pre-order here: Christ Formed in you @ Amazon

Confession of Bias: I have been a fan of Brian Hedges for awhile having read his Light & Heat blog for more than two years. I don’t know which I’ve enjoyed more: his first book or his blog, which you can read here.

The Church is Global

2010-08-17T22:34:00.001-04:00

As one who loves and appreciates and works towards healthy local churches, the following is a bit jarring, but the author has been thinking about the church globally for a long time and I find his thinking provocative and worthwhile:

"I tell our church planters all the time, ignore the church, forget it - don’t be obsessed by it, it’s a waste of time. Everyone wants to re-invent it, reform it, fix it, create a new model of it as if it started with them, their ideas, and their context. Instead make disciples and engage glocally. There’s another lie - if everyone will do church like me, then the whole church will be healthy. Church - however you do it - is a reflection of your disciples."

For more, browse this site and get a taste of its saltiness: Globally and Locally, Glocal Net

I asked the Lord by John Newton

2010-08-05T17:39:00.002-04:00

I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith and love and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He'd answer my request
And by His love's constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this He made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart

And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried

Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?

"Tis in this way" the Lord replied

"I answer prayer for grace and faith."

"These inward trials I employ

From self and pride to set thee free

And break thy schemes of earthly joy

That thou mayest seek thy all in me,

That thou mayest seek thy all in me."

Principalities & powers

2010-07-27T20:48:00.001-04:00

Revival is war between the Spirit and the Devil - Dr. J. Edwin Orr

Speaking of the Benefits of Christian Community

2010-07-22T21:36:00.001-04:00

‘Nothing can be more cruel than that leniency which abandons another to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than that severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.’ (105)

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community, 105

Mercy Ministry by Duke Divinity School

2010-07-22T09:40:00.001-04:00

"Lauren Winner, assistant professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School, said society assumes inmates are different from other people. But teaching at the prison reminded her of the essential equality of all human beings.

'We're all marked by sin,' she said. 'And some are incarcerated'

Read the whole article: Duke Divinity School in Prison

FYI-The Agora in Malaysia

2010-07-21T03:39:00.002-04:00

This is one of the more interesting uses of the Internet to empower Malaysian Christians. It has been around for a long time. I've copied their Vision and Mission statement from their main blog site:

The Agora: Vision Statement

"The Agora Ministry seeks to inspire & train laypeople in the marketplace to live out and proclaim the lordship of Christ over every domain of their life."

Mission

As a grassroots movement, the Agora seeks to encourage Christians in Malaysia to develop a robust and biblical worldview in which we fulfill our different vocations in the public square.

The church in Malaysia faces contemporary challenges to her life and mission in areas such as ethics, modern science, religious pluralism, church-state relations, culture, relativism, economics etc.

It is our conviction that the great challenge for the Church today is the call to engage contemporary culture in a constructive and critical manner through a biblically faithful vision.

Unless we do so, the Church’s witness for Christ suffers.

There is a lot to learn from them just by studying their six-year old blog: The Agora

Revival players and tipping points

2010-07-20T15:20:00.004-04:00

I read through Malcom Gladwell's book, Tipping Points, a couple years ago and a lot of the thoughts in this link (Tipping Points for Revival) bounced around in my head when I read it. This blogger articulates revival tipping points well. I longingly pray for fervent revival in the USA. Enjoy.

18 churches are set to work together this summer in England

2010-07-19T09:07:00.002-04:00

Some very recent Good News from England about churches working hard together: Engage 2010 is a project 12 years in the making

Missionaries in Delaware

2010-07-17T21:00:00.001-04:00

One current emphasis of this blog is to showcase Christians as they learn to do the hard work of working together to either spread the Good News of the Glory of Christ or work together to make an impact with mercy ministry. I so appreciate the spread of the Gospel being done in our generation by the churches that comprise Sovereign Grace Ministries. I'm linking here to good efforts in Delaware.

The CONCLUSION is below; the whole post is here: Gospel Mission in Delaware

In summary…Today we learned that as Christians and as a church our mission requires teamwork, faithfulness and confidence.

First, we learned that our mission together requires teamwork. God advances the Gospel in specific locations through people working together as a team. Therefore we should be confident that God will advance the Gospel here through us as we work together as a team.

Secondly, we learned that our mission together requires faithfulness. We are not responsible for conversions, God is. Just be faithful to share the Gospel as God gives opportunity

Finally, we learned that our mission together requires confidence. We should be confident in God’s plan. As in Corinth – God has many people to save in this city. He is committed to save them. Therefore we can and should confidently proclaim Christ!

Some Wise words from Kenneth Hemphill

2010-07-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

On Working Cooperatively here: Working cooperatively for the Kingdom

New HOPE by effective collaboration

2010-07-15T00:05:00.002-04:00

HOPE (Helping Open People’s Eyes), a faith-based pre- and post-release rehabilitation program sponsored by the Chaplain’s office at Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County Jail, was created in 2002 for minimum and medium security male inmates serving from 11 to 23 months. This program works in collaboration with community service providers and volunteers, mostly from churches, who can serve as mentors, instructors, and Bible study leaders. Most participants are serving sentences for misdemeanors or felonies committed to support a drug or alcohol habit.
More here: Allegheny County jail

Mercy Ministry

2010-07-12T11:49:00.016-04:00

Golden Opportunities is a partnership among McDonald’s restaurants, the Salvation Army, Cargill and Mentor Corps. Started only a year or so ago, this nine-month program pairs people coming out of homelessness, addiction and incarceration with people of faith who can support and counsel them. Program participants receive shelter, a job, intensive mentoring and Christian-based counseling.
More here: Golden Opportunities

Simultaneously continuously Broken and joyfully Triumphant

2010-07-11T19:37:00.001-04:00

In the gospel we are liberated to experience simultaneously fall and redemption, crucifixion and resurrection, brokenness and triumph. Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily (Matt. 16:24) while Paul tells us we have been raised and are seated in heaven (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1). How can both be true? More here: Dane Ortlund

Your Rod comforts me

2010-07-10T23:19:00.000-04:00

Get a true idea of this word translated "rod" and at once this beautiful meaning of defense comes out. The word means literally, club or mace or bludgeon. It is a great, stout bludgeon, a most formidable weapon of defense. It was made usually of the tough wood of the oak. Swelling out from the handle was a great, thick, rounded head. This head was often further armed by the driving into it of heavy iron nails. Grasped by a strong hand and wielded by a strong arm, the bludgeon or mace, as you can see, would be a quite appalling weapon with which the shepherd could beat off assailants of the flock. Thus, our comfort is not a chastising rod, but rather a defending rod.

So David, in Psalm 23 takes up this figure of the rod and sings of a strong, glad comfort in his heart, notwithstanding he must walk in the valley of the shadow of death, because the Jehovah-Shepherd's bludgeon is his defense.

And now what source of inward comfort here! The Shepherd-Lord defends. He defends by the mighty and masterful bludgeon of His ATONEMENT. Dangers are continually threatening—the relentless, prowling, predatory world, flesh, and devil. But between God's saints and the dangers crowding round them is the bludgeon of our Lord's Atonement. What comfort for us in the fact that that the glory of Christ's All-Satisfying Atonement simultaneously comforts, defends and renews us. All Glory to our wonderful Savior!

2010-06-19T22:53:00.000-04:00

I can cherish this soothing thought: that God in His Sovereign Providence has limitless ways of providing for my needs and wants, and of delivering me from my distresses. And this even more soothing thought: that God has declared that He cares for me and invites me to cast all my care and anxieties onto Him. He is Almighty and infinitely wise and I can rest all of my weight on Him always. I must distrust my understanding and not allow my lack of knowledge and capacity to accuse God of cruelty or injustice or neglect!

