Think Wink.

…every morning I listen to The Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd with Notes and Reflections by Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was given Brainerd’s diary and published it. Brainerd was a Puritan missionary to the Native Americans in New Jersey. This morning I was deeply moved and impressed AGAIN by Brainerd and his mission in New Jersey. Read his journal entry from May 19,

May 19. Visited and preached to my people from Acts xx. 18, 19 [Acts 20:18-19]. “And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day,” &c. and endeavoured to rectify their notions about religious affections; showing them, on the one hand, the desirableness of religious affection, tenderness, and fervent engagement in the worship and service of God, when such affection flows from a true spiritual discovery of divine glories, from a justly affecting sense of the transcendent excellency and perfections of the blessed God, a view of the glory and loveliness of the great Redeemer: and that such views of divine things will naturally excite us to “serve the Lord with many tears,” with much affection and fervency, and yet” with all humility of mind:” And, on the other hand, observing the sinfulness of seeking after high affections immediately, and for their own sakes, that is, of making them the object of our eye and heart, is nextly and principally set upon, when the glory of God ought to be so. Showed them that if the heart be directly and chiefly fixed on God, and the soul engaged to glorify him, some degree of religious affection will be the effect and attendant of it. But to seek after affection directly and chiefly, to have the heart principally set upon that, is to place it in the room of God and his glory. If it be sought, that others may take notice and admire us for our spirituality and forwardness in religion, it is then abominable pride: if for the sake of feeling the pleasure of being affected, it is then idolatry and self-gratification. Laboured also to expose the disagreeableness of those affections that are sometimes wrought up in persons by the power of fancy and their own attempts for that purpose, while I still endeavoured to recommend to them that religious affection, fervency, and devotion which ought to attend all our religious exercises, and without which religion will be but an empty name and lifeless carcass.

I thank you, O Lord, for this young man the preservation of his diary. You have truly blessed me through Brainerd.

Free Book for November

An Illustration of Faith In My Life

The Jesus Christ Gospel According to Mark pt 1

So in the Marvel Civil War, I sided with Iron-Man and the pro-registration side. First of all, I love Tony Stark/Iron-Man. He is awesome, I am really stoked about the new movie! If you read one issue of Civil War: Iron-Man, he took on Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and a couple of other lug-heads by himself and most definitely won, hands down, no doubts about it. He also didn’t start the fight that killed Goliath, that was Steve Rogers. Second of all, Spider-Man started out pro-registration and then turned stupid and sided with the anti-registration group.

I was very saddened when Steve Rogers did not side with Iron-Man on this issue. I mean, it made Iron-Man some evil person that he simply isn’t. Second, it nearly got him killed, as well as Iron-Man in the climactic battle in Civil War #7. When he died, I was very sad because Steve Rogers was Captain America. He was the Superman of Marvel in that he was the hero you aspired to be. He made you rise up to his level of excellence, unlike the other heroes of the Marvel universe (e.g. Spider-Man or Wolverine).

Then when they announced that he was back when I was at Comic Con Chicago in August my jaw hit the floor. However it has since been stated that Steve Rogers was not back, Captain America. When January comes, I have to get Captain America #34 to see who it is. But They also announced that comic great, Alex Ross, was doing the artwork for a series involving Captain America. So when they revealed the new Captain America costume, he did a picture of Cap’ as only Alex Ross could. His art is so beautiful, and not just by comic book standards either. Here is Alex Ross’ portrait of the new Captain America costume

He’s Back!

Newspaper Eschatology

Transformers…Dang!

Luke 15 is one of the most beautiful chapters of all of the Bible. It is one long parable of three stories (note that in Luke 15:3 Luke says, “So he told them this parable;” in Luke 15:8 when the story of the lost coin begins there is no indication that the parable of 15:3 has stopped; in Luke 15:11 there is no indication that the parable stopped but rather Jesus continues on with the parable in the story of the Prodigal Son) that Jesus tells his audience of grumbling Pharisees (Luke 15:2, they said, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”) when sinners and tax collectors came to him and he did not cast them away (Luke 15:1). Over recent days I have grown to appreciate some of what this story says about the lost and how Christ seeks and saves them (cf. Luke 19:10). I just want to share some of these thoughts.

