April 2007 Archive

Quote: Presbyterian Healing Service (04/30/07 - 20 Comments)
This morning I finished reading Daniel Doriani's commentary on James and, in his discussion of the final portion of James 5, found an interesting quote. As I read it, I though of my continuationist (charismatic) friends. It is my experience that these people often typify cessationists like myself as those who do not believe in supernatural or miraculous healings but this is really not the case. The disagreement really arises over whether or not the...

Frugality (04/30/07 - 46 Comments)
Today I want to discuss frugality. I raise this issue because I have seen it appear as a topic many people, and women in particular, discuss on their blogs. Now the Bible makes it clear that money issues are often very closely connected to hear issues, and whether a person spends money freely or whether he spends money only with great reluctance, it is wise to look always to the heart. Money can be an...

KfaW - Les Davey de France (04/29/07 - 0 Comments)
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. It is a way of introducing my readers to blogs that they may also find interesting and edifying. Every two weeks (or so) I select a blog, link to it from my site, and add that site's most recent headlines to my right sidebar. While this is...

All About RSS (04/28/07 - 18 Comments)
This brief article is in response to a friend and reader of this site who wanted to know what this RSS thing is all about. If you've been reading blogs for any time at all you've probably heard about RSS and syndication and Atom and have wondered what they are all about. I aim to let you know! RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (though some people disagree and say it stands for Rich Site...

Quote: Are You A Canadian? (04/27/07 - 12 Comments)
Since the subject of this morning's article was my home and native land, I thought I'd post a quote on that theme. In How To Be A Canadian by Will and Ian Ferguson, the brothers suggest the ultimate test of a person's status as a Canadian, as only a Canadian would be able to decipher this paragraph: Last night, I cashed my pogey and went to buy a mickey of C.C. at the beer parlour,...

Canadian Identity - It's a Fact, Eh? (04/27/07 - 16 Comments)
This is the latest installment in my occasional series I call "It's a Fact." This series deals with peculiarities of Canada and its people. Previously I've discussed eh?, that little word that is so tiny but so integral to what it means to be Canadian. I've also looked at our two national anthems, other Canadian vocabulary and Canadian Thanksgiving. Today I want to discuss Canadian identity and what it means to be Canadian. This is...

Quote: Iain Murray on Unity (04/26/07 - 6 Comments)
The following quote comes from Iain Murray's book Evangelicalism Divided (on page 291 if you must know): The ecumenical call [in the mid-20th century] was not for truth and salt; it was supremely for oneness: the greater the unity of 'the Church', it was confidently asserted, the stronger would be the impression made upon the world; and to attain that end churches should be inclusive and tolerant. But it has never been by putting unity...

Is Error in Doctrine Always Sin? (04/26/07 - 59 Comments)
It was at least six months ago that someone asked me a question I've thought a lot about since then. And yet, despite thinking about it a great deal, I haven't reached a really satisfactory conclusion. So I thought I would open discussion here and perhaps between the group of us we can reach some good conclusions (or conclusions that have been better than mine, at any rate). The question was simply this: is error...

The "L" in TULIP (04/25/07 - 71 Comments)
This is the long-awaited third part of a series I began quite some time ago, a series which I am writing not primarily to rehash the theology of each of the points or to provide an exhaustive apologetic of Calvinism, but to draw some fresh application and to show what these doctrines mean to me as I ponder them and attempt to live in light of them. I hope to show that these doctrines of...

The Light of Certainty (04/24/07 - 16 Comments)
Last week Jacob Hantla wrote about an article that had appeared in the news the day before. A girl who lives in the Minneapolis area unexpectedly gave birth to a baby. She is overweight and it seems that neither she nor her mother had known that she was pregnant. She did not want the baby and reacted to its birth by stabbing it some 135 times and stuffing the lifeless body in a trash can....

