Phoenix Preacher

1. I think if a good prayer life is the mark of a true believer, I may split hell wide open. I “hear” God in circumstances and other people and I can count “answers” to actual prayers on one hand. This used to trouble me greatly, but I think it’s the “normal” Christian life. George Muller is not the standard…and there is no singular template for living the Christian life.

2. The internet has made matters worse…if it has proven anything, it’s that humans thrive on instant feedback. Delayed gratification is part of the curse of the fall.

3. Two reasons I could never be Catholic…the issue of authority and the place given to Mary.

4. The most profound things I’ve learned from N.T. Wright are that the whole creation will be redeemed…recreated… and that heaven and earth will become one place in that new creation.

5. I’ve been trying desperately to recreate myself, but it looks like I ‘ll have to wait for that day as well…I woke up this morning and I was still me.

6. If you want to know who your real friends are, write a book and hope for help promoting it…

7. Not to be a religious bigot…but I have to wonder how much I’d trust the judgment of someone who can believe Mormon history and theology. I also wonder about how much a Romney presidency would validate their bizarre beliefs.

8. What is the future of book stores? Same as record stores…

9. Claiming that you are defending “the Gospel” without defining ‘the Gospel” is usually nothing more than attacking someone else because they disagree with you on a secondary issue. It’s also almost always spiritual grandstanding for the sake of attention.

10. When I was younger, I defined myself by what I was against…

What did you teach?

What did you learn?

Did you hear the Gospel?

PROVIDENCE

GOD GOVERNS THIS WORLD

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

PROVERBS 16:33

“God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions” (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.11). If Creation was a unique exercise of divine energy causing the world to be, providence is a continued exercise of that same energy whereby the Creator, according to his own will, (a) keeps all creatures in being, (b) involves himself in all events, and (c) directs all things to their appointed end. The model is of purposive personal management with total “hands-on” control: God is completely in charge of his world. His hand may be hidden, but his rule is absolute.

Some have restricted God’s providence to foreknowledge without control, or upholding without intervention, or general oversight without concern for details, but the testimony to providence as formulated above is overwhelming.

The Bible clearly teaches God’s providential control (1) over the universe at large, Ps. 103:19; Dan. 4:35; Eph. 1:11; (2) over the physical world, Job 37; Pss. 104:14; 135:6; Matt. 5:45; (3) over the brute creation, Ps. 104:21, 28; Matt. 6:26; 10:29; (4) over the affairs of nations, Job 12:23; Pss. 22:28; 66:7; Acts 17:26; (5) over man’s birth and lot in life, 1 Sam. 16:1; Ps. 139:16; Isa. 45:5; Gal. 1:15-16; (6) over the outward successes and failures of men’s lives, Ps. 75:6, 7; Luke 1:52; (7) over things seemingly accidental or insignificant, Prov. 16:33; Matt. 10:30; (8) in the protection of the righteous, Pss. 4:8; 5:12; 63:8; 121:3; Rom. 8:28; (9) in supplying the wants of God’s people, Gen. 22:8, 14; Deut. 8:3; Phil. 4:19; (10) in giving answers to prayer, 1 Sam. 1:19; Isa. 20:5, 6; 2 Chron. 33:13; Ps. 65:2; Matt. 7:7; Luke 18:7, 8; and (11) in the exposure and punishment of the wicked, Pss. 7:12-13; 11:6. (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 4th ed.)

Clear thinking about God’s involvement in the world-process and in the acts of rational creatures requires complementary sets of statements, thus: a person takes action, or an event is triggered by natural causes, or Satan shows his hand—yet God overrules. This is the message of the book of Esther, where God’s name nowhere appears. Again: things that are done contravene God’s will of command—yet they fulfill his will of events (Eph. 1:11). Again: humans mean what they do for evil—yet God who overrules uses their actions for good (Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23). Again: humans, under God’s overruling, sin—yet God is not the author of sin (James 1:13-17); rather, he is its judge.

The nature of God’s “concurrent” or “confluent” involvement in all that occurs in his world, as—without violating the nature of things, the ongoing causal processes, or human free agency—he makes his will of events come to pass, is mystery to us, but the consistent biblical teaching about God’s involvement is as stated above.

Of the evils that infect God’s world (moral and spiritual perversity, waste of good, and the physical disorders and disruptions of a spoiled cosmos), it can summarily be said: God permits evil (Acts 14:16); he punishes evil with evil (Ps. 81:11-12; Rom. 1:26-32); he brings good out of evil (Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; 13:27; 1 Cor. 2:7-8); he uses evil to test and discipline those he loves (Matt. 4:1-11; Heb. 12:4-14); and one day he will redeem his people from the power and presence of evil altogether (Rev. 21:27; 22:14-15).

The doctrine of providence teaches Christians that they are never in the grip of blind forces (fortune, chance, luck, fate); all that happens to them is divinely planned, and each event comes as a new summons to trust, obey, and rejoice, knowing that all is for one’s spiritual and eternal good (Rom. 8:28).

His cane was laid in the basket and he used the shopping cart as a large walker as he leaned against it’s handle.

