Discontent

Words Fail Me

Words fail me....No comment necessary.

How To Shock An Angel

I have shocked the angels! I have astounded the heavens! You probably have also. The quote below is from The Blazing Center » How To Shock An Angel:

What could cause an angel to be appalled? What could so deeply stun an angel he would describe himself as desolate? Angels have seen Satan and demons. They’ve seen the gamut of every kind of human atrocity. They’ve seen the foulest evil men and women can perpetrate. You’d think nothing could shock them. Yet there is something that completely desolates, bewilders and undoes the heavenly beings.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. (JE 2.12-13)

The heavens aren’t surprised by the actions of demons. They’re not shocked by the behavior of wicked men and women. But what stupefies and bewilders them is when God’s people forsake the soul-quenching fountain of living waters for muddy dilapidated wells. They’re stunned and horrified when believers seek joy from the world rather than Jesus.

May the angels be less shocked and Jesus be more pleased and glorified by my future response to his grace.

Bad VBS Theme Idea

If your church is planning your Vacation Bible School program for next summer, I'd skip this Bad VBS Theme Idea if I were you.

Christians and the Banking Crisis

I found this good post at Justin Taylor's "Between Two Worlds" entitled Thinking Biblically about the Banking Crisis

He provides a good, simple explanation of this week's banking and mortgage crises (quoting David Cotter from CBMW) for all you non-financial types, plus some very Christian advice.

For believers, this is just one more reason to "not love the world or the things in the world" which is "passing away along with its desires" (1 John 2:15, 16). In Louisville we have been without electricity since Sunday, and it makes me increasingly grateful that our God is independent and powerful enough to accomplish his good will every moment. Lighting candles each night reminds me that I am not!

Although it will be harder to obtain aggressive mortgages, Christians who are practicing prudent financial stewardship (modest houses, large down payments, monthly payments easily within their means, diligent participation in the work force) should not have much problem. Everyone will want to verify that their savings account is government insured, but believers with a generous "wartime mindset" should have no trouble keeping their bank accounts under $100,000 FDIC limit. Above all, don't be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor what you will wear. Remember that journalists, markets, and lemmings tend to move in herds. The media never reports on thousands of planes that land safely, but solely focuses on one that doesn't. In that light, if you are saving for retirement more than 10 years from now, this actually would be a good time to invest in the stock market. But don't let your IRA be a substitute god or distract you from treasuring Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:24-34)

Kingdom Only or Kingdom Apathy?

The Kingdom of God, though, is an explosively veiled inbreaking into the present world order of the reign of Jesus himself as emperor of the cosmos. It ought then to change the way we see ourselves, and our place in this age and in the one to come.

A Kingdom apathy leads to carnality, the very kind of carnality we see in so many of our listless, unevangelistic, divided churches. At the same time, a "Kingdom only" mentality can seek to transform the present order into the Kingdom of God through means other than the power of Christ. That leads, as it turns out, to carnality too. Ultimately, the Kingdom comes not by messianic zeal but by the zeal of the Messiah.

Dr. Russell D. Moore at The Henry Institute: Commentary

Spirituality: Scholarship Applied to the Heart

Jonathan Leeman at Church Matters: The 9Marks Blog writes about and reveals something i had not known about one of my Theological mentors, George Eldon Ladd. Dr. Ladd's writings helped form my understanding of Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom of God, from the time I first read him 30 years ago in college to my recent reading of his A Theology of the New Testament.

A new biography of Ladd by John D'Elia reveals that Ladd, in the words of Leeman, sank "into depression and alcoholism because he could not gain the mainstream academy’s approval." How sad! What a warning to all of us that Biblical and Theological knowledge does not, in and of itself, exempt us from the possibility of sinful and self destructive behaviors. Leeman writes:

What a tragedy—to know God’s freeing truth in Christ in your scholarship so well, but to fail to apply that freedom to you own heart!

Leeman goes on to challenge all Seminary professors, that one of them needs to write a book for theological students on the dangers of seeking academic approval over Christian spirituality.

In your booklet, tell them that, as scholars and pastors, we should seek eternal credentials and accolades, not temporal ones. Tell them that the mystique of the academy is a trap and a lie.

Remind them that Elijah never sent Elisha off to the Assyrian academies, and Paul presumably never considered funding Timothy through the schools of Athens, in order to fit such men for the ministry. The thought is unimaginable. No, remind them that the scholarship they will do should only seek to clarify further a message that’s considered foolish and a stumbling block. If they intend to follow their Savior, their path is persecution, not praise. So challenge them to join you in suffering for the gospel, like Paul explicitly challenged Timothy.

Suggest to them that if, by God’s strange providence, one of them finds himself training in an institution which happens to garner worldly respectability, like Daniel and the three Hebrew boys in the palaces and academies of Babylon, that they would do well to abstain from eating at the king’s table and cozying up to the king’s banter. It’s a danger zone; it’s enemy territory; so keep praying in the direction of the Holy City.

Encourage them to ground themselves in the ministry of the local church. There’s nothing like the challenges of living and ministering together with fellow sinners in “real life” to bring the Bible’s claims into life-or-death reality. Also, you might encourage them to place themselves beneath a pastor or professor who demonstrates an indifference to the praise of people, the kind of man of whom the world is not worthy. How often does it seem like the young man who wanders off, enticed by the guild’s adulterous call to lie down in her Ivy perfumed sheets, is the pitiable one who has never been loved and nurtured by an older, wiser shepherd.

Brothers, will one of you write this booklet? Consider the possibility that it might be used to save a sheep from wandering off into a ravine and, what’s more, bring a whole flock with him. I’m tired of hearing those stories. Every one grieves my heart. Indeed, I know the temptations to hear the praise of men myself. That’s why we need one of you to write such a booklet, one that will remind us all with the words of Luther, “There are two days on my calendar, today and that day."

Amen. I'd read it. God help me to live it.