Quote: Forget His Feeling... (04/23/07 - 10 Comments)
I recently encountered an interesting quote. It is from William Wordsworth's The Prelude, considered to be the masterpiece of this English Poet who lived from April 7, 1770 to April 23, 1850. Though the poem is autobiographical, this portion is largely based on the experience of a well-known Christian. And I have read of one by shipwreck thrown With fellow sufferers whom the waves had spared Upon a region uninhabited, An island of the deep,...

Even the Smallest Island (04/23/07 - 6 Comments)
The Pacific Campaign of the Second World War is a fascinating slice of military history. In many ways, it seemed like a nonsensical series of battles between the United States and Japan--battles that ranks as some of the most horrifyingly brutal in the long and terrible history of warfare. As the Americans sought revenge for the devastation of Pearl Harbor, and as they sought to curtail Japanese aggression in the East, they fought their way...

Book Review - The Worst Hard Time (04/22/07 - 0 Comments)
On Sunday, April 14, 1935, a massive dust storm fell upon a portion of five different states: Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. The greatest and worst dust storm on record, it turned night into day and became known ever after as Black Sunday. During the 1930s these storms had become common throughout the Great Plains and extending all the way into the Canadian prairies. The First World War had made many farmers wealthy...

Book Review - The Prayer of Our Lord (04/21/07 - 3 Comments)
This book is deja vu times two (or three). It took some doing, but here is how I understand the history of this book. In 2000, Crossway published When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own and then, in 2002 they published a hardcover abridgment of this book and titled it The Prayer of Our Lord. Both books subsequently fell out of print. Last year P&R Publishing Company republished When You Pray and now,...

Glibness (04/20/07 - 11 Comments)
I continue to read through Dallimore's biography of George Whitefield and recently reached the portion which discusses John Wesley's infamous and divisive sermon called "Free Grace." This was the sermon that began a significant rift between Whitefield and the Wesleys, for not only did it set them at theological odds, but it also betrayed Whitefield's trust in Wesley. Though the men loved each other, this sermon was a very significant force in the separation between...

Book Review - Amazing Grace (04/19/07 - 7 Comments)
That the name of William Wilberforce has largely been lost to history seems somehow unfair. Wilberforce was the driving force behind the abolition of slavery within the British Empire. A Member of Parliament for forty-five years, the results of his efforts are still seen and understood in Western society to this day. Though his impact was felt not only at his time, but has extended through history, few people know his name. In Amazing Grace,...

Quote: Whitefield on Making them Pray (04/18/07 - 47 Comments)
As George Whitefield sailed from his native England to Georgia where he was to be a missionary, he ministered to those on board the ship. Here is an excerpt from his journal where he discusses a ministry encounter with a particularly willful child: Had a good instance of the benefit of breaking children's wills betimes. Last night, going between decks (as I do every night) to visit the sick and to examine my people, I...

Spiritual Counterfeits (04/18/07 - 74 Comments)
Last week I received an interesting email from a member of a mailing list I participate in. He asked whether it is true that Satan works primarily by counterfeiting what is true. This is a subject to which I dedicated a great deal of thought while writing my book and I thought I'd type up an answer to post it here. One chapter of my book is dedicated to understanding why discernment is so difficult....

Praying for Blacksburg (04/17/07 - 12 Comments)
Like you, I was horrified to hear of yesterday's violence at Virginia Tech. And like you, I had immediate flashbacks to the Columbine shootings which, though they happened eight years ago, seem fresh in my mind. It was awful to see the pictures of bleeding students being carried from the campus and to see the death count rising and rising. It was awful to hear of people jumping from windows or cowering for hours in...

Sweet Drudgery (04/16/07 - 20 Comments)
One of the most destructive forces that has faced the church in recent years is the teaching that God gives Christians faith so they can exercise it to their own benefit. This gospel of health and wealth teaches that our faith allows us to demand from God whatever we desire and that He is beholden to give it to us. If only our faith is strong enough, we can have whatever we want or need....

