Is this what you believe?

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Man-pleaser or God-pleaser?

From Ray Ortlund, Jr....

'Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” . . . And Samuel said to Saul, “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”  1 Samuel 15:24-26

As a friend said to me years ago, if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of man is the beginning of folly.  Saul was given leadership.  But he was removed from leadership.  Why?  He feared the people more than he feared the Lord.  Pressured by that fear, he disobeyed the word of the Lord in order to obey the voice of the people.  In God’s eyes, this was not just any old sin; it was a disqualifying sin.

We who lead want to please people, of course.  We love them.  Paul said, “I try to please everyone in everything I do” (1 Corinthians 10:33).  But sometimes we can’t please people.  Sometimes we have to disappoint people we love dearly, in order to obey the Lord we love more dearly.  So Paul also said, “Am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?  Or am I trying to please man?  If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

When Paul faced a choice between pleasing himself and pleasing others, he pleased others.  When he faced a choice between pleasing others and pleasing Christ, he pleased Christ.

How do we elders know, at any given time, which way to go?  The Bible.  Not church politics.  Not long-standing friendships.  Not complaints and threats from influential members.  But the Bible.

Elders with open Bibles, searching the Scriptures together with honest openness, will find their way.  They will not be perfect.  But they will please the Lord, even when they have to displease people.  They will retain their moral authority in God’s sight.  And it’s his judgment, his alone, that brightens the future of their church."

Seeking Stability When Your World Is Shaken

Lauren Chandler shares Bible-shaped, life-related wisdom about her experiences of suffering.

"Jesus is not a spectator on Sunday morning..."

from Josh Blount...

'In the halls of University College London, a wandering visitor may chance upon a strange sight: the skeleton, hay-stuffed clothes, and wax head of Jeremy Bentham, an 18th century philosopher and the spiritual father of University College. (It seems an odd fetish to me, but to each his own I suppose.) It’s even reported that at the 100th and 150th year anniversaries of University College Bentham was wheeled into board meetings where he was recorded on the minutes as “present but not voting.” At least they didn’t ask him to give the closing address….

'Now, here’s the question: when we gather on Sunday mornings, how often is our functional view of Jesus something like “present but not voting?” Yes, we know we’re singing to Him and talking about Him, and we’re sure that He’s pleased with what we’re doing – but do we think of Jesus as anything more than a spectator at a party someone else has thrown for Him? Is our view of the Sunday gathering a mostly bottom-up, us-to-God kind of endeavor, the sort of thing Jesus might notice, smile down on, and say, “That was thoughtful of you!”

The reality is that Jesus is not “present but not voting” in His church. Listen to how Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck describes Jesus’ ongoing ministry as our resurrected and exalted Savior:

“In the state of exaltation, consequently, he has also been given the divine right, the divine appointment, the royal power and prerogatives to carry out the work of re-creation in full, to conquer all his enemies, to save all those who have been given him, and to perfect the entire kingdom of God….It is the living and exalted Christ, seated at the right hand of God, who deliberately and with authority distributes all these benefits, gathers his elect, overcomes his enemies, and directs the history of the world toward the day of his parousia” (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. III, p. 474).

'The next time you gather together with the people of God at your local church, meditate on this fact: Jesus is present and active among us by His Spirit. He is present and active to break through layers of unbelief, hard-heartedness, and sin’s deceitfulness to change us from the inside-out through the preaching of the Word. He is present and active to open the eyes of those still blinded by Satan and to bring them into the glorious light of His gospel. He is present and active to stir and animate and deepen our praise as we sing. You have never been in an “ordinary” Sunday meeting. Sometimes quietly, sometimes obviously, but always actively and faithfully, our risen Lord Jesus  Christ is at work in our Sunday gatherings to sustain, equip, and transform the people He bought with His own blood until the day when “the kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord.”

'Could there be a better reason to gather on Sunday mornings?'

Today's Christian Radio

When I first became a Christian, in my early teens, Christian radio stations were a huge help to me, with a good blend of solid teaching and Christ-centered, Biblical lyrics (in different song styles).  I have to say that today's Christian radio, much of the time, is just not as good (in either of these categories).

This article echoes some of my own concerns.

