Sometimes A Light Surprises…

Sometimes a light surprises the christian while he sings; It is the LORD who rises with healing in his wings: When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again A season of clear shining to cheer it after rain. In holy contemplation, we sweetly then pursue The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new: Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say, E’en let th’ unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may. It can bring with it nothing but he will bear us through; Who gives the lilies clothing will clothe his people too: Beneath the spreading heavens, no creature but is fed; And he who feeds the ravens will give his children bread. The vine, nor fig–tree neither, their wonted fruit should hear, Though all the fields should wither, nor flocks, nor herds, be there: Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice; For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice. William Cowper 7,6,7,6 Joy and peace in believing.

Retiring Fox Anchor Hume wants to read Bible more

Brit Hume

Yep, you read that title right. Fox News “Special Report” anchor Brit Hume, 65, will be will be stepping down from full-time duties at year’s end. According to a recent interview, Hume looks forward in semi-retirement next year to spending more time with his family, working on his golf game, and reading his Bible. In fact, a recent interview revealed Hume’s well-thumbed Bible lying open to one of the Epistles of Peter. 

Hume’ interests haven’t always been so keenly into the Scriptures. In 1998 when his son Sandy, a promising reporter, committed suicide, Hume began to seriously pursue a Christianity which had only been nominal in his life. Further influenced by his wife Kim’s devotion to a “very serious Bible study program” for the past several years, Hume has become the “most regular attendee” at a weekly Bible study that longtime friend and Fox analyst Fred Barnes has been running at his office for the past several years. Speaking of Hume’s study of the Scriptures, Barnes says, “These were things that 10 years ago weren’t important to him. Now they’re the most important thing in his life.”

Still, Hume is hungry for more. “I think about God and Christ a lot. But is it first thing in the morning, last thing at night, every day and night?” Hume asks, gesturing to the Bible on his desk.

God bless you, Brit. And as for your prospects, the Author of the Book said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6, ESV).

Why Be Faithful to Services of the Church?

Yesterday I attended the South Central Regional Conference of the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International (FBFI). The Stony Point Baptist Church of Kansas City, Kansas hosted it; and Pastor Tom Hamilton and the people are to be commended for an outstanding job of ministering to the many brethren and their families who attended. My wife and eldest son enjoyed the excellent fellowship and food provided there. There were some excellent biblical messages shared by Dr. Hantz Bernard, the executive director of Bibles International, and Dr. John Vaughn, the President of the FBFI. In the afternoon question and answer session, an interesting question was raised regarding how to respond to the person who questions why he should attend Sunday night and Wednesday night, as well as special services. My notes on the responses follow below:

Please respond to those who may question the value of attendance at Sun PM, Wed. night, etc. as necessary.

HB: While no chapter and verse specifies these services, the whole revelation of Scripture taken together provides us with implications and inferences equip us with what we need to do. Further, the church is vested with authority to determine things that are good and profitable for its people. People who demand chapter and verse in cases like this are often already disposed not to obey–hence their questions. Today we have almost a reversal of what Luther advocated [i.e., in the Protestant Reformation]: prior to that they barely understood or practiced the priesthood of the believer. Now people strongly question the authority of the church, nearly excluding it against the priesthood of the believer.

JV: Church attendance does not produce spirituality: spirituality produces church attendance. People who neglect the spiritual activities of the church often demand further attention at the expense of others; e.g., they will want to inconvience the pastor to meet at times other than church services, when they don’t even attend the services. I once gave counsel to such a man who was requesting personal meetings, “Sure–I will be willing to meet with you three times a week: Sunday morning at 11; Sunday night at 7…”. The man smiled and understood that I wanted him to be faithful to the ministry of the church, and then if he needed further help I would be glad to provide it. People cannot be spiritual leaders who are inconsistent at church.

A Passion Week Meditation

Oh, the sharp pangs of smarting pain

My dear Redeemer bore;

When knotty whips, and ragged thorns

His sacred body tore!

‘Twere you, my sins, my cruel sins,

His chief tormentors were;

Each of my crimes became a nail,

And unbelief the spear.

