The fool or the fool who attacks him?

A man who is a brother in Christ was recently called the "Howard Stern of Christianity"

This is just one of the flaming arrows that I recently thought only the devil would be throwing at Christians. I was largely unaware of this problem in Christianity because I was a huge partaker of it. This quote from A.W. Tozer was very convicting about "Christian" maliciousness that is so prevalent today, from the least to the greatest of us.

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander,
as well as all types of malicious behavior." Ephesians 4:31-32

Dispositional sins are fully as injurious to the Christian cause
as the more overt acts of wickedness. These sins are as many
as the various facets of human nature. Just so there may be
no misunderstanding, let us list a few of them: sensitiveness,
irritability, churlishness, faultfinding, peevishness, temper,
resentfulness, cruelty, uncharitable attitudes; and of course
there are many more. These kill the spirit of the church and
mar the witness of the church in the community. Many unsaved
people have been turned away and embittered by manifestations
of ugly dispositional flaws in the lives of the very people who
were trying to win them.

Unsaintly Saints are the tragedy of Christianity!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Gal. 5:22-23

chew on this

wisdom from the letters of John Newton:

"The Lord permits us to feel our weakness, that we may be sensible of it; for though we are ready in words to confess that we are weak, we do not so properly know it, until that secret, though unallowed, dependence we have upon some strength in ourselves is brought to the trial, and fails us. To be humble, and, like a little child, afraid of taking a step alone, and so conscious of snares and dangers around us, as to cry to him continually to hold us up that we may be safe is the sure, the infallible, the only secret of walking closely with him."

These words easily resound with our hearts after a long and trying day. God is good.

Summer reading

Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics will be my prize as soon as I get my first paycheck from newly found summer work! Check out part of the fourth volume on amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Reformed-Dogmatics-vol-Spirit-Creation/dp/0801026571/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245277347&sr=8-2

It's a God-glorifying, Christ-centered, biblically saturated(check out the scripture index in the preview of the book via the amazon link!), intellectually challenging, and devotionally applicable 4 volume set. Will I ever finish reading it? Probably not, but that never stopped me

Touchdown Packer!!

That was my reaction the first time I read Packer's description of one-point calvinism. It remains my favorite description of God-glorifying soteriology.

Here it is

"The very act of setting out Calvinistic soteriology in the form of five distinct points (a number due, as we saw, merely to the fact that there were five Arminian points for the Synod of Dort to answer) tends to obscure the organic character of Calvinistic thought on this subject. For the five points, though separately stated, are really inseparable. They hang together; you cannot reject one without rejecting them all, at least in the sense in which the Synod meant them.

For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners.

God—the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing.

Saves—does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies.

Sinners—men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot.

God saves sinners—and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner’s inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the “five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen."

More like touchdown God

division and orange skies

Shafeen Charania has an interesting post about unity in the abortion, death penalty, and marriage debates. http://interacc.typepad.com/

It got me to thinking(a risky thing to do immediately following finals week), when is division worth it? The American world appears to value unity more than any time I can remember, with the tolerance, diversity, and pluralistic religious movements. How long do Christians go along with the peace train?

Should the church budge on "little things" like the ordination of female ministers and gay marriage if doing so would lead to more converts? There are a million more questions that can arise from this type of thinking, but one answer for the moment has satisfied me.

It seems that these issues of tolerance, peace, unity, and rainbows generally arises when we live as pleasers of men. But I would wager my soul that our focus will clear up if we would live for an audience of one. We have little to lose by trying.

If you are like me and tire of thinking hard , relax by listening to Alexi Murdoch's Orange Sky

the true alchemy!

There are few things I love to read more than the personal letters of my favorite Christian heroes. Rutherford's letters, Lewis's letters, Spurgeon's letters, now add John Newton's letters to that list.

Gracegems.org is a great site that has writings of a whole bunch of puritans and generally awesome dudes. I recommend this letter from John Newton on walking with God daily. http://gracegems.org/Newton/48.htm

"Doing all to the glory of God, is the true alchemy which turns everything to gold"

"Most of our perplexities arise from an undue, though perhaps unperceived, attachment to self"

wise words

looking for music?

I am not a guy who pretends to be in the know about music. I survive solely off the recommendations of other people. This is why Said the Gramophone is so amazing!

http://www.saidthegramophone.com/

Basically, it's three Canadian dudes with interesting music tastes allowing you to listen and download songs they deem worthy of your ears. We uncultured may fear no more

Cowper: A man of struggle and grace

William Cowper wrote my favorite hymn, here are the lyrics

1. There is a fountain filled with blood,
   Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
   And sinners plunged beneath that flood
   Lose all their guilty stains.
2. The dying thief rejoiced to see
   That fountain in His day;
   And there have I, though vile as he,
   Washed all my sins away.
3. Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
   Shall never lose its pow’r,
   Till all the ransomed church of God
   Are safe, to sin no more.
4. E’er since by faith I saw the stream
   Thy flowing wounds supply,
   Redeeming love has been my theme,
   And shall be till I die.
5. When this poor, lisping, stamm’ring tongue
   Lies silent in the grave,
   Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
   I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.

Here is an intriguing upcoming film.

I have a soft spot for movies like this. Who doesn't? Along the lines of Juno, Away We Go is chock full of honesty. It is always refreshing to see people who aren't trying to be perfect as they go through hard issues. Yet they will go through them, and not around. Isn't humility is the floor on which many fallen faces have found grace?

I hope this one turns out to be good

For those of us who need a reminder to avoid pride

Firsts!

first post of Re-Vived.

Restored, Revived, Repented, Renewed

Look back on the store, the life, the pentance, and the new

With joyful thoughts, because all they lost

was Restored, Revived, Repented, and Renewed