To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.
Posts by Jack
The Struggle for Joy
02 months ago
by Jack
in The Struggle for Joy
Recently the struggle for joy has been appearing in different ways in different parts of different communities that I am involved with. The struggle for a passionate connection to Christ often fills the hearts and minds of Christians as they compare where they are to where they were and where they are going. If I am a Christian and I know that I felt close to Christ and now don’t of course I want to go to a place where I can feel close to him. Oftentimes our reaction to losing joy is to say, “I want to go back to that place.” The struggle for joy should be centered around contending for our joy and defending our joy from the natural degeneration and sinfulness of this world.
The following few articles on joy have been percolating for some time in my mind and have just now steamed into publishable material. Thank the Lord for community, where ideas are put into practice and can be sharpened by both the bible and experience to the glory of God and the joy of men.
1 Corinthians In the Church
0This is taken from theresurgence.com article titled “Love Your (Theological) Enemies).”
In recent years my teaching and writing have taken me back repeatedly to 1 Corinthians 13, which takes a sober look at the impossibly high biblical standard for love.
The love in this passage is applicable to marriage, but Paul is also directly addressing the theological disagreements in the church. The Corinthians were plagued with controversies about worship, social class, and spiritual gifts. All of the things that divided them had theological entailments and implications. And all of their disagreements threatened to expose their loveless hearts.
So the Apostle Paul told them everything that love is—and everything that love isn’t. It is patient and kind. It isn’t rude or irritable. And so forth. 1 Corinthians 13 is a complete portrait of love for Christians caught up in controversy.
Total Church by Chester and Timmis
02 months ago
by Jack
in What We're Reading
Total church is a tiny volume on what a church is and what a church should do. The book itself admits that it is not a complete volume, because with most books on theology there is so much more to be written. Having read this book I can say that this is a great resource for those of you who are wondering how the church accomplishes what Christ has given us to do.
Pages: 207
Publisher: Re:Lit (Crossway)
Buy, rent, or own: This is a good one to buy if you have the money or borrow. It is a good book to go along other good books on the subject.
A bit of trivia: Chester and Timmis both live and minister in England.
Give Us Rest or (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]) by David Crowder
03 months ago
by Jack
in What We Are Listening To
In David Crowder Band’s last offering there are really four albums. The first tracks are a Gregorian mix between an old school Catholic mass (a trend through the whole album). The next few songs are a sequence of mellow beats. The next is a contemporary worship album which harkens back to Remedy, and the last songs are a tribute to A Collision, a bluegrass rockabilly rock show. You will like this album, I guarantee it.
Tracks: 34
Listen online or buy: This is an album to purchase and listen through several times, over and over again. Get this one digital, because if you buy the CD you will wear it out several times over.
Theme: The theme of Give Us Rest is the completion of the Christian faith. It is not as focused as Church Music, but has a variety of themes including death, love, life, and the grace of Jesus Christ in all situations.
Scandalous by D.A. Carson
03 months ago
by Jack
in What We're Reading
This book is a transcription of a series of lectures given by Dr. D.A. Carson during a Resurgence conference. It is a book on the life of Christ. It is reminiscent of a series of lectures and reads like a series of lectures, however it is an incredible resource on the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and different perspectives that Christ gives us on scripture.
Pages: 168
Buy or Rent: This is a good one to own. Carson is a brilliant writer and has a great mind on scripture.
Who is D.A. Carson? D.A. Carson is a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in Deerfield, Illinois. He is from Canada and loves Jesus. He is former pastor and is now a theologian. His background in ministry and his current theological endeavors gives him an incredible perspective and ability to teach the bible to intellectuals and lay people.
The Rage Against God by Peter Hitchens
03 months ago
by Jack
in What We're Reading
Famous atheist Christopher Hitchens has passed, but read this volume to see how his brother’s similar experiences brought him to Christ. Peter Hitchen’s book talks about grace, love, and the reality of the human experience. Hitchen’s book is entertaining, well written, and points to the grace of Jesus Christ.
