Grace So Rich and Free

Great God of Wonders
Samuel Davies (1723-1761)

Great God of wonders! all Thy ways
Are matchless, Godlike and divine;
But the fair glories of Thy grace
More Godlike and unrivaled shine.
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

Crimes of such horror to forgive,
Such guilty, daring worms to spare;
This is Thy grand prerogative,
And none shall in the honor share.
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

Angels and men, resign your claim
To pity, mercy, love and grace:
These glories crown Jehovah’s Name
With an incomparable glaze.
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

In wonder lost, with trembling joy,
We take the pardon of our God:
Pardon for crimes of deepest dye,
A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood.
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

O may this strange, this matchless grace,
This Godlike miracle of love,
Fill the whole earth with grateful praise,
And all th’angelic choirs above.
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

False Humility...or Why I So Desperately Need the Savior

Two reasons make the story I'm about to share not only embarrassing, but shameful. It shows just how sinful I am, and why I so desperately need the Savior.

One, our pastoral staff is currently reading through C.J. Mahaney's Humility: True Greatness. Thus my sensitivity to this particular virtue ought to be heightened.

Two, I just taught Mark 9:30-50 to a senior adult Sunday School class this past Sunday. The passage is all about self-denial, self-sacrifice, humility, and service. The disciples had just been told (for the second time) that Jesus would be rejected, condemned, and killed, but he would rise again on the third day. Instead of pondering this news, they began arguing about who was the greatest. Clearly, they missed the point. And I made a point of saying Sunday morning that we must not make the same mistake they did. We must be willing to serve those who cannot repay us or honor us. For that is where true humility and true service begins. But as the story that follows will illustrate, I too missed the point.

So here's what happened.............

Yesterday afternoon, I was informed that one of our city's resident "bums" was in the lobby of our church, and he had requested to speak with a pastor. And just so you know, this particular man has become fairly well known by the churches in our city because he has caused problems for many of them, including our own. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't very excited that the request came to me (I was in the middle of doing something, after all). But I went to meet him anyway.

As we began talking, the Holy Spirit brought the Mark 9 passage I had just taught a few days ago to my mind (as well as the two chapters from Mahaney's book I had just read that morning on that very passage in Mark). I began to realize that here was an opportunity right in front of me to exercise humility by serving someone who could not possibly repay me. Here was an opportunity for me to serve someone simply for the good of serving them, not so that I would get noticed by others for being a humble servant.

But almost as soon as those thoughts crossed my mind, I began to congratulate myself inwardly for being so humble and for serving someone like this. It took virtually no time for my mind to move from thinking about humility to proudly complimenting myself for such a display of humility. My attempt at obedience was turned into a matter of disobedience in a split-second.

And to make matters worse, at about that same moment one of our ministry assistants walked by and saw me talking with him. A few seconds later, she was followed by two of our staff members. A minute or so later, one of our church's deacons walked by. And inwardly, I was glad that they had seen me so humbly serving someone who could not repay me or honor me. I was glad that four people had seen my humility on display. Of course, the fact that they saw me defeated the whole purpose, but pride has a strange way of being completely illogical.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

The Function of Music in Worship

Paul Clark's latest article explores the function of music in the worship of God's people. Here is an excerpt:

Consider this; projected on the screen is a set of words. Played by the instruments, music floats around the room addressing the ears of worshipers. Married together for corporate expression both words and music take wings and become the expression of our corporate and individual response, confession, or praise to God. We may sing our proclamation, or demonstrate outwardly what we sense internally, and this proclamation bears witness to His grace and our faith....

Singing binds us together and forms community. This is a powerful reality that is far too easy to miss if we become enamored with our own performance, or preoccupied with the excellence of the music for its own sake. In this action music can give us a vision of what it means to be one in Christ. Music that fosters a bold unison in proclaiming Christ can drown out discord and aid in the rally of our hearts.

Read the entire thing here.

Mississippi Musings

My friend, Justin Jones, has started blogging at Mississippi Musings. I encourage you to read one of his first posts as he discusses how the evangelical pendulum has swung from fundamentalist legalism to an antinomian "freedom" - and how the gospel must be the remedy for both.

Indictment

Indictment on Evangelical Worship
M. Justin Wainscott, © 2007

Set the stage and dim the lights,
Create my mood; abuse my rights.
Out-do all you did last week,
And never let the silence speak.
Entertain me, at all costs,
Blur the lines ‘tween true and false.
Smile and tell me all’s okay,
I’ll believe whate’er you say.
Give me mirrors; give me smoke,
Fill me with clichés and jokes.

Like an orphan with no story,
Cut me off from all before me.
Hide the pain and fake the smile,
Lamentation’s out of style.
Give me milk and warm the bottle,
Make sure it’s the latest model.
Numb my mind with borrowed tricks,
Feed my soul with Pixi-stix.
Don’t confront what lurks within,
Or else I’ll never come again.

