Tried With Fire

I am thankful for... - A week with extended family over Christmas. We enjoyed one another's company and ate far too much food. I am especially thankful that my parents are still with us and how sacrificially my sister and brother-in-law serve them. - My daughter completed her Associate's degree this month and will be continuing her education at a local university after the New Year. She worked very hard, and I am very proud of her. As Providence would have it, a brother in our church will be her academic advisor, which is another blessing. - A pastor who stretches his congregation theologically and a local church that rises to the challenge. I am also thankful for a church where there is no dichotomy between sound doctrine and practical Christian living. - God who is immutable and impassible. This is a great comfort when the world seems to be in constant flux. This is also an unshakeable anchor for my soul in the coming year.

The two great links between earth and Heaven are the two advents of our Lord; or, rather, He is Himself, by His two appearings, the great bond of union between earth and Heaven. When the world had revolted against its Maker, and the Creator had been defied by His own creatures, a great gulf was opened between God and man. The first coming of Christ was like a bridge which crossed the chasm, and made a way of access from God to man, and then from man to God. Our Lord’s second advent will make that bridge far broader, until Heaven shall come down to earth; and, ultimately, earth shall go up to Heaven.  Here, too, is the place for us to build a grand suspension bridge, by which, through faith, we ourselves may cross from this side to the other of the stormy river of time. The cross, at whose foot we stand, is the massive column which supports the structure on this side; and as we look forward to the glory, the second advent of our Lord is the solid support on the other side of the ...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...  For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.  John 1:1-5, 16-18

This constant undivided union of two perfect natures in Christ's Person is exactly that which gives infinite value to His mediation, and qualifies Him to be the very Mediator that sinners need. Our Mediator is One that can sympathize with us, because He is very man. And yet, at the same time, He is One who can deal with the Father for us on equal terms, because He is very God. It is the same union which gives infinite value to His righteousness, when imputed to believers -  the righteousness of One Who was [and is] God as well as man. It is the same union which gives infinite value to the atoning blood which He shed for sinners on the cross - the blood of One who was [and is] God as well as man. It is the same union which gives infinite value to His resurrection: when He rose again, as the Head of the body of believers, He rose not as a mere man but as God. Let these things sink deeply into our hearts. The second Adam is far greater than the first Adam was. The first Adam was only ...

Oh Saviour of our fallen race, Oh brightness of the Father’s face Oh Son Who shared the Father’s mind Before the world knew day or night Oh Jesus very light of light Our constant star in sin’s deep night Now hear the prayers Your people pray Throughout the world this holy day You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown Remember Lord of life and grace How once to save our fallen race You put our human vesture on And came to us as Mary’s son You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown For from the Father’s throne You came His banished children to reclaim And earth and sea and sky revered The love of Him who sent You here Oh Christ redeemer, virgin born Let songs of praise your name adore And with the Father be adored And Holy Spirit evermore You came down You came down You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown From Christmas -  Jill Phillips and...

Our Lord Jesus Christ is also full of grace and truth in this sense, that He truthfully deals with matters of fact relating to our salvation. I know the notion of the world is; that the salvation of Christ is a pretty dream, a fine piece of sentiment; but there is nothing dreamy about it: it is no fiction; it is fact upon fact. The Lord Jesus Christ does not gloss over or conceal the condition of man in order to secure his salvation. He finds man condemned, and condemned in the very worst sense, condemned for a capital offense; and as man’s Substitute, He endures the capital penalty, and dies in the sinner’s stead. The Lord Jesus views the sinner as depraved, yea, as dead in trespasses and sins, and He quickens him by His own resurrection life. He does not wink at the result of the Fall, and at the guilt of actual sin; but He comes to the dead sinner, and gives him life; He touches the diseased heart, and heals it. To me, the Gospel is a wonderful embodiment of omnipotent wisdom and ...

Arranged for winds and brass performed by one person! And for an encore - Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming: Jordan Moore's Youtube channel

ht: Baptist Humor on FB

I am posting at Out of the Ordinary today: When I was a child, there were times when I would lie awake at night and think about God after my parents tucked me into bed. I knew a little about Him from Bible stories and Sunday school, but I still wondered what He was really like. Having been taught that God was already  there  before Genesis 1:1, I imagined going back in time just prior to Creation or traveling into deep space to find Him. Needless to say, it was more than my young mind could handle. God was so completely  other  that I felt very small, not just in age but in significance. Well, I had a similar feeling of smallness this past Sunday... Read the rest of the post here.