The Power of Collaboration

2010-06-17T15:15:00.000-04:00

How did it happen that 50% of the churches in Europe became Protestant during the Reformation in the short span of 40 years? It’s an interesting question for anyone interested in reformation today.

Of course, reformation was God’s will. Humanly speaking, it was interaction between leaders throughout the European continent that fueled the Reformation. Among the most notable were Erasmus of Brussels; Luther and Melanchthon in Germany; Bucer in Strasburg; Calvin and Beza in Geneva; and Zwingli, Bullinger, and Martyr in Zurich.

While each ministered in his own vineyard, the Reformers read each other, wrote each other, visited each other, attended conferences together, challenged each other, held each other accountable, and corrected each other.

Luther and Zwingli idolized Erasmus, the Prince of the Humanists. Luther was reading Erasmus. Erasmus praised Luther. Melanchthon systematized Luther. Bucer was a monk who heard Luther and reformed Strasburg. Bucer mentored Calvin (and also found Calvin a wife), then Calvin reformed Geneva. Beza systematized Calvin and ran Calvin’s Geneva Academy. Zwingli’s hero was Erasmus. Zwingli and Luther read each other. Calvin wrote Zwingli about his extreme views. Calvin met with Bullinger.

Collaboration was central to their success. As a result, these leaders did together what none of them could have done on their own. Anthropologist Margaret Mead reportedly said, “Never doubt the power of a small group to change the world. That’s about the only way it has ever happened.”

Want reformation today? Collaboration may be central to your success. Get up to 30,000 feet and see what’s going on. Collaborate with other ministry leaders in your church. Extend your boundaries to learn what others are doing elsewhere. Attend a ministry conference. Write someone and ask them a question. We can do more together than alone.

HT:http://www.maninthemirror.org/weeklybriefing/wb0063.htm

Encouraged about the Invisible Church

2010-04-28T11:58:00.002-04:00

I happen to be more encouraged about the state of the ‘Church” than I have been up to now in my 40-year Christian journey. But, I need to make Augustine’s distinction between the Visible and Invisible church. I am at once dismayed and elated ( a state I find myself in often about many things) by the Visible church. God is shaking the visible church from Reformed to mainline to Charismatic and the shaking hurts. It is good to see the chaff flying swiftly away. Many Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Charismatic, Presbyterian (USA), and even fundamentalist church strains are displaying clearly how absurdly unbiblical they are and people are deserting accordingly.

The Invisible church, on the other hand, are all of the true members of the Body of Christ set apart (holy) to God by virtue of the invisible Spirit of Christ living inside of them regenerated to be firmly and perseveringly in Christ (to borrow Paul’s pervasive phrase). Most of the Invisible church, happily, is embedded in the Visible Church—Baptists, Presbyterians, Assemblies of God, Methodists, Anglicans, etc. along with boatloads of tares. The invisible Church of Christ has been being tested sorely for quite awhile and the Lord is raising up tested leaders who are beginning to transcend denominational boundaries. Trans-denominational partnerships in many parachurch ministries are thriving. Cooperative efforts like Together for the Gospel, the Gospel Coalition, the Acts 29 network, even the increasingly reinvigorated Southern Baptist Convention, I think, harbingers a strengthening of the impact of true believers. Let’s be of good cheer and seek our place (where are you to be a joint or a ligament?) in serving and strengthening the Body of Christ so that we are “holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (Colossians 2:19). God is establishing and strengthening His true Church for upcoming impact. Let’s pray the primary prayers of Paul for the increasing of spiritual maturity and growth in wisdom & understanding for the members of the Invisible Church. I am convinced that the days ahead will be glorious for properly prepared believers.

On Bureaucracies

2010-04-22T13:59:00.002-04:00

This excerpt from an excellent talk given to West Point plebes by William
Deresiewicz confirms my hypotheses about the bureaucracies in which I've labored:

"That’s really the great mystery about bureaucracies. Why is it so often that the best people are stuck in the middle and the people who are running things—the leaders—are the mediocrities? Because excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. Kissing up to the people above you, kicking down to the people below you. Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until it’s time to stab him in the back. Jumping through hoops. Getting along by going along. Being whatever other people want you to be, so that it finally comes to seem that, like the manager of the Central Station [in Joseph Conrad’s novel The Heart of Darkness], you have nothing inside you at all. Not taking stupid risks like trying to change how things are done or question why they’re done. Just keeping the routine going."

Recent interview with Dr. James Hunter about his new book

2010-04-06T22:53:00.002-04:00

http://blog.beliefnet.com/roddreher/2010/04/abandon-politics-change-the-world.html

HT: Rod Dreher

Faith in the Halls of Power

2010-04-03T17:33:00.000-04:00

I was surprised and exceedingly hopeful when I read Michael Lindsay's book in 2007. Dr. Lindsay, a sociology professor at Rice University in Houston and formerly of the Gallup Polling Organization had had the privilege of studying hundreds of industry leaders, who happened to be Christians, many of them, devout Christians.

He chronicled leaders in 1) Academics 2) Politics &Public Policy 3) Business and Philanthropy and 4) Hollywood and the Arts. It was impressive to see the presence of Christians in positions of influence and the effectiveness of 20th Century parachurch institutions like World Vision, Prison Fellowship Ministries, and Compassion International.

But, in James Davison Hunters book that we have been looking at, he says that Christians lack significant impact because their presence is not dense enough. In other words, effective impact emerges from the density of the Network of people. Dr. Hunter asserts that the Christians in influential positions are the exception that prove the rule that modern elites are for the most part, secular. It was the density of the Reformation network, the density of the Great Awakenings networks, the density of the abolitionists surrounding Wilberforce with overlapping economic, political, and cultural capital that led to an eventual change in the Culture.

To Change the World: Proposition Five

2010-04-02T09:07:00.002-04:00

World-changing is most intense when the networks of elites and the institutions they lead overlap.
Implied here is the overlapping of the different forms of capital—cultural capital overlapping with economic capital and political capital.

One can cite dozens of examples from history. Consider first the Reformation. The role of the powerful nobility in the German provinces was crucial to the success of the Reformation. Their economic and political capital made the difference. Indeed, Luther would likely have been executed (as Savanarola was a generation before) if Frederick of Wise had not forcibly removed him to safe refuge at Wartburg Castle after the Edict of Worms.

The story of Wilberforce and the abolitionist Clapham Circle is also the story of overlapping elites and institutions. Wilberforce may have had the moral charisma and political capital, but it was Hannah More (well known in literary circles) who had a great deal of cultural capital and used it to start a very successful school for the poor, Henry Thornton (a merchant banker) who had the necessary financial capital, and Granville Sharp and Zacharay Macaulay, both of whom had intellectual capital and extensive social networks in the reform movements of the day.

And in a very different case, take the evangelist, Billy Graham—an unknown itinerate preacher whose urban crusades had repeatedly fizzled until William Randolph Hearst ordered his media network to “puff Graham” during the Los Angeles crusade of 1949. Within two months of this order, Graham was preaching to crowds of 350,000. No one who has studied the issue disagrees that without the economic and cultural leverage provided by Hearst, we would likely not ever have heard of Billy Graham.

Again and again we see that the impetus, energy, and direction for changing the world were found where cultural, economic, and often political resources overlapped; where networks of elites, who generated these various resources, come together in common purpose. . . in common purpose—something we should never forget.

To Change the World: Proposition Four

2010-04-01T02:22:00.000-04:00

Cultures change from the top down; rarely if ever from the bottom up.

It is sometimes true that political revolutions and economic revolts occur from the bottom up, but on their own terms they are almost always short-lived.
According to Dr. Hunter, long-term cultural change always occurs from the top down. In other words, the work of world-changing is the work of elites, gatekeepers who provide creative direction and management to the leading institutions in a society.