John Murray on Death

The following is an except from a letter written by John Murray to Valerie Knowlton, the woman who would eventually become his wife, on the occasion of her grandmother's death:

How real is death, and how dismal except as its darkness is illumined by the hope of resurrection to life! It is as we look death squarely in the face that the grace and power of the Savior take on new meaning. How tawdry are all human attempts to dress it up! The light and faith of Jesus alone can cast a halo of joy and hope around it. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, and only they! There is nothing that any person can place between himself or herself and the damnation that sin demands, but the merit, blood, righteousness, mediatorship, and intercession of the risen and glorified Redeemer.

--Taken from The Life of John Murray, Iain Murray

Wendell Berry on How to Be a Poet

How To Be a Poet (to remind myself)
by Wendell Berry

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill - more of each
than you have - inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

--Taken from Given: Poems, Wendell Berry, pp. 18-19

Grace-Soaked Truth and Truth-Filled Grace

Kevin DeYoung currently has a series of posts on his blog answering the question, "How Do You Put Your Sermon Together?" At the end of part 2, he says:

Mostly I pray for grace-soaked truth and truth-filled grace. And fresh unction from the Holy Spirit week after week.

That's an excellent way to pray for preachers (and to think about biblical preaching). If you're a preacher, pray that way for your own preparation and preaching. If you're not a preacher, pray that way for your pastor.

For DeYoung's full posts, see below:

• How Do You Put Your Sermon Together, Part 1
• How Do You Put Your Sermon Together, Part 2

2010 Christianity Today Book Awards

Christianity Today has released their list of top books from the last year, arranged in twelve different categories. Click here to see which books made it.

Worship That Disturbs

Paul Clark has an excellent post on "Worship That Disturbs," reminding us of the tension involved in Christian theology and thus Christian worship. Here is an excerpt:

Tensions are a part of worship. Transcendence and Immanence of God are not at odds, yet do create a certain tension for us as we worship Him. Many worship songs focus only on one side of this tension, which may not be a problem in itself unless we begin to string together only songs that present one side of the tension over an extended period of time, thus distorting the view of God. Presenting the tension may be somewhat disturbing for a culture that wants to be able to either have everything explained rationally, or who want to feel the experiential warm fuzzy of resolution. The full Gospel necessitates our presenting the whole truth that God is wholly other-holy Other – and at once “closer than a brother” in Christ Jesus. It is important to express these truths along with their appropriate tensions in our worship singing as well as having them proclaimed through the preached Word, where they are revealed from God Himself.

Presenting the resolution of the cross without the horror of its cost is to misrepresent the glory, and in fact, presents no resolution or glory at all. The cross is disturbing. The “blood songs” are disturbing. There is tension inherent in a “suffering Savior,” yet this tension is at the heart of our worship, and it is in presenting the fullness of the cross’s glory that we can proclaim salvation. There is tension in a wrathful, jealous, holy God who is at once the One whose love endures forever; the One who forgives, and forgives and frees us to truly live. These tensions are disturbing, yet powerful and at the center of worship.

I encourage you to read the whole thing here.

The Genius of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In my opinion, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is still one of the great pieces of American oratory.



And his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is still one of the great pieces of American Christian ethics. But I want to quote from what might be a lesser known piece of his, "Paul's Letter to American Christians."

But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. Your poet Thoreau used to talk about "improved means to an unimproved end." How often this is true. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unChristian world. That is what I had to do. That is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: "everybody is doing it, so it must be alright." For so many of you Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup poll of the majority opinion. How many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

But American Christians, I must say to you as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Or, as I said to the Phillipian Christians, "Ye are a colony of heaven." This means that although you live in the colony of time, your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity; both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God's will it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.

Click here to read the entire thing.

The Joyful Sound of Salvation

Salvation! O the Joyful Sound
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Salvation - O the joyful sound!
'Tis pleasure to our ears,
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears.

Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At hell's dark door we lay;
But we arise by grace divine,
To see a heavenly day.

Salvation! let the echo fly
The spacious earth around;
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne Quotes

I have been using the M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan for a few years now (and enjoy it), but recently I have been reading some of M'Cheyne's sermons as well as Andrew Bonar's Life of Robert Murray M'Cheyne. I must admit that I did not know much about M'Cheyne the man before, but I have thoroughly benefited from reading about his life and highly recommend his sermons. Here are a few quotes from him to give you an idea of his humility, wisdom, faith, and Christ-centeredness.

Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities.

For every look at self take ten looks at Christ.

Our soul should be a mirror of Christ; we should reflect every feature: for every grace in Christ there should be a counterpart in us.

It is a sure mark of grace to desire more.

Most of God's people are content to be saved from the hell that is without. They are not so anxious to be saved from the hell that is within.

Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two: your life preaches all week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words, from God.

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me....

Liberalism: Gospel-Denial within the Church

The January/February 2010 9Marks eJournal is now available, and it addresses the issue of liberalism from several different perspectives (the mindset of the new evangelical liberalism, case studies in the new evangelical liberalism, and historical perspective on the new evangelical liberalism).

Carl Trueman, Al Mohler, Phil Johnson, Russell Moore, Michael Horton, Darryl Hart, Greg Wills, Mack Stiles, and Mike Ovey join Michael Lawrence, Jonathan Leeman, Greg Gilbert, and Bobbie Jamieson to tackle this issue.

