G2!

I PASSED!!!

"You Max Lucado reading moron!"

I met a someone in Starbucks who strongly recommended looking up Kenneth Copeland Ministries and happily shared that he is part of a virtual church.  There are two things wrong with that and it ain't being in a Starbucks, oh and they can make me implode with sinful thoughts and feelings.  And back into the cage I go...  The following is a quote from Kevin De Young's blog that I just came across:

A second mark of crusty Christians is approachability, as in, not having any. There is a sizing up-ness that makes some theological types unnecessarily prickly. They are bright and opinionated and quickly analytical. As a result, knowingly or unknowingly, they emit a vibe which communicates something between “You Max Lucado reading moron!” and “I wish R.C. Sproul were here to teach you a thing or two!” Crusty Christians are hard to be around. They are intimidating instead of engaging and growling instead of gracious. They are too willing to share their opinions on everything and unable to put any doctrine in any category not marked “absolutely essential.”

oops.

The problem of good

Before my conversion I struggled with the problem of evil,  but ever since my conversion I've been struggling with the problem of good:  how do I make sense of all this good I see in people who are not Christian?  Seriously, I've encountered many people- unbelievers and professing Christians who I suspect are not regenerate - who are much more moral than I.  How can that be if I have the Holy Spirit?  How do they do it?  How can they consistently act so kind and selfless while I am impatient and rude, if they're not Christians -  and what does that say about my faith???

It used to ease my mind to believe that people gave to charity and did good deeds to feed the pride of their own goodness.  But how do I explain something like Dick Hoyt's self-sacrificial love for his son Rick?   What about something you see all the time: a unbelieving mother's love for her child - is the root of that totally depraved because they are not Christians? An unbeliever once challenged me about this and I started to say that there is no good in people so the root of a mother's love must be selfishness, which sounded so ridiculous to me as I had said it out loud that I scrambled to switch gears and all I could come up with was, "well it's because we are made in His image". That answer might have been o.k. with him, but it was not enough to for me! I thought no one could do any good without the Holy Spirit...

Well, hurray I can have my sanity back because of the Doctrine of Common Grace!  So far, I've read The Problem of Good by Scott Kauffmann. And adding on to my massive list of TO DO, He Shines in All that's Fair by Richard Mouw.  And a PRACTICAL conclusion of this DOCTRINE?

"We can affirm the “good” an unbeliever experiences as real good, not an illusion – and can say with confidence that this good comes from God."

It's not an illusion - I'm not crazy!  Amen!

Doctrine is practical

Tim Challies wrote this on his blog today (excerpt):

I recently read through R.C. Sproul’s book What Is Reformed Theology? Actually, I’ve recently read through almost all of R.C. Sproul’s books and have noted that he has several recurring emphases. One of these is the importance of a right understanding of God’s work of preservation. Of course this emphasis makes sense when you know that Sproul is a long-time teacher and defender of Reformed doctrine.

Sproul’s concern with understanding the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints is not purely a theological one; it is not simply that he wants to have his theology right. His concern is practical. “There is clearly a link between our assurance and our sanctification,” he says. “The person who lacks assurance of salvation is vulnerable to a myriad of threats to his personal growth. The confident Christian, certain of his salvation, is free from the paralyzing fear that can inhibit personal growth. Without assurance we are assailed by doubt and uncertainty with respect to God’s promises, which serve as an anchor for our souls.”

What Sproul wants people to see is that assurance of salvation, a doctrine which flows out of God’s act of preservation (Sproul says rightly that the doctrines may be distinguished from one another, but never separated), is critical to spiritual growth. Those who lack assurance that they are saved often become bogged down by concern for their salvation. They have trouble growing in their faith because they cannot see past the uncertainty about their own spiritual condition. And this makes perfect sense, right? It is difficult to grow in the deeper things if we are still wrestling with the very basics. This is why every Christian should seek assurance of his salvation.