The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Awakenings, the Enlightenment, the triumph of capitalism over mercantilism and feudalism, all of the democratic revolutions in the West, the rise and triumph of science; and in our own day, the triumph of the therapeutic, postmodernism in law, architecture, literature, and popular culture, and now globalization itself, all began among elites and then percolated into the larger society.

To Change the World: Proposition Three

2010-03-31T06:14:00.001-04:00

Cultural production is stratified in a rigid structure of “center” and “periphery.”
With economic capital-money, quantity is paramount. More is almost always better than, and more influential than, less. With cultural capital, it isn’t quantity but quality that counts most. It is the status of cultural credentials and accomplishment.

In other words, with culture, there is a center and a periphery. The individuals, networks, and institutions most critically involved in the production of a culture or civilization operate in the “center,” where prestige is the highest; not on the periphery, where status is low. And so, one may be able to get as good an education at Colorado State as you would at Harvard, but Harvard, as an institution, is at the center and Colorado State is at the periphery of cultural production. USA Today may sell more copies of newspapers than the New York Times, but it is the New York Times that is the newspaper of record in America (for better or worse) because it is at the center of cultural production, not the periphery. One can sell two hundred thousand copies of a book published by Zondervan or Crossway, and only five thousand copies of a book published by Knopf or Random House. But it is the book by Knopf or Random House that is more likely to be reviewed in the New York Review of Books or the Washington Post because Knopf and Random House are at the center and Zondervan is at the periphery.

2010-03-30T21:15:00.001-04:00

James Davison Hunter has been speaking about these ideas for many years. He is lamenting the fact that Evangelicals have neglected pursuing "access to the means of cultural production." Hunter has influenced Chritian activity in the major cities, most notably contributing to the success in NYC by his friend, Tim Keller. Dr. Keller has had a huge impact in NYC.

Tim Keller, speaking to a conference full of Evangelical Pastors in England, made the observation that the Seminaries are ALL established to produce effective Church leaders...not Cultural leaders. May our church leaders continue to be sensitive to stirring up Christian men to pursue leadership positions deep into the American Culture.

To Change the World: Proposition Two

2010-03-30T19:05:00.000-04:00

Culture is produced.
We often speak of the “spirit of the age” or the “spirit of capitalism” as though it were the surrounding air we breathe—you can’t see it but you know it is there because people are inspired by it or infected by it (as the case may be). It is better to think of culture as a thing, a product, if you will, manufactured not by lone individuals but rather by institutions and the elites who lead them.

Most of us are inclined to what could be called the “great man” view of history. It is the Apostle Paul, Augustine, Alexander, Martin Luther and John Calvin, William Wilberforce, George Washington, Napoleon, Churchill, and the like who stood as switchmen on the train tracks of history; it is their genius and the genius of other heroic individuals that have guided civilization this way or that; for better or for worse.

Against this view, Dr. Hunter would argue that the key actor in history is not individual genius but rather the network of influential individuals, and the new institutions that are created out of those networks. This is where the stuff of culture and cultural change is produced.

Consider, for example, the Protestant Reformation. We naturally think of Martin Luther as the heroic figure of the German Reformation. But Luther was surrounded by a network of others similarly committed, not only in his monastic order but all over northern Germany— men, such as Gregory of Rimini, Joseph von Staupitz (the man Luther attributed the success of the Reformation to), Philip Melancthon, the powerful Frederick, and Theodore Beza. Melancthon was especially important, not only as the chief Protestant negotiator at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but for his leadership at the center of the key religious and intellectual networks of Europe. They, in turn, recreated the German university, and invented a new institution, the “academy” as the heart of social and cultural innovation. These proliferated throughout Protestant Europe.

To Change the World: Proposition One

2010-03-29T08:42:00.001-04:00

Culture is a resource and as such, a form of power.
Think of culture as a form of capital, much like money itself. Dr. Hunter is referring to knowledge, technical know-how, credentials, and cultural accomplishments. While it can’t be transferred from one generation to another, or from one individual to another, cultural capital can be accumulated.

And so, a Ph.D. has more cultural capital than a car mechanic; a member of the national academy of sciences has more cultural capital than a high school science teacher; the winner of a Nobel prize in literature has more cultural capital than a romance novelist. Like money, accumulated cultural capital translates into a kind of power and influence. But what kind of power? What kind of influence? It starts as credibility, an authority one possesses which puts one in a position to be taken seriously. It ends as the power to define reality itself. It is the power to name things.

Germination of To Change the World

2010-03-26T08:23:00.004-04:00

Many have been waiting for this book from Dr. Hunter for almost a decade. The foundational ideas of To Change the World (http://ow.ly/1r1sF ) were brought to light at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of The Trinity Forum (http://ttf.org/ ) in Denver, Colorado in June 2002. At that meeting, Dr. James Hunter presented five propositions upon which his talk about changing the world was based.

prop·o·si·tion –noun
1. The act of offering or suggesting something to be considered, accepted, adopted, or done.
2. Anything stated or affirmed for discussion or illustration.
3. Rhetoric. A statement of the subject of an argument or a discourse, or of the course of action or essential idea to be advocated.
4. Logic. A statement in which something is affirmed or denied, so that it can therefore be significantly characterized as either true or false.

Proposition One: Culture is a resource and as such, a form of power.
Proposition Two: Culture is produced.
Proposition Three: Cultural production is stratified in a rigid structure of “center” and “periphery.”
Proposition Four: Cultures change from the top down; rarely if ever from the bottom up.
Proposition Five: World-changing is most intense when the networks of elites and the institutions they lead overlap.

Next week, I’ll be fleshing out the five propostions, which I suspect will be challenging to your current worldview. You can read a transcipt of James Hunter’s 2002 talk here: http://www.ttf.org/pdf/Bv3n2-Hunter-Text.pdf

And, BTW, if I've whet your appetite for this book, Justin Taylor -- that copycat -- is also blogging about the book here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/category/to-change-the-world/

Are you interested in “changing the world?”

2010-03-25T20:15:00.008-04:00

Probably not. I mean, where do you start? The mind reels and returns to its routines.
But, what if you could be set free from your mortgage-paying day job, and be connected to a powerful institution impacting people in the world like this? :

Working within organizations to provide effective biblical counseling to a large swath of confused, hurting, American Christians.
Establishing 20 Crisis Pregnancy Centers in your city -- rather than the one struggling Center downtown.
Stirring up complacent church staff to do the hard work of laying down their lives to nurture genuinely Christian, returning prisoners.
Declaring war on International sex traffickers importing exploited young women right into your city and establishing a vibrant, courageous organization to combat them.
Effectively adopt & support and even travel yearly to a church start-up in Nigeria, Indonesia, or Bolivia.
Choose a city in Africa where the ravages of the Prosperity Gospel have taken root and fund a sound group of churches to undo the damage.
Help to set up an institution to rescue young, Indian girls from the Prostitution caste into which they were born.
For the daring among you, create conferences in Istanbul to proclaim the Supremacy of Christ over all of life.

If any of these goals is appealing to you, James Hunter’s book, To Change the World can point the way for you to connect with others to at least try to accomplish these works to impact the world for good. Tomorrow: a look at some of the foundational propostions of the book.