He wanted one of “those” he said, pointing to a selection of smartphones with large screens…”the biggest one you’ve got”.

I pulled out a new device that’s half tablet, half phone…as someone noted , it looks like you’re talking into a waffle.

“I want THAT”, he demanded with no little excitement.

He wanted to use it as a phone he said…and he’d heard you could read the Scriptures on those things and he could make notes because he needed to keep track of his volunteers because they cut wood and delivered it to the poor, and …boy, was he excited.

He didn’t want to forget anyone lest they have no heating for their homes…it’s been a cold winter, you know.

I asked what he was using now and he produced from his shirt pocket a battered flip phone and a .25 cent spiral notepad.

Taped to the back of the phone were three phone numbers…his, his daughters, and his son in laws.

The account was in his son in laws name so only he could add the phone… with much disappointment at the delay my customer opened his notebook and asked me to write down the model and price for him .

I did so and he flipped the little notebook shut and assured me he would return.

About a half an hour later he shuffled back up to the kiosk and I said “that was quick”!

He looked at me and said “I want one of those, a BIG one”…and began to recite again the uses he would have for such a device.

I reminded him again that his son in law would have to be present and why…and he pulled the little note book out of his pocket and asked me to write it down for him.

I flipped through the pages to find a clean one and saw his notes…the names of his volunteers, the places they had delivered warmth to, the times and places of prayer meetings, and the one that was written on the page before the things I had written down previously.

“I have a little dementia.”

I showed him the notes I had made for him, then gently and silently showed him the one he had made for himself.

He nodded and squeezed my hand, then assured me he would return.

I’m thinking about putting notes in my smartphone to remind myself and others of my own issues.

“I often count my blessings as insignificant”.

“There are people overcoming far greater trials than you are”.

“Quit whining and do something”.

Sadly, I have a far longer list than my customer…

Make your own application… 

NPR: Kids with autism often targeted by bullies.

Peak oil (if you believe in such a thing) and its affect on the local church.

One man’s perspective on how to survive college as a Christian.

Ten contemporary sacred cows that one man believes should be tipped.

Tim Challies reflects on Chuck Colson’s legacy…you may not like what he has to say.

On the other hand, you may like what Chaplain Mike Mercer has to say about Colson.

Michael Patton on why Arminianism doesn’t sell.

Doug Wilson does not like “effeminate worship”. (He explains himself). Brad Williams responds.

John Piper’s future at Desiring God.

Jonathan Martin on leaving the institutional church.

RJS: “Peter Enns and Jared Byas have a new e-book published through Patheos that is designed to introduce normal people (whatever this means) to the book of Genesis … the most controversial, misunderstood, and abused book of the Bible.”

Richard Doster interviews author and professor C. John Collins: “In his recent book, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? Who They Were and Why You Should Care, Collins sees the Adam and Eve narrative as the “worldview story” of the people of God. He illustrates how that story presupposes a real first couple, and how modern life brings us to the same conclusion.”

Brent Thomas is blogging through a series titled “church planting things I wished they’d told me”

Trevin Wax on when you should flee your church.

Wenatchee the Hatchet looks at the formation of Mars Hill Church’s Redemption Groups.

Mental Floss with seven ways the Internet has been used for good.

Jared Wilson on the mess and order of a Gospel-centered church.

Nathan Creitz says making disciples is not just for super Christians (HT).

Fred Clark on Kirk Cameron, Tim Tebow and “contemporary Christian tribalism”.

1. I had a lot of respect for Chuck Colson, even though he was part of the “religious right”. Prison Fellowship had Jesus fingerprints all over it…that’s compassionate conservatism that walks the talk.

2. The media keeps referring to Colson as the “Watergate figure”. That’s like describing the Apostle Paul as the ‘cloak holder”. As has been noted by others, Jesus called him friend and the first words Colson heard on the other side were “I was in prison and you visited Me”.

3. Secular society loves redemption stories as long as Jesus isn’t part of the process.

4. Sarah has written another excellent blog post…

5. For you tech enthusiasts out there…I’ve been packing around the new Nokia phone with (gasp) Windows 7.5…and it’s a very sweet piece of equipment.

6. Back to Colson…he never embarrassed us or His Lord and in this day and age that’s saying a lot.

7.One of the things the Protestant Reformation threw out of whack theologically is the importance of works. Look it up for yourself…we’re going to be judged by works. (2 Cor 5: 6-10, Rev 20:12, etc…)

This is not a salvific judgment, but one of rewards… and it matters greatly what we do. I’m at the point in life where it’s more important to be biblical than be truly Reformed…

8. In the final judgment, death, hell, and retail all will be thrown into the lake of fire.

9. I ran into an old and dear friend of mine the other day who converted from Roman Catholicism to KJV Only Protestantism, and he now thinks Kent Hovind is a real scientist. Is he really better off spiritually?

10. Among the greatest gifts that God gives are those friends that time and distance do nothing to diminish the relationship. Because I am a difficult man to know, I treasure them more than gold.

11. I wrote a book… Phil and I discuss it here…