Faith & Life

Just some random links I found interesting.

Politics

Study: Liberals More Likely To Block Online Friends Over Political Disagreements

"People with liberal views are almost twice as likely as conservatives to unfriend someone on social media over political disagreements, according to a new Pew Research survey."

"In every category, people who identified as liberal were more likely to shun their connections over political disagreements…."

Religion

After decades at the pulpit here, the family of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller has cut its ties with the Crystal Cathedral, the Orange County megachurch he founded. 

Sports

Who Can Stop the SEC?

"All in all, the only league that could threaten the SEC this season is the Pac-12, led by the Ducks and Trojans. When the dust settles in Miami, Florida, however, expect an SEC team to be holding up the league's 7th straight Coaches' Trophy."

The Gospel Coalition had three pastors present their views on Baptism as it relates to becoming a church member. The preface the three part series this way:

How do baptism and church membership relate? What are the biblical bounds? Baptists debate, "Must one be baptized as a believer in order to join a local church?" Meanwhile, Presbyterians and other paedobaptists consider, "Should one who'd refuse to let his children be baptized be permitted to join?"

See what you think. Read more at each link.

Baptism and Church Membership: Sometimes Obedience Results in Painful Seperations by James Hamilton. 

As a Baptist church, we believe that baptism is a matter of obedience. Jesus instructed his followers to baptize disciples (Matt 28:19), so we baptize those who have become disciples because we want to obey Jesus. We also believe that only believers are united to the body of Christ by faith (cf. Gal 3:26-28), so only believers should be welcomed as members into the visible expression of the body of Christ, the local church. If someone is not repenting of all known sin, trusting Christ for salvation, and submitting to all his commands and teaching, we don't welcome him or her into church membership. Since we view baptism as a matter of obedience, we understand unbaptized people to be disobedient on this point.

Membership Requires Affirmation of Infant Baptism: A Paedobaptist Response by Michael Horton.

All of this entails, of course, that those who wish to become members must at least be willing and ready to present unbaptized children for baptism. Any who refuse to do so are in violation of what we are convinced is the express command of our Lord. Church discipline always begins with gentle admonition and instruction, usually in private, leading hopefully to repentance. However, it would be unwise to admit into full communion believers who are already in principle unwilling to change their mind on the matter.

A Happy Baptist, Happy to Welcome Others: Strengthening Church Membership Without Watering Down Immersion by David Mathis.

I'm a very happy baptist---though you don't need to capitalize the baptist for me. But especially in our increasingly post-Christian milieu, it is becoming more and more clear that there are so many other theological issues more central and important than the mode and timing of baptism. I am happy to let the vestiges of Christendom go, and see formal church membership as significant enough to put up with some mistaken views of baptism (provided that the leadership is securely believer baptist), so as not to exclude from local church membership converted brothers and sisters in Jesus who are plainly members of the universal church.

Baptist pastor Walter Chantry has a great little essay on The Myth of the Free Will. He outlines the subject as:

I. The Myth of Circumstantial Freedom

II. The Myth of Ethical Freedom

II. The Myth of Spiritual Freedom

I like this section of point II especially, though it is all good.

But freedom of the will is cited as an important factor in making MORAL decisions. Man's will is said to be free to choose between good and evil. But again we must ask, from what is it free? And what is man's  will free to choose? 

The will of man is his power to choose between alternatives. Your will does decide your actions from a number of options. You have the faculty to direct your own thoughts, words, and deeds. Your decisions are not formed by an outside force, but from within yourself. No man is compelled to act contrary to his will, nor forced to say what he does not wish. Your will guides your actions. 

Yet this does not mean that the power to decide is free from all influence. You make choices based on your understanding, your feelings, your likes and dislikes, and your appetites. In other words, your will is not free from yourself! 

Your choices are determined by your own basic character. The will is not independent of your nature, but the slave of it. Your choices do not shape your character, but your character guides your choices. The will is quite partial to what you know, feel, love, and desire. You always choose on the basis of your disposition, according to the condition of your heart. 

It is just for this reason that your will is NOT free to do good. Your will is the servant of your heart, and  your heart is evil. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that EVERY imagination of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY“ (Gen 6:5). “There is NONE that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom 3:12). No power forces man to sin contrary to his will, but the descendants of Adam are so evil that they always choose the evil. 

Your decisions are molded by your understanding, and the Bible says of all men, “And their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom 1:21). Man can only be righteous when he desires to have fellowship with God, but, “There is NONE that seeketh after God” (Rom 3:11). Your appetites crave sin, and thus you cannot choose God. To choose good is contrary to human nature. If you chose to obey God, it would be the result of external compulsion. But you are free to choose, and hence your choice is enslaved to your own evil nature.

Read more here.

Should a pastor preach on the five points of Calvinsm in the normal course of his preaching schedule? Maybe, maybe not.

Geoff Thomas, pastor for many years at Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, England, began a series in 2008 on the five points of Calvinism. In his 43rd year of pastoring!

In his introduction on the first sermon he wrote,

Dr. Lloyd-Jones was hesitant about preaching on Sundays such doctrines as the five points of Calvinism. He was a Calvinistic Methodist and unashamed of that, but his approach was to permeate all his sermons with these truths and so to Calvinize people by showing them the greatness of our Sovereign Lord and his free redemption.  