Introducing James Davison Hunter

2010-03-24T10:50:00.001-04:00

The book I want to interact with on this blog is To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter. Today I want to briefly introduce the author. Dr. Hunter is a devout Christian involved with the tight-knit Christian community in Charlottesville, VA, long-time Sociology Professor at the University of Virginia focusing on Religion and Culture, integral participant of the Trinity Forum in Northern Virginia (http://ttf.org ), and friend to such luminary Christian leaders as Os Guinness, Tim Keller, and Skip Ryan. His book is the ripened fruit of his long years of interaction with these friends while thinking about the important ideas he presents. If you’re interested in the details about Dr. Hunter: click here: http://www.virginia.edu/sociology/peopleofsociology/jhunter.htm

Back after Connecting Hiatus

2010-03-23T16:30:00.005-04:00

A little over two years ago, having deemphasized my nightly reading of the dead, English puritans, I closed down this blog of Puritan paraphrases. I'm reopening it today! It was my hope that, by now, it would be written by a group of men with whom I would be laboring full-time in effective ministry. I ventured out in an attempt to connect with like-minded men to bear fruit to the Glory of the Father via good works. I'm not back with a group of men, BUT I've learned a lot about the possibilites & challenges of connections within the Body of Christ and my hope of a group-blog is simmering on a back burner.
I will be posting primarily about two subjects in the coming months:

1) My experiences attempting to connect with the Body of Christ to do ministry and some analysis and pointers to well-written links of how Christians can connect to minister to this Society together. I thank the Spirit of Christ that there is much bubbling up on this front these days, especially inter-denominationally.

2) Piggybacking on James Davison Hunter's just-published book, To Change the World, I want to draft posts about how Christians can rethink power and the creation of new, powerful institutions with the goal of Christians working together to transform and impact this disintegrating world. I hope you enjoy it enough to return often.

Partnering in Ministry with Living Men

2008-02-19T22:17:00.004-05:00

I have become intensely intentional about partnering closely with Today's Body of Christ -- thus spending much less time with my dead, Puritan friends (see this post On Time-Traveling: http://affectionsfixedabove.blogspot.com/2007/01/on-time-traveling.html). After moving this blog to WordPress for the past year, I shut it down for good in February, 2008. I hope to one day blog with a team of men with whom I am fiercely ministering daily working to increasingly make the Invisible Kingdom, Visible.

There is no one I desire except You

2007-05-25T08:06:00.000-04:00

In a letter to a friend while feeling ill, John Owen states:
“I pray to God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything except converse and communion with Him"

Communion: a noun
Close relationship, closeness, communing, concord, contact, converse, affinity, accord, agreement, association, fellowship, harmony, intercommunication, interaction, intimacy, participation, rapport, sympathy, togetherness, unity.

The Living and Active Word of God

2007-05-24T10:08:00.000-04:00

Excerpted from ABOVE ALL EARTHLY POWERS by David Wells.
"For it is certainly the case that the Word of God, read or preached, has the power to enter the innermost crevices of a person's being, to shine light in unwanted places, to explode the myths and deceits by which fallen life sustains itself, and to bring that person face to face with the eternal God. It is this biblical Word which God uses to bring repentance, to excite faith, to give new life, to sustain that life once given, to correct, nurture, and guide the Church.”

Blaise Pascal On Writing

2007-05-23T16:09:00.000-04:00

In what I am writing, let no one think I am saying anything new. It is only the arrangement of my material that may be new. For it is like a game of tennis, where we both play with the same ball, but one of us uses it to better advantage. So I would like it to be said that I am simply using well-worn words in a new framework. For when familiar thoughts are rearranged, they simply present a different way of communicating the truth. [So too, we can rearrange our words to edify the Body of Christ].

Spurgeon on the Puritans

2007-04-29T14:18:00.000-04:00

"When we take down a volume of Puritan theology, we find in a solitary page more thinking and more learning, more Scripture, more real teaching, than in whole folios of the effusions of modern thought. The modern man would be RICH if he possessed even the crumbs that fall from the table of the Puritans."

C.S. Lewis on the clean sea breeze of old books

2007-04-26T08:03:00.000-04:00

The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.

Glad Resurrection Day

2007-04-06T08:36:00.000-04:00

Hebrews 9:26b-28

But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him!

Christ, our Endless Fountain of Affection

2007-04-06T07:46:00.001-04:00

Excerpt from the Sermon, The Preciousness of Christ by Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

Reflect on Christ’s perfect humanity that went to the Cross for the Glory of His Father and the redemption of men - a humanity free from sin, and therefore capable of dying for the ungodly, -a humanity laden with sorrow, and therefore capable of sympathizing with us when we are burdened.

Precious to our hearts as God- precious as Man- precious as both united in One- inconceivably and eternally precious. His name is "Wonderful," to us who believe. When other human friendships fade, and other human love is chilled, and other human sympathy is exhausted, you may look to the Finisher of your faith, and find in Him an evergreen, a permanent stream, an endless, pure fountain of unchanged affection, tenderness, and sympathy, meeting and satisfying, to their utmost capacity, your heart's deep pantings.

Always a need for Forbearance, right sweetie!?

2007-03-26T15:09:00.000-04:00

Except from Mutual Forbearance by J.R. Miller (1840-1912)

We need to guard against A CRITICAL SPIRIT. It is very easy to find fault with people. It is possible, even with ordinary glasses, to see many things in one another that are not what they ought to be. Then some people carry microscopes with which they can find countless blemishes in the character and conduct even of the most saintly dwellers on the earth. There are some who are always watching for slights and grievances. They are suspicious of the motives and intentions of others. This habit is directly at variance with the law of love, which thinks no evil.

We turn to our Pattern of Conduct, Jesus Christ. Does He look upon us sharply, critically, suspiciously? He sees every infirmity in us, but it is as though He did not see it. His love overlooks it. He throws a veil over our faults. He continues to pour His own love into us in spite of all our blemishes and our ill-treatment of Him. The duty of Christian forbearance requires the same in us. We must not keep our selfish suspicions ever on the watch-tower or at the windows, looking out for neglects, discourtesies, wrongs, or grievances of any kind. We must not be hasty to think evil of others. We had better be blind, not perceiving at all the seeming rudeness or insult. It is well not to hear all that is said, or, if we do hear we would do well to ignore it.

Many bitter quarrels have grown out of IMAGINED slights or misunderstandings. If a few moments had been taken to determine the truth, there wouldn’t have been any need for ill-feeling.

We should also seek to understand the MOTIVE which prompts the apparent grievance. In many cases, the cause of our grievance is utterly unintentional, chargeable to nothing worse than thoughtlessness—possibly meant even for kindness. It is never fair to judge men by every word they speak or everything they do amid the irritations of busy daily life. Many a gruff man carries a good heart and a sincere friendship under his coarse manner. The best does not always come to the surface. We should never, therefore, hastily imagine evil intention in others. Nor should we allow ourselves to be easily persuaded that our companions or friends meant to treat us unkindly. A disposition to look favorably upon the conduct of our fellow-men is a wonderful absorber of the frictions of life.

The Blessing of Waiting long on the Lord

2007-03-23T12:21:00.000-04:00

Excerpted from Waiting on God by Andrew Murray (1828–1917)

You say, I have waited for Him a very long time, yet He does not give the help I seek. There is a double answer. The one is this. God is a wise husbandman, who "waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience in waiting for it (James 5:7). He cannot gather the fruit until it is ripe. He knows when we are spiritually ready to receive the blessing to our profit and His glory. Waiting in the sunshine of His love is what will ripen the soul for His blessing. Waiting under the cloud of trial, that breaks in showers of blessing, is as necessary. Be assured that if God waits longer than you would wish, it is only to make the blessing doubly precious. God waited four thousand years, until the fullness of time, before He sent His Son. Our times are in His hands.

Giving Christ the Highest Place in our hearts

2007-03-11T12:55:00.000-04:00

Excerpted from the Compleat Body of Divinity, Sermon 2, Man is to Glorify God, by Samuel Willard.
Samuel Willard (1640-1707) was pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, President of Harvard College, and some refer to him as the "Last of the Puritans." Next Sunday, if you like, you can attend the venerable Old South Church in Boston and take part in the oh-so-friendly and inclusive Old South Church Gay and Lesbian Christian Fellowship. Satan knows history, even if we don't, and gleefully attacks former Christian strongholds .