Pages: 224
Buy, Rent, or Own: This is a good one to rent.
Who are the Hitchen’s brothers? Two world travelers and human observers who came to different perspectives on Christ. Christopher Hitchen’s is one of the world’s most famous atheists, while Peter has defended the faith against his brother’s attacks.
Imperishable
0Some people store up treasures for themselves on this earth through the church. They will put an unrighteous tax on their parishioners and make themselves rich. This is not what happened in the early church. In 1 Corinthians Paul exhorts the Corinthians to give money to the church in Jerusalem, not so that the church in Jerusalem could be rich but so that they would avoid poverty in the ancient sense. The difference between poverty then and poverty now is like the difference between poverty in the United States and poverty in India. Christ preached to the low and the church was composed of the lowest for the most part.
Persecution did not make the situation any better. At the beginning of the Nazi persecution the first step was to seize their assets and businesses. Imagine then the horror of what happened when these impoverished Christians had their lives taken away. If they had jobs they lost them. If they had unbelieving friends they were rejected. If they had unbelieving family they were rejected. This was the lot of the believer, and Peter, the author of 1 Peter, through the understanding of the Holy Spirit. This is why he begins his letter by reminding those who are being persecuted of the hope that they have in Christ for a better day.
Some Christians are so focused on the present that they lose their focus on heaven. This is easy to do in the American church because Americans have it remarkably well. We are blessed to live in a free society, which is incredibly rich and well off. Our diseases are not born of poverty they are born of wealth. We have heart disease, not small pox. Persecution is not a problem for the church in America, so when we think of heaven we are prone to think of earth.
However heaven is much better than earth. We have a limited scope because we believe we have reached a societal high in this country. We believe that we are at an apex. This was the opposite of how the early church had it. They had no great society in which to place their faith, and their faith in Christ had cost them a lot, so then why should they persevere? Why would they keep going?
The truth is that for all the graces our society has, it holds nothing to what God promises us in his word. Our pleasures will pass on, but 1 Peter 1:4 assures us that the graces God reflects to us will not. His heavens will go on forever, even when Western Civilization’s glories have all gone away. You cannot count on things that perish, you have to follow the word of God into an imperishable paradise. This is a paradise that is not earthly, and will cost you everything that you have on this earth.
Born Again to a Living Hope
0Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. – 1 Peter 1:3
There are times in our lives when what we are saved to might not be as present in our minds as the fact that we as Christians are saved. Oftentimes the beliefs that we don’t struggle with are ones that we are not confronting opposition to. There are times when our whole salvation can be called into question because of the opposition that we face. Peter opens his first letter to the church by reviewing what we are being saved to, and the rest of the book reviews the implications of that salvation. Peter solidifies the churches position on what they are born to.
Great Mercy
We are saved by mercy. Mercy is grace granted to believers. There once was a man named Jesus Christ who lived many years ago. He did not live as any other man but was instead perfect in all his ways. All men inherit a sinful nature from our forefather, Adam. Adam was a sinner as we are sinners. He was the first in a line of sinners that has gone through all of human history. Jesus was perfect. He was a spotless lamb who was sacrificed by sinners for sinners.
When Christ died he did so for sinners. However our mercy is not just found in Christ’s death. It is found in his glorious resurrection. When Christ died he did so that men could be raised. Christ was sacrificed so that sinners in the line of Adam might receive a new heart. We need only believe to be saved, because of the mercy of God.
Living Hope
When Christian’s die it is not the beginning of suffering or complete annihilation, rather we go to onto a greater life. This life with Christ is so great that the old life is put off. The greatest joys we experience on this earth are a foreshadowing of what will happen in heaven. When a Christian becomes a Christian his life is never over, simply goes through constant transformation. This transformation culminates in coming to be with God in heaven. This is a living hope.
No matter how hard life is we can trust in at least two things: the mercy of Christ and the living hope that we have in Christ. Those who come to Christ in faith have access to the great mercy of the Father and the living hope that is found in that mercy.