KfaW - Fire and Knowledge (04/15/07 - 4 Comments)
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. It is a way of introducing my readers to blogs that they may also find interesting and edifying. Every two weeks (or so) I select a blog, link to it from my site, and add that site's most recent headlines to my right sidebar. While this is...

Scared to Love (04/14/07 - 11 Comments)
I recently began reading Laura Sessions Stepp's Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both, a book I am really only reading because of the final three words of the title. That young women are pursuing sex and delaying love is common knowledge, but it's rare to find someone who is willing to declare that this causes women to lose at both. While I am not yet at that stage of...

R.L. Dabney on Christian Unity (04/13/07 - 10 Comments)
This quote comes from R.L. Dabney and is drawn from his Discussions. It deals with the always-difficult subject of unity among Christians. Dabney writes realistically about the implausibility of Christians, mere men, agreeing on disputable issues such as church government. I find this quote timely as I think about associations like Together for the Gospel or even the Twin Lakes Fellowship, groups and events that are deliberate about looking beyond disputable matters and joining forces...

Book Review - Preaching the Cross (04/13/07 - 5 Comments)
You may experience a sense of deja vu when reading Preaching the Cross since this book is the product of last year's Together for the Gospel conference. Several thousand men were in attendance and many have since read summaries of the sessions or have listened to the audio recordings. While the chapters are not mere transcriptions of the messages delivered at the conference, they are, as we would expect, very similar. Of course they are...

Twin Lakes (VI) (04/12/07 - 14 Comments)
I had a long and deep sleep last night and then headed to the dining hall for breakfast with a Reformed Virginian and an American Swede. After munching down some crispy bacon (seems to be how they eat it in Mississippi) and french toast, we gathered again for the conference's final worship service, this one led by Ken Pierce and with Derek Thomas preaching "The Benediction" from 2 Corinthians 13:14. It was Martin Luther who...

Twin Lakes (V) (04/11/07 - 14 Comments)
This afternoon we enjoyed a panel discussion in which Ligon Duncan spoke with several African American pastors. He asked about how they were saved, how they came to embrace the doctrines of grace, and how they feel the church can best address issues of race. He also spoke briefly on the phone with Mark Dever (asking Mark about his upcoming writing projects) and then with D.A. Carson (whom he also asked about his upcoming writing...

Twin Lakes (IV) (04/11/07 - 1 Comments)
The day began with David Robertson speaking to us about Robert Murray McCheyne. Robertson, who currently pastors St. Peter's Free Church, the very church of McCheyne, wrote a biography (Awakening: The Life & Ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne) of McCheyne in 1994 and shared with us some of the lessons we can learn from the all-too-short life of this great Scottish preacher. We then turned to the second of this conference's worship services. After Kevin...

Twin Lakes (III) (04/10/07 - 2 Comments)
This afternoon Carl Robbins invited different pastors, church planters and heads of ministries to provide brief updates on what has happened in their ministries over the past year. This was really an amazing time as we were able to see the diversity of Reformed ministries. We heard from missionaries raising support to head to other countries to begin churches or whole denominations. We heard from churches that are helping the recovery efforts in Gulfport, Mississippi,...

Twin Lakes (II) (04/10/07 - 5 Comments)
Ligon Duncan kicked things off with an explanation of this fellowship (they do not refer to it as a conference), the reason it exists and what they mean by continually referring to "the ordinary means of grace." The Twin Lakes Fellowship is a ministerial fraternal committed to connecting gospel ministers and elders with one another. Duncan quoted Jonathan Edwards who said that when God prepares His church for a significant blessing, He brings together a...

Twin Lakes (I) (04/10/07 - 7 Comments)
I'm sitting in a lodge of sorts, way down south in Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi, to be exact. I shamefully admit that I had to look up both Jackson and Mississippi on a map yesterday before I set out just to figure out where I was going to be spending my week. I am here for the Twin Lakes Conference, a small but impactful conference sponsored primarily by First Presbyterian Church of Jackson (a.k.a. Ligon Duncan's...

