Ordo Evangelium

"Evangelism must start with the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the demands of the law, and the eternal consequences of evil."

- Dr. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p.235

The Humility of Singularity

"The only way to know God and understand all that is revealed about God, is to MAKE THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE PRIMARY PURSUIT OF YOUR LIFE. If you are consumed with looking for money, if you are devoted to looking for success, if you are involved with looking for anything else more than the knowledge of God, you will not deeply understand His glory."

- John MacArthur, Jr., The Ultimate Priority, ch.5, pg.49 (emphasis mine)

Luther's Misery

"I sit here at ease, hardened and unfeeling—alas! Praying little, grieving little for the Church of God, burning rather in the fierce fires of my untamed flesh. It comes to this: I should be afire in the spirit; in reality I am afire in the flesh, with lust, laziness, idleness, sleepiness. It is perhaps because you have all ceased praying for me that God has turned away from me. . . . For the last eight days I have written nothing, nor prayed nor studied, partly from self-indulgence, partly from another vexatious handicap [constipation and piles (hemorrhoids), we find out in another place]. . . . I really cannot stand it any longer; . . . Pray for me, I beg you, for in my seclusion here I am submerged in sins." - E. G. Rupp and Benjamin Drewery, eds., Martin Luther: Documents of Modern History [New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1970], 72-73.

These words were penned for Melanchthon by Martin Luther when the latter was in the midst of translating the New Testament. It gives me great encouragement to know that someone like Luther, who was monumentally used by God, went through the same quagmire of DESPAIR over sins that most would consider absent in a man of his spiritual stature (which, of course, is the common misconception).

The war with sin will rage on while the breath of life courses through our lungs. But sometimes the enemy gets his way and we are left reeling in SHAME and DEFEAT. Luther reminds me that GOD IS FAITHFUL and HE WILL FINISH WHAT HE STARTED IN ME, regardless of what present circumstances might dictate.

The FLESH...LUST, LAZINESS, IDLENESS...SIN...you may have your way for a season but "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Rom 8:37)

A Door of Despair

The door to salvation is a door of despair. Only the wretched, the discontented, the outcasts, the freaks--the sinners--and these loathing their current state, can ever be touched by the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. They have come to terms with the gravity of their problem. Within the core of their being, they know and feel that they are out of line. They have reached the end of their ropes. Every attempt at fulfillment has flopped; and now all that is left is dark, ominous, and foreboding DESPAIR.

No other remedy for this condition exists in the universe but the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. The good news is that the imperfection and nonconformity of the creature to the Creator's standard (moral law) has been dealt with by the Creator Himself, by making a way for His nature to be refashioned in the creature. This He accomplished, without circumventing His own justice, by becoming as the creature, living an earth-bound life that showcased the ideal nature, and laying down this perfect life in order for it to be as a seed that is planted on the ground, seemingly discarded, but then growing into a tree of life that would bear the fruit of lives redeemed from the despair of a corrupted nature.

The door to salvation is a door of despair. This door is the preaching of God's displeasure over the ugliness of those that should reflect His image but do not. It is making known that God prizes His beauty so much that everything in the universe that does not point to this beauty will be destroyed. This is eternal banishment from God's presence for intelligent beings, commonly called HELL, and a new heaven and a new earth for the rest of creation. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." (Ro 8:22)

"Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. IF YOU LOOK FOR TRUTH, YOU MAY FIND COMFORT IN THE END: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth--only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair." (emphasis mine) - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, book 1, ch. 5, pp. 32

The Bet

Has the world, and its appeal, truly become distasteful to you, the Christian? Would you shun the prospect of a lifetime of financial freedom if it meant not being able to be all that you could be for the Kingdom of God? I know most of us who claim to be Christian still struggle with the notion of depending on God daily and would rather be self-sufficient for the long haul, in direct opposition to Christ's commands to "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal." (Mt 6:19) and "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Mt 6:34)

I ,therefore, would like to share with you this little piece, from John MacArthur's Anxious for Nothing, which pretty much describes the all-consuming passion that a Christian must have for the Kingdom of God--a passion that must necessarily make even the loftiest worldly promise seem like a death sentence (which it truly is):

The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov cleverly stripped the world of its allure in his short story “The Bet.” In it a poor attorney makes a bet with a frivolous wealthy banker for two million dollars if he voluntarily submits himself to solitary confinement for fifteen years under the banker’s supervision. In the first year the books he sent for were mostly of a light character. In the second year the prisoner asked only for the classics. Later on he began zealously studying languages, music, philosophy, and history. By the tenth year the prisoner sat immovably at is table and read nothing but the Gospels. Theology and histories of religion followed. The night before he was due to collect the two million, the prisoner wrote this to his captor:

"With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that I despise freedom and life and health, and all that in your books is called the good things of the world.

