Tried With Fire

And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Rev. 21:5 That same Spirit of God who taught us that we were ruined in our old estate, led us gently by the hand till we came to the New Covenant promise and looked to Jesus, and saw in Him the full atonement for sin. Happy discovery for us, it was the kindling of new life in us. From the moment that we trusted in Jesus, a new life darted into our spirit. I am not going to say which is first, the new birth, or faith, or repentance. Nobody can tell which spoke of a wheel moves first, it moves as a whole. The moment the divine life comes into the heart we believe; the moment we believe the eternal life is there. We repent because we believe, and believe while we repent. The life that we live in the flesh is no longer according to the lusts of the world, but we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Our spiritual life is a new-born thing, the creation of the Spirit of life. We have, of...

It may be silly for me to post this for my little blog, but hey, why not? Writing is a way to get thoughts out of my head for further examination, so whether it is read or not is secondary. But this also gives me an idea of which subjects struck a chord or possibly a nerve. Based on this list, those subjects are: domestic violence, women in the church and society, the eternal subordination of the Son (ESS) debate, John Piper's rather perplexing statements on justification by faith, and thinking through difficult, ethical issues. Given my interests and concerns, I'll probably keep writing about them in the coming year. 10. If I had my druthers 9. These were tied:  Questioning a false dichotomy  &   The ESS elephant is still in the room 8.  Justified and not sanctified? 7. Roles: Another Andelin Connection? 6. It took "Hidden Figures" 5. Does this say what I think it says? 4. Domestic violence in the Australian church 3. "Me, myself, and I" spirit...

"When I was in elementary school, I discovered the joy of reading biographies. In my mind's eye, I can still see the shelf containing a series about important figures in American history. I loved the stories and was disappointed when I finished the last book. First impressions leave a mark, so I retained a rather idealistic view of these people, which was probably the goal of the series. Thus, when I was required to read a biography of George Washington in my first (and only) college history class, I was exposed to much more than the cherry tree and the crossing of the Delaware. The text was in-depth and well researched, but the iconic figure was not the larger-than-life hero I remembered. He was human and quite fallible, and I was a bit disillusioned. But perhaps the humanity of the subject is one of the benefits of reading biographies." You can read the rest of my post here .

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21

God had made many visits to men before Christ’s Incarnation, but the most wonderful, visit of all was when He came to tarry here, some three and thirty years, to work out our salvation. What but “tender mercy, “  hearty mercy, intense mercy, could bring the great God to visit us so closely that He actually assumed our nature? Kings may, for various reasons, visit their subjects; but they do not think of taking upon themselves their poverty, their sickness, or their sorrow. They could not if they would, and they would not if they could; but our Divine Lord, when He came hither, took upon Him our flesh... But remember that He visited us, not merely to look upon us, and to talk with us, and to teach us, and set us a high and Divine example; but He so visited us that He took upon Himself our condemnation, that He might deliver us from. it. He was made a curse for us, as it is written, “ Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” He took our debts upon Him that He might pay them,...

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so here you go: Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering , Kelly Kapic, IVP Academic, 2017, pg. 33.

This quote is from Dorothy L. Sayer's essay Are Women Human? "When the pioneers of university training for women demanded that women should be admitted to the universities, the cry went up at once: "Why should women want to know about Aristotle?" The answer is NOT that all women would be the better for knowing about Aristotle… but simply: "What women want as a class is irrelevant. I want to know about Aristotle. It is true that most women care nothing about him, and a great many male undergraduates turn pale and faint at the thought of him - but I, eccentric individual that I am, do want to know about Aristotle, and I submit that there is nothing in my shape or bodily functions which need prevent my knowing about him."" 1 Academia isn't what it used to be in Sayers' day, but it's taken time for women to overcome this sort of prejudice. In The Disappearing Spoon , Sam Kean tells the story of Maria Goeppert-Mayer who won the Nobel Priz...

