08.30.07
Posted in Other Noteworthies at 10:08 am by ebenezer
I am not an advocate for Catholicism nor Mother Teresa. | But I did like what Dr. Mohler wrote on his blog site today concerning Jesus Christ as the object of our faith. Christ as the object of our faith never changes whether we have doubt, fears, or despair concerning our salvation in Him. Christ is our salvation, not our feelings! So, if you find yourself at times in the realms of doubt (great or small) look up - for there is the Savior!
Bruce
Mother Teresa’s “Crisis of Faith”
What are we to make of Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith? That is a question I have been repeatedly asked in recent days. This week’s TIME cover story by David van Biema caught the attention of millions around the world, and it raises some of the most important questions about the Christian faith.
In a new book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, previously undisclosed letters raise basic questions about her understanding of the Gospel. David van Biema’s article, “Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith,” brings many questions to light.
I have written a column on these questions at “On Faith,” the project of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine. Here is the main portion of my article:
The recent revelations of Mother Teresa’s spiritual struggle should remind all believing Christians that our faith is in Christ — not in our feelings.
The disclosure of previous secret letters from Mother Teresa indicates that she was deeply troubled by doubts and a sense of Christ’s absence. The fact is that many Christians struggle with doubt. Indeed, the most thoughtful believers are most likely of all to understand what is at stake, and thus to suffer pangs and seasons of doubt.
Doubt can be healthy. It can drive believers to a deeper knowledge of what we believe and a deeper embrace of the truth of the Gospel. It can deepen our trust in God and mature our faith. At the same time, doubt can be a form of sin . . . a refusal to trust God and his promises.
This can also be the root of depression, especially spiritual depression. I would not presume to read Mother Teresa’a heart or soul, but I can reflect on the questions raised by her experience.
The Christian Gospel is the good news that God saves sinners through the atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ — his cross and resurrection. Salvation comes to those who believe in Christ — it is by grace we are saved through faith.
But the faith that saves is not faith in faith, nor faith in our ability to maintain faith, but faith in Christ. Our confidence is in Christ, not in ourselves.
There is a sweet and genuine emotional aspect to the Christian faith, and God made us emotional and feeling creatures. But we cannot trust our feelings. Our faith is not anchored in our feelings, but in the facts of the Gospel.
As an evangelical Christian, I have to be concerned that part of Mother Teresa’s struggle was that she did not consider herself worthy of salvation. She was certainly not worthy of salvation. Nor am I. Nor is any sinner. The essence of the Gospel is that none is worthy of salvation. That is what makes salvation all about grace. As the Apostle Paul taught us, the wonder of God’s grace is that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.
Our confidence is in Christ, not in ourselves. We are weak; He is strong. We fluctuate; He is constant. We cannot trust our feelings nor our emotional state. We trust in Christ. Those who come to Christ by faith are not kept unto him by our faith, but by his faithfulness.
I possess no ability to read Mother Teresa’s heart, but I do sincerely hope that her faith was in Christ, and not in her own faithfulness.
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08.27.07
Posted in Other Noteworthies at 6:03 pm by ebenezer
John MacArthur
Paul and Christ both consistently made the case that it is every Christian’s duty to study and interpret Scripture rightly (2 Timothy 2:15). “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 16; Mark 4:9). … Protestant Christianity has always affirmed the perspicuity of Scripture. That means we believe God has spoken distinctly in His Word. Not everything in the Bible is equally clear, of course (2 Peter 3:16). But God’s Word is plain enough for the average reader to know and understand everything necessary for a saving knowledge of Christ. Scripture is also sufficently clear to enable us to obey the Great Commission, which expressly requires us to teach others “all things” that Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).
[The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception - p. 157]
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08.24.07
Posted in Other Noteworthies at 11:14 pm by ebenezer
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August 24, 2007 - http://AlbertMohler.com
This week’s question at On Faith - [Newsweek and The Washington Post] - has to do with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s vote to encourage its bishops not to enforce the doctrines and standards of the church — at least when it comes to the matter of homosexual clergy.
