I’ve been reading through a nice little edition of The Apostolic Fathers recently put out by Moody Press. Today, I came across a section in The Shepherd of Hermas that sounds a bit like what John Piper might say. I’m not endorsing everything in The Shepherd of Hermas, there are plenty of reasons why it [...]
Continue reading about Quotes to Note 14: Christian Hedonism in The Shepherd of Hermas??
Within fundamentalism, as in other areas of Christianity no doubt, there is quite a bit of confusion over fighting sin. The thinking goes like this: if we erect a big enough fence, or hedge people in with enough rules, we will prevent them from falling into sin. Sadly, this tactic most often fails, to one [...]
Some of you have made New Year’s resolutions. Others have resolved to make one soon! And if you haven’t made one this year, you have other years. We all think there is wisdom in setting our mind to something and trying to achieve it.
I’m all for this kind of determination and hard-work. The problem comes [...]
Continue reading about Don’t Forget the Gospel This New Year’s
I want to encourage my readers to take some time and read Jim Elliff’s recent blog post on a practice he calls “confessionism”. As a former independent fundamental Baptist, I still tend toward a legalism of sorts that stresses performance and action to a fault. And while I never reached the level of zeal and [...]
Over at Sharper Iron, there are some interesting discussions of the role of rules in schools. Mike Durning, in a 3 part series, argues that a heavy-handed, rules-oriented school can foster legalism. Then Aaron Blumer, site publisher, posts a 2-part series defending the validity and value of rules. My blogging friend Josh Gelatt saw in [...]
I stumbled across a great blog post that relates with the theme of our last several posts: the Gospel’s work in believers. The post actually was first an article for Discipleship Journal. Let me quote a relevant portion of it here, but encourage you all to go over and read the whole thing. It’s also [...]
Continued from part 2.
We have seen that the Gospel has many purposes for believers beyond initial conversion. It is as much for believers as unbelievers. I’d like to start this final post by quoting Tim Keller once more at some length. (I should mention that the quotes from Keller in this series come from this [...]
Continue reading about The Gospel's Work in Believers, Conclusion
Continued from part 1.
So, in the gospel, as unbelievers we found acceptance through Christ and forgiveness from sin. But as believers, don’t we rely on that acceptance as we work out our salvation? Don’t we need to be constantly challenged to obey more and be more faithful to God? Does our spiritual life depend in [...]
Continue reading about The Gospel's Work in Believers, Part 2
The following is taken from an adult SS lesson I taught this past Sunday. I thought it would be a blessing to share it by means of my blog for a wider audience.
1 Thess. 2:9-13 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a [...]
Continue reading about The Gospel's Work in Believers, Part 1
Today I have a simple quote for you. This comes from Joel Beeke’s Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism. This single quote is worth meditating on today. May God bless us in our walk with Christ.
Martin Luther states, “We in Christ equals justification; Christ in us equals sanctification”. (Beeke, Living [...]
Continue reading about Quotes to Note 9: Luther on Sanctification
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Kevin, I only read that book as well. I'm interested in the earlier ones. Thanks for checking out my blog, ...
Bob, Welcome to the Caffeinated Calvinists! And good to see another review of Overstreet's book. I too, reviewed this book, but ...
I was interested in the encouragement to unity, but didn't know Armstrong advocated such a blatant ecumenism. Not really ...
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JOHN PIPER ON MARK DRISCOLL SERMON JAM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWVhn9HaRNg