Hope for Holland?

We might be seeing the first light of a post-secular dawn in Western Europe. See this story on “Holland’s Post-Secular Future” from the Weekly Standard.

What Will You Do When the Bulls Run?

Biblical illiteracy is rampaging through our culture like a bull through the streets of Pamplona. We won’t put a stop to it by fleeing, but by facing the beast and, though it trample us, standing our ground.

Maybe that’s a little extreme, since reading the Bible won’t necessarily be physically dangerous for you, but it is not desperate enough. The great challenge of our day is for Christians to be truly heroic, and true heroes live in reality. Part of being a hero is recognizing what is most important, and another part is acting in a manner that corresponds with that recognizing. We Christians must recognize that there are few things more important for us than reading and knowing the Bible, and we need to act heroically and read it! By reading the Bible, we can save the West. Think that’s an overstatement?

Our spiritual lives are sustained by the Word of God. The health of our churches is sustained by the spiritual life of its members. The future of Western Culture depends on the health of our churches.

Therefore, the future of Western Culture is directly linked to biblical literacy among Christians. Biblical literacy is directly linked to whether Christians stand and face the bull and read the Bible.

Can you put a stop to your hectic life long enough to change the world by reading the Bible every day this year?

There are handy tools available, such as the HCSB One Year Reading Bible:

Whatever fears you may have about doing it. Whatever reasons there may be for not doing it. However likely it may seem that the romping bull will indeed tread you under foot, or rather, hoof. I can promise you that it will be much, much worse if you do not stop running, face the beast, and read the Bible.

Be a hero. Save the west. Change the world. Read the Bible.

Two Sermons

My sermon on 1 Samuel 24 is here: David Mercies Saul.

And my  sermon on 1 Samuel 25, hopefully better sound quality, is here: David, the Fool, and Abigail.

Great Christian Literature: P. D. James’s “The Children of Men”

Here is a book in which the birth of a male child signals hope for the whole world. The child is hunted by an evil ruler (remember Herod?), fathered by a man named Luke, Christened by a man named Theo (the Gospel of Luke is addressed to Theophilis), and born of a woman with a deformed hand. Hope comes through an unexpected, rejected mother. Soon after the child’s birth, rulers visit in wonder, almost reverent worship (not three magi from the east, but close).  The birth of the helpless child brings an end to tyranny, a tyranny driven by hopelessness and despair. 

Seeking a safe place to give birth, the mother is forced to flee the danger posed by the evil ruler. At one point her traveling party is imperiled and one member of the group is killed that the others might live. The mother says, “He died for me,” another lady in the traveling party answers, “He died for us all.” 

This book is about real life. It is deeply Christian. We Christians should embrace the western literary tradition for what it is, our own preserve—a preserve of the great ideas that grow out of belief in God as he is revealed in the Bible. 

I am grateful for Justin Taylor’s recent post on a movie based on this novel to be released Christmas day, and even more grateful to have read this book. Actually, I didn’t read it, I listened to it. I checked the book on tape out from the public library and listened to it while I folded clothes, raked leaves, did dishes. But it’s so good that I’ve ordered a copy to re-read and quote.

Much more could be said about the way that this volume explores the hopelessness and vanity of life without God. There were passages that made me want to be a better husband to my wife, a better father to my children, a better son to my parents. Read this book. Let it help you feel. Enjoy.

Baptism

I got a note from an old friend today asking if I had written anything on baptism. That prompted me to search my blog for the things I’ve written on Baptism, and I thought maybe others would be interested in these links as well:

Why Don’t Baptists Commune with Presbyterians?

Baptism, Church Membership, and “Together for the Gospel”

Baptism, Baptist History, and Church Membership

In these posts I link to some things others wrote or said:

The Future of Baptist Theology according to Timothy George

Luther on Baptism

What Is Baptism and Is It Worth Dying For?

Ray Clendenen on B&H Academic

I’m very excited about the direction that B&H Academic is going, and I’m particularly grateful that they decided to start the series NAC Studies in Bible and Theology, the first volume of which is God’s Indwelling Presence (pictured on the right).

I commend to your attention an interview with Ray Clendenen on where B&H Academic is headed. The great commission sends us out to make disciples, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Any Baptists interested in this task will be very encouraged by this interview!

HT: Tom Ascol

God Did Not Give David to Saul

My sermon on 1 Samuel 23 is online here.

David and the Priests

My sermon on 1 Samuel 21-22 is online here.

Jonathan Helps David Escape

My sermon on 1 Samuel 20 is online here.

The Hope of Our Calling: Rewards Promised by Jesus to Those Who Overcome

Paul prays for the Ephesians that they will have the eyes of their hearts enlightened to know the hope of their calling in Ephesians 1:18. It seems that God wants us to be motivated by the astonishing things promised to those who are called. So what awaits them, what is the hope of their calling? Here is a list of things Jesus promises to those who overcome in Revelation 2-3:  

1. The right to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Rev 2:7).
2. To the one who is faithful unto death, the crown of life (Rev 2:10).
3. Protection from the second death (Rev 2:11).
4. The hidden manna and a white stone, with a new name written on it that no one knows except the one who receives it (Rev 2:17).
5. Authority over the nations, ruling them with a rod of iron (Rev 2:26).
6. Given the morning star by Jesus (Rev 2:28).
7. Those who do not soil their garments will walk with Jesus in white (Rev 3:4).
8. White garments, and a name never to be blotted out of the book of life, a name confessed by Jesus before the Father and his angels (Rev 3:5).
9. Made a pillar in the temple of God by Jesus, never to go out, on whom the name of Jesus and the new Jerusalem, and Jesus’ own new name are written (Rev 3:12).
10. Communing with Jesus (Rev 3:20)
11. Sitting on the throne with Jesus, as Jesus sits with his Father on his throne (Rev 3:21).