Happy Reformation Day!!

Today is a day normally celebrated as halloween.
I have alot of memories going out "trick or treating" and getting lots of free candy. But, there is a more important holiday that should be recognized.

That holiday is Reformation Day. It was a day that awakened people to the truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. And started the split between protestants and roman catholics. We should be very grateful for what God did through the life of Martin Luther. Thanks to his work, we can now go to church and hear the Gospel preached without fear that roman catholic armies would throw us into prison or burn us at the stake. Thanks be to God for the reformers!!!

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg church. His theses were propositions against the power and efficacy of indulgences. Martin Luther's desire was not to stir up strife. But to bring the truth to light in LOVE. Number 36 of his 95 theses sums up the entire list very well.

#36

"Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon."

I do not know of any better way to end this post than to list a few of Luther's 95 theses. So here we go:


#30
" No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere; much less that he has attained full remission"


#32
" They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon"

#37
" Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without letters of pardon"

#43
" Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God."

#62
" The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory anf the grace of God"

#63
" But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last."



If you would like to read the rest of Luther's theses, click here

Just To Let You Know...

Over at Ligonier Ministries, they are celebrating Reformation Week by giving away Reformation Study Bibles for a donation of any amount. The Bibles are ESV leather bound retailing at $69.99. This offer is only available between October 27th and November 2nd.
 
You can get your Reformation Study Bible here.

When He discovers repulsive things in us by J.R. Miller

 

"Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end!" John 13:1

 Jesus takes us as we are, and does not get weary of us--whatever faults and sins He discovers in us. There is infinite comfort in this for us. We are conscious of our faults, blemishes and infirmities; and the unworthiness and the unloveliness which is in our souls. Many of us have pages in our biography, which we would not dare to spread out before the eyes of anyone!

There are in our inner heart--feelings, desires, longings, cravings, jealousies, motives--which we would not feel secure in laying bare to our dearest, truest, and most patient and gentle friend. Yet Christ knows them all. Nothing is hidden from His eyes. To Him there is perfect revealing of the innermost springs of our being. Yet we need not be afraid that His friendship for us will change, or grow less, or withdraw itself--when He discovers repulsive things in us. Yet He loves us--loves unto the uttermost! Christ loves us not according to our worthiness--but according to the richness of His own gracious heart!

 "May you have the power to understand, as all God's people should--how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it!" Ephesians 3:18-19

Exercises of Sin and Grace by John Newton

Alas, how vain is man! What a contradiction is a believer to himself!

If I were to describe him from the Scriptural portrait--I would say that he is one whose heart is athirst for God, for His glory, and for His presence; that his affections are fixed upon an unseen Savior; that his treasures, and consequently his thoughts, are on eternal realities, far beyond the bounds of sense. Having experienced much God's forgiveness, he is full of mercy and forgiveness to all around. Having been often deceived by his own heart, he dares trust it no more--but lives by faith in the Son of God--for wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and derives from Him grace upon grace; sensible that without Him--he has not sufficiency even to think a good thought! In short--he is dead to the world, to sin, to self; but alive to God, and lively in His service. Prayer is his breath, the Word of God is his food, and Christ is more precious to him than the light of the sun. Such is a believer--in his judgment and prevailing desires.

But was I to describe him from his actual experience, especially at some times--how different would the picture be!

Though he knows that communion with God is his highest privilege, he too seldom finds it so; on the contrary, if duty, conscience, and necessity did not compel him--he would leave the throne of grace unvisited from day to day!

He takes up the Bible, conscious that it is the fountain of life and true comfort; yet perhaps, while he is making the reflection, he feels a secret distaste, which prompts him to lay it down, and give his preference to a newspaper!

He needs not to be told of the vanity and uncertainty of the world, and all beneath the sun; and yet he is almost as much elated or cast down by a trifle--as those who have their only portion in this world!

He believes that all things shall work together for his good, and that the most high God appoints, adjusts, and overrules all of his concerns; yet he feels the risings of fear, anxiety, and displeasure, as though the contrary was true!

He owns himself to be ignorant, and liable to be deceived by a thousand fallacies; yet he is easily betrayed into flattering views of himself, and self-conceit! He feels himself to be an unprofitable, unfaithful, unthankful servant--and therefore blushes to harbor a thought of desiring the esteem and commendations of men--yet he cannot suppress it!

