The Father of the Decade vs. The Father of Eternity

Here is a video that Wimp.com calls "The Father of the Decade" in honor of Patrick John Hughes, father of Patrick Henry Hughes (pictured above.) The keepers of this website could very well be right. This dad would certainly get my vote for such. But, according to Jesus, this father, despite his heightened powers and execution of his fatherly role, is yet "evil", in other words a fallen man who in this life still regularly falls short of God's glory (Romans 3:20). And this makes Jesus' point about "evil" earthly fathers especially glorious when he queries, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?" (Matthew 7:11). With this question Jesus invites us to consider the love, devotion and sacrifice of men like Patrick John Hughes and then to multiply it by a zillion or three in order to begin to fathom the depths of God's love for us, and His delight to fulfill the requests that we lay before Him in Jesus' name. Enjoy.

In the Kindergarten of Worship

While it is true that worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ are born and not made (i.e. trained.) It is equally true that those born to worship must be trained to do so if they would worship well. Here is some very helpful wisdom for parents training up the children to love God heart, mind and soul in the great assembly. (Hint: These ideas work much better if you actually do them, as opposed to just reading about them.)

How to Listen to Sermons

"So what is the right way to listen to a sermon? With a soul that is prepared, a mind that is alert, a Bible that is open, a heart that is receptive, and a life that is ready to spring into action." (Phillip Ryken, President of Wheaton College)

You can read the full explanation here. Enjoy.

How to Pray in the Trinity

Here is a four minute sermon clip with some very helpful reminders of how it is we are to approach and commune with God in prayer. To the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. Enjoy.

Self Protecting Redefinitions

As Jeremiah noted and then queried, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" One of the very subtle ways that the prophet is proved true is the way that we redefine words like "hate" in order to feel a little less guilty and a whole lot better about ourselves. Here is a link to a brief post by Kevin DeYoung that exposes our silly attempts to deform God's Word.


So very glad for God's delight to forgive sins for Jesus' sake. That, and only that, is this hater's only hope. Can I get a witness?

Desiring God 2012 Messages Link

I encourage you to check out this webpage and to listen to the addresses given at Desiring God 2012 conference. I have my favorites, but they were all very good. A few suggestions: Audio is fine for all the addresses except for Ramez Attalah's. You'll miss some very important elements unless you watch the video of this talk. Audio will work okay for the panel discussions, but would be better if viewed in order to catch facial expressions as the panelists banter back and forth.

How Deep the Father's Love For Us

According to the people who made this short video, the message is "Family is Forever." But I would encourage you to watch it under the heading of "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." Enjoy.

Sanctification: Slow, Not Seismic

As we considered a few weeks ago in our study of Nehemiah 8 (Authority of the Bible, part 2), a much neglected aspect of getting the Word of God "into our bones" is the ritual reenactment of the core tenets of our faith. Here is a helpful post on the importance of "becoming the liturgy." Be sure and watch the video which is linked near the end of the post. I agree with Ian Morgan Cron's observation that despite our craving for what some have described as the "quiver in the liver", sanctification is most often "slow" rather than "seismic." Enjoy.

HT: Angela Marton

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Pastor John Piper on true worship:

The fuel of worship is a true vision of the greatness of God;

  the fire that makes the fuel burn white hot is the quickening of the Holy Spirit;

    the furnace made alive and warm by the flame of truth is our renewed spirit;

     and the resulting heat of our affections is powerful worship, pushing its way out in confessions, longings, acclamations, tears, songs, shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands, and obedient lives.

A Letter From Martin Luther to a Despairing Friend

The following is from a letter written in July 1530 to Jerome Weller, a 31-year-old friend who had previously lived in the Luther home, tutored his children, and was now struggling with spiritual despair:

. . Excellent Jerome, You ought to rejoice in this temptation of the devil because it is a certain sign that God is propitious and merciful to you.

You say that the temptation is heavier than you can bear, and that you fear that it will so break and beat you down as to drive you to despair and blasphemy. I know this wile of the devil. If he cannot break a person with his first attack, he tries by persevering to wear him out and weaken him until the person falls and confesses himself beaten.

Whenever this temptation comes to you, avoid entering upon a disputation with the devil and do not allow yourself to dwell on those deadly thoughts, for to do so is nothing short of yielding to the devil and letting him have his way.

Try as hard as you can to despise those thoughts which are induced by the devil. In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil.

Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking.

By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. . .

When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus:

“I admit that I deserve death and hell.
What of it?
Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation?
By no means.
For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf.
His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Where he is, there I shall be also.”

Yours,
Martin Luther

When Your Pastor Doesn't Preach Like John Piper

St. Paul on preaching:

"For necessity is laid upon me.Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Cor. 9:16)

"I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." (1 Corinthians 9:16)

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:2)

We pastors find in these words both encouragement and discouragement. Encouragement to preach regardless of the cost, and discouragement because the standard by which we will be judged is so lofty.