Biblical Abstinence
0During my senior year in high school I moderated two discussions on human sexuality. I was asked to do this by my life sciences teacher, one who I greatly respected. She was not, as far as I knew, a believer, but we had similar views on human sexuality to two different ends. I believe in abstinence for biblical reasons, while she believes in them for scientific ones. She rightly says that abstinence is effective 100% of the time. However she also believed that contraceptives should be made available and their proper use should be taught if passions were to be exercised. Over the past few years I have considered what that meant.
You don’t have to be a Christian to believe in a biblical principle. There are plenty of unbelievers who believe that murder and stealing are wrong. It is where conventional wisdom of man and what the bible says align that we often have to ask ourselves why we believe something, because our view of that topic may be distorted by cultural influences. Consider the command in Ephesians 5 for wives to submit to their husbands. This command was culturally supported for many centuries, but the reason why was often muddled leading to trouble. In Ephesians 5 Paul calls us to reflect the love and submission of Christ by husbands loving their wives and wives submitting to their husbands, but Western Civilization adopted this principle as a way to be prejudiced against women. Men who leverage their power over their wives abusively do not follow the bible, because they do not see the biblical reason for their wives to submit. They just assume that it is because they are supposed to lord over them, not as a reflection of the humility of Christ.
Abstinence is a powerful part of the Christian culture. It is a part of our cultural ethos to dedicate ourselves to a life of refraining from sexual contact until marriage. This is a biblical idea which started with the first man and woman. In Genesis 2:22-25 there is a marriage ceremony between Adam and his wife Eve. It is officiated by God, and afterwards in reflection the Holy Spirit quickened the hand of the writer of Genesis to write verse 24 which says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” Here we have a basic description of the standard of sexuality that the bible calls us to. We are to leave our parents, cling to our spouses, and have sex. All of this is after entering into a covenant with God and this other person that they would be as our flesh, as described in verse 23.
Adam and Eve’s courtship was very quick, and there were no other women for Adam to engage with sexually up until that point. So what about the time between when we start having sexual feelings towards others and when we get married? Isn’t it wrong to suppress your sexual desires? Why do we have sexual desires I will answer this question using the example of Christ.
Jesus Christ has existed eternally. He is the Son, the 2nd person of the trinity. He is in every way God. He is God with the Spirit and Father. He is one with them, and they are one with him. In being God Jesus is omnipresent. This is to say that Jesus Christ is God, and he is everywhere all the time. God is everywhere all the time. (Jeremiah 23:22-23) (more…)
Elect Exiles Part 2
0Persecuted Elect Exiles
The point of the election is not to give a man a meter by which he can judge salvation. Men cannot write some off as “unelect.” Rather election is the reflection of God’s grace of freedom from worrying. One of the most comforting verses in the bible is Romans 8:28 which reads: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Paul then goes on to explain that we have not only been elected but saved. Paul starts this passage out by saying that his present sufferings are not worthy of comparison to future glory.
Election is the fact that God is calling men to future glory. The call of God is a sure thing, God does not lie and he doesn’t change his mind. (Numbers 23:19) If you are called of God it is a sure thing. The assurance is of salvation. With salvation comes the glory of God. We are not just saved to suffer, we are saved to be glorified by God. You are not just elected to be a part of the family of God, you are elected to be an heir with Christ.
As Christians we inherit both the good and the bad. We are elected to suffer as Christ suffered, and then to be glorified as Christ has been glorified.
1 Peter is a letter to those who are suffering. Peter opens up with the fact that they are elect exiles to reflect to them one of the great attributes of God, his providence. God provides for the persecuted in times when they are well off and in times when they are not. He is the constant provider. He is the refuge for the chased, the contender for the wrongly persecuted, and the God of the everlasting covenant. He elected believers to have part in the inheritance of Christ, he devotes himself to giving us relief in their time of struggle, and dedicated himself to seeing that good would be done for us for all eternity. That my friends, is the doctrine of predestination