Here’s a great quote from Puritan William Gurnall:
Love of the world. Tell some of adding faith to faith, one degree of grace to another, and you shall find they have more mind to join house to house, and lay field to field; their souls are athirst, but not for Christ or heaven: it is earth, earth, they never think they have enough of, till death comes and stops their mouth with a shovelful digged out of their own grave!
Both of my regular readers have likely noticed the link to the IV Man’s Blague as one of the blogs I enjoy reading. NB: Rob is a French teacher, so you pronounce “blague” as “blog.” You’ll get a kick out of his new post, Signs of Summer. As a homeschooling parent, here’s my favorite of the bunch:
Enjoy your weekend and have a blessed Lord’s Day and Father’s Day.
Here are notes from the workshop Dr. Dave Pennington’s workshop, “Organizing the Church for the Great Commission.”
Dr. Dave Pennington, Burge Terrace Baptist Church (Indianapolis, IN)
workshop description: “to challenge pastors to rethink their strategy in reaching their communities. It seeks to provide some fresh ideas for a “bottom up” approach to evangelize effectively your community with the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Dr. Pennington felt great need to return to basics: personal prayer and evangelism.
Paul wrote in Rom 9.1-3 that he had “great heaviness and sorrow in my heart” for lost loved ones.
cf. Rom 10.1—heart’s desire and prayer…that they might be saved.
Dave suggested a paradigm shift: we pastors must rekindle our passion for the lost before it will pass on to our people. Their weekly church visitation night is primarily follow-up. A church doesn’t need huge numbers to accomplish this. Thinks it’s better not to “cold call” the visitors; make appointments instead.
“I apppreciate your visiting the church; do you mind if I stop by and visit for a few minutes; see if you have any questions.”
Since people now tend to be distrustful and private, not to mention skeptical of strangers knocking at their door—a change in approach may be helpful.
Key concepts.
solution: reconnect with our neighbors for the purpose of sharing the gospel.
Nothing will give a burden for reaching unsaved people than being around unsaved people.
We’ve so pulled out of culture that the average Fundamental Baptist doesn’t have much of a relationship with any lost people.
Key concepts: neighborhood canvassing of key and strategic neighborhoods (8-10 of them)—neighborhood mission fields. Literature distribution. Families adopt their neighborhoods as mission fields.
Neighborhood socializing—invite unsaved neighbors to homes for a family cookout, etc.
Because how are we going to reach people we’ve never had any contact with?
We spend a lot of effort to get lost people into the church to hear the gospel; we should do more to get saved people to go to the lost to give them the gospel!
Vision for the Christian home: a place of hospitality
Given to hospitality: Gk., Lover of strangers [filoxenia].
Other suggestions: Brown Bag Bible study (lunchtime Bible study for coworkers); Backyard Bible clubs; etc.
Opening Address: Dr. Charles Phelps
It seemed evident from the outset of this year’s national meeting that the FBFI leadership is keenly aware of the blogging presence of Sharper Iron and other blogs. FBFI president John Vaughn, offering a warm welcome to all, also welcomed bloggers at this year’s meeting, and publicly wished that others who were attending only vicariously could be present. He laid special emphasis upon the FBFI mission to seek personal revival and support one another in the uncompromising proclamation of the gospel. It also became clearer as the initial meeting unfolded that a key purpose of this year’s conference was to tackle the simmering Calvinism issue more directly. With evangelist Will Galkin, one of the two scheduled opening speakers, unable to preach due to needing to be with his ailing father, it fell upon Dr. Chuck Phelps to deliver the opening night’s only message.
Phelps’ opening remarks were based on Philippians 1, in which he affirmed the conference theme, “The Glorious Gospel of Christ.” He stated that “new allegiances are forming making it important to consider again the pertinent facts of the gospel.” He challenged all to consider “if we like Paul were gripped by the glory of the gospel, even analyzing our present circumstances in the light of the gospel.”
Then the introduction became more pointed: Phelps identified what he called “potholes” in the gospel road: “easy-believism,” which he credited to Arminian doctrine and “worldly evangelicalism;” and Lordship salvation, which he viewed was an attempt to balance the former. Demonstrating that the pendulum had swung too far with this attempt, Phelps read a portion from the 2003 edition of John MacArthur’s Hard to Believe, in which MacArthur asserts, “Don’t believe anyone who says it’s easy to become a Christian…salvation is the fruit of actions, not of intentions.” Phelps likened that statement to some that have come out of the Vatican.