‘Twere you that pull’d the vengeance down

Upon his guiltless head;

Break, break, my heart, oh, burst mine eyes,

And let my sorrows bleed.

Strike, mighty grace, my stubborn soul,

Till melting waters flow,

And deep repentance drown mine eyes,

In undissembled woe.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

Biblical Creation Care?

A group of Southern Baptists, who are not speaking as official voices of the Convention, have issued “A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change.” The Declaration, issued March 10 by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary student Jonathan Merritt and signed by 46 other Southern Baptists, can be read here.

Well, it’s a nice try. Merritt, who is 25 year old, is son of former SBC president James Merritt. He begins by laying out basic truths about which no Christian should disagree, but then quickly connects them with environmentalist presuppositions with this conclusion:

Though the claims of science are neither infallible nor unanimous, they are substantial and cannot be dismissed out of hand on either scientific or theological grounds. Therefore, in the face of intense concern and guided by the biblical principle of creation stewardship, we resolve to engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or our responsibility to address it. Humans must be proactive and take responsibility for our contributions to climate change—however great or small. 

Here is where the wheels come off. If science’s claims of global warming are neither infallible nor unanimous (indeed, didn’t they just admit that “A minority of sincere and respected scientists offer alternate causes for global climate change other than deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels”?) and there is a clear word of Scripture on the immutability of God’s ordained cold/heat cycle in the Noahic covenant (Gen. 8:20-22), why can’t it be dismissed on theological grounds? Has it been too long since the SBC nature-lovers pondered the theological significance of a rainbow?

And then we are called to action:

Many of our churches do not actively preach, promote or practice biblical creation care. We urge churches to begin doing so.

OK, I get the stewardship point, and believe in responsible conservation, but ever since the Fall we have been dealing with a broken and cursed environment—and it was our own fault. Until the millennial reign of Christ, things are not going to get better; whales will still beach themselves, and more species may well become extinct. No amount of environmentalism will change inevitabilities–creation will continue to groan (Rom. 8:22), but the relief it seeks is “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23). A once-perfect environment has fallen in our fallenness, and will continue to be so until the curse is removed. And it was being negatively affected by man before he ever began burning fossil fuels. In the meantime, sing and rejoice–God is still on the throne. Accept His sovereignty, preach and live the gospel, and don’t let the greenies put a guilt trip on you. Or force you into making meaningless resolutions.

And, don’t hold your breath for a Creation Care Class to be offered at our church anytime soon.:)

There is a Line

Preaching through the book of Hebrews recently has reminded me of this sobering poem by Joseph Addison Alexander, a godly giant of Princeton in the 19th century.
 

There is a time, we know not when,
A place, we know not where;
Which marks the destiny of men
To glory or despair.

There is a line, by us unseen;
Which crosses every path,
Which marks the boundary between
God’s mercy and His wrath.

To pass that limit is to die,
To die as if by stealth;
It does not dim the beaming eye,
Not pale the glow of health.

The conscience may be still at ease,
The spirit light and gay
And that which pleases still may please,
And care be thrust away.

But on that forehead God hath set
Indelibly a mark;
Unseen by man, for man as yet,
Is blind and in the dark.

He feel perchance that all is well
And every fear is calmed;
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell,
Not only doomed, but damned!

O, where is that mysterious line
That may by men be crossed,
Beyond which God Himself hath sworn,
That he who goes is lost.

An answer from the skies repeats,
“Ye who from God depart,”
TODAY, O hear His voice! Repent
And harden not your heart.

--Joseph Addison Alexander (1809-1860)
 

On my digital playback unit

First, there is a problem with what to call it. I almost titled this, “What’s on my iPod,” but it’s not an iPod. It’s a Blackberry smartphone. And I really like it, by the way. Its one of the “Curve” 8300 series, with the smallest QWERTY keyboard RIM makes. Among its many features is that it can take a micro SD card, on which you can load up your digital music files, pictures, even short videos, I guess ( though I’ve never done it)—so it is a fully functional media player.

But the techno stuff aside, I thought some readers might find useful to know what I put on my music player to listen to when I am driving , etc.

