Elections and John Flavel, the Puritan

If the temptation to fear comes around before elections, as it does with me, chew on this quote from Flavel:
"To trust God in part, and the creature in part, is to set one foot upon a rock, and the other upon a quicksand."

Let us work and pray, and then sweetly resign ourselves to the perfect will of God.

"We can be good without God" says the Atheist.

To prove that we can be good without God, Dawkins started a charity. He gave responsibility for it to a fine young atheist.   But perhaps the bud was more promising than the blossom:
http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2010/10/corruption-in-atheist-camp.html

"He finally realized that he was going to die."

This week my husband read to us from Gary North's Backward,Christian Soldiers?


Here are some excerpts from a section called "Optimistic Future Corpses."  I should maybe clarify that I do not consider postmillennialism to be the only acceptable view of end times. And I do not consider that only postmillennialists see things in the following way.... But I do consider the view a great encouragement to this kind of patience, wisdom and perseverence.  Yes, we must ALWAYS be ready to die at any moment, but at the same time we do not want to be like the five foolish virgins who were unprepared for a long wait.  We must not fail to invest our minas with hope and thoughtfulness.   May God give us grace.

  "David Chilton...once remarked that the day he accepted postmillennialism, he finally realized that he was going to die.  He said that this awareness was unique. Nobody had even told him this before.  He and his premillennial peers had always believed that they were going to be raptured.  He said that this new perspective on his own personal future changed the way he thought about his life's work.   Indeed, it had to.  One's time perspective is crucial to one's view of work and work's legacy.  The problem today with postmillennialism, perhaps more than anything else, is that it is a philosophy of personal, physical death.  That sort of philosophy really has a limited Christian market in our era.  Marxists have a secularized version of this faith, which is why they are such potent ideological opponents.   Most Christians have no such outlook.   They prefer not to think about death.   They prefer to think about the rapture.

"Death is the backdrop of all endeavors by postmillennialist.  The death of the sin-cursed body is the starting point. Then the question has to be asked: How should we then live?  What kinds of institutions should we build? What kind of education should we impart to our children?  How much capital should we invest in long-term projects?  What kinds of books should we read or write?  How, in short should we fight?  What can anyone leave behind that his own death will not swallow up?

"Because postmillennialists know that they cannot assume continually that they have five good years left, and that they should assume that their organizations are not going to be left behind in a world without the presence of other Christian workers, they have to think about the future.  Because they know they will die, they can be optimistic about the future.  They know that other Christians will persevere.  They know that Christian institutions will survive to serve as salt for the world civilization. Because they will die, they think to themselves, they can build for the earthly future of others who will also die.  Because their view of their own efforts is necessarily short run--one lifetime, at most-- their view of the long-term effects of their efforts in implicitly long run."

A Mother's Tears kept in a bottle....

Rev. Leonard Katundu, called to minister to the Malawian Presbyterian Church in Africa, tells this moving account of his grandmother, Orpah.    Orpah was converted by Christian missionaries, and began to offer up fervent prayers and tears to God for the conversion of her children and grandchildren.   All of her sons became preachers of the gospel.  Her daughter, Nyembezi, also believed and taught her children the ways of the Lord. Leonard is one of Nyembezi's sons.  He has received training at the excellent Puritan Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is looking forward to shepherding the sheep there in Malawi.

The tears of his grandmother are still remembered by God.  May God bring continued blessing because of them.

What shall I write in her birthday card?

When opportunities to send cards come up, I love to grab our book Gathered Gold by John Blanchard.  This is a marvelous collection of quotes including numerous gems from the Puritans.  Blanchard says he got a "trawling eye" after his conversion and began to gather quotes as he read.  Today our oldest daughter turned 20, and I wrote this anonymous quote in her card: "If you wish to be disappointed, look to others; if you wish to be disheartened, look to yourself; if you wish to be encouraged, look to Jesus."

Another good quote is about evolution by G.K.Chesterton: "The evolutionist seem to know everything about the missing link except the fact that it is missing."

When the hand that rocks the cradle also prays....

One morning we read Isaiah 65 in family worship -- about God waiting to be gracious to those who cry out to him.  He waits, ready to bless with living water, bread, rejoicing, singing and gladness for the hungry, thirsty and weary.