We are to glorify and magnify God in our hearts. We do this by entertaining esteemed thoughts about Him and fixing compelling ideas of His Being in our minds. When we employ our minds in developing attractive apprehensions of God, we honor Him in our hearts. And our love for Him causes us to give Him the highest place in our hearts.

We exalt Him by our vigorous adoration of the Goodness we have discovered in Him. We also greatly fear Him because we have grasped His relative Greatness and Power compared to all of Creation.

We glorify and magnify Him by learning to rest the whole weight of our souls on Him. We trust nothing else. The more fully, calmly, and resolvedly we can place our confidence in Him alone, the more we honor and thereby glorify Him.

He Pours out His Spirit on the Least of These

2007-03-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from A Time of Refreshing by Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne (1813-1843)

GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF ALL WORKS OF GRACE? “I will pour,” He says.

It is God who begins a work of anxiety in dead souls. So it is in Zechariah 12:10: “I will pour out the Spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and mourn.” And so the promise is in John 16:8,9: “When He is come, He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me.” If any of you have been awakened, it is God, and God alone, that has done it. It is God who originates the work in individuals and it is He who furthers and sustains the work.

It is God who empowers and enlarges His people for work in this world. [There is no need to wring our hands at the state of the 21st Century Church – when the Holy Spirit of God wills a powerful, unified, invisible Church, it will be so.] If ever we are to see the children of God, greatly enlarged, hearts filled with joy, lips filled with praises, if ever we are to see God's children thriving like willows beside broad streams, filled with all the fulness of God—God must pour down his Spirit. He must fulfil His Word for he is the Author and Finisher of all works of grace: “I will pour.”

Let us learn to look beyond our able pastors and preachers for powerful works of grace. God has given much honour to his ministers, but not the exclusive pouring out of the Spirit. This pouring is for all: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, God says, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

“It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”

The Natural man and the Spiritual man

2007-03-02T11:30:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from Jonathan Edward’s Miscellaneous Observations on Important Theological Subjects

The Bible calls men without saving grace and the Holy Spirit, natural men. We are instructed that these natural men cannot discern, or receive spiritual things (1COR. 2:14). The spiritual man is, in essence, the converted man, mysteriosly placed in union with Christ, who has the Spirit of Christ living inside him. [all of these modern people who declare that they are “spiritual,” but not religious are not spiritual at all unless they have the Spirit of Christ living inside them]. Although the natural man concerns himself with many difficulties inside himself and from outside himself, he does not even perceive a fundamental tragedy about himself: without the Spirit of Christ, even the words to describe the Glory or God or the joys of our riches in Christ are without meaning. Words and ideas from the Scripture are as colors to a blind man.

The godly man having the planting of the Holy Spirit to enliven him, can perceive spiritual reality and even relish it. Often, we who have been given this magnificent gift of the Spirit of Christ living inside us, should thank God profoundly.

If we had been consulted

2007-03-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from the sermon, God’s Ways above Mens’ by Edward Payson (published 1831)

One way in which God’s ways and His thoughts are shown to be far, far above ours is the way God has permitted the introduction of natural and moral evil and permits it to continue. Although He could have certainly established reality differently, and forbid the fall of angels first, and then men, His superior ways have allowed the rebellion of angels and men and the attendant suffering of both. Not only did He permit the introduction of natural and moral evil, He allows it to go on longer than many good men can bear. If we had been consulted, many would counsel Him not to allow the variable of sin to even enter the world, or if it must, then certainly it should be banished more quickly. [God’s Glory is best exalted by what is, and thank God, He consults no mere man or angel. His Son is glorified and exalted above everything and is all in all].

The blessed art of Killing your SELF

2007-02-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

My meditation on Jesus' Demand to Deny our SELF

As far as you are concerned, you yourself are God's greatest rival.

It is astonishing when you realize how much SELF — self-seeking, self-admiration, self-dependence, yourself insisting on it's own way, self-comfort, security of the self, fun for the self —enters into almost every thought and intention of your day. Even setting dreadful self-righteousness aside, our natural man is there always in the way, jumping up & down, between us and the Glory of God.

Our hearts deceive us as we seek SELF's praise in what we supposedly do for God or for other men & women in the Body of Christ. How keen we are, especially those standing in front of the crowd, for the admiration and applause of other people. Did you feel SELF swell last Sunday when the people lined up to congratulate your sermon? How eager is SELF to be pre-eminent, to be seen as exalted above our peers.

How intensely do men work if they see some advantage over another or the possibility for SELF to be seen as "rightly" more important than another man. How fiercely and with cunning will a man seek a position in which other men will defer to his opinions. How many sought-after career promotions are unvarnished attempts to appear more valuable than the others? How many Mothers groom and discipline their little ones so that they appear "rightly" superior to the other children? How many youths are driven to study not to serve or glorify God, but rather to surpass others so that SELF is exalted as it deserves and the coveted entrance to that University is realized, which will almost certainly seal their doom. How deceitful is this self-esteem trumpet blasting in our elementary schools.

Count the ways that your SELF draws you away from the very heart of God!

The work of yourself is stealthy and devious and its influence and power are extensive. The spirit of a man knows the man and armed with this knowledge the corrupt heart deceives the man and draws him from seeing his moment-by-moment need of Christ's Throne of Grace, and worse, draws him from loving God with his whole heart — to loving and serving SELF moment-by moment with his whole corrupt heart.

Only by persistent death and denial of the SELF (the blessed art of mortifying our sin natures, that is so hard to learn) can we keep this rival from perverting our motives, lowering our aspirations, and corrupting our affections that are to be turned away from SELF to Things Above.

O, Christians, declare relentless war on this enemy, SELF who obscures and robs God of his rightful, thorough Glory.

I learned this because this is my heart. Dearest Savior, rescue me from my SELF!

More love to you on this Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T16:13:00.000-05:00

Excerpt from Of Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost by John Owen (1657)

The Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts (Rom. 5:5).

This refers to the love of God to us and not our love to God. It encompasses God’s love in accomplishing His purposes to do us good and His gracious love of acceptance and approval. Both these are called the love of God in Scripture. Now, how can these be poured into our hearts? By giving us a spiritual understanding of them. God pours the Holy Spirit abundantly on us who persuades us that God loves us so that our souls become filled with joy and comfort. This is His work and He does it effectively. To persuade a poor, sinful soul that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is well pleased with him and only has thoughts of kindness towards him is an inexpressible mercy. [To persuade a man further that this delight continues forever is a consolation beyond belief].

This is the special work of the Holy Spirit and by this special work we have communion with the Father in His love, which is poured into our hearts. So not only do we rejoice in and glorify the Holy Spirit who does this work, but in the Father also, whose love it is. It is the same in respect of the Son, as the loving Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and reveals them to us. What we have of heaven in this world lies in this work of the Holy Spirit who loves us. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Satiated at last

2007-02-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

Affections Fixed Above

2007-02-12T08:42:00.001-05:00

Excerpt from The Saint’s Everlasting Rest by Richard Baxter (1652)

There is great value in a heart set upon heaven. Affections fixed above is the way to live with vitality and abundantly. It is the best preventive against temptations. It will be your best comfort in troubles. It will make you most helpful to others. It will greatly glorify and honor God.

A heart set upon heaven is an evidence of your sincerity. If you ask, "How can I know that I am truly being sanctified?" this will provide a sure sign from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself—"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). God is the saints' treasure and happiness; Heaven and the New Earth is the place where they can fully enjoy Him and live in the brightness of his full Presence. A heart, therefore, set upon heaven, is a heart set upon God. Christians, if you would like a proof of your title to glory, keep your thoughts on heaven. You stand in the very vestibule of Heaven.

Every generation must pray against indifference

2007-02-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

Written by Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne in 1838.

