Samurai Letters Updated

This dear brother and his wife have been given, in God’s providence, several opportunities to share the Gospel in a foreign land with little to no Gospel witness.  The emails and letters that they have produced (most of which are yet forthcoming) speak of the manifold grace of God in bringing sinners to them, of unbelievers in their company even speaking about the Gospel with other unbelievers, of many on the edge of conversion and of the movement of God upon their affections.  Their passion for Christ oozes in each letter, and we want to be mindful of them, God’s work in and through them, and those to whom they minister.  The most recent letter has just been posted.  It is very encouraging in keeping with their God-given character.  If you would like to send a letter of comfort and exhortation to them, please feel free to let me know by commenting to this post.  The goal is to shower them with the love of the church, to be a part of the Spirit’s work in shedding abroad the love of God in their hearts.  We want to clothe them with our gracious words and lift them up in prayer to God.  Mercy and grace does He dispense from His Sovereign throne.  Let us then join with them in their labor of love, and may God be pleased to cover that part of the earth with His glory through the preaching of Christ and the outpouring of His Spirit.

I’ve Used This Enough to Post It

Top 5 Commentaries on each book of the Bible by Keith Mathison. Very helpful.

“Embarrassment is the Gateway Drug to Theological Accommodation and Denial”

This line is a sober reminder to evangelical Christians.  It is the second to last line in R. Albert Mohler’s article “Air Conditioning Hell: How Liberalism Happens.”  This is a short but necessary refrain to every Christian regardless of vocation.  It is a call to doctrinal sobriety, to spiritual discernment, to the honoring of our great God, and to an immovable stance upon His infallible Word.  To learn in a brief sketch how liberalism happens, why evangelicals should not apologize for doctrine – particularly that of hell, and more regarding such things – go here.

Suffering in God’s Economy Not Arbitrary: The Counsel of Elihu

This is another sermon, technically entitled “Job: Rebuked in Suffering”, from John Piper in 1985.  In it, he does at least two things, I think – he shows that suffering is not arbitrary, not retributive or punitive, but rather, purposeful, sanctifying, and, ultimately, curative or healing.  That is all one thing!  Secondly, there is a vindication of Job’s acquaintance, Elihu.  Many today think him synonymous with Job’s three friends, another irritator of the man Job.  Piper provides a different look into this biblical figure.  I tend to agree with his assessment on both fronts (Having recently read Job, I too found Elihu to be quite different from Job’s other friends concerning the content of his answer, and held him to be an exemplar in the poetic story; today in one of my classes, that view was challenged – hence my attendance to Pipers – and others – views on this issue).  A truly terrific sermon.  Go here to read or download and listen.

The Good Use of Suffering in the Life of Matt Chandler

Continue to pray for this brother that our God has and is still, by His grace, using for His glory on larger and larger stages.

Denny Burk has a post concerning this usefulness.  Within it you can go directly to the MNBC article linked to Burk’s post.  Let us ask God that we should suffer so well when it inevitably befalls us; and if in God’s providence it should not, let us prepare ourselves to minister to those who find themselves in the midst of it.  Go here for the post.

Wonderful Sermon on Ruth 1

It is not surprising that the preacher is John Piper.  He is truly blessed of God to preach and expose the meaning of God’s Word.  Though I suppose I should be more thankful that God is God, rather than in the fact that God has given a man like Piper to His church.  Indeed, his aim is to glorify God!  And as he is so often helped by God to do so, so here again, God has enabled him to magnify Him so well and to preach, perhaps, the best sermon I could hear on Ruth, chapter 1.  So, when you have time (about 32 redeemable minutes), listen to (or read) this sermon preached in the summer of 1984 (I was almost 3!) and be blessed.

“Work and Culture Renewal” by Tim Keller

Go here.

Q and A with the Puritan Thomas Watson (1620-1686) on Patience in Suffering

Question: How shall I get my heart tuned to a patient mood?

Answer: Get faith; all our impatience proceeds from unbelief.  Faith is the breeder of patience.  When a storm of passion begins to arise, faith says to the heart, as Christ did to the sea, ‘Peace, be still’, and there is at once a calm.

Question: How does faith work patience?

Answer: Faith argues the soul into patience. Faith is like that town clerk in Ephesus who allayed the contention of the multitude and argued them soberly into peace (Acts 19:35, 36).  So when impatience begins to clamour and make a hubbub in the soul, faith appeases the tumult and argues the soul into holy patience.  Faith says, ‘Why art thou disquieted, O my soul?’ (Psa. 42:5). ‘Are you afflicted? Is it not your Father who has done it? He is carving and polishing you and making you fit for glory.  He smites that he may save.  What is your trial?  Is it sickness? God shakes the tree of your body so that some fruit may fall, even the “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:11).  Are you driven from your home?  God has prepared a city for you (Heb. 11:16).  Do you suffer reproach for Christ’s sake? “The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you” (1 Pet. 4:14).’ Thus faith argues and disputes the soul into patience.

From The Godly Man’s Picture, by Thomas Watson (p. 127).  Italics mine.  Note also that the way in which “faith argues and disputes the soul into patience” is by referring the questions of the soul to the Word of God.  For a short discourse along similar lines, namely, that the primary course of study for the soul in affliction is the Word of God, see the post that I recently “published” – “The Curriculum of the Word in the Seminary of Suffering.

“Suited to All Their Wants”

The following quote is that of the pioneer missionary David Brainerd (1718-1747).  If you’ll note the timeline of his life, he was about 26 or 27 when he penned this in his diary, and more amazingly, is that this is the sum of his evangelism and preaching to Native American Indians who were at best slight in their absorption of the English language . . . in the mid-1700’s!  His biographer in this case, Vance Christie, shows that these were the two main emphases in his ministry to the Indians.  Be warned, no pragmatism here -

First, the sinfulness and misery of the estate they were naturally in: the evil of their hearts, the pollution of their natures, the heavy guilt they were under, and their exposedness to everlasting punishment; as also their utter inability to save themselves either from their sins or from those miseries which are the just punishment of them; and their unworthiness of any mercy at the hand of God on account of anything they themselves could do to procure His favor, and consequently their extreme need of Christ to save them.

And secondly, I frequently endeavored to open to them the fullness, all-sufficiency, and freeness of that redemption which the Son of God has wrought out by His obedience and sufferings for perishing sinners; how this provision He had made was suited to all their wants, and how He called and invited them to accept of everlasting life freely, notwithstanding all their sinfulness, inability, unworthiness, etc.

From David Brainerd: A Flame for God, by Vance Christie (pp. 86-7).

Some Ideas and Links Concerning the Relief Effort in Haiti

These are offered per the Global Diaconate Force of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN.  Go here.

Per Parkside Church, go here.

Per Redeemer Presbyterian Church, go here.

Fantastic brainstorming and response by Mars Hill and company, go here.

To Donate, go here.