Here are my top books from 2017. They are listed in the order read. Favorite Books: The Making of Asian America - Erika Lee.  This book covers quite a lot of ground as it documents Asian immigration from before Columbus up to today. After reading this, it gave me a greater understanding and respect for my immigrant family. It also also demythologizes the model minority and the idea that the Asian American experience is uniform. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind - Mark Noll. "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." This is a classic work from the 1980's early 90's but is still relevant today. We've recovered very little of the thinking that Noll says we've lost, and we may have lost even more in the last year. No Little Women - Aimee Byrd. I wrote a review at Out of the Ordinary. But in a nut shell, it's time we stopped dumbing-down women's discipleship, calling cultural ideals biblical, an...

When I have felt the burden of my sin, I confess that I have at times felt as if it were too great to be taken away by any conceivable power; but, on the other hand, when I have seen the excellence of my Master’s person, the perfection of His manhood, the glory of His Godhead, the wondrous intensity of His anguish, the solid value of His obedience, I have felt as if my sin were too little a thing to need so vast a sacrifice. I have felt like John Hyatt who, when dying, said that he could not only trust Christ with his one soul, but that he could trust Him with a million souls if he had them. Were my sins greater than they are, and God forbid they should be! — were my sense of them ten thousand times more vivid than it is, — and I could wish I had a more clear and humbling consciousness of my own iniquity; yet, even then, I know that my Lord and Master is a greater Savior than I am a sinner... Christ did not come as an amateur Savior, trying an experiment on His own account; He came...

This statement by R.C. Sproul (1939-2017) changed my spiritual life because the role of imputation in the gospel finally clicked: "In the final analysis, the only way that any person is ever justified before God is by works. We are saved by works, and we are saved by works alone. Don't touch that dial..." "[W]hen I say that we are justified by works and by works alone, what do I mean by it? I mean that the grounds of my justification and the grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We're saved by works, but they are not our own. That's why we say we're saved by faith, and we're saved by grace, because the works that save us aren't our works, they're Somebody else's works." From "What is Reformed Theology?." You can watch the lecture here . Don't let the title put you off. Covenant theology is a wonderful doctrine.

In February, I  wrote about a ten-year anniversary - the day my husband moved out of the house on Valentine's Day and out of our marriage. But at the end of 2007, another event took place. The last Sunday of 2007 was the first day I walked through the door of Grace Baptist Chapel and found a church home. I'm sharing that story at Out of the Ordinary today. You can read the post here . Photo credit: By LudwigSebastianMicheler (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds - Alan Jacobs, Currency,  2017, 157 pages. I debated about writing a one sentence review - "If you don't want to act like a jerk toward people you disagree with, read this book." Or its converse - "If you want to be respectful and gracious toward people you disagree with, read this book." While both of those statements are true about How to Think , this book is more than tips on being nice and not being mean. Thinking is more than just being intelligent. It's more than always making the right decision or having the right answer. It also isn't about turning off emotions and being purely rational. Thinking is about taking the time and making the effort to consider how our thoughts and thought patterns cause us to view and treat others. To use biblical language, thinking is critical in how we love our neighbor. Written out of concern for the increasing nastiness in the culture and social media, in...

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 makes up...

From The Whole Christ : "The Confession of Faith states that rather than produce antinomianism and license, assurance produces gracious fruits. In essence, it involves what the Westminster Divines describe as an enlarged heart: In peace and joy; In love and thankfulness; In strength and cheerfulness in duties. (WCF18.3) This conforms well to the joyful confidence of the New Testament church. There, assurance of salvation produced boldness in witness; eagerness and intimacy in prayer; poise in character in the face of trial, danger, and opposition; and joy in worship. The lack of these is also evidence of a lack of assurance that produces them, for rather than breed presumption or antinomianism, assurance produces humility. Christian assurance is not self-assurance and self-confidence. It is the reverse; confidence in our Father, trust in Christ as our Savior, and joy in the Spirit as the Spirit of sonship, seal of grace, and earnest of our inheritance as sons and daughte...