Churches and denominations that invite or allow their standards to be openly violated institutionalize hypocrisy. This usually indicates that the church lacks both the courage to change the standards and the conviction to enforce them.The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [ELCA] has voted to encourage its bishops not to take punitive action against ministers who violate the denomination’s ban on active homosexuals in the ministry. Last year, the Presbyterian Church USA [PCUSA] took a similar action, allowing local jurisdictions (presbyteries) to ordain candidates for ministry who violate a similar policy. Both cases represent tragic failures of leadership. Both churches failed to maintain their own standards and lacked the courage or consensus to change them.All this is further evidence of why the liberal denominations are in such a decline in terms of membership and influence. These churches are divided between liberals who push constantly for doctrinal changes and conservatives who are determined to keep standards they believe to be mandated by the Bible. The conservatives are losing.The liberals are pushing for the full normalization of homosexuality. This runs right into conflict with biblical prohibitions and clashes with the standards of these churches. Liberals in these two denominations dominate the landscape in the seminaries and church bureaucracies, but they have not yet been able to muster adequate support to change the policies. Conservatives are losing a battle akin to theological trench warfare. The big battles are lost an inch at a time.Bishops, presbyteries, and congregations are charged to maintain the doctrines and standards of the church. When a bishop or presbytery or congregation fails in this task the whole church suffers. When this failure is made a matter of policy, the entire church embraces hypocrisy. When bishops are encouraged to allow doctrines and standards to be violated, they are encouraged to violate the integrity of their office. The same holds true for presbyteries or congregations, depending on the form of church government. This process does not start with issues of sexuality, of course. Long before these churches faced controversies over sexuality, they had already allowed the doctrinal foundations of their churches to be eroded and compromised.In other words, a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on doctrine preceded a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on matters of sexuality.The only means of recovery is repentance and an affirmation of biblical authority. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” just doesn’t work in church. |
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08.20.07
Posted in Quotes - Some Famous | Some Not So Famous at 11:51 am by ebenezer
Psalm 111:9
… Holy and awesome is His name!
John MacArthur
Knowing that God is immutable, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient is significant, but those attributes give limited insight into what God expects of us. What beyond His unchanging, all-powerful, infinetly knowing presence compels us to worship? It is basically this: God is holy.
[Truth Matters - p. 12]
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08.16.07
Posted in Bruce at 9:58 pm by ebenezer
Have you seen them? Blogs called “Mercedes Magazine” - ”Free Christmas ringstones” - “Kids spiderman costumes” - etc., etc., etc. Now who wants to just read about a Mercedes, I would much rather drive one. I cannot imagine anyone holding Christmas ringstones hostage, surely they will be set free. Now everytime I have seen an ad concerning Spiderman, he was an adult. Do you think that this may be the start of a new series? Much like that of Superman - Come see Superman when he was just a boy! Foolishness you say? Well yes it is. That is what I think of all the so-called-new-blog-titles which are popping up regularly under the Recently Updated Blog postings. These blogs seem to have no real blogging purpose. Yes they do have a purpose, but it is not anything remotely to do with blogging one’s opinion or thought. Instead their purpose - seemingly is to promote some product or idea. Day after day their titles show up in numerous fashion pushing to the bottom most if not all of the bloggers who actually are trying to make a statement or a point. I thought this is what blogging is suppose to be about! Or am I wrong? Yet I am an old-fella - maybe I am just out of step with what is going on in the modern blogging society!
I like reading the blogs (such as: CarpeBanana, Femina, Orthodox Deviation, The Reformed Christian Muse, Water From A Rock, etc.) which are being posted upon the Recently Updated Blog section. I hope the other bloggers, who truly are making their statements or thoughts known, enjoy reading my comments as well. They may not always agree with what I say as it is with me concerning their thoughts at times - but at least they are stating intelligent opinions concerning their chosen subject with substance. But this multitude of the Recently Updated Blog Confusion which is propagating as such an alarming rate are not found to be of any substance - instead they are only found to be fillers of the blogger’s space. If left to continue unabated, as they are, then the bloggers who truly wish to blog will be out numbered and never be seen or heard from again to be read. 
Well at least that is my opinion concerning the rash of Recently Updated Blog Confusion which are not blogs.