Book Review - The Bishop of Rwanda (04/09/07 - 9 Comments)
The country of Rwanda has seen some of the worst violence and bloodshed the world has witnessed this side of the Holocaust. If ever a nation has been in need of God's grace and favor, this is it. In 1994 the nation was devastated by a genocidal civil war that pitted the Hutus against the Tutsis. In just 100 days during April to July of that year, over one million people were killed, the vast...

"Mary." (04/08/07 - 9 Comments)
"Mary." Of all the sentences in the Bible, this is one of my favorites. Mary Magdalene has come to Jesus' tomb and is distressed to see that his body is gone. Convinced that someone has taken away His body, she stands outside the tomb weeping. Two angels appear and ask simply "Woman, why are you weeping?" She replies, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." But...

Review - Same Kind of Different as Me (04/07/07 - 6 Comments)
At a recent conference I met a gentleman who happens to edit one of those airline magazines that always competes with your legroom in an airplane. A short time ago he sent me an email and asked if I had heard of a book called Same Kind of Different as Me and recommended that I read it. He seemed like a good enough guy and the book had a great cover, so I went ahead...

There Appeared to Him an Angel (04/06/07 - 10 Comments)
Suppose you were facing the darkest hour of your life. You had been accused of false charges but there was no doubt that you would be found guilty. The punishment for your crime would be a long, brutal, torturous death. But suppose that for just a few moments you were allowed a visit from another person. Who would you want to sit with you to bring you some measure of comfort? Perhaps you would choose...

Astonished At My Own Ignorance (04/05/07 - 3 Comments)
Robert Moffat was a Scottish missionary to South Africa and this quote is drawn from a letter he wrote to his wife Mary. In the mid 1850's he completed the great work of translating the entire Bible into Sechuana and subsequently revised the translation several times. Despite this work he provides an assessment of the limitations imposed by his humanity. It was only yesterday, after laying down the Bible, that I wondered what kind of...

The Rookie Draft (04/05/07 - 22 Comments)
As you well know, the school calendar is rapidly drawing to a close and a new class of rookies is set to graduate from the nation's seminaries. As the annual rookie draft approaches, I've scoured the ranks of young men, have spoken to the scouts, have attended the combine and have interviewed many of the candidates. And now I share the fruit of all this labor and provide my thoughts on how this year's draft...

Ee-lectronic gold - A Song (04/04/07 - 16 Comments)
On Saturday I submitted the manuscript for my book. That evening we had some friends come over, and among these friends was Paul, our pastor, who took the opportunity to share a song he had written for the occasion. I do believe this marks the first, and probably the last, time anyone has written me a song. It's a humdinger, too, even if it is somewhat lacking in historical accuracy. I assume you can figure...

Review - A Scottish Christian Heritage (04/04/07 - 4 Comments)
On the face of it, or judging by the title, A Scottish Christian Heritage does not sound like the kind of book many people would enjoy. It sounds like a book that will dwell on a narrow topic and one that will be of interest to only a select group of people. But those of us who appreciate the writing ministry of Iain Murray know that what he writes is always worth reading. The last...

Testimony Tuesday (04/03/07 - 24 Comments)
I believe it was Ligon Duncan who, at the Together for the Gospel conference, said that one of the great benefits of sharing and reading testimonies is that they testify to the fact that, although there is only one way to God, there are many ways to Jesus Christ. No man can come to God unless He comes through Jesus Christ. Yet there are as many ways of coming to Christ as there are followers...

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year (04/02/07 - 39 Comments)
The first Monday in April has long been one of my favorite days of the year. It is the day that the Boys of Summer take to the field and begin the long, difficult journey through the baseball season. Since I was just a child I have loved baseball. I grew up listening to the sounds of the game and spending every moment I could on the field. My earliest baseball memories go back to...