Can We Trust The Bible?

Excellent...

The Supremecy of Christ

This is definitely worth a few minutes of your time...

The Future of Justification

I received my copy yesterday of The Future of Justification by John Piper. So far, it’s a very good read and a needed refutation of N.T. Wright's position. I’m encouraged to read that Piper is not playing the scholarly game of one-upsmanship. Rather, he is filling the need for us of clarifying Wright’s confusing position and reaffirming the correct view of justification. My own assessment of the need of the church at this moment in history is different from Wright’s: I think we need a new generation of preachers who are not only open to the new light that God may shed upon his word, but are also suspicious of their own love of novelty and are eager to test all their own interpretations of the Bible by the wisdom of the centuries. He goes to say, This book exists because of my own concern that, specifically in the matter of justification by faith, Wright’s approach has not been as illuminating as it has been misleading, or perhaps, confusing (pgs 37-38).

Masculine Christianity

John Piper has recently posted his notes on his message Some Sweet Blessings of Masculine Christianity. If you will allow me to press home his second point: Men are more properly attracted to the Christian life when it does not appear that he must become effeminate to be a Christian. (Dominance of female leadership undermines the proper sense of a man’s call to be a leader, protector, and provider.) This is so true. Men are often turned off by what they perceive as the feminity of Christianity. Churches need to to realize this now and begin to cater to the needs of men, both the lost that they are trying reach and those attending that they need to keep. May I add that point #8 is well stated, too. The feminization of modern worship music is a tragedy that needs to stop now. Piper states, The corporate worship teams are not dominated by women and the songs chosen are not dominated by a one-sided feel of intimacy or majesty. The presence of masculine men and strong theology and music give the corporate worship a feel of strength that helps men discover and express the fullness of the emotions toward God that God calls for. Read the entire post here.

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John Piper on the Bridge Collapse

As the Desiring God offices are so close to the bridge collapse in Minnesota, I'm glad John Piper choose to blog on this tragedy. He has such a good perspective in these situations. Here's just a bit of what Piper had to say: The meaning of the collapse of this bridge is that John Piper is a sinner and should repent or forfeit his life forever. That means I should turn from the silly preoccupations of my life and focus my mind’s attention and my heart’s affection on God and embrace Jesus Christ as my only hope for the forgiveness of my sins and for the hope of eternal life. That is God’s message in the collapse of this bridge. That is his most merciful message: there is still time to turn from sin and unbelief and destruction for those of us who live. If we could see the eternal calamity from which he is offering escape we would hear this as the most precious message in the world.

Take a few moments to read the whole post here.

More Thoughts on Worship

As this is the Lord's Day my mind often wanders to the subject of what true worship is. What do we do, how should we act, how does God respond, how are we blessed? Here's a few thoughts from John Piper:

Worshiping in spirit is the opposite of worshiping in merely external ways. It is the opposite of empty formalism and traditionalism. Worshiping in truth is the opposite of worship based on an inadequate view of God. Worship must have heart and head. Worship must engage emotions and thought.

Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.

If you have not been to church today may you keep these thoughts in mind as you worship. If you've already been, what was it like, emotional, formal or well balanced? Let us all pray for ourselves and our churches for balanced worship that pleases God and edifies his people.

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

What's All the Fuss?

On the whole issue of John Piper recently blurting out the word ass at Passion07 I think the Jolly Blogger sums up the situation and takes a balanced position on using strong language.
Give it a read. I'm not advocating Christians everywhere starting to use strong language but I'm not going to condemn Piper for using it. Should he have used another word for it? Perhaps, but that's the word that came to mind and that's the word he spoke and he was trying to make a point. Rather, it seems like the point may have been missed and the focus became the use of this word.

Jolly Blogger makes a strong point when he stated: My main concern in all of this is that we in the church often display, or seek to attain, a kind of super-spirituality, ultra-piety and over scrupulousness that goes beyond what the Bible requires. Plus, there is something in us that just needs to feel offended at others. He goes on, I also think this sends a bad message to anyone who stumbles on discussions like this who are considering the Christian faith. I can imagine someone seeing this stuff and thinking, "my goodness, if I ever embrace the Christian faith and have a little slip of the tongue I'll probably get hammered for it - no thanks!" I doubt they would be impressed with our convictions and our spirituality, nor do I think this would entice them toward the faith. Peter Leithert contributes to the debate in his blog by clarifying the crucial passage on this issue, Eph. 5:1-12. In some sense, its good that this has come to light so that we may all examine this again.

Not long ago I sat in a class with other middle-age Christians like myself. The teacher is a pastor, well educated, and very interesting. While discussing one of the early Pelagians he started to stumble trying to find the correct word. He tilted his up and uttered, "What he said was..., was..., was just bullsh*t." I was of course caught off guard and thought at first I mis-heard him but I know I did not. I looked around the table and no one batted an eye. I have not heard him use a word like that before or since. But somehow, it was the right word then.