First I want to show what all three have in common about lostness. First we must note that in all three stories that something is lost. The shepherd lost his sheep (Luke 15:4), the woman lost her coin (Luke 15:8), and the father lost his son (Luke 15:12-13). The overwhelming theme of this parable is lostness and finding that which is lost. It is even more obvious that Jesus is referring to that which was lost in the parable to the sinners and tax collectors. But then there is the theme of finding that which was lost found in Luke 15:5, 9, 24.

Thirdly there is the theme of joy. But this is unique. We see the joy of the shepherd (Luke 15:5), the woman (Luke 15:9), and the father (Luke 15:20, 22-24). But notice something about this joy. It is shared. In Luke 15:6 we read, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Again in Luke 15:9 we read, “And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’” Notice that the statement by the woman and shepherd are nearly identical (Greek Luke 15:6, συγχάρητέ μοι ὅτι εὗρον τὸ πρόβατόν μου τὸ ἀπολωλός; Greek Luke 15:9, συγχάρητέ μοι ὅτι εὗρον τὴν δραχμὴν ἣν ἀπώλεσα). In Luke 15:22-24 we read, “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” In Luke 15:7 and 10 the joy is interpreted to be divine joy over the sinner coming to repentance. The Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is said to be rejoicing here and all of heaven participate in this divine joy.

But there is a stark contrast to Luke 15:3-10 and Luke 15:11-32. That is in Luke 15:3-10 the shepherd goes after the sheep and the woman goes after the coin. There is a diligent search by the owner of that which is lost to find what he or she has lost. The shepherd goes through the hills and the woman turns on the light and grabs a palm branch to sweep the floor and hopefully kick up the coin and so find it. However in Luke 15:11-32 the father does not go searching diligently after the son. He allows the son to realize his sin and to come back to him as he waits with open arms.

In the stories of the lost sheep and coin, the sinner is pictured as a sheep and a coin. These do not return to the owner because either the sheep is too stupid to realize that it is lost and how to get back, or the coin is physically incapable of moving back to its owner. In these stories the lost objects are animals and coins and so they are worthless objects compared to that which is lost in Luke 15:11-32, a person. The sinner is compared to a loved son. Here the son is not coerced into returning with the father. He by his own will decides and determines to go back to his father. Jesus treats this disobedient son with dignity and respects his will, unlike the animal and coin that must be made to return.

The question is how do I reconcile these two ideas together? Does the Father go after stupid sheep and a piece of metal or does the lost and rebellious sinner come to his/her senses and return to his/her Father? As a Calvinist, I tend to think more in the categories of the lost sheep and coin, where as my Arminian counterparts think in the category of the Prodigal Son.

So as I wrestled with these two views of lostness, I noticed something about the stories. The lost sheep and coin are told from the view of the one who lost something whereas the story of the lost son was told from the view of that which was lost. In other words we see the story of being lost in Luke 15:3-10 through the eyes of the shepherd and woman. We see the story of being lost in Luke 15:11-32 through the eyes of the lost sons. But I also noticed that it was the love of the son’s father that moved him to come back to the father. He was irresistibly drawn back to his father because of the love of the father. When a young man proposes to a girl, she voluntarily and freely says yes. But she is irresistibly compelled to say yes to that man because of the love of that man.

What this tells me is that God most definitely goes and has to bring us to himself. I am incapable of coming to Christ, he must come to me. But from my own point of view, I come to my senses and return to Christ. But while I come of my own will, the decision was not because I looked at the facts and neutrally decided that Christ is better than hell. No the love of Christ, the grace of Christ, the mercy of Christ was impossible to resist. It is too good, to delightful, to glorious to through up a brick wall to.

Thus when Christ comes to me, a lost sinner, he reveals his glory, his love and mercy and grace, to me. I behold that perfect glory, that excellence and he becomes irresistibly attractive to my soul. I finally see that he loves me and died for me on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin and purchased the right to give me his right standing before God and made me clean. I come to him of my own volition and free will. Christ diligently seeks after me and reveals himself to me as one who cannot be resisted and as one who is all-satisfying. Then, seeing this sole soul-satisfaction, I come to him and embrace him as my hearts delight and my lord and my savior. This is how Christ seeks and saves that which is lost!

Luke 10:21-22 and Joy

An Exegetical Insight

Spurgeon and Arminian Prayer

Today I was finishing up my meditation upon Hebrews 1-2 and the writer’s argument as to why we must pay much closer attention to the message of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation” (Hebrews 2:1-3). All of Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2:5-18 is an argument for why we must “pay much closer attention to what we have heard” and to not “neglect such a great salvation.” The following quote is how I summed up the two chapters.