There is nothing more distressing in our day than the lack of growth among the children of God. They do not seem to be pressing forward; they do not seem to be running a race; they don't perceive the spiritual war on Earth and in the Heavenlies. When I compare this year with last year, alas! where is the difference?—the same weakness, same coldness and even more indifference toward divine things.

How different when the Spirit is poured out! They will become like willows beside the river. You have seen the willow, how it grows—not stopping day or night, ever growing, ever shooting out new branches. Cut it down—it springs again. Ah! so will it be, dear Christians, when there is an outpouring by the Spirit of Christ, the wind filling our sails.

Letter to a prisoner

2007-02-08T15:58:00.001-05:00

Dear Morris,

Interesting Question: why has God chosen this difficult path for you? Or, you ask, with all the previous suffering and anguish I’ve known, is this current added burdensome trial really necessary? Put another way, why is the Providence of God so severe for some and not others? Great theological minds have grappled greatly with this. I have little to offer because I too am perplexed by why God’s paths for people are so different. Why do some with as much faith and trust in God as you have, never seem to find a place of steady comfort and a position of strength to live from. I know that someone in your current situation, does not want shallow, petty, glib answers to things.

Over the last few years, I had two close Christian friends die. In both cases, I spent a lot of time with them in their final two years to comfort them in their spiritual distress. Both were extraordinarily passionate in their faith in God and their love for Him. They seemed less concerned about their physical ailments than the bigger questions of why their lives were so unfulfilled. Both died unfulfilled, feeling that they had very little to show by way of service and fruit for the Lord. I encouraged both of them that God took delight in the fact that they “loved Him through the pain.” I counsel you to do the same.

Tell God that you are confused AND disappointed by the painful path He laid out for you to walk, but also tell Him of your desire to love Him dearly because of who He is and ask Him to build deep trust in His Sovereignty, Love, and Infinite Wisdom. As hard as it is to believe, He means to do you good by His severe dealings with you. Remember, as you read Job, God didn’t answer Job’s questions; He rather showed up as the powerful, majestic God and Job was silenced. But let me speculate that perhaps God knows you so well, that in His Wisdom He knew that without this severe path to humble you and crush your self-dependence, you would have destroyed yourself. You would have cheerfully taken the broad path to hell. Perhaps God knew that without these severe obstacles, you would have been eternally undone. It is your pain that has caused you to ponder the right questions and make attempts to deeply trust Him.

In your current situation of brokeness, remember that God adores a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Ask God for wisdom. Ask God for Meekness and Humility. Ask God for deeper trust in Him. Ask God for the miracle of giving you deep contentment in Him even there in Prison. Ask God to cause the fruit of His Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) to grow so much in your heart, that it bursts out to bless everyone around you. Ask God for one of the greatest of all gifts: a zeal for His Glory. Then wait. You might have to wait 10 years for these fantastic gifts, but persevere in asking and you will know an unspeakable joy, even here on Earth. All of these gifts come directly from God (they are not native to your corrupt heart) and He tells us to ask for what we want. Let the suffering you have known lead you to a place of godly desire. And finally, dear friend, I encourage to practice the hard discipline of THANKING God for the difficult, painful path He has chosen for you.

Prosperity injures the Ungodly; Adversity blesses the Godly

2007-02-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

Inspired from reading the journal of Whitmore Winslow, son of Octavius (1850)

Simmering behind the scenes of our daily meandering is this persistent wish that things would go smoothly. If I could get this new job or this difficult co-worker would just move on, or my daughter would be less surly toward her Mom, my life would be so much easier. But, how detestable we would all become if our lives were smooth like we wished them to be. How indifferent and lifeless we are until stirred up by adverse circumstances. O, how we should cherish every chastisement and difficult circumstance we receive from the Lord! The Lord Jesus, who adores us, sends these adversities that He knows we need so badly.

We sometimes envy worldly unbelievers because they seem to go on selfishly hurting all around them, and yet prosper year after year. But, as David concluded, things are not as they appear, to our time-bound perception. God leaves the ungodly to the course they have chosen for themselves, until one day they awake at the judgement, defenseless. Their prosperity is not the blessing they imagine it to be. It is a judgment against their enmity with God, their neglect and contempt for the means of grace, and their indifference to the suffering people around them. All of their efforts are driven by self-interest and if there is any generosity, it ends (like the Mafia) with their immediate family. The best things in this life harm the ungodly; the worst things bless the godly. Oh, how blind we often are to the truth of how Life really is. The Infinite Wisdom of God confounds the ungodly as it confounds those doomed, evil principalities and powers at work in the heavenlies.

But He watches over every step of His children as He corrects them, sometimes gently, other times severely. With the care of the Only all-wise, deeply loving Father, all that He does is for our good now and forever. O, what a mysterious life the godly weave.

Best Book of 2006

2007-01-31T08:21:00.000-05:00

After many considerations, my favorite "book" of 2006 is free online:
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/Henry_on_Meekness.html

Affliction Redirecting our Gaze

2007-01-29T08:17:00.001-05:00

My contemplation inspired by the sermon, “Light Affliction and Eternal Glory” preached in 1857, by J. C. Philpot

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen– for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:17, 18

Affliction "for a moment," glory eternal. All of these relatively light sufferings and sorrows in this speck of time will result in a weighty, eternal glorification in Christ.
Our natural bent is to look continually at "the things which are seen." Day by day we stare at the things that surround us; those things with which we have much to do. Our employment, legitimate cares, duties to our families and friends, recreational amusements, the disciplines of daily living– all are saying, "Look to me! think of me, this has got to be done! The things which are seen include:
> What the natural eye can rest on
> What the natural ear hears
> What the natural heart plans
> What the tongue declares.
In a word, it is all of which our natural life consists. Grace alone enables us to look at the superior eternal, unseen things.

Out of proportion, things of time and sense drown our spiritual longings for the Lord Jesus. The natural man bullies the spiritual man, opposing spiritual appetite, entangling our affections, and dragging us from the heavenlies to earth.

But in abundant thanks, we welcome the affliction brought on us by the persistent grace of the Lord that loosens the grip of things seen. Thank God, He has an “affliction in his treasure-house” that he commissions as a messenger to rescue the withering soul of the earth-bound saint.

Shattered dreams interrupt our stare at the things that surround us, and reveal to us mercifully, that He has not really had first place in our affections. As sanctified affliction purifies our spiritual sight, eternal things come into view with their solemn, healing weight of glory. We see the glorious truth that compared with these eternal realities, the things of time are not worth the attention we give them. The affections of our hearts reverse and begin to flow heavenward.

We see more clearly how lovely and precious is our Jesus and worthy of all our best affections. Under affliction's sharp, gracious discipline, we begin at last to press forward towards heaven and glory! This speck of time is swallowed up in a glimpse of an eternal weight of glory and a spiritual bud pops inside us as we realize that these eternal, unseen glories stretch into ages following ages followed by a billion more ages, our perceptions of the attributes of God weighing heavier and heavier in their glory. Now we give thanks for trial and affliction– blessing the Father of Lights for the sanctifying effect it produces; and we praise God with all our hearts that he was kind enough to lay his rod upon us and we say with David, "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept your word."

Celebrating our Strong Tower

2007-01-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

excerpted from THE NIGHT WATCHES by John MacDuff (1818-1895)

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Proverbs 18:10

Celebrate the strong Tower of OMNIPOTENCE. The One and Only Almighty is on your side. There is One with you and for you, limitless in His resources, greater by far than anything allied against you!

Celebrate the strong Tower of UNCHANGEABLENESS. All earthly fabrics are disintegrating around you and your earthly refuges are dust. But, sheltered here in this immutable Tower, you can stand unawed by all the fitful changes of life, while courageously exulting in an unchanging God!

Celebrate the strong Tower of INFINITE WISDOM. When circumstances are dark and rebukes bewildering, retire within this fortress and remind yourself that all, all that befalls He planned in infallible righteousness and loving faithfulness. Behold, inscribed on your chamber-walls, "The only Wise God! has done this."