So true.  I read Romans today and found this (I like the NIV's "perseverance" rather than the ESV's "endurance"):

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us."

The cage stage

Sorry guys, but I have a very serious condition and therefore should be caged off to prevent further attacks on others!

cage state | noun | demonstrating wild and possibly deranged excitement over the seventeenth century pronouncements of the Synod of the Canons of Dordt in the Netherlands. These pronouncements are often referred to as the five points of Calvinism and, once a person becomes convinced that these five points are true, he or she enters the dreaded "cage stage." The novice Calvinist is considered "armed and dangerous" during this period, which has been known to extend to six months, but in more serious cases can last up to ten years or longer.

Symptoms include: high fever that results in delirious incoherence of thought and speech; vomiting spasms brought on when anyone mentions "free will" or "asking Jesus into their heart" or the dreaded philosophy of Jacob Arminius; restlessness, especially during church services, when the sufferer goes more than an hour without hearing the TULIP's five bells ringing in their ears; and diahrrea of the mouth, where uncontrollable spasms of verbal nonsense put everyone within earshot at risk.

The recommended treatment is complete isolation, restriction of movement and speech, until the symptoms pass. Unfortunately, this treatment is rarely sought by the afflicted person, so family and friends are often left to suffer silently. The only person who can reach the cage stage victim is a more experienced Calvinist, because the victim's state of mind does not permit trust in any others. Please DO NOT attempt intervention without consulting an expert.

(from thin-edge.org)

Hymn: Dear refuge of my weary soul

Just found this hymn by Indelible Grace (I love love their version of Come Ye Sinners) and these are the first two verses. I can only be comforted by God and His Word when I have painful thoughts but there are times when I despair because of the thought that I may not be His - but what else can I do but trust...!

Dear refuge of my weary soul,
On Thee, when sorrows rise
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll,
My fainting hope relies
To Thee I tell each rising grief,
For Thou alone canst heal
Thy Word can bring a sweet relief,
For every pain I feel

But oh! When gloomy doubts prevail,
I fear to call Thee mine
The springs of comfort seem to fail,
And all my hopes decline
Yet gracious God, where shall I flee?
Thou art my only trust
And still my soul would cleave to Thee
Though prostrate in the dust

Meditation cont'd

I'm really curious about transforming the inner thought life. What am I supposed to be thinking about? Is it sinful to not think about God every second? Well, here's one thing I've just found so far in my search, an excerpt (all emphases mine) from Soul Nourishment First (by George Mueller):

I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.

I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer...

Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

Meditation

"on your law I meditate day and night"

"I have hidden your Word in my heart that I may not sin against you"

"take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"

"O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day"

"I will ponder all you work, and meditate on you mighty deeds"

"whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"

Low self-esteem is a manifestation of PRIDE

Here's a clip of "Blessed self-forgetfulness" sermon by Pastor Tim Keller. A must-hear.

DJ Kitteh!

I just find this hilarious (from YouTube).

I know Jenn will appreciate this one:

***note: The track "Wasted" by Gucci Mane from the YouTube clip, and the show Jersey Shore (fist pump reference) glorify sin, and desensitize us to it.

Reading and studying the scriptures

I love this bible reading system that I'm using right now, it's been a couple weeks and I'm definitely not consistent yet, but I'm reading a lot more than before I started. It's a great way to get an overview of the bible by reading 10 chapters a day, from 10 different parts of the bible. It's pretty cool. Right now I'm reading in Gen, 1Chron, Job, Psalms, Prov, Isa, Mt, Acts, Rom, 1Thess all at the same time - I hardly get bored anymore (I should never get bored but...I do :S)! I use post-it sticky tabs. These are a couple of tips that are included:

Read quickly (without “speed-reading”) in order to get the overall sense.
Read as fast as you comfortably can with moderate retention. You’re not
studying deeply or memorizing; shoot for 5-6 minutes per chapter. At the
end of a chapter, move immediately to the next list.