Actually, mostly sermons, most of which have been downloaded from sermonaudio.com. Some titles:

• “Five Steps to Revival” (Dr. Ian Paisley)
• “From Greater Words to Greater Works” (2007 Holiness Revival message) by John Van Gelderen
• John Bunyan in First Person (Dr. Edward Panosian)
• John Calvin in first person (Panosian)
• A series on Malachi (Dr. John C. Whitcomb, Jr.)
• Romans 14 (Dr. Gary Reimers)
• Romans 14 series (Dr. Dave Doran)
• Jonathan Edwards discussion (Sam Storms)

I’m presently preaching through Hebrews and Malachi, so listening to others handle the texts and preach is helpful. Also I’m taking the challenge Dan Miller at SharperIron has extended to listen to several different expositions of Rom. 14 for analysis and discussion.

Have you heard any of these for yourself and have a take? Or other recommendations on the topics? I’d like to hear about them.

Ruckman cops the Sword of the LORD

In his December newsletter, Dr. Peter S. Ruckman crows about how Dr. Shelton Smith, editor of the the Sword of the LORD, has become his disciple by now holding to inspiration of a translation  of the Scriptures [the King James Version] as well as the Masoretic text (MT) of the Old Testament and the Textus Receptus (TR) of the New. This position, which is NOT an historic position of biblical fundamentalism, is now a foundation of the Sword’s King James Bible Conference.

Curiously, at this conference (which is concluding as of today’s writing), they promise to rebut “the extremism of double inspiration, etc.” That would be interesting, in light of the Sword’s doctrinal statement, which actually supports the view.

On page 6 of his newsletter is Ruckman’s diatribe article, “Shelton Smith Finally Sees the Light.” Here “Shelton-baby” (as Ruckman dubs him) is ridiculed as a “poor ‘Johnny-come-lately,’ who arrived a half a century [sic] too late to make any real contribution;” yet “Smitty” is back-handedly congratulated for becoming a true “Ruckmanite” at long last. Wow–with friends like these…

My advice for cutting through this foolishness: go to this site.

Turn the Bible into Prayer

Is your Bible reading a bit dry? Are you entering the new year with your Bible reading chart directing you to Genesis and Matthew with a bit of dread? Perhaps prayer is the missing element. Consider Robert Murray McCheyne’s advice to a young man about Bible reading:

“You read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try and understand it, and still more to feel it. Read more parts than one at a time. For example, if you are reading Genesis, read a Psalm also; or if you are reading Matthew, read a small bit of an Epistle also. Turn the Bible into prayer. Thus, if you were reading the First Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, ‘O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man;’ ‘let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly.’ This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray.”

Self-Acquaintance

Socrates taught, “Know thyself;” and argued that the unexamined life is not worth living. But as noble as it sounds, it is elusive counsel. To truly know ourselves through the mirror of Scripture (Jas. 1:25) reveals that even a believer’s heart is Jacob-like (Jer. 17:9, Hebrew): meaning twisted, deceptive, plotting, and scheming; but alternately through the renewed man in Christ, desiring the Lord and holiness. The Bema will probably reveal that no motive of man has ever been 100% pure. So apart from Scripture, the assessor is flawed, as will be the assessment.

In the following Olney Hymn, the poet Cowper (pronounced Cooper), rightly assesses common maladies of a believer’s condition and pleads the Blood of Christ for the remedy. It resonated with me today.

 

Dear Lord! accept a sinful heart,
Which of itself complains,
And mourns, with much and frequent smart,
The evil it contains.

There fiery seeds of anger lurk,
Which often hurt my frame;
And wait but for the tempter’s work,
To fan them to a flame.

Legality holds out a bribe
To purchase life from Thee;
And Discontent would fain prescribe
How Thou shalt deal with me.

While Unbelief withstands Thy grace,
And puts the mercy by;
Presumption, with a brow of brass,
Says, “Give me, or I die!”

How eager are my thoughts to roam,
In quest of what they love!
But ah! when duty calls them home,
How heavily they move!

Oh, cleanse me in a Saviour’s blood,
Transform my by Thy power,
And make me Thy beloved abode,
And let me roam no more.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York