Phelps acknowledged the paradox that salvation is simple, yet complex. Then noting the generally-acknowledged rise of “the New Calvinism,” he posed some pointed questions: Are you comfortable with Particular redemption/limited atonement? Or the WCF statement that supports predestination to damnation? Or Reformer Beza’s assertion that the unsaved in hell are there for the glory of God? By contrast to these notions, he recounted the story of how Ford Porter came to write the tract “God’s Simple Plan of Salvation,”—simply a small-town pastor’s attempt to evangelize the 1800 homes in his community—by reading some of the more plaintive exhortations to salvation found therein.
He then directed us to Christ’s “Bread of Life” discourse in John 6, from which the sermon’s points were drawn. He asserted that this was, in fact, the gospel that Jesus preached, identifiable with several basic conclusions:
JESUS TAUGHT THAT…
Liberally sprinkled with illustrations, Phelps sought to get across the point that the salvation presented by Christ was simple, yet rich and multi-layered. He slowed for emphasis at one point by saying, “No offense, but there is no ordo salutis in John 6; but there is ‘believe.’”
With emotion surfacing at times throughout the message, Phelps became “confessional” in his conclusion, admitting to the “barrenness of busy-ness” over the last two years as a Bible college president, with the result that he had led only one soul to Christ over that time. He then invited people to stand who had a testimony of leading someone to Christ over the last week, month, two months, six months, or past year, not counting those who had responded in services. Many stood, while many others remained seated. While this was no doubt uncomfortable for some, we were reminded that this was a small preview of the account we all must give at the Bema of Christ. Many responded in the invitation to devote themselves more passionately to the gospel.
Here now over 100 years since the last revival to impact Americans (the western overflow of the 1904 Welsh revival) we are seeing the inevitable outcome of genuine revival’s absence: the need for reform, without the theological underpinnings or the spiritual heart to see it come about. As King Hezekiah said when the Assyrian siege reached critical mass, “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth” (2Ki 19.3). Likewise, this is a time when God’s people should have serious labor pains for revival, yet our spiritual condition is so weak that a rebirth of American Christianity looks improbable.
True revivals—not revivalism—are “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” to God’s household, which extend outward from there. When God visited America in the Great Awakenings and the great revival of 1858, not only did the church enjoy a gracious cleansing from her sins and her apathy, but literally millions of sinners came to faith in Christ. Genuine revivals always produce individual life change, and in turn, societal change. Revival has historically been a correction for the apathetic church, to be filled with the love of Christ, and to fulfill a legitimate social mission: from a gospel center to minister to the needs of others, beginning with those of the household of faith.
But when revival tarries, the grinding effects of sin in society such as greed, lust, hatred, violence, factionalism, wastefulness, alcohol and drug abuse, and arrogance demand mitigation whether religion will rise to address them or not. And the Obama administration, along with liberal progressives holding power, is determined to apply their ideological template to the problems at hand. Has the banking industry been greedy? Then they will be forced to comply to new government standards. Wasteful of energy? enter more environmentalist standards. Nicotine addiction? Tax it punitively. People falling through the cracks in society? Nationalized health care will complete the safety net. Thus socialism comes upon us when revival does not.
Which leads us the question, is socialism simply the religion of the secularists? And will the American church accept this answer for its lack of influence? Without revival, it appears we will have to.
I have considered that while there are some great things about Facebook, as with most things, there are also some dangers that believers should be aware of. Dr. Albert Mohler addressed several of these in a recent post on his blog.
Here are a few suggestions for safeguarding the social networking experience:
1. Never allow social networking to replace or rival personal contact and communication. God made us to be social creatures that crave community. We cannot permit ourselves to substitute social networking for the harder work of building and maintaining personal relationships that are face to face.
2. Set clear parameters for the time devoted to social networking. These services can be seductive and time consuming. Social networking (and the Internet in general) can become obsessive and destructive of other relationships and higher priorities for the Christian.