GET THROUGH THE TEXT – no dawdling, back reading, looking
up cross-references

Don’t look up anything you ‘don’t get’ – real understanding will come
through contextualizing by reading a LOT of scripture over time. Get
through the text!

This is really helpful to me right now because I tend to get stuck when I want to understand everything before reading on and I end up not reading much of the Word.

I am also planning to start (another attempt) a study in Romans (by Tim Keller), on which I WILL spend lots of time "dawdling, back reading, and looking up cross-references".

Whaa??

I have high cholesterol?!! I'm too young to dieeeee! *sigh* I guess it's time to start "exercising".

Francis Chan @ Desiring God 2010

This sermon is really, really good. Not totally comfortable with the "God answers my prayers" part, but the message is excellent. And some pretty hilarious jokes, too (no surprise there).

Huh???

"I just realized I just don't like Rick Warren, and I know exactly why. I just can't muster up the spite to say why in public." Frank Turk, Pyromaniacs

Wha?? Why would he write that? Well I am definitely gonna wait for his follow-up post tomorrow.  **frowning and very curious**
(a lot of the comments are good, though)

BTW I totally agree with this viewpoint on Pastor Warren's PDL.

What hath Piper to do with Warren?:

Reflections from the 2010 Desiring God National Conference
A short article from The Gospel Coalition Blog on Pastor Warren's talk this past weekend at the Desiring God Conference “Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God”.

(p.s. it should've been the other way around: what hath Warren to do with Piper, but hey, whatever.)

Pour contempt on all my pride

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ my God:
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood

When I Survey The Wondrous Cross, by Isaac Watts, first two verses. We sang this in the evening service on Sunday.

Good boy, Meow-meow!

I had to watch him like a hawk last night but it paid off - he tried to do a #1 at the bottom of the basement stairs (not surprising since he had an 'accident' there the night before - but in his defense my mom was cleaning the litter tray), and after A LOT of coaxing and treats, he finally did it - front paws on the seat, back paws in the litter tray, and #1 right in the hole, so all I had to do was flush!  Hope he keeps this up, because it's stressful to be this obsessed with animal's toilet habits.  I didn't see him do #2 this morning, but it definitely didn't go through the hole, but he had another successful #1.  Hmm, I'm beginning to think my life is kinda sad.

Meow-meow's toilet

Today is a big day for meow-meow, previously he's been fully standing/sitting inside the litter tray, but now the hole may be big enough that he will begin to use the toilet seat for support.

Disturbed by Nothing

"Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half-aware of them..." (from ch. 12 of The Screwtape Letters)

I'm disturbed by how often I am preoccupied by Nothing.  For those who happen to be emo or have emo-tendencies, this will definitely strike a nerve.  As if you didn't already feel guilty enough.  But, you're not alone!  C.S. Lewis perhaps on more than one occasion was "up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room".  Why would a Christian do this?  According to Lewis, when one is distant from God (due to sins), he is very reluctant to THINK about God, and then will desperately seek anything to distract the mind from this "dim uneasiness".

(yeah, I had to look up roistering: engage in boisterous merrymaking.  o_O)

1 Cor 4:3

"...it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact I do not even judge myself."

Don't obsess and worry

My identity is with Christ.

Bringing in your plate

Ever try to help clean up after dinner at someone's house, knowing that you can't really help ('cause you don't know where anything goes) but you don't wanna just sit there either? Well Brian Regan does a really hilarious bit on this, just fast forward to 4:20 (ends at 5:00).  I just love this.  FYI he's of a rare breed of comedians with clean humour.

"Am I more in your way like this?  How bout if I come around this way?  Where am I more annoying?"

"Whatcha scrubbin'?!"

"What can I do with the salt and pepper shakers?
"Leave 'em where they were"
"Ok, wastin' everybody's time."

hahahaha LOL!