I had been reading a small book of sermons by Brownlow North called The Rich Man and Lazarus
to the children.  Preached in Northern Ireland in 1859, these sermons were instrumental in starting a spiritual awakening:  "church-goers who had sat thoughtlessly for years listening to sermons, suddenly awoke to the realities of an eternal world; ministers began to preach with a new authority; factory workers carried Bibles to their benches..."  If you are curious about these sermons that God was pleased to use for revival, let me share a quote.  Asserting that the sin of the rich man was his being content without God, Mr. North goes on to address the congregation:  "I pray God that...every unconverted man ...on earth, may feel his want and need, as the Rich man feels his in hell; I pray to God that the sorrows of death my even now compass him, that the pains of hell may immediately get hold upon him."

What fodder for prayer as you rock the cradle, teach to sew, read aloud, and hear times tables.

"Lord, for my children and theirs and theirs, may they see you as waiting to be gracious to those who cry out to you.  If not, may the terrors of hell be upon them so they hear and come and cry, dreading the hunger, thirst, shame, wailing and sword that will be theirs otherwise.  Amen"

The great service of book reviewers.

A friend, Sylvia, from Canada sent me this review from Wes Bredenhof on the book Dig Deeper: Tools for Understand God's Word. I had told my friend about the book Understand and she said this is a great companion volume.  She has introduced me to many wonderful books.   I am waiting for this one to come in the mail.

Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God’s Word, Nigel Beynon & Andrew Sach, Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.  Soft cover, 158 pages, $16.50.

Just as happens today, the presiding minister in a Reformed worship service in sixteenth-century Geneva would pray for God’s blessing over the reading and preaching of the Word.  Some of John Calvin’s prayers for illumination have been preserved.  One of them begins like this:  “Almighty and gracious Father, since our whole salvation stands in our knowledge of your Holy Word, strengthen us now by your Holy Spirit…”  Calvin was right:  our entire salvation depends on the Word of God.  It is critically important for us to be familiar with that Word and to know how to work with it and understand it.  This book is intended to help us to that end.

Both authors are experienced in the study of Scripture.  Nigel Beynon is a Christian conference organizer and Andrew Sach is a pastor of a large conservative Anglican church in England.  This book was originally published in the UK in 2005 as a result of their efforts at helping university and college students to better understand the Bible.  Crossway has now republished it for a North American audience.

Overall, I am impressed with this little volume.  I’ve long been looking for a simple, short, and faithful summary of biblical principles for interpreting the Bible.  I’m pleased to say that I’ve found it with Dig Deeper.   Through seventeen chapters, the authors unfold a comprehensive set of tools that will allow those who do not have a formal theological training to get a good handle on what the Bible says and how it should be applied to their lives.  As an example, chapter 15 deals with “The Bible Time Line Tool.”  Whenever looking at a Bible passage, the authors encourage us to ask three questions:

1.      Where is this passage on the Bible time line?

2.      Where am I on the Bible time line?

3.      How do I read this in light of things that have happened in between?

Some readers will no doubt recognize this as a way of approaching the Bible from the view point of redemptive history.  This is the approach found, for instance, with S. G. De Graaf in his still very useful Promise and Deliverance.

I have only a small number of reservations.  I wish, for instance, that more emphasis had been placed on the fact that all of Scripture points us to Christ.  The authors do mention this, but it comes rather late in the book, almost as an afterthought.  This should be central.  Would I have written this book, I might also have included a paragraph or two distinguishing between the indicative (what God has done) and the imperative (what we are called to do).  I also disagree with some of the interpretations of various passages and biblical concepts.  For instance, chapter 7 tells us that we do not have to go to a special building or place to worship God.  “There are no holy places anymore, only a holy person” (66).  However, doesn’t 1 Corinthians 3:16 say that the church is “the temple of God”?  When the church is gathered in worship, is that not a holy place where God is present to bless his people with Word and sacrament?  These sentiments betray an unfortunate acceptance of a minimalist ecclesiology by the authors.

Yet generally this is a well-written book.  It has excellent illustrations and practical examples.  They emphasize the importance of prayer for Bible study.  Most importantly, the authors have the highest possible respect for the authority of Scripture and that respect is not mere lip-service.  That’s something that can’t be taken for granted.  So, who might benefit from Dig Deeper?  High school Bible teachers would be the first ones to come to mind.  It could be used as a textbook for high school Bible classes.  However, certainly anyone who wants to enrich their knowledge of God’s Word would be well-served by reading this little book carefully.