I've been listening to The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, & Gospel Assurance - Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters by Sinclair Ferguson. It was a freebie from Christian Audio and is read by someone with a British accent. I know this is a minor point, but given the author, a North American accent would never do. I also got a copy of the book for the church library, which will be on the book nook on Sunday. I'm halfway through the audio, and it's so good.  Unfortunately, I can't mark an audio book or the church's copy, so alas and yet again, I will need to get my own. Ferguson points out that we veer into legalism because we doubt the character of God. We are skeptical that He is a loving Father. We distrust what He says because it seems too good to be true. So it is safer to take things into our own hands and do our bit in case He doesn't come through. The same lie from the garden still deceives us today. "Has God said?..." So our u...

I got B.B. Warfield's book on the deeper life movement, Perfectionism , several years ago to try to make sense of my former theological beliefs. I never thought I would be referring to it regarding the current discussion on sola fide . This debate is more than academic hair-splitting over theological terms. It is critical to how we answer the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Consequently, I am very concerned that a prominent theologian in the loosely reformed-ish camp is answering that question in this way. John Piper  (ht:  Brad Mason ) - "Electing love is unconditional, regenerating love is unconditional, and all other loves are conditional. Everything after regeneration that you benefit from is conditional, including glorification, salvation, sanctification, and everything else. It’s conditional, one, on faith, and second, upon the evidences of faith in obedience. Anybody in my church can understand that. Electing love is unconditional. The act of sett...

One benefit of being the church librarian is I get the fun job of finding new books for the church. The downside is that when I flip through the new additions, I get engrossed and end up wanting to get a copy for myself because I can't mark the church's copy.  Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering  is one of those books. Suffering is an important topic, but how we handle it can make all the difference between adding to that suffering or comforting the sufferer. Early in this book, author Kelly Kapic notes that ever since the Enlightenment, there's a subtle sense that we can analyze God by putting Him and His ways under a microscope, as it were, and find an explanation. Perhaps there's even a subtle pressure to explain . But God is bigger than that, and we aren't always privy to what He has not made plain. Also people are more complicated. Just because we may have a plausible explanation for a person's trial doesn't mean that an...

Wars had raged unto the ends of the earth; men had slaughtered one another, heaps on heaps. There had been strife within as well as struggles without. Conscience had fought with man, and Satan had tormented him with sinful thoughts. There had been no peace on earth since Adam fell. But, now, when the newborn King made His appearance, the swaddling band with which He was wrapped up was the white flag of peace. That manger was the place where the treaty was signed, whereby warfare should be stopped between man’s conscience and himself, and between man’s conscience and his God. Then it was that the trumpet of the heavenly herald was blown aloud, and the royal proclamation was made, “Sheathe thy sword, O man, sheathe thy sword, O conscience, for God has provided a way by which He can be at peace with man, and by which man can be at peace with God, and with his own conscience, too!” The Gospel of the grace of God promises peace to every man who accepts it; where else can peace be fou...

I posted quotes from How to Think about argument as war . If we don't want to fall into that trap, it is easy to make another mistake by overlooking very real differences that need to be acknowledged. Here's what Jacobs has to say about that: "So when people say, "They really mean the same thing, they're just using different vocabularies to express it," 1 or "We all believe in the same God, we just express that belief in different ways," we may with some justification commend these people for attempting to get beyond confrontation, dichotomy, argument as war. But we have to go on to say that the attempt is a facile one. The real story will be far more complicated, and not to be grasped by replacing a fictitious polarity with an equally fictitious unity. Blessed are the peacemakers, to be sure, but peacemaking is a long, hard labor, and not a mere declaration." 2 1. Didn't this happen during the 2016 Trinity debate? 2. 2.  How to Th...