Piper on the Voice of God

Hello folks, anyone checking out this blog who has not yet read John Piper's latest Taste and See article really should. Make sure to read all the way to the end.

Free Ligonier Conference Webcast

The 2007 Ligonier National Conference is this Thursday-Saturday, and the main sessions can be viewed live and for free online. The speakers for this year are John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, John Piper, Ravi Zacharias and of course, R.C. Sproul.

Head over to Ligonier.org and look for the "Free National Conference Webcast" tab under the "New and Noteworthy" section of the main page. Take advantage friends!

Thoughts Concerning the Death of a non-Christian Family Member

I got word today that my Nana (my mother's mother) died last night. She was a special woman whom I enjoyed the company of and I will miss in the years to come. Here are some of my thoughts:

I hope that in her last minutes she earnestly cried out to Jesus for mercy. Apart from trusting in the saving work of the Lord Jesus on the cross and thereby being born again, no one will enter heaven.

How much more this causes me to rejoice in my own salvation, that the sovereign God of the universe called me to Himself and brought me from death to life.

My very first thought after hearing of Nana's death: "Will not the judge of the earth always do what is right?"

This event should embolden me to warn my remaining family members that it is appointed for men once to die and then comes the judgement. Lord, may it be so.

It is difficult to know what to say to my family who do not know God because they are convinced that Nana is "in a better place".

It occurs to me that mourning the loss of one life and celebrating the creation of a new one - as Erika and I are doing while anticipating the birth of a son or daughter in late fall of this year -is a profoundly human experience.

Pornography and Marriage

The following is an exerpt from an address given by Dr. Albert Mohler. Brothers, take the time to read this.

Consider these two pictures. The first picture is of a man who has set himself toward a commitment to sexual purity, and is living in sexual integrity with his wife. In order to fulfill his wife’s rightful expectations and to maximize their mutual pleasure in the marriage bed, he is careful to live, to talk, to lead, and to love in such a way that his wife finds her fulfillment in giving herself to him in love. The sex act then becomes a fulfillment of their entire relationship, not an isolated physical act that is merely incidental to their love for each other. Neither uses sex as means of manipulation, neither is inordinately focused merely on self-centered personal pleasure, and both give themselves to each other in unapologetic and unhindered sexual passion. In this picture, there is no shame. Before God, this man can be confident that he is fulfilling his responsibilities both as a male and as a man. He is directing his sexuality, his sex drive, and his physical embodiment toward the one-flesh relationship that is the perfect paradigm of God’s intention in creation. By contrast, consider another man. This man lives alone, or at least in a context other than holy marriage. Directed inwardly rather than outwardly, his sex drive has become an engine for lust and self-gratification. Pornography is the essence of his sexual interest and arousal. Rather than taking satisfaction in his wife, he looks at dirty pictures in order to be rewarded with sexual arousal that comes without responsibility, expectation, or demand. Arrayed before him are a seemingly endless variety of naked women, sexual images of explicit carnality, and a cornucopia of perversions intended to seduce the imagination and corrupt the soul. This man need not be concerned with his physical appearance, his personal hygiene, or his moral character in the eyes of a wife. Without this structure and accountability, he is free to take his sexual pleasure without regard for his unshaved face, his slothfulness, his halitosis, his body odor, and his physical appearance. He faces no requirement of personal respect, and no eyes gaze upon him in order to evaluate the seriousness and worthiness of his sexual desire. Instead, his eyes roam across the images of unblinking faces, leering at women who make no demands upon him, who never speak back, and who can never say no. There is no exchange of respect, no exchange of love, and nothing more than the using of women as sex objects for his individual and inverted sexual pleasure. By logical consequence, he achieves sexual gratification at the expense of women who have been used and abused as commodified sex objects. He may imagine a sex act as he fulfills his physical pleasure, but he almost certainly does not imagine what it would mean to be responsible for this woman as husband and accountable to her as mate. He can sit in his soiled underwear, belching the remnants of last night’s pizza, and engage in a pattern of one-handed sexual satisfaction while he “surfs the net” and forfeits his soul. These two pictures of male sexuality are deliberately intended to drive home the point that every man must decide who he will be, whom he will serve, and how he will love. In the end, a man’s decision about pornography is a decision about his soul, a decision about his marriage, a decision about his wife, and a decision about God. Pornography is a slander against the goodness of God’s creation and a corruption of this good gift God has given his creatures out of his own self-giving love. To abuse this gift is to weaken, not only the institution of marriage, but the fabric of civilization itself. To choose lust over love is to debase humanity and to worship the false god Priapus in the most brazen form of modern idolatry.

Link: Between Two Worlds: The Seduction of Pornography and the Integrity of Christian Marriage

Hope for the Evangelist from Romans

Hello dear reader(s).

I have been reading through the book of Romans with an unsaved fella the past few months in order that he might be saved. I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation, and yet I know that this young man is commanded by God in the scriptures to repent and believe the gospel, and so I do try to impress that upon him, to call on the name of the Lord and be saved (Rom 10:13). The great thing about evangelizing through the whole book of Romans is that all of the necessary information to receive the gospel as good news is present: the law, our transgression of the law, the penalty for breaking the law, etc. Also the gospel itself is in Romans: the perfect life, penal substitutionary death, and triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To you dear reader, who does not have the opportunity to read through the whole book of Romans with someone whom you wish to be saved, there is still great encouragement to be had here.

1) Romans 1:19-20 ESV:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

God has revealed Himself in His creation, it is evident by the stars and planets and trees and bugs that there is a powerful Creator God. Therefore the evangelist can appeal to creation as witness to the existence of God.

2) Romans 2:14-15 ESV:

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

God has written His law on the heart of every man and every woman who has ever lived, this is where the conscience comes from. What a great hope! This means that when you are showing the sinner his true self in the mirror that is the law, he will not like what he sees but he will know deep down that it is true! I think this is where a lot of the vehement reactions come from, there is a chord struck within the sinner when he hears the law, if the conscience is fertile enough, this can cause great reverberations throughout his heart.

The ultimate encouragement is of course that the Holy Spirit is the one who does the work of convicting, regenerating and giving the gift of faith - the evangelist is to be merely a herald. Endeavor today to be a herald, friend.

"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"