Bruce
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08.14.07
Posted in Bruce at 11:05 pm by ebenezer
On Wednesday night at church we have been going through the book of Galatians - we are currently about half-way through the book. One of the major themes in this book is the difference between salvation through faith in Christ and salvation by works (faith + keeping the law). Salvation through faith is by God’s grace - not our own (Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation by works is by man’s way - not God’s (Prov 14:12). So why is it that a lot of individuals who claim the name Christian have somehow gotten it into their minds that they are smarter than God concerning their salvation? That they are right? Perhaps it is because they have followed the crowd down the broad path that leads to destruction. I believe that Jesus Christ is my salvation. I believe that He is the author and perfecter of my faith. I walked for many years thinking that I had done the right thing by my efforts until one day the Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was trusting something (what I had done) other than Jesus Christ (what He had done) as my savior. Eternity is a long-time. Make Sure You Are Right. Trust Christ and His finished work at Calvary for your salvation.
Bruce
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08.12.07
Posted in Bruce at 3:41 pm by ebenezer
My concern today is that too many individuals are coming to a church service to worship God who do not know him. Now it is good that one would come to the house of the Lord and listen to the prayers, singing, fellowship, reading of Scripture, and the preaching of God’s Word. Please do not mistake what I am saying. I believe that every individual - whether lost or saved should be sitting under the sound of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For as you know this is the only hope that mankind has - w/o Chirst as their savior Adam’s children will spend eternity in the torment and anquish of Hell.
What concerns me - is that way too many are coming to church to worship, but they do not know who it is that they are worshipping. So many of our church members today are no different than the world around them. They act pious at times when it suits their need. However, question their motive for worship and all piety vanishes faster than a vapor of steam. Peter and Paul both admonished believers to make their calling and election sure. It should be an awful thought to each and every Christian that there is coming a day when Jesus will say to many - ”Depart from me you workers of lawlessness!” What seems more hideous at least at this time is that some of these many are worshipping with us every week and thus my concern - we don’t seem to care! May God put a burden on our hearts to share the goodnews of his Son to all.
Bruce
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08.03.07
Posted in Other Noteworthies at 10:11 am by ebenezer
The collapsing of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis is a tragic event for the families of those who died and who have been injured, as well as this nation as she mourns for this human tragedy. Our prayers go out to them seeking that God will be pleased to give them the comfort that they all need. May He grant them mercy and kindness through His Son, the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Bruce
Dr. Mohler’s comments …
The scenes from Minneapolis are frightening, tragic, and sobering. In this age of technological marvels and engineering achievements we expect buildings to stay on the ground, airplanes to stay in the air, and bridges to stay in place. The sudden and catastrophic collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis — just as rush hour was coming to a close — challenges some of our most comforting assumptions.We drive across bridges, enter tall skyscrapers, board commercial aircraft, and perform any number of daily tasks as if there was no danger involved in the equation. We have come to trust architects and engineers to do their jobs and we place a great deal of confidence in inspectors, standards, and testing. Those driving across that bridge on Wednesday evening had every reason to give the bridge itself little thought . . . until it fell.The extent of the human tragedy is not yet fully known. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting 9 persons dead, 60 injured, and 20 missing at present. Given the circumstances, the twenty missing persons are unlikely to be alive. Approximately fifty cars went down with the bridge, along with construction workers working on the structure.Christians will be praying for the citizens of the Twin Cities, and especially for those with loved ones directly involved in this tragedy. We should pray for the churches of Minneapolis and pray that God will use faithful churches to minister grace and truth amidst this tragedy and turmoil. The people who drove onto that bridge had no advance warning of its collapse. They made no conscious decision to embrace danger or to put their lives on the line. Experience and reason have trained us all to trust what looks solid and stable — and that bridge looked solid and stable up until it fell.This is a metaphor for our lives and spiritual peril, as Jonathan Edwards so clearly understood. In his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Edwards made this point with clarity and power:It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. The ways and means of persons suddenly passing out of this world are indeed “innumerable and inconceivable,” and the tragedy in
Minneapolis is yet another reminder of this sobering truth.As Edwards reminded his hearers:And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men’s hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles’ days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God’s Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.
