The Rebel Jesus

The streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying into their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But pardon me if I have seem
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In the life of hardship and of earthly toil
There’s a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

Lyrics by Jackson Browne

Suffering and God's Sovereignty (John Piper)

What a source of comfort we have in the sweet, sweet sovereignty of our Lord and God Jesus Christ.

This video brought me to tears.

Daily Quote

"A nominal Christian is happy to prove the importance of the crucified redeemer.... but the true Christian delights in the cross, rejoices in it, glories in it and shudders at the thought of glorying in anything else." - Charles Simeon

If We Lived Like We Sang...

H. Richard Niebuhr described liberal Christianity thus: 'A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.' For some time, I've wondered if the heart of liberal theology is the belief that man is actually not all that sinful, but is fundamentally fairly good. It is the message of Hollywood, of self-help writers, of humanism. It's the kind of position that tells us "Believe in yourself! You can do it!", "Do something for you", "It's ok if it feels good", "You might be a bit naughty but you're nowhere near as bad as your friend who...".

It's not a new lie that we are fundamentally ok. Around AD 383-410, there was a teacher in Rome by the name of Pelagius who taught against the doctrine of original sin, but suggested that sin only occurred in individual acts. He upheld that God does not hold men responsible for sins that they have no control over. He said that man's nature is still capable of choosing good and God without the help of God. He was clutching at straws.

Is Pelagian-style error creeping into our church music today? I think it may be. It's close to what is called semi-Pelagianism; following Pelagius to some degree- a position that says that humans can independently make the first move towards God, and that God completes the salvation process.

If it is, it comes subtly in the kind of songs that teach us we can relate to God casually, that encourage irreverence, that play-down sin, that make us people into something far more than we are. Songs that assume we inherrently have within ourselves the capacity to appraoch God without the need for his grace first. How many songs do you know that teach you that you're able to come to God of your own accord (i.e. without encouraging you to think about the gospel)? How many times have you sung lines like "I surrender all to You", "You're the only one that I could live for", "I'm desperate for you", "You are my one desire", "I will never stop loving You" and known for sure that you have meant it with all your heart?

A difficult question. I have sung "I surrender all to You" plenty of times, but I know full well that to this day, that still isn't entirely true of me. I pray that I can increasingly surrender my will, possessions and heart to God, but can I sing that I do until I actually do? By singing these things, am I not taking very lightly my relationship with God? The Bible is clear on all of these variations on the same theme that God draws us to Himself (John 6:44)- we do not choose Him. We have nothing of ourselves to boast in, and our songs ought to aid us in fearing and reverencing God, not relating to him as our "mate" or our "girlfriend". How we need less of "Hey Lord, O Lord, You know what we need" and "You took the fall and thought of me"; but so much more of "Indescribable, uncontainable, You set the stars in the sky and You know them by name" and "You give and take away, my heart will choose to say "Lord, blessed be Your Name".

God Glorified in Man's Dependence

"God is more glorified in the person of His son then He would have been in an unfallen world." - Charles Spurgeon

"God is glorified in the work of redemption in this, that there appears in it so absolute and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him." - Jonathan Edwards

"We are dependent on God's power through every step of our redemption. We are dependent on the power of God to convert us, and give faith in Jesus Christ, and the new nature." - Jonathan Edwards

"It is a more glorious work of power to rescue a soul out of the hands of the devil, and from the powers of darkness, and to bring it into a state of salvation, than to confer holiness where there was no prepossession or opposition...So it is a more glorious work of power to uphold a soul in a state of grace and holiness, and to carry it on till it is brought to glory, when there is so much sin remaining in the heart resisting, and Satan with all his might opposing, than it would have been to have kept man from falling at first, when Satan had nothing in man." - Jonathan Edwards

Assertions and Affections

I had a quick thought I felt like I would share:
As I was falling asleep during my afternoon nap yesterday I thought of
these two words: assertions and affections.

Much of the time spent in discussing the songs we sing in church have
to do with the words "style and substance," but I feel the focus
should be on the words "assertions and affections." The discussion
should be centered on the content of the music and its relation to us
as the recipients of God's Word, not on subjective moods toward style
and preferences toward instrumentation (although those are important
and should be considered as a secondary item).

The reason I was thinking of the words "assertions and affections" is
because all of life is held together by these two things, especially
in the life of the Christian. For example: The Word of God asserts
himself as Jesus Christ, we who believe are affected and live
accordingly. All of life should be seen in this manner, including our
times of corporate worship, and more specifically in the songs we
sing. The significance of hymns, young and old, is their clear
expression of the knowledge of God. This God to whom we are singing is
identified and completely distinct from all other gods and faiths.
Contemporary praise songs, on the other hand, tend to focus more on
our affections toward God.

We need the assertions. If we do not define the God to whom we are
singing, then our Christian faith loses its identification and
character. It becomes spineless and subject to sentimentality.

We need the affections. We need people who understand the God to whom
they are singing, and are moved by his holiness, sovereignty, justice,
love, mercy, and kindness.

Our God is both the God of Mount Sinai and the Christ who put his arm
around the woman at the well. We should sing joyfully sing to our Lord
and Savior, who is distinct and set apart from all peoples, all
philosophies, and all other gods.

Daily Quote

Os Guiness understands the heart of the problem the church faces today.
“…an unprecedented Christian pursuit of relevance has led directly to an unprecedented Christian irrelevance”

The irony is astounding. The Church today wants nothing more than to be relevant to the culture. Many in the church feel relevance is the only way to reach the culture with the gospel. Guiness says this pursuit of relevance is precisely the reason the Christian church today has never been more irrelevant.