A Prayer for Pastors

Phil Ryken offers a sobering and helpful prayer for pastors on the Ref21 blog.

This prayer is Part 9 of a series of posts on a litany written by Dr. George Ridding. For Parts 1-8 see below.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8

Ezra and Pastoral Ministry

"For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel." (Ezra 7:10)

In Ezra's ministry, he set his heart to do three things:

1. Study the Word
2. Obey the Word
3. Teach the Word

We would do well to emulate him in our own ministries!

The Value of the Local Church

Barry Maxwell has a good post reminding us of the significance and value of the local church (thanks to Ray Van Neste for bringing this to my attention).

In what way does the local church provide the best context for developing a sound biblical theology? (By “local church” I mean the gospel-forged relationships with those with whom I live out and before whom I am accountable to the Christian faith.) I’ll approach an answer by way of an illustrative detour. Bob attends Main Street Baptist Church in Smalltown, USA. He sits weekly with his family and other church members under the authoritative preaching of God’s word. He appreciates his preacher and enjoys the church’s fellowship. But his real consideration of Scripture comes from John MacArthur’s study notes and listening to John Piper’s sermon from last Sunday. Then he can tweet and chat with other anonymous folks about it. He enters a pseudo-community where you know everybody and nobody at the same time. He really isn’t concerned with how his MSBC brothers and sisters benefited from their preacher’s exposition. He sees little need in consulting his pastor when he can easily Ask Pastor John. He really has no idea if his brothers and sisters are holding fast the confession of faith.

In no way minimizing the gift these pastoral and theological giants are to the church, the primary field in which our soul’s graze is our local church. It is to our local brothers and sisters we owe primary attention. It is with them we must work out God’s word and share common convictions and confession. What Piper, MacArthur, Driscoll, Sproul or you-name-him thinks about an issue is important, but not nearly as important as what our local church thinks about it. Unless we’re members of Bethlehem Baptist Church John Piper is not commanded to keep my brothers and sisters from evil, unbelieving hearts that fall away from the living God, nor we him (Heb 3.12). We as members of our local church are commanded to do so for our brothers and sisters with whom we’re covenantally committed.

Rather than immediately wonder what Piper might think, we would benefit far more by asking what our brothers and sisters might think. If I’m commanded to help my brother hold fast his confession then I’d better know what he confesses! How will Bill work out this week’s text in his marriage? In what way did Bonnie see Christ in the text this week? How do we as a church work through Jesus’ teaching on divorce or Paul’s teaching on communion? Do we insist on independence and autonomous self-study (hyper-priesthood of the believer) or do we want to work out and share convictions within the biblical community?

Click here to read the entire post.

HT: Ray Van Neste

Packer on the Obedience of Christ

J.I. Packer has a brief but excellent treatment of the obedience of the Son to the Father's redemptive will in the most recent issue of RPM, a publication of Third Millennium Ministries.

The three Persons of the Holy Trinity are eternal and self-existent, partaking equally of all aspects and attributes of deity, and always acting together in cooperative solidarity. But the unchanging cooperative pattern is that the second and third Persons identify with the purpose of the first, so that the Son becomes the Father’s executive and the Spirit acts as the agent of both. It is the Son’s nature and joy to do his Father’s will (John 4:34).

Click here for the full article.

How To Introduce a Preacher

"Just tell em I'm a nobody that's tryin to tell everybody 'bout Somebody that can save anybody. That's all you need to tell em."

This is a quote by Denver Moore, whose incredible story is told in the bestselling book, Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (with Lynn Vincent). The occasion of the quote is when Denver was asked to preach at New Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ron asked him how he wanted to be introduced.

If you have not read Same Kind of Different As Me, I highly recommend it! It tells the true story of a dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery (Denver Moore), an upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel (Ron Hall), a gutsy woman with a stubborn dream (Deborah Hall), and how the Lord caused their paths to intersect in a way that would change them all. Click here for more information.

Ryle's Exhortation to Bible Reading

With the beginning of a new year often comes the beginning of daily Bible reading plans. Unfortunately, many people start with the best of intentions and then get bogged down in the instructions for the tabernacle in Exodus or the holiness codes in Leviticus (though some make it to Kings or Chronicles before they give up!).

As you start your new daily Bible reading plan, be encouraged and challenged by this exhortation from J.C. Ryle.

A New Year

With the dawn of a new year, careful reflection is on most people's minds. There are a number of ways to consider and prepare for the days and months ahead. Here are a two different sets of 10 questions to ponder.

• Don Whitney's "Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year"
• Kevin DeYoung's "10 Questions for 2010" (primarily for pastors)
  

And here is a prayer for the new year from The Valley of Vision:

O Lord,

Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence, in thy service, to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from thee,
but may rely on thy Spirit,
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth thy praise,
testify thy love,
advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with thee, O Father, as my harbour,
thee, O Son, at my helm,
thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me grace to sanctify me,
thy comforts to cheer,
thy wisdom to watch,
thy right hand to guide,
thy counsel to instruct,
thy law to judge,
thy presence to stabilize.

May thy fear be my awe,
thy triumphs my joy.