“UPDATE: Dr. John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, wrote this meditation just hours after the bridge collapse. As he explains, the text for their family devotion that night was Luke 13:1-9. Dr. Piper writes:All of us have sinned against God, not just against man. This is an outrage ten thousand times worse than the collapse of the 35W bridge. That any human is breathing at this minute on this planet is sheer mercy from God. God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on those who do not treasure him above all else. He causes the heart to beat and the lungs to work for millions of people who deserve his wrath. This is a view of reality that desperately needs to be taught in our churches, so that we are prepared for the calamities of the world. The meaning of the collapse of this bridge is that John Piper is a sinner and should repent or forfeit his life forever. That means I should turn from the silly preoccupations of my life and focus my mind’s attention and my heart’s affection on God and embrace Jesus Christ as my only hope for the forgiveness of my sins and for the hope of eternal life. That is God’s message in the collapse of this bridge. That is his most merciful message: there is still time to turn from sin and unbelief and destruction for those of us who live. If we could see the eternal calamity from which he is offering escape we would hear this as the most precious message in the world.
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08.02.07
Posted in Cindy at 9:33 am by ebenezer
In this post-modern era where there is little or no understanding of absolutes, how do we teach the sovereignty of God? The bible declares this truth from cover to cover and yet those who claim to believe the bible and say that God is sovereign still don’t appear to grasp what this means. Even famous bible teachers such as Beth Moore seem to think that God was somehow surprised by Adam’s sin in the garden. The Word does tell us that even nature teaches us about God. In that context, look at nature to determine if this God is sovereign.
When I observe the natural world, I know that it was certainly not a random act for it to work with such precision, from the vastness of the universe to the minutiae of DNA. Think about the fact that He created us in His image (not referring to eyes, nose, arms, and legs). We can learn many things about God by thinking about ourselves.
I have some limited creative abilities. If I were God, lived outside of time, and had unlimited creative abilities, how would I do it? The entire plan would be in my mind from start to finish. (The earth was without form, and void…And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Gen. 1:2) Another translation uses the word “brooding” instead of “hovering.” God was brooding? Was He planning? I think He worked out every detail from start to finish. Our problem with this concept comes about as a result of our having to deal with our own pitifully finite minds. I can’t understand the mind of God. I know that we are responsible before Him, but I also know that He didn’t just spin this ball of existence into motion, sit back to see what happens, and then scramble around for solutions.
The other religions of the world put God into this type of category where He is made in our image rather than we in His. With this philosophy, God gets stressed, He gets worried, and He gets involved in a struggle of good against evil. People struggle with this good vs. evil dichotomy, God doesn’t. He truly is the Alpha and Omega. His Word is final! Nothing is outside His control. Just because we don’t understand it or have neat explanations for it doesn’t nullify the fact. That is yet one more reason why “The just shall live by faith.”
The Fiery Side-kick
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Posted in Bruce at 9:15 am by ebenezer
In the July (07) issue of Christianity Today (p. 17) from Q+A with NC Congressman Heath Shuler (D) about whether a born-again Christian should care about politics he responded concerning the aspect of being born-again as following: “I wasn’t raised as some-born-again Christian. I grew up in a Baptist church, and it was more or less, ‘You’re a Christian.’”
This statement caught my attention - Not that I question Rep. Shuler’s commitment to Christ or his veracity in what he stands for on any issue whether it is politics or religion. However, I have been a Baptist most of my life, well at least all of my so-called “religious life.” Over this span I have been a Southern Baptist, an American Baptist, a Landmark Baptist, an Independent Baptist, and a Sovereign Grace Baptist. Yet when viewed over all - I too just prefer to be called a “Baptist” - for according to personal preference that is what I am. Yet no matter what type of “Baptist Hat” I have worn or choose to wear - all of them have been under the fact that I have been a “born-again” Christian, not just simply a Christian! You may look like a Christian, act like a Christian, think like a Christian, and even do good works like a Christian - but if you are not born-again - you ain’t a Christian! “You must be born-again” (Jn 3:1-8) “to a living hope” (1 Pt 1:3).
Bruce
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