For fifteen years I have been intently studying earthly life. It is true I have not seen the earth nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung songs, I have hunted stags and … have loved women.… Beauties as ethereal as clouds, created by the magic of your poets and geniuses, have visited me at night, and have whispered in my ears wonderful tales that have set my brain in a whirl.…

Your books have given me wisdom. All that the unresting thought of man has created in the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know that I am wiser than all of you.

[Yet] I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth.…

You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty.… I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth.…

To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise."

You are What Fills Your Mind

The pursuit of God, of Christlikeness, begins in the intellect. But it does not stop there, of course. Knowledge becomes wisdom as it inflames the affection and moves the will to action, in a coherence that is the manifestation of Christ in us.

To love God is to love Him with all our minds in every borrowed second.

"We all meditate, and we’re all shaped by the object of our meditation. We take our attitudinal and behavioral cues from it. This week, will I be shaped by situation comedies, soap operas, and newspapers, or will I be shaped by Isaiah, Luke, A. W. Tozer, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon? It depends on how I choose to spend my time." - Randy Alcorn, Stand - A Call for the Endurance of the Saints (General Editors: John Piper and Justin Taylor), ch. 4, pp. 82

The Humility of Counting Suffering as a Friend

Heb 5:8
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered

We try to avoid it at all costs. It seems like the enemy. Christianity is even often offered as the way to escape it. But SUFFERING--those days, months, even years wherein circumstances, internal and external, make it seem like living is not at all worth it--is the heritage of the saints. We are called to suffer, to endure hardship, pain, and discomfort. But for what? Therein lies the rub. No growth in the Christian life ever occurs without it. As gold comes forth only after having been refined in the fire, so the brilliance of Christ's character shines through the blood-bought sinner only after seasons in the abyss.

But there is joy in the midst of suffering for the Christian. Christianity is filled with wonderful paradoxes, and this is just one of them. Imagine the mind-shattering prospect of God suffering in order to learn obedience. But that is what the Word of God tells us and it is real; and the creature and servant is by necessity unexempt. Relish Paul's words, and the joy spilling forth from them, as he presents his case for the glory of suffering:

2Co 12:9
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2Co 12:10
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake:, for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Be strong and take heart you who are weak, downtrodden, despised, and suffering--the underdog. You are in the good company of those who have chosen the narrow path to God's favor and delight.

Who Does the Cross Invite?

Matt 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

To whom does the invitation of the cross come? It comes to failures, the people who know they have gone wrong, the people who are filled with a sense of shame, the people who are weary and tired and forlorn in the struggle. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You know He is talking about people who are laboring to live a good and clean and straight life. That is what He means by laboring and being heavy-laden---by the law of God, the commandments, moral ideals. You have tried and sweated and fasted. You are laboring, like Martin Luther before he saw the truth, like John Wesley before he saw it. Like all these people before they saw it, you are laboring, trying to live the good life, but failing; we are miserable failures, weary and forlorn.

The hymns of the church have always expressed this.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Behold, I freely give
The living water, thirsty one;
Stoop down, and drink, and live."
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad...
H. BONAR

That is how they have come. The invitation is to such---the weary and worn.

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking with God Day by Day, April 21

"Humility Indeed" by Jason Bellard

Defining the Boundaries of Evangelical Spirituality

Many lovers of the God of the Bible have made it their New Year's resolution to "raise the bar", so to speak, on their spiritual lives. They have come to the conclusion that the way is through the engagement of the so-called spiritual disciplines. I am one of these people.

Below is a link to a valuable piece which I hope and pray will enable the people of God to enjoy God in ways that are in the realm of "spirit and truth". Soli Deo gloria!

Click: Defining the Boundaries of Evangelical Spirituality

What Does "Evangelical" Mean?

"...'Evangelical' (a term so controversial that the entire annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2001 was devoted to 'Defining the Boundaries of Evangelicalism'). In this work I will be no more precise when defining Evangelical than to mean the theology and practice considered orthodox by a consensus of the heirs of the Reformation. In addition to the Reformation doctrines commonly known as the solas, this definition would include the divine inspiration of the sixty-six books of the Bible, the deity of Jesus Christ, the necessity and sufficiency of His life and death as an atonement for sinners, and the imperative of the new birth in order to have eternal life."

- Donald S. Whitney, Defining the Boundaries of Evangelical Spirituality (A Paper Presented on November 15, 2001 at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society)

T.U.L.I.P.

Source: Calvinistic Cartoons

Two "D" Words for 2009

DESIRE and DISCIPLINE.

To fan the flames of DESIRE for the things of God and the hastening of sanctification through a life hemmed in by DISCIPLINE.

Another "D" word must be offered, however, a DISCLAIMER: In no way are the two previous "D's" an attempt at earning God's favor, as if anything I do can cause God to be indebted to me. All my "D"-lings with God are solely by virtue of the grace that He freely extends to unworthy sinners like me. I love God because He first loved me.

Do to me as thou wilt, O Lord.