Daily Quote, Popcorn, Hotdogs and Heaven

I read this on Tim Challies blogsite and thought it was cute. And yeah, words like that tend to come out after you've been married for awhile...I apologize.

Here it is:

I wanted to begin today by sharing a few words of wisdom from my daughter who just turned five: “In heaven you can’t die, so you can eat popcorn and hot dogs at the same time and not have to worry about choking.” I just thought you’d all like to have one more thing to look forward to in eternity. Of course one could well ask, “If there are hot dogs in heaven, could it really be heaven?”

cc: www.challies.com

Daily Quote

If we know the characteristic sins of the age, we can guess its foolish and fashionable assumptions--that morality is simply a matter of personal taste, that all silences need to be filled up with human chatter or background music, that 760 percent of the American people are victims, that it is better to feel than to think, that rights are more important than responsibilities, that even for children the right to choose supersedes all other rights, that real liberty can be enjoyed without virtue, that self-reproach is for fogies, that God is a chum or even a gofer whose job is to make us rich or happy or religiously excited, that it is more satisfying to be envied than respected, that it is better for politicians and preachers to be cheerful than truthful, that Christian worship fails unless it is fun. -- Cornelius Platinga

Worship by the Book

This one is for you, Brian.

I've been reading a really great and interesting book by D.A. Carson called "Worship by the Book." Here are a few excerpts from the first chapter:

Worship serves the indispensable function of uniting us with "all the saints," living and dead. In fact one of the most important things that worship accomplishes is to remind us that we worship not merely as a congregation or a church, but as part of the church, the people of God. -- p. 23

...we cannot imagine that the church gathers for worship on Sunday morning if by this we mean that we then engage in something that we have not been engaging in the rest of the week. New covenant worship terminology prescribes constant worship. [This is] why the New Testament church gathers...[for] mutual edification, not worship. -- p. 24
(What is meant by this is that the distinctive element of their corporate meetings is not worship, but edification.)

We are to worship the Lord in the splendor of all that makes God God. -- p.28

We should not being by asking whether or not we enjoy "worship," but by asking, "What is it that God expects of us?" -- p. 29

24's Season 7

Tony Almeida will be returning in season 7!

I knew he wasn't dead. No one as sweet as the Almeida-nator could die at the hands of the washed up RoboCop actor turned terrorist.

Check it out here!

Love the Sinner. Hate the Sinner.

Is our theology sufficiently biblical to understand statements where God not only hates the sin, but also is said to hate the sinner (see, for example, Ps. 11:5-6)?

Check out Between Two Worlds for a response.

cc: Between Two Worlds

Daily Quote

"But Christ was insistent that the leadership of the Church must never pursue honor through the use of titles. The leaders of the Church are to be distinguished and set apart, but this is to happen through service and self-sacrifice. Pastors have to avoid the common sin of wanting to be known as a servant without being treated as a servant." (Mother Kirk, p. 196).

The 9/11's You Need To Know

This September 11 is the sixth anniversary of 9/11. Let us mark this day with thoughts about the 9/11 we know about, the one we never knew, and the one that will certainly happen to us.

Click here for John Piper's excellent article.

Galatians 3

Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough.
I hear him saying, "cursed are the ones who can't abide."
He's right, halleluia, he's right!
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray.
I cannot gain salvation embracing accusation.
Could the father of lies be telling the truth of God to me tonight?
That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine.
I hear him saying, "cursed are the ones who can't abide."
He's right, halleluia, he's right!
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray.
I cannot gain salvation.
The devil's singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray.
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He's forgotten the refrain.
JESUS S A V E S!!!

--Shane and Shane

MacDaddy MacArthur

John MacArthur Explains True Gospel

MacArthur lays soem Truth down.

The Truth of the Cross

“The prevailing doctrine of justification today is not justification by faith alone. It’s not even justification by good works or by a combination of faith and works. The prevailing notion of justification in Western culture today is justification by death. It’s assumed that all one has to do to be received into the everlasting arms of God is to die.

In some instances, the prevailing indifference to the cross mutates into outright hostility. I once was asked to deliver a lecture explaining the relationship between the old and new covenants. In the course of delivering this lecture, I referred to Christ’s death as a substitutionary, vicarious sacrifice for the sins of others. To my surprise, someone in the back of the room yelled out, ‘That’s primitive and obscene.’ I was taken aback for a moment, so I asked, ‘What did you say?’ He said it again with great hostility: ‘That’s primitive and obscene.’ At that point, I had recovered from my surprise, and I told the man I actually like his choice of adjectives. It is primitive for a blood sacrifice to be made to satisfy the justice of a transcendent and holy God, but sin is a primitive thing that is basic to our human existence, so God chose to communicate His love, mercy, and redemption to us through this primitive work. And the cross is an obscenity, because all of the corporate sin of God’s people was laid on Christ. The cross was the ugliest, most obscene thing in the history of the world.”- From The Truth of the Cross by R.C. Sproul

What do you think of tattoos and body-piercing?

Once again, Pastor Piper says what I wished I could say...only better.

Listen here.

Daily Quote

"Our faithfulness to the fathers of the faith does not consist in our copying them but in our comprehending them. And the communion of saints does not consist in the fact that all of us say the same thing in the same words, but rather that we all drink from the same spring. notable among those who have also stood watch by this spring is Spurgeon....Sell all that you have (not least of all some of your stock of current sermonic literature) and buy Spurgeon." - Helmut Thielicke