However, when Dr. Lloyd-Jones took part in conferences and discussions he used theological and Calvinistic terms, but rarely did he do so when he preached on Sundays. People learning about Christianity must start in the infants’ school of trust in Jesus Christ before getting to the grammar school of election and the design of the atonement. 

I appreciate that wise response and have tended to take the same approach myself, but I also think times come when these truths, which are so preachable, need to be declared clearly. I do believe all five points and I want every Christian to believe them because they are the teaching of the Bible. They are historic Christianity. 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was different from Dr. Lloyd-Jones as he asked his invited preachers to speak on the ‘Five Points’ at the grand opening of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, one point each evening for a week. London needed to hear the ‘Five Points” as it does today. 

No one would encourage a young preacher to begin his ministry with sermons on the ‘Five Points” but in one’s forty-third year one may be excused in preaching such a brief series as this for they are the neglected truths of Christianity, misunderstood, opposed and distorted by many preachers, and yet indispensable for the full health of the faith, a powerful means of evangelism and frequently used to bring revival to dying churches.

Wise words from a very seasoned pastor. He's been at his present church for 47 years. You may access his series and much more here.

Is this really true? I tend to think so, especially certain ages.

MALE PROCEDURE: 
1. Drive up to the cash machine.. 
2. Put down your car window. 
3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN. 
4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw. 
5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt. 
6. Put window up. 
7. Drive off. 

******************************* 

FEMALE PROCEDURE: 
What is really funny is that most of this part is the truth.!!!! 
1. Drive up to cash machine. 
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine. 
3. Set parking brake, put the window down. 
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card. 
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up. 
6. Attempt to insert card into machine. 
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car. 
8. Insert card. 
9. Re-insert card the right way. 
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page. 
11. Enter PIN. 
12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN. 
13. Enter amount of cash required.. 
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror. 
15. Retrieve cash and receipt. 
16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside. 
17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of checkbook. 
18. Re-check makeup. 
19. Drive forward 2 feet. 
20. Reverse back to cash machine. 
21. Retrieve card. 
22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided! 
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you. 
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off. 
25. Redial person on cell phone. 
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles. 
27. Release Parking Brake.

The recent firestorm about the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations which would require religious institutions to pay for and provide contraception to their employees is not even close to over...at least it shouldn't be. President Obama, feeling the backlash from religious leaders, revised the regulations hoping to appease Catholic voters. Catholic and Protestant (here and here) said "no way!"

Read the rest of this post »

As we grow in grace, we are sure to grow in
charity, sympathy, and love. We shall, as we
ripen in grace, have greater sweetness towards
our fellow Christians. Bitter spirited Christians
may know a great deal, but they are immature.

Those who are quick to censure may be
very acute in judgment, but they are as
yet very immature in heart.

He who grows in grace remembers that he is
but dust, and he therefore does not expect his
fellow Christians to be anything more.

He overlooks ten thousand of their faults,
because he knows his God overlooks twenty
thousand in his own case. He does not expect
perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he
is not disappointed when he does not find it.

When our virtues become more mature, we shall
not be more tolerant of evil; but we shall be more
tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people
of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.

Charles Spurgeon. Ripe Fruit, sermon #945 on Micah 7:1

From Grace Gems

Coming to Christ is the very first effect of regeneration. No sooner is the soul quickened than it at once discovers its lost estate, is horrified thereat, looks out for a refuge, and believing Christ to be a suitable one, flies to him and reposes in him. 

Charles Spurgeon, Sermon #182 delivered on March 7, 1858.

John Piper wrote about the effects Calvinism has had on him personally. I resonate with his story, though I'm often not a great example of these points. I'll show the 10 bullet points from Piper after the five points of Calvinism.

Calvinism:

• Total Depravity
• Unconditional Election
• Limited Atonement
• Irresistable Grace
• Perseverance of the Saints

Read more detail here.

Now Piper's "Ten Effects of Believing in the Five Points of Calvinism."

1. These truths make me stand in awe of God and lead me into the depth of true God-centered worship.

2. These truths help protect me from trifling with divine things.

3. These truths make me marvel at my own salvation.

4. These truths make me alert to man-centered substitutes that pose as good news.

5. These truths make me groan over the indescribable disease of our secular, God-belittling culture.

6. These truths make me confident that the work which God planned and began, he will finish – both globally and personally.

7. These truths make me see everything in the light of God's sovereign purposes – that from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever and ever.

8. These truths make me hopeful that God has the will, the right, and the power to answer prayer that people be changed.

9. These truths reminds me that evangelism is absolutely essential for people to come to Christ and be saved, and that there is great hope for success in leading people to faith, but that conversion is not finally dependent on me or limited by the hardness of the unbeliever.

10. These truths make me sure that God will triumph in the end.

Read Piper's fuller treatment of this here.

From Spurgeon:

When a man is converted to God, it is done in a moment.

Regeneration is an instantaneous work.

Conversion to God, the fruit of regeneration, occupies all
our life, but regeneration itself is effected in an instant.

A man hates God-- the Holy Spirit makes him love God.

A man is opposed to Christ, he hates his gospel, does not
understand it and will not receive it-- the Holy Spirit comes,
puts light into his darkened understanding, takes the chain
from his bondaged will, gives liberty to his conscience, gives
life to his dead soul, so that the voice of conscience is heard,
and the man becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus.

And all this is done, mark you, by the instantaneous
supernatural influence of God the Holy Spirit working
as he wills among the sons of men.