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Tablet of the HeartSean's online notebook - finding joy through the Biblical application of the gospel to every area of our lives. November 24 Husbands, Love Your WivesWinston Churchill once attended a formal banquet in London, where the dignitaries were asked the question, "If you could not be who you are, who would you like to be?" Naturally everyone was curious as to what Churchill, who was seated next to his beloved Clemmie, would say. What it was finally his turn, the old man, the last respondent to the question, rose and gave his answer. "If I could not be who I am, I would most like to be" - and here he paused to take his wife's hand - "Lady Churchill's second husband." Story retold in R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: 1 Timothy, 78 November 13 Christianity and History Our ability and desire to look at history as being factual was influenced heavily by the people of God: Hebrew historians were the first to have any real philosophy of history. Their development of a linear rather than cyclical concept of time and their consciousness of the unity of the [human] race under one God opened the way for such a philosophy. They also, unlike other ancient people, looked to a future golden age under the Messiah rather than to a past golden age. God as well as man is shaping history, in their view. History is a process that will come to a meaningful climax under the guidance of God. This approach gave a new perspective and wholeness to human history. (Earle E. Carnes, God and Man in Time: A Christian Approach to Historiography, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), 15 quoted in Think Biblically!, ed. John MacArthur, 263) November 10 From Planned Parenthood Director to Pro-Life AdvocateMike Huckabee talks to a former Planned Parenthood director who quit
her position and became pro-life after assisting with an ultrasound
abortion and watching the baby in the womb seeking to avoid death: HT: Justin TaylorDiscernment in Arts, Media, and Entertainment"One of the reasons there is so much error is evangelical churches today is because Christians don't have time to read Scripture and also keep up with their favorite entertainments. So their Bible - the one tool that will help them be discerning in regard to culture - becomes a leather coaster for their soft drink and satellite remote."-Grant Horner, "Glorifying God in Literary and Artistic Culture" in Think Biblically!, ed. John MacArthur, Crossway, 2003 Horner offers a number of good questions for discerning what is good and bad in art and literature:
November 05 The True ScientistThe True Scientist
Happy the one who in his learned watches, Contemplating the marvels of this vast universe, Before so much beauty, before so much grandeur, Bows the knee and acknowledges the divine creator. I do not share the foolish incoherence Of the scientist who would contest the existence of God, Who would close his ears to what the heavens declare, And refuse to see what the shines before his eyes. To know God, to love Him, to offer Him a pure homage That is true knowledge and the study of the wise. (quoted in Think Biblically!, ed. John MacArthur, 237; Translation from French by F. Skiff in Les Moments Poetiques d'Andre Marie Ampere, 1986)
The French physicist André Marie Ampère
(1775-1836) was the founder of electrodynamics, and because of his analysis of the magnetic effects
of current-carrying wires has the unit of electrical current (the "ampere") named after him. November 03 What do you love?“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. He who loveth mean and sordid things doth thereby become base and vile, but a noble and well-placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves.” - Henry Scougal in The Life of God in the Soul of Man November 02 Free Download - John Piper's Desiring God Audiobook Christianaudio.com is offering a free download of one of the books that changed my life - Desiring God by John Piper. It is for November only. Download your copy today! Thanks to Christian Audio for providing this very valuable book! All of Piper's books are $4.98 until the end of the month so you might want to pick up another book or two as well. October 27 The Real RadicalThe Christian is the real radical of our generation, for he stands against the monolithic, modern concept of truth as relative - we believe in the unity of truth. But too often, instead of being radical, standing against the shifting sands of relativism, he subsides into merely maintaining the status quo. If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong - including man's inhumanity to man. - Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There, 107October 26 Here I StandFrom Justin Taylor, Until November 1 you can download for free Max McLean’s reading of Martin Luther’s speech, “Here I Stand” (24 minutes).