By these exercises of sin and grace--the Lord teaches us more truly to know and feel the utter depravity and corruption of our whole nature--that we are indeed defiled in every part! His method of salvation is hereby exceedingly endeared to us! We see that it is and must be of grace, wholly of grace; and that the Lord Jesus Christ, and His perfect righteousness, is and must be--our all in all.

God's power likewise, in maintaining His own work, notwithstanding our infirmities, temptations, and enemies--is hereby displayed in the clearest light; His strength is manifested in our weakness!

Satan likewise, is more remarkably disappointed and put to shame--when he finds bounds set to his rage and wiles, beyond which he cannot pass; and that those in whom he finds so much evil to work upon, and over whom he so often prevails for a season--escape at last out of his hands!
He casts them down--but they are raised again!
He wounds them--but they are healed!
He obtains his desire to sift them as wheat--but the prayer of their great Advocate prevails for the maintenance of their faith!

Further, by what believers feel in themselves--they learn by degrees how to warn, pity, and bear with others. A soft, patient, and compassionate spirit, and a readiness and skill in comforting those who are cast down--is not perhaps attainable in any other way!

I believe that nothing more habitually reconciles a child of God to the thought of death, than the wearisomeness of this warfare with sin and temptation. Death is unwelcome to human nature. But the Christian knows that not until death--will the conflict cease! Then we shall sin no more! The flesh, with all its attendant evils, will be laid in the grave. Then the soul, which has been partaker of a new and heavenly birth, shall be freed from every encumbrance, and stand perfect in the Redeemer's righteousness before God in eternal glory! When we see Jesus, we shall be transformed into His image--and be done with sin and sorrow forever!

The Impossiblity of the Law

The law is impossible for us to obey. There is absolutely no way that we, by ourselves could follow it. It would be like trying to climb to Heaven on a rope of sand. It is impossible because of our nature. Our nature is sin FULL. We're not sinners because we sin, we sin because we're sinners. We cannot do anything aside from it. The law was designed to crush our pride so that we would humble ourselves and look unto Christ.



Galatians 3:24

" Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,
that we might be justified by faith."

Imagine this, you're holding a little baby in your arms. The baby sees your shining watch and grabs for it. You pull his hand away and tell him no. He reaches again and you say no, the baby starts crying. He reaches again and you grab his hand once again and say no. The baby starts to cry and flail his arms even in the direction of your face. Now imagine this, if that 18 month old baby had the strength of an 18 year old man he would slaughter you right there and take that watch. All mankind is born EVIL!!

Psalm 51:5
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me"

Genesis 6:5
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"

If our nature was not a sinful one, then there was no purpose for Christ being sacrificed on the cross. His death would've been in vain. But, His death was not in vain. He died so we might live. He gave His life so that whoever repents (That is to apologize and turn from our sins.) and trusts in Christ alone will have everlasting life.

Be Even More Grateful!

Psalm 2:12
"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way,
when His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

2 Corinthians 5:21
"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Be grateful for Christ dying and interceding on our behalf.
For without Him, we would be punished now or later for our sins.

Romans 8:34
"Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who dies, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

Transcendence vs. Imminence

Transcendence-is being above and independent of the material universe. It can also be defined as lying beyond the ordinary range of perception. More simply, being preeminent or supreme.

Imminence-is being close to occurring. Synonyms of this word are nearness, coming, and convergence.

God has both of these two attributes. The transcendence of God is His "highness" and holiness.
When you go and see old cathedrals, you see how massive they are. The cathedrals were designed to make us feel small and to elevate our understanding of God's transcendent attributes. The same thing applies to old hymns and music. Hymns that are very complex and have multiple parts to it were there to represent God's transcendent attribute. J.S. Bach would compose his music for the glory of God. When you listen to the music he composed, you get the sense of mystery and reverence from the complexities in his music . The mystery in some of his music was to represent the things of God that we cannot perceive. The old hymns and cathedrals were both designed to represent God's transcendence.

While God is transcendent, He is also imminent. He is imminent in that we can relate to Him as Father. Contemporary christian music shows us the imminence of God. This style of music is not high and separate. It is close and common to us and easy to be accepted. That is what this style of music conveys. It conveys God as close and relevant to us.

