Category: Devotional

Devotional thoughts for my benefit and yours from here, there, and everywhere

We Believe (#13): Christ’s Commission to Make Disciples of All Nations

~ fundyreformed

Part 13 in a series of Sunday posts celebrating the glorious Truth we believe as Christians. The readings are quoted from the Elder Affirmation of Faith, of my church, Bethlehem Baptist (Pastor John Piper). I’m doing this because every few weeks our congregational reading is an excerpt from this document, and every time we all read aloud the truths we confess, my soul rejoices. I pray these posts will aid you in worshiping our Lord on His day.

Christ’s Commission to Make Disciples of All Nations

We believe that the commission given by the Lord Jesus to make disciples of all nations is binding on His Church to the end of the age. This task is to proclaim the Gospel to every tribe and tongue and people and nation, baptizing them, teaching them the words and ways of the Lord, and gathering them into churches able to fulfill their Christian calling among their own people. The ultimate aim of world missions is that God would create, by His Word, worshippers who glorify His name through glad-hearted faith and obedience. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. When the time of ingathering is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship, therefore, is the fuel and the goal of missions.

*Taken from the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith, paragraphs 13. You are free to download the entire affirmation [pdf] complete with Scriptural proofs for the above statements.

Oxygenating Your Spiritual Life

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

Are you blue in the face?

Going without oxygen, or with too little oxygen makes one blue. And going too long without meditating on God’s Word makes one blue as well.

Yesterday’s sermon, by my pastor John Piper (will be available for download here from Desiring God) emphasized our need to be meditating on the Gospel and reading our Bibles. His text was James 1:21.

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

He focused on the second half of the verse. Why do we receive the word, when it is already implanted? This is the “word of truth” by which we have been born again, already (vs. 18). So why do we still need to be receiving the word?

Just because we are alive, doesn’t mean we don’t need to breathe. Rather, since we are alive, our bodies demand that we breathe. Breathing is necessary for life, but breathing doesn’t make our hearts beat.

Similarly, Piper reasons, if we are genuinely saved, and spiritually alive, we will want to breathe. And breathing is necessary for our life. The word is able to save our souls, but only if we receive it with meekness. Of course, a genuinely saved person will receive it with meekness.

So the Bible, and particularly the gospel message contained in it (“word of truth” primarily refers to the message of Gospel–good news of Jesus) is vital for our spiritual well being. If we don’t humble ourselves and fill ourselves with it continually, we prove that we have no real life. And availing ourselves of the Bible, reminding ourselves constantly of the Gospel, proves to sustain and nourish our spiritual life.

So aim with me this year to do a better job of oxygenating your spiritual life, by God’s grace and for His glory and our joy.

Note: I’ll add the link to Piper’s message, when it is available. I hope also to recap last year’s blogging and focus on 2008 in a post here soon.

UPDATE: Check out these Bible Reading plans available for download from NavPress. Our church uses the Discipleship Journal plan.

UPDATE 2: Here is the link to Piper’s sermon.

Reasons for Christmas

~ fundyreformed ~ 7 Comments

Today during the Sunday sermon, I was reminded of some of the explicit reasons given for Christmas in 1 John. Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. So reasons given for Jesus coming into the world, are reasons for Christmas.

As we all celebrate Christmas, and I hope you really celebrate Jesus this Christmas. The reasons given below for Jesus’ incarnation (his taking on human flesh and being born in the manger), should help us reflect on the wonder that Jesus did come. And they should help us to prize the Cross and Resurrection as we rejoice over the babe in the manger.

…[Jesus] appeared to take away sins… (1 John 3:5)

…The Reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (3:8)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (4:9-10)

…the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (4:14)

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true… (5:20)

Christmas Reading

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

Merry Christmas everyone. 1 week, that’s all. Only 1 week till Christmas!

I hope that you will all have a great Christmas, but that it will be more than just an American Christmas. Please celebrate Christ and revel in worship as we remember his birth. Look past the manger to the Cross and further still to the empty tomb! Remember that Jesus is the Greatest Gift ever given!

I wanted to point you to our online Christmas Card and wish you all a wonderful Christmas. And I thought I’d also list a few interesting posts on the topic of Christmas here, as well.

Here is the link to our family Christmas greeting, and the links below are worth the read:

  • The 12 Days of Theology (an interesting new version of the popular carol 12 Days of Christmas)
  • A look at the history of the song “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”
  • A good old hymn you might have never heard of: “Christmas Day Has Come” [tune available (scroll down) here]
  • Ben Stein (a Jew) on Christmas:

    I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are “” Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto…..I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.

  • Down with Santa Claus — an thoughtful critique of Saint Nick
  • An Eschatological Advent
  • Six Gifts from God at Christmas

    Here are six gifts from God, specially wrapped and delivered . . . for you! A sympathetic friend, a supreme and unchallenged Lord over all, wonderfully wise, always able to act on behalf of those who trust him, sensitive and caring and compassionate, the giver of all peace and comfort and consolation.

Jesus, The Devil and Suffering

~ fundyreformed ~ 3 Comments

Christians, like everyone else suffer pain and sorrow in this world. Many blame such suffering on the devil, from a praiseworthy desire not to blame God. Other Christians do blame God and doubt his provision and love for them. How could God let this happen to me? She was such a good person, it just doesn’t seem fair!

Worldly-wise secularists take a more intelligent position, they think. God isn’t there; or if He is, He isn’t concerned enough or able to interact in such a way to help prevent us from suffering. They grin and bear suffering, and encourage those friends and family who are suffering. And really, most Christians do this as well. But they won’t say God can’t intervene, rather they will credit God for helping them through the suffering.

With the recent tragedy of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, my pastor John Piper gave an explanation of the Reformed view of suffering. God controls all things and has a purpose in everything that happens. He wasn’t surprised by the bridge collapse, and He is at work helping the grieving and suffering, as well as working out many other hidden designs in and through this single tragic event. Most Christians generally agree, although they might hesitate to affirm that God plans and causes such tragedies to happen.

On the opposite spectrum, Greg Boyd, also a Minneapolis area pastor, spoke out against Piper’s view. Boyd, representing the open theist position, claimed that God was surprised by the event as well, and in no way planned or caused it to happen. As I said above, in some respects Boyd’s position is noble. He doesn’t want anyone to blame God for the evil suffering caused by the bridge collapse. But as Denny Burk has shown, in his response to Boyd’s post, Boyd’s position doesn’t stack up with Scripture. Most of evangelicalism would also agree that God certainly knew of the event before it happened (the traditional view of God’s omniscience). [For several Reformed responses to open theism click here.]

But even for those of us who affirm God’s exhaustive foreknowledge and omniscience, we still struggle with how God can let evil happen to Christians. Isn’t the devil to blame too?

I bring up all of this as background to an excellent new article by John Piper which is available online. He discussed the roles of Jesus and the Devil in suffering with his daughter, and shared his conversation with us. The verse in question is Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

I encourage you to check out the article and ponder this issue now, before suffering comes your way. “When Satan Hurts Christ’s People: Reflections on Why Christians Suffer Losses” by John Piper.

And if you would like, you can subscribe to these weekly devotional articles [feed here] by John Piper or sign up for a free email subscription.