Celebrate the strong Tower of LOVE. What a comfort to retire into this most hallowed of citadels, and read the living motto emblazoned on its every turret- "God is love!" He has set His Love on you from everlasting. My soul, you are safe forever in this unassailable fortress!

This is the citadel where His saints are "guarded" by the power of God. We can hear, amid the surges of life, a voice high above the storm, the Name of the Lord- "Fear not, It is I!" "It is I," I, your Master and Redeemer. I, the Commander of winds and waters. I, the One Lord given all Power over Heaven and Earth. I, the God of Spirits. Oh, sweet and powerful Word of a gracious Savior! It is I, able to calm all your hardships - It is I, able to revive your sore heart – Celebrate, O soul, you are safe forever in this Strong Tower!

The comfort in distrusting our hearts

2007-01-26T11:04:00.000-05:00

From The Full Corn in the Ear, by John Newton (1725-1807)

The mature Christian is as completely dependent on Christ for performing spiritual feats or resisting temptations as he was at the first day of his setting out. Yet he is much stronger, because he has a more constant awareness of his own weakness and natural corruption. The Lord has long been teaching him this lesson by a trying series of circumstances and through grace he can gladly say that he has not suffered these things in vain. His heart has deceived him so often, that he is now weaned from trusting to it and having found again and again the uselessness of all other helps, he is now taught to go to the Lord at once for "grace to help in every time of need." Thus he is strong, not in himself, but in the increasing grace that is in Christ Jesus.

On Time-Traveling

2007-01-23T15:41:00.002-05:00

A funny thing happened to me on my way to the 21st Century. I traveled back in time. The advent of the World Wide Web introduced me to the writings of the English Puritans-the original Oxford university men, many of whom studied for 16 hours a day before they emerged into their pastorates. Once discovered, I immersed myself deeply in their writings. I had been a doctrinally-starved Christian seeking depth for 25 years— reading the 17th Century Puritans was like eating spiritual steak every day. Thomas Vincent, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson, and Thomas Manton became my daily, joyfully serious companions. John Flavel and Richard Baxter introduced concepts I’d never conceived. I bewildered friends and co-workers with a new emphasis on the Providence of God and the importance of affliction for “growth in grace.” In this therupeutically-charged century I was talking about the curing of souls, the importance of “self-abasement, and the dangers of prosperity. I embarassed my Sunday School class talking about “ejaculatory” prayer. The spirit of the age I was living in was jarring to the spirit of this age. I love being curled in my easy chair, imagination yoked upon precept-on-precept wafting me back to my 17th Century companions. They are such learned men, expressing deep truth one sermon after another:
1) Text
2) Doctrine
3) Application,

and again
1) Text
2) Doctrine
3) Application

and yet again
1) Text
2) Doctrine
3) Application, on &on... insight upon insight in the verities of spiritual life.

My practical, pragmatic wife lives firmly in the 21st Century – I like visiting her, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Sometimes, I travel in time 20,000 years hence to that place where me and all the Thomases are dancing together …shining like stars in the light of the Lord…

Zealous Ambition

2007-01-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

Quote from Charles H. Spurgeon

“Aspire to be something more than the mass of church members. Lift up your cry to God and beseech him to fire you with a nobler ambition than that which possesses the common Christian—that you may be found faithful unto God at the last, and may win many crowns for your Lord and Master, Christ.”

Approach the King of Grace BOLDLY

2007-01-18T08:07:00.000-05:00

From Spiritual Growth by A.W. Pink

The need for increased grace is real and imperative. An active nature such as man’s must either grow worse or better, and therefore we should be as deeply concerned about the increase of grace as we should be cautious against the weakening of our graces. The infusion of grace into a soul swiftly evokes the enmity of the flesh. The Christian life is a pulling against the current of the flesh from within and the world from without, and they who row against these powerful streams must row fiercely and continuously. [The quality of our service, in part, depends on this fierce fight for increased grace]. We are invited to approach the throne of grace boldly, and to drink deeply from the fountain of “the exceeding riches of his grace.” "God is able to make all grace abound toward you." (2 Cor. 9:8)

We must take the Lord’s warning in His parable seriously: the man who did not improve his talent, lost it.

Increasing Christ's Delight in us

2007-01-16T09:39:00.000-05:00

A meditation on 2 Peter 3:18: Grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We are charged to grow in the grace of Jesus Christ. The foremost definition of grace is favor. We are to grow in Christ’s favor. The satisfaction of eternity is that we will be severed completely from our sin natures that hinder us, so that we can purely delight over Christ as He delights over us. This is our destiny. But, we can begin that mutual delight now. The degree of the Christian’s joy here & now depends on how much he delights in Christ and Christ delights in him. To increase someone’s delight in us is to increase in those things that give him pleasure. Therefore, to increase Jesus’ delight in us is to discover what brings him pleasure and ensure that we abound in those things. This is often one of those obvious truths that escape us.

So, we must labor to discover what brings pleasure and delight to Jesus. Jesus certainly delights in the attributes of His Father, therefore as we strengthen and improve the Christlike graces given to us, such as our forgiveness & forbearance toward others, generosity, gladness in God, zeal for God’s Glory, meekness, or patience, we thus grow in the favor of Jesus Christ. We grow as He delights in us and we delight in Him…forever.

This growth in God’s favor is an imitation of Jesus. In Scripture, the child Jesus Himself was said to increase in the favor of both God and men. Let us study what pleases our Lord and find whatever means we can to increase those things that He delights in.

Living for Jesus

2007-01-15T11:04:00.000-05:00

Breaking my tradition for the 1^st time, here is my first post from a quote by a living man; from Transforming Leadership by Leighton Ford:

Those living and leading to further Christ's Kingdom are leaders marked by loyalty, for they seek another's cause, by fidelity, for they tell another's truth; by humility, for they accept another's results; by constancy, for they wait on another's time; and by expectancy, for they dream of another's glory.

On Longing for a Better Country

2007-01-13T17:59:00.000-05:00

By Thomas Manton from the book by Charles H. Spurgeon, Illustrations and Meditations: Flowers from a Puritan's Garden

Our spirits within us are restrained like a fish in a pail which would rather be at liberty in the ocean. We are pent up longing for a larger estate – to be filled with all the fullness of God. We feel cribbed, cabined, and confined as our renewed spirits desire a nobler sphere of activity. We are like the infant chick pecking at its shell eager to break through to a bigger realm. Be thankful for these pangs because your renewed heart will indeed experience the perfection of the saints and enjoy face to face communion with God. How sad if you were satisfied with this broken world in the midst of these lower things. [You are made for a much better country, where there is not even need for sun or moon but where you will delight and luxuriate in the light of the Lamb.]

Grace upon Grace

2007-01-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

from Spiritual Growth by A.W. Pink

The principle of grace or new nature which is bestowed on the saint is but a creature [a created thing], and though intrinsically holy it is entirely dependent upon its Author for strength and growth. And thus we must distinguish between the grace given at the time of our new birth and fresh supplies of grace for its invigoration and development.

As Peter expresses it "grace... be multiplied unto you," for nothing less than grace "multiplied" will enable any Christian to grow and thrive.

Tribute from a Piper nerd

2007-01-10T21:50:00.000-05:00

From Lessons at the Cross: or Spirtual Truths by Samuel Hopkins, 1864

God is the Life of the soul. There in the soul is God loved, God adored, God as the focal point, God as the center, and the aspiration of all its affections; full of joy when full of God. All the powers and desires of the soul are framed and fitted for God. The eyes of the heart are widened by the affectionate perception of God.

But God is known only through the Son. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God and the soul receives it's food, light, joy, and "the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ." His Son is the brightness of the Father's Glory and the express image of His Person. Christ is Bread to the soul and Life to the body.