... [T]he doctrine of God is a more complicated matter than the authority of Scripture. When someone starts to tinker with the doctrine of Scripture, many Christians instinctively feel that something nefarious is being done. But when someone starts to tinker with the doctrine of God, many simply assume that very clever people are engaged in improving the tradition. After all, many of the terms used in classical understandings of God - impassable, immutable, simple - have an abstract quality which seems to remove them from the life (and the conscious concern) of the ordinary believer. These concepts have the aura of academics about them: abstract, impersonal, pedantic, practically irrelevant. Yet history teaches us that it is precisely these concepts which safeguarded the Christian faith over time and that it was the repudiation of these which led to the collapse of orthodoxy... Peter Taylor Forsyth once commented that every theological teacher should reflect on what his teaching w...

What amazing condescension is it that God, who made all things, should assume the nature of one of His own creatures, that the Self existent should be united with the dependent and derived, and the Almighty linked with the feeble and mortal! In His Incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ descended to the very depths of humiliation, by entering into alliance with a nature which did not occupy the chief place in the scale of existence. It would have been marvelous condescension for the infinite and incomprehensible Jehovah to have taken upon Himself the nature of some noble spiritual being, such as a seraph or a cherub. The union of the Divine Creator with any created spirit would have been an immeasurable stoop; but for God to become one with man, is far greater condescension.  Remember that, in the person of Christ, manhood was not merely an immortal spirit, but also suffering, hungering, dying, flesh and blood. There was taken to Himself, by our Lord, all that materialism which make...

Performed by John Feeley on James Joyce's guitar:

ht: Lloyd Legalist

I'm going to jump on the 2015 book list bandwagon. The books are listed in the order they were read/listened: C.H. Spurgeon's Autobiography: The Early Years  (audiobook read by Robert Whitfield) - Spurgeon is my favorite dead theologian, and I loved hearing about his conversion and struggles to come to faith. My favorite line is "My mother said to me, one day, “Ah, Charles! I often prayed the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you might become a Baptist.” I could not resist the temptation to reply, “Ah, mother ! the Lord has answered your prayer with His usual bounty, and given you exceeding abundantly above what you asked or thought.”" The Democratization of American Christianity  by Nathan O. Hatch - A very interesting look at how the mindset of American Christianity was shaped by our culture. The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology  by Pascal Denault - I am indebted to R.C. Sproul for opening up the beauty of Covenant Theology to...

This true/false quiz is courtesy of  Dr. James Renihan : 1. The sovereign God exercises sovereign control over Himself. True or false? 2. The doctrine of God's aseity teaches us that God has His being from Himself. True or false? 3. Since man is made in the image of God, we may say that in certain ways God's being is like man's being. True or false? 4. Christian monotheism teaches that God progressively reveals Himself first as Father, then as Son, and finally as Holy Spirit. True or false? 5. The incarnation binds the eternal God to the timeline of His people. True or false? So how did you do?

How common are nominal saviors! “Lo, here,” say some, “is a savior!” “ Lo, there,” cry others, “is another savior!” All these have the name, but not the power; and now, our Lord Jesus Christ has claimed the title exclusively for Himself. His Name shall be called Jesus, for He alone is a Prince and a Savior, and He only saves His people from their sins.  Other so called saviors do but mock the hopes of mankind; they promise fairly, but they utterly deceive all who rely upon them. But this Holy Child, this blessed, glorious “God with us,” has truly brought us salvation, and He saith, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” This Jesus of Nazareth, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords, is the one and only Savior. He, and none but He, shall save His people. He, and not another, shall save them by His own act and deed. Singly and unaided, He shall save His people. Personally, and not by another, in His own Name, and on His own ...

The Bach Chaconne from the violin Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004. This transcription for cello quartet was done by Laszlo Varga.  Cleveland Institute of Music Faculty Recital (02/06/15)

Suffering has been the latest Sunday school topic at my church. The class has been very helpful and thought-provoking. It has probably been challenging for the teacher to try to condense this weighty subject because suffering touches on the sovereignty of God, the problem of evil, justice, and ethics to name a few. But the class has been the easy part. The hard part will be applying what I have learned. Also a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Just because I've read books or have been through a class on suffering doesn't necessarily mean I will be sensitive to others in their pain. As I've been mulling over this, here are some thoughts that come to mind: Don't lump a suffering in a single category. The sorrows of life in a fallen world are not the same as evil being perpetrated by sinful people. Don't put suffering on a scale and be the judge of who is suffering more or less. Be careful of an unbalanced view of God's sovereignty such that the categ...

I'm posting at Out of the Ordinary today: I don't remember where I saw it on Facebook, but at the beginning of November, someone posted that Christians get a month off before we can start arguing again about whether or not we should celebrate Christmas. Funny but true, and I have been on both sides of this issue... I'm not suggesting we abstain from civil discourse about the pros and cons of celebrating Christmas. Dialogue about differing ideas can be profitable. But there is more to being a Christian than what we do or don't do on December 25. Read the rest of the post here.