Science: Why a guy should shower before a date.
Culture: Secularism takes hold in the U.S.
More Culture: Unfortunately for Newsweek, lower circulation is also taking hold.
History: Schindler’s list is found in Australia (the paper, not the movie).
(considering) 8:28
Implications of the Sovereignty of God
-
So if we’re all depraved, and none of us would seek God on our own, how does anybody ever become a Christian?The simple fact is that God chooses people to save, not because of anything they are or do, but because of God’s grace.
This is a little different than what you may have heard from others. Namely, that God is waiting with baited breath, hoping that you will make the decision to come to Him, and if you don’t He’ll be utterly devastated.
Somehow, the modern west has gotten the idea that God is an adolescent schoolgirl, hoping upon hope that the object of His affections will come to Him. Now, to be clear, God desires that sinners turn from their wickedness and live and gets no joy from the death of a sinner (Ezekiel 18:23; 32); but God is still the Lord of the universe, not that annoying lovestruck highschooler unable to get up the nerve to ask out the person He loves.
In fact, a Christian would say that we love God because God first loved us (1 John 4:19), and that were it not for the work of God, we would be unable to love God or one another (1 John 4:7).
So what does this mean practically (in addition to the points from the last post)?
1) Christians need to take the power of God seriously, and see God as God, not someone who is in our debt because we deigned to come to Him. Our power to come to God is because of God’s choice.
2) we need the kind of the fear of the Lord that makes us understand that the only thing keeping us from the just wrath of God (because we’re depraved) is the choice of God to save us.
3) We need to make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10), by displaying the works that are in keeping with being elected of God, including love of both friend and enemy.
-
Suicide: It’s apparently a wonderful human possibility. I’m with Ruth Gledhill on this one.
Politics: North Korea claims to have put a satellite in orbit. U.S. and South Korea dispute the claim. What does this mean? Not much of anything.
Journalism: I so love when words seem to give more information than they actually do.
-
Oftentimes I find myself having to explain my understanding of Christianity. This is mainly because my theology doesn’t quite fit most of what I see operating here in Newfoundland. It’s quite common in some parts of the world, just not here.Last weekend was one such instance. Somebody asked me after Church to explain “calvinism”, which for me means an explanation of the doctrines of grace. When I explain these ideas, some people hear it with joy, others respond as I did when I first heard it (what an evil understanding of salvation).
For the sake of clarity, though, I’m going to go through the five points, why i believe them and what that means practically.
The first point is that I believe people are depraved. I am included in that “people”.
This means that i think people do not in themselves seek to do the right thing, and even when they do the “right thing” as seen by outsiders, it’s for the wrong reasons. This means that while I think people stumble into “good” acts from time to time. people cannot be good in and of themselves.
Of course, I see that the Bible teaches this. Just 2 examples:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10b-3:13).
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5)
More importantly, with very little reflection on my own motivations at any given moment, even as people praise me for doing something good (and even as I do things that are seen as good), I can tell that my heart is not really aiming for the good of others, much less the glory of God. In and of myself I am really not a good person.
So what does this mean?
1) Christians are not in themselves more righteous than unbelievers, or even people who openly embrace their sin. We are in ourselves on an equal footing. This means that when we tell others who do not believe that they are evil and going to hell, we need to be careful that we don’t get (or give) the idea that because we are saved we are any less evil in ourselves. We could not embrace God any more than the unbeliever could, and we were saved by God while we were still enemies of His.
2) Christians need to pray for unbelievers that we talk to, as much as preach to them. Conversion is an act of God, not of ourselves. This means that the goal in evangelism is to make the Gospel clear, not to make them believe it (we can’t do that). they are depraced and incapable of coming to Christ unless God leads them.
3) Christians need to be thankful to God for our salvation. Not in a lip-service kind of way, but because we actually are completely dependent on God for our salvation, not on our superior intellects, reasoning skills, superior faith ability, or indeed anything else. In ourselves we are depraved. We are saved by Jesus at all levels.
4) Finally, Christians should be freed from the silliness of pretending that we are righteous. We should not embrace sinful behaviour, but since we are depraved, we shouldn’t be surprised when once in a while sin creeps up in ourselves or others, and we shouldn’t be shaming when it does. We simply need to call one another to repentance and act in grace, not because we are better than those we call to repentance, but because we are saved by Christ.
In the end, the realization that we are in ourselves not good, and incapable of coming to God on our own is not simply a downer, but a fact that once remembered avoids the pride that so easily ensnares Christians, and reminds us that in Our faith we do not ask people to look at us for the ultimate value of our faith, but to Jesus Christ.
soli Deo gloria
-
For those of you who do not know, I have accepted a position as an associate pastor at a Church in South Korea. I will be taking up the position as soon as is practical.
Positively, this means that I’ll be more able to blog (it will be part of my duties under communicating with the congregation, and in evangelism). On the downside, it means that I have to move to the other side of the planet. Again.
Now, over the many years that I have been out of High School, I have been amassing a sizable library, and I have to admit that I really love books. Unfortunately, it has gotten a lot more expensive to move those books, and since I have nowhere practical to store them, I am instead bound to sell them (and replace what I need once I set up housekeeping in Korea).
It is a strange feeling, however, to see the books that I have treasured and lived among for the last decade (in some cases) going out the door. It’s honestly a bit of a heart check.
The Bible states that where my treasure is, there will my heart be also, and it is clear to me that for far too long, the things I have had may have been the residence of my heart, meaning that my heart was not in God, and certainly not in His kingdom, even while I had so many religious books.
Perhaps the increase in costs is a mark of God’s providence rather than an act of vengeance (or maybe it’s both). In any case, as I begin to own fewer things, I am finding myself more and more able to focus on the things that I claim to truly value.
Soli Deo Gloria
(considering) 8:28 