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| "But I fear a distrust of God and my Redeemer has had too great a hand in my desires after a more distinct knowledge than God ordinarily gives to souls in flesh....Yet we must desire that our knowledge and belief may be as distinct as divine revelations are. We can love no farther than we know; and the more we know of God and glory, the more we shall love, desire and trust.", Richard Baxter, 1683, Dying Thoughts p.35
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| I just finished reading Arthur Pink's The Seven Sayings of Our Savior On The Cross. He is definitely one of my new favorite authors. This book is such an expositional gem, of just seven select utterances of Christ as quoted from the Gospels. I was shocked, all the way through the book, at how innumerable the facets of Christ's time on the cross are. It's clear that Pink's soul found its truest communion with the Father only through meditations on the Gospel, and we reap the benefits through this brief but dense masterpiece. My second impression is that Pink's own meditations on the Gospel demanded from him an evangelistic ministry, always. This book could have easily been written for the Church of believers, to heighten their love for their Savior, (and I believe this was one of Pink's goals), but he refused to be content there and insisted in explicitly addressing the unbelieving reader in every one of his chapters, calling them to an undiluted faith in Christ.
"'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit'....will be our cry...and when we go hence, our expectation and earnest desires are to be with Him. We have cast many a longing look heavenward, but when the soul of the saved near the parting of ways, then it throws itself into the arms of love, just as a river after many turnings and windings pours itself into the oceans....
But reader, only believers are warranted and encouraged thus to commend their spirits into the hands of God at the dying hour; how sad is the state of all dying unbelievers. Their spirits too will fall into the hands of God, but this will be their misery and not their privilege. These will find 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Heb. 10:31). Yes, because instead of falling into the arms of love, they will fall into the hands of justice.",p.138
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| Its unfortunate that I find myself misunderstood by so many people. I try to be transparent, but I have to admit that in the past year or so, I've been very content to keep to myself in public contexts. I don't blog a lot of my personal affairs anymore, but I still have other cathartic avenues in my closest friends. Nonetheless, the only person that I can consistently blame for these misunderstandings is me. Conversely, God is the only one who has successfully made himself know in full sufficiency such that nobody can blame Him for their ignorance. I suppose I've been so accustomed to being surrounded by a church family that has not only observed me as I've been shaped into who am I today, but has actually participated in it too. There are so many new people in the church these days that I'm finding myself frustrated that nobody understands me anymore. It seems I'm often engaged on the field of reputation rather than a genuine desire to get to know me. It appears to be on the basis of presumption, stereotypes and even possibly (but hopefully not) gossip. Although, honestly, I have no reason to complain. These situations are always an inevitability in a world of sinners. My responsibility goes only as far as to patiently prove my character over time while offering charity to those who are still getting acquainted with me. But if anybody out there cares to make an effort to figure me out, I can offer one place you will find my heart of hearts: my teaching. Consider this phenomenon: Christian pop culture has a tendency to toss around the concept of gathering together to study the Bible and to worship for the purpose of "getting to know God better". But most people who use this phraseology won't really be able to exaplin tangibly how this works. But I found that God's own character is stitched through all the pages of scripture, even in the most mundane texts. You can understand God's heart better when you recognize what He prescribes, defends, condemns, upholds, loves, hates, repeats, omits, emphasizes, demands, suggests, insinuates, explains, prioritizes. Even in how he goes about these things, if he uses an economy of words, or if he invests a large sum of words. You can observe broad themes and minute details, all revealing what God cares to give his attention to. People can get so tangled up in getting to know the content of the Bible, that they often miss the Author behind the content. Of course anybody who approaches the content in a cavalier fashion would be guilty of approaching the author in that fasion. But once we understand the content of the Bible, we must not stop there, but pursue an intimate understanding of the heart of God the Author. People might consider my teaching and blog posts too "heady". But this is who I am. (though I'm always striving to be a more effective teacher, feedback welcome!) But if anybody cares to understand my heart, you know where to start. Conveniently, xanga provides this tagging service. It's actually a weighted visualization of the proportion of one tag to another. The smaller the font, the less posts I've written for that tag. The tags with large fonts betray my favorite type of entries. All posts contain insights into kevina's character. But kevina loves blogging about some things more than others. My tags are a good place to figure that out. Can anybody guess what's #1? | | |
| From Challies' review of Why Johnny Can't Preach - The Media Have Shaped the Messengers
"Johnny has never been instructed in the reading of texts. He has been taught to read to gather information, to read as a means to an immediate end, but he has never been taught to read with a view to how a text is formed. He reads for content while ignoring construct. “Culturally, then, we are no longer careful, close readers of texts, sacred or secular. We scan for information, but we do not appreciate literary craftsmanship. Exposition is therefore virtually a lost art.” In the second, he channels Neil Postman and other writers in demonstrating that Johnny is fast losing the ability to communicate well with the written word. In fact, by relying so heavily on technologies such as the telephone, he has stunted his ability to communicate with others in face-to-face contexts. Where the written word, carefully constructed, is a valuable medium for weighty content, the spoken word, especially over the telephone or other media, gives itself to levity and to thoughtless discussion." | | |
| Some notes from the Shepherd's Conference:
- God did not author a book in order to obscure himself from his creation, but to communicate himself clearly.
- Instantaneous/miraculous creation illustrates the new birth (regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit). But theistic evolution decouples death from God's curse on creation (and the penalty of sin). And thus diminishes the seriousness of sin.
- Theistic evolutionists may become ok with a lack of good fruit in their lives because the miracle of creation is not important to them, and thus the miracle of the new birth is not significant to them.
- God refutes apocalyptic global warming in Genesis 8:22, while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.
- The "green initiative" ban on DDT killed millions. It was later proven that DDT does not cause cancer, while Malaria continued to plague.
- 1 Cor 3:15, you harm the church, God will harm you. You do not want to position yourself as an enemy of God.
- Can you preach your sermon to any people from any time? Is y our sermon so entrenched in the culture that it would be obsolete in just one year?
- Purity and obedience (not pagan or cleverness) in our Church's gatherings is essential. This is The Church, we gather in order to worship and then scatter to evangelize.
- Worship songs that plead for the Spirit to rain down betrays an already deficient life for Christ. Live and know Christ and you will not have to waste your musical breath singing about worship, you will simply worship in profound truth, spirit and mind.
- The will of God for you is not a happy life, but a happy God.
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