'All that I am, I am for you'

"God’s ‘I am’ had enormous relevance for Israel. It has no less relevance for us as Christians. For the point God made in the burning bush He made mare clearly than even in the ministry of Jesus. In the one He said to an ancient people,‘All that I am, I am for you’; in Jesus God said it again, not in a bush that burned, but in a man who came and spoke and died. In the bush it is a momentous message to Moses and to Israel; in Jesus of Nazareth it is a definite statement to the human race."

— Peter Lewis
The Glory of Christ
(Chicago, Ill.: Moody Publishers, 1997), 91

HT: Of First Importance

A man of grace and truth...

"Steven Curtis Chapman Is Not a Good Man"...       An insightful, encouraging article from Andrew Peterson (via Justin Taylor).

Why the Father Said No to the Son

Thabiti Anyabwile on "Five Reasons the Father Silently Said 'No' to the Son"

Here's an excerpt:

"We’re not to think no answer was given on that amazing night in Gethsemane.  Neither are we to think that the Father’s silent “No” indicated purposeless neglect, as though God the Father were a divine deadbeat dad.  We’re to understand that the only Perfect Father found occasion to deny the only Perfect Son because such denial achieved the only perfect ends–a perfectly qualified High Priesthood, reconciliation through the only God-man Mediator, loving atonement for the sins of men, the vindication of the Father’s righteousness, and the ever-redounding glory of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father!  Gethsemane’s silent answer will eternally be heard in the loud joyous praises of the universe"!

All I Need Is Christ

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ.  We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.   If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him.  If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.  If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth.  For by his birth he was made like us in all respects, that he might learn to feel our pain.  If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.  In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.”

John Calvin, Institutes, 2.16.19.

HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.

"How Jesus Fought in the Dark Hour"

Bible-based, life-related wisdom from John Piper:


"When something drops into your life that seems to threaten your future, remember this: the first shockwaves of the bomb are not sin. The real danger is yielding to them. Giving in. Putting up no spiritual fight. And the root of that surrender is unbelief — a failure to fight for faith in future grace. A failure to cherish all that God promises to be for us in Jesus...."

"Jesus shows us another way..."

Read the entire post here.

"And they shall never perish..."

"Believers shall never fall totally, finally, and completely. They shall always rise again from their falls by repentance, and renew their walk with God. Though sorely humbled and cast down, they never entirely lose their grace. The comfort of it they may lose—but not the existence of grace. Like the moon under an eclipse, their light is for a season turned into darkness; but they are not rejected and cast away. Like the trees in winter, they may show neither leaves nor fruit for a time; but the life is still in their roots. They may be overtaken by a fault, and carried away by temptation. But they never perish." (John 10:28)

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Perseverance

Odious or Glorious?

"What was shameful, even odious, to the critics of Christ, was in the eyes of his followers most glorious.… There is no greater cleavage between faith and unbelief than in their respective attitudes to the cross. Where faith sees glory, unbelief sees only disgrace. What was foolishness to Greeks, and continues to be to modern intellectuals who trust in their own wisdom, is nevertheless the wisdom of God. And what remains a stumbling-block to those who trust in their own righteousness, like the Jews of the first century, proves to be the saving power of God (1 Cor. 1:18–25)."


— John Stott
The Cross of Christ
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 40

HT: Of First Importance

The Spirit's Persuasion: You are loved by God!

"God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us".  Romans 5:5

“The Comforter gives a sweet and plentiful evidence and persuasion of the love of God to us, such as the soul is taken, delighted, satiated withal.  This is his work, and he doth it effectually.  To give a poor sinful soul a comfortable persuasion, affecting it throughout, in all its faculties and affections, that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is well pleased with him, hath thoughts of tenderness and kindness towards him; to give, I say, a soul an overflowing sense hereof, is an inexpressible mercy.”

-- John Owen, Works (Edinburgh, 1980), II:240.

Errors in the Bible?

Jonathan Dodson has a helpful article on 'what to say when someone says the Bible has errors.'

Prodigal you?

"Do you believe, truly believe, that if you had been the prodigal, that the Father would have come running down the lane to welcome you?"


(Luke 15:11-24)