Therefore the Glory of Jesus is so bright and radiant and splendorous! He is God in every sense of the word. He is the very effulgence of God’s glory and the full expression of his nature and being and essence. But Jesus is, as the image of God, the Son of God. Thus he is the God-Son who is more glorious than all of the angles for they have never been called Son. And he is greater than all of the angels for as he is God’s Son, he is Yahweh himself. And this God-Son became flesh and blood so that he could suffer the weaknesses of his children, his brothers and sisters, the descendants of Abraham. And so this incarnated Jesus died on the cross and from the weakness of a human the God-Son was able to secure mercy for us and God’s faithfulness to us as he pleaded our case before the holy and almighty God. And so we must heed the message of salvation that he brought with him for God punished those who failed to heed the message of the angels who brough the Law. The question that Hebrews 1-2 begs us to ask is if Jesus, the incarnate God-Son, is more glorious than the angels as he is the very glory of God himself, then will God punish those who fail to heed his message? The answer that the author of Hebrews puts across the words of his letter is a most definite YES! God will not allow his very glory, which Jesus embodies and radiates, to be belittled and drug through the mud. He will not allow his honor to be stolen and trampled underfoot and violated. He will not let himself be made so little of by not heeding his message of salvation. He will vindicate his glory, his honor, that his Son embodies! Therefore we would be wise to heed the call of faith that Jesus Christ commands. Jesus is merciful and faithful to his brothers and sisters. The question is, that we must ask ourselves, are we one of Jesus’ brothers or sisters? Are we one of his children? Are we one of those whom Jesus tasted death for so that he might bring us to glory? If we believe unto Jesus, delight in him as our sole soul-satisfying possession, then we can know that we are one whom the author of Hebrews says of Jesus, “he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters” (2:11).

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 1

Apostasy

On my way to work…

Just watch this clip and say you don’t agree with me

BCS Rankings

X-Men and Wicked

The New Dark Knight Trailer

Okay, so I know that it isn’t even Reformation Day (aka Halloween but Martin Luther nailing the 95 at Wittenburg has done more to change the world than a holiday about dressing up in costumes to scare away demons, imho) but I was checking out what I would like to have for Christmas. One of the areas I am planning on increasing my class load in is the original languages of Scripture: Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew. So I was just checking out Christian Book Distributors for what I could find and wow.
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The Innkeeper

This Sux

Ecclesiastes and the Election

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger is, I believe, concluding a series of weekly lectures on the doctrine of antichrist. So far he has given four lectures: Biblical Doctrine of Antichrist; Man of Lawlessness: Nero? The Pope? Someone Yet to Come?; The Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet; Problem for Preterists.

The lectures are really good if you want to hear the arguments for reformed amillennialism and his critique of preterism and dispensationalism (also post-mil and pre-mil as well). So far I think his weakest point is his critique of preterism’s view of the Whore of Babylon as Jerusalem. Do check these out and the lectures to come.

Israel, John Hagee, and Eschatology

Newspaper Eschatology

Eschatology and Quizfarm.com

My three favorite men of the Confederate Army. Oh yeah

He’s Coming…

The New Captain America

Stomaching Hard Truths

What Force User Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Darth Sidious Darth Sidious: The Puppet Master. Darth Maul 96% Darth Sidious 96% Count Dooku 83% Anakin Skywalker 75% Darth Vader 67% Luke Skywalker 67% Mace Windu 63% Qui-Gon Jinn 54% Master Yoda 50% Obi-Wan Kenobi 46% Random Jedi 17%

Last time it was Count Dooku with Sidious and Maul in second and third. Now Sidious and Maul moved up and Tyrannus dropped down to third. But hey, I’m proud to be sooooo dang evil.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Force Unleashed!

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno

What halo / halo 2 character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Master Chief What a hero, you’re cool, calm, strong, regenerate health and love nothing more than dual wielding smg’s or a lovely battle rifle in your hands! Master Chief 100% Hunter 90% Elite 80% Sergeant Johnson 80% Tartarus 70% Brute 60% The Arbiter 60% Jackal 40% 343 guilty Spark 40% Cortana 10% Grunt 10%

So I don’t think being Master Chief should really count. I think technically I should be labeled a hunter and then an Elite and Sgt. Johnson third. But hey, who am I to complain about this quiz!

If I dated a superhero/comic book character…

My Star Trek TNG Character

The Righteousness of God pt. 1