As our souls pursue His Son in our affectionate perception of His excellence and we eagerly search into His glory, we find Life, Righteousness, Redemption, Wisdom, and Sanctification. Our spiritual vision is attuned to the Beauty of Christ. Our spiritual appetite is whetted for that Bread. We are Home when our affections are lavished on Christ alone.

Not at Home + Bonus discovery

2007-01-07T21:17:00.000-05:00

Excerpt from the book pictured there to the left.

Heaven is now the believer's native country. Here he is out of his proper place. We are exiles in spirit while at home here in the body. We will not be truly at home until we reach the land we can't now see. We are living paradoxes and contradictions and thus it is no wonder that men of this world cannot understand us --- we hardly know ourselves.

BONUS: Please Read. One of my favorite discoveries recently has been how to harness "Google Book Search" to find old gems.

Google is scanning in thousands of books from approximately 10 major libraries including UVa, Harvard, a major British Library, and the New York Public Library. Many of these works are collections of sermons from the 1800s and anthologies of sermons from the 1700s. There are gems awaiting your discovery. Many are available as .PDF downloads if they are in the public domain, as most sermon collections are.

This link will take you to the "Advanced Search" page of Google Book Search: http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search I suggest that you click on "Full View books." Since you are retrieving mostly sermons from the 1800s and anthologies of sermons from the 1700s, use the KJV. Type in part of a KJV verse that you find intrigueing and peruse the sermons that come up.

Or, just search by words or phrases like you would "google" anything. The real gem I used for this post came up when I asked for a search on "Thomas Manton." Enjoy.

http://books.google.com/books?vid=0Rk1fjF_hecqWpA4&amp;amp;id=vwMDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA269&dq=inauthor:%22Thomas+Manton%22&num=30&as_brr=1#PPP12,M1

The nature of spiritual hunger

2007-01-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from The Beatitudes by Thomas Watson (1620—1686)
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

This is a blessed spiritual hunger after righteousness. By hunger here, Jesus means desire or appetite for that which the soul values. Here is a blessed man who recognizes that he lacks righteousness in himself.

He wants righteousness. What is meant by righteousness? Scripturally, righteousness is twofold: (1) imputed righteousness, and (2) implanted righteousness. Imputed righteousness is Christ’s Righteousness given to us through faith – and since Christ is our Righteousness, God looks upon us as if we had never sinned. ‘You are complete in him!’ (Colossians 2:10). He who has this Righteousness is equal to the most renowned saints. The weakest believer is justified as much as the strongest. This is a Christian’s triumph. When he is corrupt in himself, he is incorrupt in his Head, Jesus Christ. In this blessed Righteousness we shine brighter than the angels. This Righteousness, the blessed man discovers, is worth hungering after.

Implanted righteousness is planted in our hearts when the Spirit of Christ enters us. It is the seed of sanctification toward righteousness as the blessed Holy Spirit improves our gifts of graces, increases holiness of heart and life, and leads us into all truth. A blessed man hungers after this. This shows that we have His Life in us. A dead man cannot hunger. Hunger proceeds from life. This appetite is as much from God as [the Bread of Life that satisfies it].

Jesus is a Patient, Kind, Gentle Refiner

2006-12-28T21:37:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from Helps from the Pulpit, or Sketches and Skeltons of Sermons by William Nicholson, 1862

Christ sits and watches by the furnace He has put you in as the Great Refiner. He manages the whole process wisely and with compassion. He sits there to regulate the heat, comforting you, while keeping in mind your particular infirmities and weaknesses. He watches as the dross is drained to accomplish improvement in your soul, your graces, and your practice, conforming you further to His Image.

Real gold receives no injury from fire, only the removal of dross reduces its size. Pure gold does not lose one grain of dross. In the Day of His Coming, when He will sit as a Refiner, in a Day of deep distress and great tribulation, as the Church is refined it will be made less in bulk and quantity, yet in quality it will shine more gloriously and purely, and be more precious to God.

Affection for George Whitefield

2006-12-27T17:53:00.000-05:00

from a letter by Mrs. Jonathan Edwards, Sarah Peirpont, to a minister in New Haven recommending that he heartily welcome George Whitefield, dated 1740.

He is a born orator. It is perfect music to listen to his melodious voice. And he speaks so easily, without any apparent effort. I have seen more than a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence. He impresses both the ignorant and the refined, educated men here. Moreover, he is a very devout and godly man and his only goal seems to be to reach and influence men in the best way. He speaks from a heart all aglow with love. James, when he reaches New Haven, show him warm hospitality.
Yours, in faithful affection, Sarah.

Your Enemy!

2006-12-22T10:36:00.000-05:00

An excerpt from Joseph Alleine’s, Alarm to the Unconverted (1671)
note to Pastors: try preaching this one next Sunday!

"I myself, the Sovereign Lord, am now your enemy!"
Ezekiel 5:8

"O consider this, you who forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver!" (Psalm 50:22)

Submit to mercy. Let not dust and stubble battle against the Almighty. "Woe to him who strives with his Maker!" (Isaiah 45:9)

You who neglect God and revel in unbelief, know that you are not only against God--but God is against you!

As there is no friend like Him--so there is no enemy like Him. As much as heaven is above the earth, so is His omnipotence above your powerlessness. How terrible it is to fall into the hands of the living God, a consuming fire. Who or what will deliver you when God Himself becomes your tormentor!? If He sends you strong delusion, how will you return?

The infinite God is engaged against you! He hates all workers of iniquity. Doesn't your heart tremble to think of your being an object of God's hatred as you store up wrath for the Day of Wrath?

"As surely as I live, when I sharpen My flashing sword and begin to carry out justice, I will bring vengeance on My enemies and repay those who hate Me!" (Deuteronomy 32:40-41)

The power of God is mounted like a mighty cannon against you--and omnipotent power and anger together make fearful work. Fear Him and plead for love to Him, thankfulness, for repentence and to be reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ.

An Infinite Gospel

2006-12-13T15:35:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from a Charles H. Spurgeon sermon:
Some modern divines whittle away the Gospel to the small end of nothing; they make our Divine Lord to be a sort of blessed nobody; they bring down salvation to mere possibility; they make certainties into probabilities and treat verities as mere opinions. When you see a preacher making the Gospel smaller by degrees, and miserably less, till there is not enough of it left to make soup for a sick grasshopper, get you gone with him! As for me, I believe in an infinite God, an infinite atonement, infinite love and mercy, an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, and of which the substance and reality is an Infinite Christ.

Our Wonder-Filled Privileges as Those Called To Love God

2006-11-07T11:51:00.000-05:00

A summary from True Lovers of God Highly Privileged: or, The Great Comfort of Believers in the Co-Operation of All Things for Their Good by Ralph Erskine, a sermon preached in 1647

Our love to God is rooted in God’s everlasting love to us!

All the attributes of God work for our good. His infinite wisdom, infinite goodness, infinite power, holiness, justice, infinity, eternity, unchangeableness, and faithfulness works for our good! This truth should take your breath away.

His grace is sufficient for us; His wisdom determines our paths: His power protects us or brings us to Him if we should die; His holiness sanctifies us; His unchangeableness consoles us; His Spirit of Truth leads us into all truth; His eternal existence guarantees our eternal happiness; His mercies toward us are new every morning and will come at us like ocean waves one after the other forever!

Not only all of His attributes work on our behalf, but so do His works. And again, not only all his works, but all his Words work for our good. In short, all the threatenings of the Word are for our motivation; all the promises of the Word are for our joy and consolation; all the precepts of the Word are for our direction and growth in wisdom & understanding; all the doctrines of the Word are for our instruction; and every story recorded in the Word, and every jot & title are for our edification. Again, not only all the Words and works of God work for our good, but also the very thoughts and purposes of God.