While God has both of these qualities, we should not take Him lightly. We should not think of Him as one of us. Even though Christ came as a man, He was still God. When we approach God in prayer, we are coming before His throne of grace. Even though we have this privilege, we should still approach Him with reverence and awe because it is still a throne that we bow before.

(The following illustration I borrowed from Way of the Master Radio.)
Imagine that you were invited to visit the president of the United States. You go into the white house and meet him. When you would greet him you wouldn't say
"Hey dude, what's up?". You would most likely say "Hello Mr. President sir."
Even though he is still a normal person, his position makes us respect him.
Now this illustration breaks down on many levels, but the point is even though God is imminent. He is supreme and preeminent and not to be trifled with. Just as with the president, we should approach God boldly but also with reverence.


2 Corinthians 3:12
"Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold."

Be Grateful!

God commands the planets to orbit the sun and they obey!
He commands the earth to spin and it willfully follows His instructions!
He orders the plants to grow and be fruitful and they obey Him!
God then turns to us,
His greatest creation and says "Obey My commands."
And what do we do? We shake our little fists at Him in rebellion!
We refuse His commands and blaspheme His name!

Be grateful that God is long suffering!
Be grateful that His wrath tarries!
Be grateful that He has mercy on your soul in not punishing you today!

Next time something bad happens in this world, do not ask yourself:
Why does God allow bad things to happen?
Instead consider this:
Why does God not destroy us this very second for the sins we have committed against Him!?

Book Review: Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul

Earlier this year, a group of young people from our church went to the New Attitude Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
While there I purchased a couple of books. This will be the first that I'm going to review.

As the title implies, this book is about knowing Scripture. About how to read the Bible rightly. It discusses different safeguards from falling into false teachings and discusses hermeneutics. In fact, it has an entire chapter devoted to hermeneutics. (Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation.)

This is an excellent book! At 125 pages it is a fairly small book, but packs a lot of information into those 125 pages. This is a great introduction on how to read and understand the Bible. For instance, one of the safeguards given is how to distinguish between a proverb and a law. In another chapter, Dr. Sproul discusses different translations of the Bible and gives different resources that he finds helpful in how to study the Scriptures.

My favorite chapter in the book was chapter 4 which is titled "Practical Rules for Biblical Interpretation". In this chapter, Dr. Sproul sets forth 10 practical rules that safeguard us from misinterpreting the Scriptures. Rule number eight seemed to strike me the most. Rule eight is to "Observe the difference between the Spirit and Letter of the Law". Sproul explains that to keep the letter of the law yet break the spirit of it is legalistic. What is meant by the letter of the law is for example do not murder. To keep the letter of that commandment would be to not murder anyone. While keeping the spirit of that law would be to not hate someone.

J.I. Packer wrote the foreword to this book. While I was reading the book a part of J.I. Packer's foreword resonated in my head. "The Bible excites him and his excitement is infectious!"
Dr. Sproul has a vast knowledge of studying the Scriptures and is very willing to guide you to learn how to study them for yourself. I would whole heartily recommend this book to any Christian, whether they are new in Christ or a seasoned believer.

In Loving Memory of Ricky

Ricky was born March 12, 2002 and died September 19th 2008.
Two weeks ago, we took Ricky to see the Vet because he wasn't feeling well. We had blood work done because the Vet wasn't sure what was wrong with him.
The blood work showed that Ricky's kidneys were failing. Only 25% of his kidneys were functioning. Basically, Ricky was starving to death. He couldn't eat food because his stomach would constantly be getting upset by the material that his kidneys weren't filtering out.
So we had to make the hard decision to put Ricky to sleep. The following day we buried Ricky in a garden on the side of the house. He was a very good friend. And I miss him very much.

Just A Note

I have not posted anything on my blog lately because of 2 things.
The first reason being that we were without power from September 14th until September 23rd.
For those ten days I did not work on any blog posts because we had alot of work to do each day we were without power. The second reason why I have not posted anything is because I have just started my senior year. I haven't got my school routine down yet so I have not been able to figure out when or what I'm going to write. Although tomorrow I have a very special post planned, but aside from that I most likely won't be posting anything until either Sunday or sometime next week.