Applied Redemption
March 23, 2010
As I have mentioned at the evening service (and I as recommended you read), I have been reading John Murray’s Redemption: Accomplished and Applied. Dr. Murray provides a terrific reminder of the greatness of the saving grace of repentance in the life of a believer [p. 116]:
Repentance reminds us that if the faith we profess is a faith that allows us to walk in the ways of this present evil world, in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, in the fellowship of the works of darkness, then our faith is but mockery and deception. True faith is suffused with penitence. And just as faith is not only a momentary act but an abiding attitude of trust and confidence directed to the Saviour, so repentance results in constant contrition.
Please take up and read. This brief book will greatly enhance your understanding of Christ’s work of redemption in your life and bring encouragement to you.
Chris Malamisuro
Ordinary Means Podcast: Interview with Jason Stellman
March 6, 2010
The latest “Ordinary Means” podcast is up – and this month it is a great interview with Jason Stellman, author of “Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and Not Yet.”
Listen to the interview here.
More Resources for Learning Reformed Catechisms
March 2, 2010
The White Horse Inn interviews Dr. Packer and Dr. Parrett (authors of the forth-coming book, Grounded in the Gospel) on the issue of the importance of catechesis in the local church. This is an important interview as it addresses the question of how the church equips its young people with the truths of biblical doctrine. Listen here.
During the interview, Dr. Packer challenges us to relearn the Bible through catechesis with these words:
We today in the evangelical community are far further out of sync with Christian discipling in the first century and the apostolic age than we have any idea. We claim to be Bible people, we talk a lot about the Bible, whereas they, in the first century, drilled people in Bible doctrine. We simply don’t do that…. We simply aren’t close enoough to Bible doctrine, Bible truth, even to the Bible text, to really have the right to call ourselves evangelical Bible people.
Also – yet another book to help us learn the Reformed Catechisms. In God’s School: Foundations for a Christian Life.
In his preface Dr. Marcel writes, “Our knowledge of salvation can never be more than the Word of God, or such as God has revealed in the Holy Scriptures.” Wow, a better motivation to study biblical doctrine cannot be imagined!
Preaching As Though We Had Enemies
March 2, 2010
Here are some excerpts by an article by Stanley Hauerwas on “Preaching As Though We Had Enemies“:
- Christianity, as the illumination of the human condition, is not a Christianity at war with the world…. Psalms such as Psalm 109, which ask God to destroy our enemies and their children, can appear only as embarrassing holdovers of “primitive” religious beliefs. Equally problematic are apocalyptic texts that suggest Christians have been made part of a cosmic struggle…. Most of us do not go to church because we are seeking a safe haven from our enemies; we go to church to be assured we have no enemies. Accordingly, we expect our ministers to exemplify the same kind of bureaucratic mentality so characteristic of modern organizational behavior and politics…. The ministry seems captured in our time by people who are desperately afraid they might actually be caught with a conviction at some point in their ministry that might curtail future ambition. They therefore seek to “manage” their congregations by specializing in the politics of agreement by always being agreeable. The preaching such a ministry produces is designed to reinforce our presumed agreements, since a “good church” is one without conflict.
- I am suggesting that our preaching should presume that we are preaching to a Church in the midst of a war.
- Humility derives not from the presumption that no one knows the truth, but rather is a virtue dependent on our confidence that God’s word is truthful and good. Ironically, in the world in which we live if you preach with such humility you will more than likely be accused of being arrogant and authoritarian. To be so accused is a sign that the enemy has been engaged. After all, the enemy (who is often ourselves) does not like to be reminded that the narratives that constitute our lives are false. Moreover, you had better be ready for a fierce counteroffensive as well as be prepared to take some casualties. God has not promised us safety, but participation in an adventure called the Kingdom. That seems to me to be great good news in a world that is literally dying of boredom.
- Theories about meaning are what you get when you forget that the Church and Christians are embattled by subtle enemies who win easily by denying that any war exists. God knows what He is doing in this strange time between “worlds,” but hopefully He is inviting us again to engage the enemy through the godly weapons of preaching and sacrament…. May we preach so truthfully that people will call us terrorists. If you preach that way you will never again have to worry about whether a sermon is “meaningful.”
Read the entire essay to absorb its weight and significance for the Church.
HT: John Piper – “one of the best essays on preaching I ever read.”