HT: JT, Andy Naselli October 24 China's 'Conscience' Missing in Action: Top Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng vanishes as government stifles dissentA striking story about the growth of persecution against people of Conscience in China: Eight years ago, China's Ministry of Justice named Gao Zhisheng, a brilliant, mostly self-educated man, one of the country's top ten lawyers. In 2008, Gao received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for his human-rights advocacy work. Then, less than a year later, Gao disappeared when security police spirited him away. Often called "the conscience of China," the 45-year-old Christian gained worldwide acclaim for his defense of workers, political activists, and religious groups. Todd Nettleton, spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs, said Gao had the "audacity" to tell the world how poorly China treats its people. In 2005, Gao criticized China's torture of adherents of Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese religion, and his comments triggered a brutal response. For over seven weeks in 2007, police tortured Gao with cigarette burns and electric batons, threatening to kill him. A Prayer "And they do not cry to Me from their heart When they wail on their beds; For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves, They turn away from Me." (Hosea 7:14). Lord, why do we want things from you but don't want you yourself? I know what it feels like to be manipulated. And yet, that is how I often treat you. Like a child at Christmas, I know how easily I can take a gift and forget the giver. I can spend long periods of time in prayer, hours in worship, wanting you to give me the grain that will make my stomach full and wine that makes my heart merry. I can arrange meetings and plan to meet every missing need in my life. I can wail in my bed for everything that is missing and not realize that the chief thing missing in my life is you. Lord, I want you above everything else. Let me not be satisfied with food and drink, with material possessions and happy experiences, if you are not with them all. Remind me of the short pleasures of food, experiences, and life itself. Remind me that I will again hunger, I will again be lonely, and my life will eventually fade. Then Lord, I shall find that you alone satisfy. You alone last forever. Every need of mine is met in you. October 21 CounterfeitsLot's of chatter about Tim Keller's new book Counterfeit Gods. I am getting my copy soon ... very soon. American Idols: Tim Keller explains why money, sex, and power so easily capture our affections. How to Find Your Rival Gods: Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God, it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God. An excerpt by Tim Keller Justin Taylor pointed this out in his blog: Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair In Counterfeit Gods Keller says that David Powlison’s article, “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair,” originally published in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, “has been in circulation for over two decades and has been seminal for my thinking.” I highly recommend downloading and reading this article (available in PDF and html). It had a big impact on me when I first read it several years ago. Thanks to CCEF for making this available online for free. Again, it is well worth your time to read, to ponder, and to implement. Finally, a short video explaining why Tim Keller wrote this book. Everything I read by Keller is good... The Value of People "His [man's] greatness rests solely on the fact that God in his
incomprehensible goodness has bestowed his love upon him. God does not
love us because we are so valuable; we are valuable because God loves
us." - Helmut Thielicke October 19 Some Thoughts on Healthcare NPR's broadcast of This American Life has run two incredibly interesting shows on the financial problems that exist within the health care industry. I liked the shows and found them to be very helpful. They make it plain that the problem exists in two areas: the love of money (greedy companies) and bad government policy and regulation. More Is Less An
hour explaining the American health care system, specifically, why it
is that costs keep rising. One story looks at the doctors, one at the
patients and one at the insurance industry. Someone Else's Money This
week, we bring you a deeper look inside the health insurance industry.
The dark side of prescription drug coupons. A story about Pet Health
Insurance, which is in its infancy, and how it is changing human
behaviors—for example, if you have the pet health insurance, you bring
your pet to the vet more often, and the vet makes more money
and...well, you can see the parallels. And insurance company jargon,
frighteningly decoded. We'll see if the governments health care plan addresses any of the financial issues they talked about. October 16 The first hearer of a sermon must be the pastor himself“It were better for him [the preacher] to break his neck going up into the pulpit, if he does not take pains to be the first to follow God.” - John Calvin October 15 Christian - Are You a Person of Prayer?O if you have the hearts of Christians ... let them yearn toward your poor ignorant ungodly neighbors! Alas, there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell; many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seize them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever. - Have you hearts of rock, that cannot pity men in such a case as this? If you believe not the Word of God [about the danger of sin], how are you Christians yourselves? If you do but believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to help others? Do you not care who is damned, [so long as you are] saved? If so, you have as much cause to pity your own selves; for it is a frame of spirit inconsistent with grace. [...] Hath God had so much mercy on you, and will you have no mercy on your poor neighbor? You need not go far to find objects for your pity: look ... into the streets, or into the next house to you, and you will probably find some. Have you not a neighbor that sets his heart below, and neglecteth eternity ? What blessed place do you live in, where there is none such ? If there he not some of them in thine own family, it is well; and yet art thou silent ? Dost thou live close by them, or meet them in the streets, or labor with them, or travel with them, or sit still and talk with them, and say nothing to them of their souls, or the life to come? If their houses were on fire, thou wouldst run and help them ; and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of hell? If thou knowest but a remedy for their diseases thou wouldst tell it them, or else thou wouldst judge thyself guilty of their death. (Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest, page 179) October 13 Slavery Today This month www.christianaudio.com is offering a free download of International Justice Mission's book Just Courage. I listened to it yesterday and today. It is worth giving a quick listen to hear of the huge human rights violations that occur in our nation today, what the Bible says about it, and what the church can do about it. Startling facts:
National Geographic had an article on the slave trade in 2003: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/ October 07 Desiring God: An Evening of Eschatology Desiring God hosted an eschatology discussion at their recent national conference. It is worth listening to for a couple reasons. First, it will help to understand the doctrinal distinctions of the different millennial views. Sam Storms represents Amillennialism, Jim Hamilton represents the Premillennial position, and Douglas Wilson the Postmillennial position. Second, I think they do a good job respecting one another in the gospel and howing how we can debate with respect. Watch Video Here Listen to Audio Here October 06 Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson StoryFrom Justin Taylors Blog: Here’s a video on the new made-for-TV movie out on DVD that tells the story of Dr. Ben Carson, an inner-city kid turned director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital with a strong Christian testimony. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Dr. Carson, and the movie is based on the bestselling book by the same title. October 05 Article: Obama's permanent depression This article was a bit complicated, but shows the struggle that our nation faces in the near future. In case you didn't know John Maynard Keynes advocated government borrowing to get out of financial downturns. It is what FDR attempted to use to get us out of the Great Depression, though its success is questionable. Keynes is one of seven men who rule the world from the grave. An except: The parallels between America in 2009 and Japan
in 1989 [Japan hit a massive economic crisis] are uncanny. An asset price bubble has collapsed, just before a tsunami
of prospective retirements that the asset bubble was supposed to fund. Demand
for savings is bottomless, and the government satisfies demands for savings by
running a huge deficit and issuing debt. The crippled banking system borrows at
an interest rate of zero and buys government securities. And the economy
shrivels up and dies.
Japan, though, had one advantage: it knew how to export. There is only one way
to drastically increase savings while maintaining full employment, and that is
to export. America has neither the export capacity nor the customers. It could
get them, but that is a different story. Keynes' solutions to the economic problems of his day are solutions that reflect his non-Christian worldview. The comparison his economic view to a Christian Worldview would be very helpful. October 01 Tim Keller: Willow Creek, Reformers, and Emegent Tim Keller can say so much in so few words. I think his insight here is very helpful in understanding the variety of churches in our world today. He writes, John Frame's 'tri-perspectivalism' helps me understand Willow. The
Willow Creek
style churches have a 'kingly' emphasis on leadership, strategic
thinking, and
wise administration. The danger there is that the mechanical obscures
how
organic and spontaneous church life can be. The Reformed churches have
a 'prophetic' emphasis on preaching, teaching, and doctrine. The danger
there is
that we can have a naïve and unBiblical view that, if we just expound
the Word
faithfully, everything else in the church -- leader development,
community
building, stewardship of resources, unified vision -- will just happen
by
themselves. The emerging churches have a 'priestly' emphasis on
community,
liturgy and sacraments, service and justice. The danger there is to
view 'community' as the magic bullet in the same way Reformed people
view preaching. HT: Justin TaylorAdditional Comments (10/2/09): Rich Phillips offers an insightful critique of Tim Kellers post on the Reformation 21 blog. After I posted I was thinking about this article and thinking that something seemed amiss because God's Word is the central emphasis for any church (and I think I say that not just because I am a Reformed type, but because it is scriptural). God's Word speaks to us through preaching which leads to evangelism discipleship and the building of community. But the preaching always comes first. While Keller's quote is a helpful reminder as to the need to act on the Word, we should never downplay the central role of a clear explanation of God's Word as the inspiration for all such action. Acts 6 shows how deacons were selected so the ministry of the Word would not suffer in mercy ministry. 2 Timothy 4 stresses the preaching of the Word for pastors, not building community or doing mercy ministry. Yes these things happened, but they were second to the preached word. If we lose the first, the second and third will be lost as well. September 29 No Romanticism in Sermon Preparation I was glad to read this on Justin Taylor's Blog: C. J. Mahaney: “”There is no romanticism in sermon preparation. I’m 56
years old and it’s still hard. I always get to a point in preparation
when I think, ‘This sermon stinks . . . and we are running out of
time!’” I might say it still seems romantic on Monday and Tuesday, but not Thursday through Sunday morning... Oops... I have a sermon that I should be working on ... not blogging... It's a good one ... but ask me again on Friday! :o
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Links for assigned readings or optional material for RS503, Christian Worldview I at New Geneva Theological Seminary in Fredericksburg VA.
Books that Changed My Life
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