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This is the latest eNewsletter from 9Marks (also available in PDF).
FAMILY & PARENTING
Wanted: Kingdom Families
Embedded Portraits: A Theological Vision for Families
Part 3: Raising Boys vs. Raising Girls
Book Review: Family Driven Faith By Voddie Baucham Jr
Reviewed by Michael Lawrence
Book Review: Practicing Hospitality By Pat Ennis and Lisa Tatlock
Reviewed by Adrienne Lawrence
The Bible reading plan I’m using has me in Job this week and today I read Job’s response to his friend Bildad in chapter 9. Job starts by asking a question, “how can a man be in the right before God?” (v2) It’s the one question that every human being of all ages, of all times, must ask. Have you asked this question? Are you sure of the answer? “how can a man be in the right before God?”
Job lived before the prophets, and priests, and kings, and Jesus, and the disciples, and the Westminster catechism, and John Piper, but he knew enough about God and enough about man to see clearly the predicament of man. Job was an upright and blameless man who shunned evil and feared God, he was one of only a few who did in a land full of idolatry. He knew his morals and religion exceeded those of his neighbors but he also knew his righteous living could never pardon his sins. “Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.” (v15) In his sorrow, Job declares that no one is wiser in heart or mightier in strength then God, that God is Creator over all, that God is invisible, that God cannot be convinced of anything since He knows everything, and that God is not impressed by anything since He is sovereign over all. “If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?” (v19)
Job had no confidence in his own righteousness, rituals, or religion. He knew his own flesh would betray him and that in the end man has no ability to justify himself to God. “Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.” (v20) Even the very best of men, must ask “how can a man be in the right before God?” Then, in hopeless desperation and emptiness Job cries out “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.” (v33-35) Can you feel Jobs anguish? Oh! If only there was an Arbiter! Who might stand between God and man and lay His hand on us both! Job asks the monumental question we all must ask, he defines the terrible problem we all have, and in prophetic allusion he introduces the glorious answer to it all. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you read John Piper’s book “Don’t Waste Your Life”? You should, it’s a great book. Covenant Life Church (Pastor Joshua Harris) is currently doing a sermon series themed “Don’t Waste Your…” The second message in the series given by C.J. Mahaney was titled “Don’t Waste Your Humor”. I love how C.J. starts by giving us a glimpse into the cheerful humorous spirit of Charles Spurgeon. Here’s the sermon description: Humor is a gift from God. When humbly and wisely used, it is a means of transferring truth and generating joy. This message addresses how we can use humor to build others up and honor God. Listen to Don’t Waste Your Humor.
Part 5 (FINAL)
In Exodus 33 we read about a conversation between Moses and God in which Moses asked God (politely) to show him His glory, and God answered saying, “’I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ And the LORD said, ‘Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.’” Ex 33:18-23 Read the rest of this entry »
Part 4…
We take promises pretty seriously, especially when we make them to our children. God does to and He never fails to make good on them. Solomon said of God’s word to Moses and faithfulness to Isreal, “Not one word has failed of all his good promise.” (1Ki 8:56) We read one of those good promises in Jeremiah. In a prophecy given by Jeremiah, God makes a glorious promise to never stop from doing us good. “They shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. For thus says the LORD: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them.” Jer 32:38-42 You might think that this prophecy in Jeremiah speaks of the physical restoration of Israel after their return from Babylon, especially considering the context in Jeremiah’s book; but there are at least three reasons why this promise is for us, kept and fulfilled through Christ. Read the rest of this entry »
Part 3…
I recently did studies on God’s love and faithfulness, both are vast and glorious attributes of God. After considering His steadfast love and faithfulness it would seem right to say that His love and faithfulness causes or even obligates Him to do good. For example, look what Moses says to the Israelites about why God delivered them from bondage in Egypt, “but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. “ [Deu 7:8] Here we see that the good thing done for the Israelites were motivated by God’s love for them and faithfulness to His covenant. Then it is right to say that His love and faithfulness causes Him to be good, but it is not enough to say that. We must also say that God does good because God is good, I mean that He is the essence and expression of goodness. I believe we only have a concept of good, a definition of good, an experience of good things, because of the knowledge and conviction of good that God has placed in us, after-all we are image-bearers, made in the image of Him who is good. Read the rest of this entry »
To continue yesterday’s post on the goodness of God, here’s part 2…
IS GOD GOOD?
I also searched Google for the exact phrase “is God good” this returned 26,300 hits, then I searched the statement “God is good” which brought in 1,270,000. It’s clear that there are a lot more people declaring that “God is good” then are asking the question “is God good.” In fact, through the world and throughout history people have worshipped many gods and they do that generally because they believe the god is great and powerful and good. Most sane people would only worship a good deity. Tragically, many have wrongly worshipped what they believed was a good god but in fact it is evil because it is not the one, true, wise, eternal, invisible, only God but a false and therefore evil god. Read the rest of this entry »
I was privledged to present the sermon this week at church and I spoke on the goodness of God, mainly how He delights in showing us His goodness. I’ll post the content of the sermon here but I’ll break it into several posts. This first post starts with good vs evil and how we like good things in general…
Good vs. Evil
A Google search on the word “good” returns 2,140,000,000 hits, a search on the word “bad” brings in 863,000,000, nearly a third. Another word we use to oppose good is “evil,” a search on this returns 313,000,000, a seventh of the hits returned for good. Yes! Good, once again triumphs over evil. We humans love that, it’s the most common story line in our books and movies. We seem to always need a villain and a hero, and in the end the hero prevails. Where did we get that from (wink, wink)? Read the rest of this entry »
In Part 1 & 2 we talked about what freedom really is and we answered the question of whether anyone is truly free. In truth, Jesus answered that question for us, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” I’m pretty sure anyone reading this post “commits sin”, I know too well (and so does my wife) the one writing it does. If you aren’t sure then ask yourself this question, “have I ever done anything wrong, in thought, in word, in deed, or in motive?” Even if we just shrink the list of rules down to 10 Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday’s post told how my son felt obligated to release the many various bugs he and his brother had captured because as he said, “everyone needs their freedom.” Then after considering the definition of freedom (see part 1) I asked the question, is anyone truly free? Isn’t God the only one who is not subject in any way to the control of another? Isn’t His will the only one that is never determined by anything beyond its own nature or being. Man is bound by the forces of science and nature such as gravity and weather. Man is bound by other men through the laws of the land and Read the rest of this entry »