3. Never write or post anything on a social networking site that you would not want the world to see, or anything that would compromise your Christian witness. There are plenty of young people (perhaps older persons now, too) who are ruining future job prospects and opportunities by social networking misbehavior. The cost to Christian witness is often far greater.
4. Never allow children and teenagers to have independent social networking access (or Internet access, for that matter). Parents should monitor, manage, supervise, and control the Internet access of their children and teens. Watch what your child posts and what their friends post.
5. Do not allow children and teens to accept any “friend” unknown to you. The social networking world can be a dangerous place, and parental protection here is vital.
6. Encourage older friends and relatives to sign up and use the technology. Grandparents can enjoy keeping up with grandchildren and with friends and loved ones separated by distance or mobility.
7. Use the social networking technology to bear witness to the Gospel, but never think that this can replace the centrality of face-to-face evangelism, witness, and discipleship.
8. Do all things to the glory of God, and do not allow social networking to become an idol or a display of narcissism.
How could the wife of slain pastor Fred Winters pray for the man who is accused of the violent act? It’s in that little phrase in Ephesians 4.32, “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
HT: SharperIron
Here’s another good word for faith: dependence. Theologians describe three aspects of faith as understanding a truth, agreeing with that truth, but the crucial last component is depending upon that truth. May I ask you–do you literally depend upon Christ and Him alone for your soul’s salvation from sin, death, and hell? That is the crux of the matter. Here is how one of the Olney Hymns expresses the nature of dependence on the Lord. Note this as well: God’s supplied grace is not a fatalistic inevitability, but neither do we dictate His stream of grace upon our terms.
LXII. DEPENDENCE.
To keep the lamp alive,
With oil we fill the bowl;
‘Tis water makes the willow thrive,
And grace that feeds the soul.
The Lord’s unsparing hand
Supplies the living stream;
It is not at our own command,
But still derived from him.
Beware of Peter’s word,
Nor confidently say,
“I never will deny thee, Lord,”
But, “Grant I never may!”
Man’s wisdom is to seek
His strength in God alone;
And e’en an angel would be weak,
Who trusted in his own.
Retreat beneath his wings,
And in his grace confide;
This more exalts the King of kings
Than all your works beside.
In Jesus is our store,
Grace issues from his throne;
Whoever says, “I want no more,”
Confesses he has none.
…sooner or later. Everyone does.
In a recent talk at Bob Jones University, Jiffy Lube president (and former schoolmate of mine) Rick Altizer explained why he maintains a total abstinence position from beverage alcohol.
Ps 119:126. It is time for thee, Lord, to work: For they have made void thy law.”
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
“Was ever vessel more hopelessly becalmed in mid-ocean, or did crew ever cry with more frenzy for some favoring breeze than those should cry who man the church of the living God? If God work not, it is certain there is nothing before the church but the prospect of utter discomfiture and overthrow. Greater is the world than the church if God be not in her. But if God be in her, she shall not be moved. May He help her, and that right early!
When society has become drugged with the cup of worldliness, and the voices that come from eternity are unheeded, if not unheard, even terror has its merciful mission. The frivolous and superficial hearts of men have to be made serious, their idols have to be broken, their nests have to be stoned or tossed from the trees where they had been made with so much care, and they have to be taught that if this life be all, it is but a phantom and a mockery.
Does the church believe its creed? It writes it, sets it forth, defends it; but does it believe it, at least with a faith which begets either enthusiasm in itself or respect from the world? Have not the truths which form the methodized symbols of the church become propositions instead of living powers? Do they not lie embalmed with superstitious reverence in the ark of tradition, tenderly cherished for what they have been and done?
But is it not forgotten that if they be truths, they are not dead and cannot die? They are true now, or they were never true; living now, or they never lived. Time cannot touch them, nor human opinion, nor the church’s sluggishness or unbelief, for they are emanations from the Divine essence, instinct with His own undecaying life. They are not machinery which may become antiquated and obsolete and displaced by better inventions; they are not methods of policy framed for conditions which are transient, and vanishing with them; they are not scaffolding within which other and higher truth is to be reared from age to age.
They are like Him Who is the end of our conversation, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” There is not one of them which, if the faith it awakens were but commensurate with its intrinsic worth, would not clothe the Church with a new and wondrous power. But what would be that power if that faith were to grasp them all? It would be life from the dead.
–Enoch Mellor