There is indeed a cost to being a preacher. “The pulpit calls those anointed to it,” wrote Bruce Thielemann, “like the sea calls its sailor and like the sea, it batters and bruises.” Pastors who faithfully preach God’s message each Sunday know, “To really preach is to die naked a little at a time, and to know each time you do that, you must do it again.”

Amen, Bruce.

Here is an article that would most likely be helpful to every parishoner who does not sit under the weekly ministry of his/her favorite podcast preacher (e.g. John Piper, Doug Wilson, Mark Driscoll or Mark Dever.) Enjoy. 

Irritable Guests

“Christmas dinner, as described by a modern minor poet, would almost certainly be a study in acute agony: the unendurable dullness of Uncle George; the cacophonous voice of Aunt Adelaide. But Chaucer, who sat down at the table with the Miller and the Pardoner, could have sat down to a Christmas dinner with the heaviest uncle or the shrillest aunt. He might have been amused at them, but he would never have been an­gered at them, and certainly he would never have insulted them in irritable little poems. And the reason was partly spiritual and partly practical; spiritual because he had, whatever his faults, a scheme of spiritual values in their right order, and knew that Christmas was more important than Uncle George’s anecdotes; and practical because he had seen the great world of human be­ings, and knew that wherever a man wanders among men..., he will find that the world largely consists of Uncle Georges. This imaginative patience is the thing that men want [that is, “lack”] most in the modern Christmas.” ―G.K. Chesterton, “Chaucer and Christmas,” Illustrated London News, December 26, 1931

HT: Randy Booth

You Have Never Talked to a Mere Mortal

I wonder what our days would look like, and our conversations sound like if we really believed and took to heart what Lewis is saying in the following paragraphs. I believe Lewis is right when he says, "There are no ordinary people."

"It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.

The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

The Innkeeper (by John Piper)

It's interesting to note that a good number of my favorite pastor/theologians are poets as well. And John Piper is a shining example of this cadre of godly men. Please do yourself and your loved ones a holiday favor and listen to Pastor Piper read his heart-warming "The Innkeeper." Enjoy.

The Innkeeper

John Piper, 1986

Jake's wife would have been fifty-eight
The day that Jesus passed the gate
Of Bethlehem, and slowly walked
Toward Jacob's Inn. The people talked
With friends, and children played along
The paths, and Jesus hummed a song,
And smiled at every child he saw.

He paused with one small lass to draw
A camel in the dirt, then said,
"What's this?" The girl bent down her head
To study what the Lord had made,
She smiled, "A camel, sir!" and laid
Her finger on the bulging back,

Where merchants bind their leather pack
"It's got a hump." "Indeed it does,
And who do you believe it was
Who made this camel with his hump?"
Without a thought that this would stump
The rabbi guild and be reviled,
She said, "God did." And Jesus smiled,
"Good eyes, my child. And would that all
Jerusalem within that wall
Of yonder stone could see the signs
Of peace!" He left the lass with lines
Of simple wonder in her face,
And slowly went to find the place
Where he was born.

Anti-Santy Ranty

Merry Christmas!

Nativity Paradoxes

“Maker of the sun, He is made under the sun. In the Father He remains, from His mother He goes forth. Creator of heaven and earth, He was born on earth under heaven. Unspeakably wise, He is wisely speechless. Filling the world, He lies in a manger. Ruler of the stars, He nurses at His mother’s bosom. He is both great in the nature of God, and small in the form of a servant.” (St. Augustine of Hippo)

Putting the "X" in "Xmas"

"It’s been said that “Xmas” is a seasonal, subversive attempt by secularists to kick Christ out of Christmas. I don’t doubt that is the intent of some folks in our culture. In reality, the Greek spelling of the name Christ is Χριστός. In fact, the early Church often referred to Christ simply by his first Greek initial (X), or more commonly by overlapping his first two initials (XP). The simple cross (X) of course carried double meaning for the early Christians. So in that sense there’s not only a Christ in Xmas but also a Calvary. Far from a secularist attack, “Xmas” reminds us of Christ, his birth, and his cross, all at once. Merry Xmas!" (Tony Reinke)

The Grande Miracle

“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own uni­verse, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.” ―C.S. Lewis, “The Grand Miracle”

The Reason for the Season

We all know how easily we are distracted from the true meaning of this season, and how easily thoughts of "God with us" dissolve into anxious busyness. This video is a pretty good inoculation against the virus of commercialism. Enjoy.

Sing a New Song to the Lord

Reflections on Worship Music

Kevin DeYoung

1. Love is indispensable to church singing that pleases God.

2. Our singing is for God’s glory and the edification of the body of Christ.

3. We ought to sing to the Lord new songs.

4. Church singing should swim in its own history of church singing.

5. Sing the Psalms.

6. We should strive for excellence in the musicality and the poetry of the songs we sing.

7. The main sound to be heard in the worship music is the sound of the congregation singing.

8. The congregation should also be stretched from time to time to learn new songs and broaden its musical horizons.

9. The texts of our songs should be matched with fitting musicality and instrumentation.

10. All of our songs should employ manifestly biblical lyrics.