Marvel

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Despite our nothingness, the Almighty God bestows His mercies and love upon us.

“Has Jesus saved me? I dare not speak with any hesitation here; I know He has. His Word is true, therefore I am saved. My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved; I live habitually in the enjoyment of this blessed fact and it is long since I have doubted the truth of it, for I have His own Word to sustain my faith. It is a very surprising thing,—a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to this day the greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God should ever justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin apart from His almighty love; yet I know, by a full assurance, that I am justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and made an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ; though by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas aforetime I was ungodly.” – C.H. Spurgeon

Let's marvel in His grace.

Sola gratia

Kwame

Am I alive?

The picture was taken in Ghana. I have on my shoulders, my nephew (Nii Noi aka Jason) and the lady in the picture is his mother (Jane - my sister-in-law).

by Kwame

Am I alive? Are you alive? Is this an important question?

Jesus said:
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” John 3:3
Jesus says again:
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5

Therefore, being born again means to “be born of water and of the Spirit.” Paul calls this “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).

Since Jesus expected Nicodemus, “a master of Israel”, to know of this truth, we can safely assume that there must have been an explanation of “born again” in the Old Testament scriptures that Nicodemus had access to.

Looking at Ezekiel 36, we see what Jesus is talking about.

Verses 25-28:
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Jesus was referring to the cleansing from spiritual filthiness and the creating of a new creature - the new birth! A supernatural act by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, which causes man to be born again. It is God (not man) who first CLEANSES with water (we know we are not saved by baptism), and GIVES the new heart, and PUTS a new spirit within man and then TAKES AWAY the old lifeless and dead heart.

The sequence should be noted. He cleans and gives, before He takes. We are called to come to Christ as filthy and dead as we are. He will cleanse us through and through. The washing of regeneration can clean to the uttermost - "ye shall be clean"!! He will give the new and take away the old!! The born again Christian is justified and then transformed into the image of Christ.

Also, since it is only the Trinity who has no beginning and no end, and only the Trinity (God) was there in the beginning, being born again can only be “The Life of God in the Soul of Man.” After all, who else has life to give life?

So am I born again and are you born again? Should we be convinced of regeneration based on knowing what has been shared?

There was a teacher of scripture who acknowledged that Jesus was a man from God (John 3:2), but was not at the time, born again. Also, Judas was one of the disciples but he did not have saving faith. And Legion, the unclean spirit(s), knew of Jesus and called Him “son of the Most high God” but was not saved (Mark 5:7). Furthermore, Jesus speaks of persons who think they know Him but in actuality, do not know him (Matt 7:21-23).

So does this mean that familiarity, association, knowledge, and proclamation do not give new life? Do you mean that praying every morning and the fact that I go to church and cast out demons and teach Sunday school and do the church bulletin and blog and do good works, do not give entrance into the kingdom of God? The answer is - yes, they indeed DO NOT give entrance into the kingdom. Praise be to God, who “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.

Certainly, God chooses to be merciful, and the new birth is absolutely not man’s doing (Titus 3:5). When we do become born again, our lives should be living testimonies (2 Cor 3:2-3) and we are to be “zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14), the chief of which is treasuring Jesus Christ and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with ourselves and others.

So the real question is “do you find in the Father's election, in the Son's atonement, and in the Spirit's quickening, all the grounds of your eternal hopes?” – Spurgeon

May we cherish the thought that “a holy fear of falling short, is a great means of perseverance.” – Matthew Henry

Soli deo Gloria

Kwame

October Rains

A few weeks ago the rain were falling hard on a daily basis. After the first few days the rivers overflowed their banks. The news said it was one of the worst flooding disasters in the last fifty to a hundred years. Whole villages were flooded and large sections of semi-metropolitan areas were flooded out.

Thankfully only a small area of my city was flooded. After a few days the water that flooded the other villages went down, and the government, and non-profit organizations have been scrambling to provide flood relief.

Don't Waste Your Legendary Notebook

Notebook containing Edwards' observations from the scriptures

A few days ago I was browsing the Yale University online digital library collection of some of the original writing of Jonathan Edwards.

Edwards' notes on 'particular redemption'

I have heard that Edwards wrote continuously. Whenever ideas would come into his head he would write them down as soon as possible. Often times he would be out walking, or on horseback and that meant he would have to write on scraps of paper, his coat, or saddle.

I don't know for certain, but I imagine he did the majority of his writing in notebooks. And back then it wasn't your dime-a-dozen spiral bound 'kiddie' notebook. No sir, back in Edwards' day, they used legendary notebooks. Those puppies were tougher than nails; Built to last, they bound hundreds of pages up in tough, hardbound leather covers.

'Kiddie' notebook

These days, it seems when most of us break away from writing on the pc, we use generic, run-of-the-mill spiral bound notebooks. However I have found a few guys like Mark Driscoll that are an exception to the rule. They use notebooks of the legendary quality to write down their ideas as God gives them. It could be that a good notebooks demands more from the writer. Or it could be that good ideas demand a good notebook. Either way, I think there might just be something to having a good notebook. (I personally have a dislike for anything spiral bound.)

These days if a guy wants a legendary notebook he picks up a Moleskine. They are made in Italy, but are available pretty much everywhere in the world. This is one company that still makes tough leather bound notebooks that are designed to last. No, they are not made from Mole's skin, but they are leather bound.

Moleskine Legendary Notebook

At any rate, if you do decide to pick up a legendary notebook, the standing challenge is to fill it up with as much meat as Edwards' did.

A Dedicated Servant of The Lord

Shalem

Today I figured I would share a little about Shalem, one of the guys I am working with.

Shalem's role in the ministry is to administrate the children's wing. That means taking time to train and maintain staff, direct and care for the spiritual lives of the children corporately and individually, visit and administrate the five children homes, and ensure the essential needs of the children are provided.

Additionally he travels about the state and country conducting children's camps and participating in training seminars for others who are also working in children ministry.

It's a very demanding position, but he makes personal time every day to spend with the Lord. He is very serious about it.

Sometime soon I am hoping to interview him. Keep your eyes open!

Josh

Conducting a children's camp

Arcing For the Glory of God

Arcing Chart (click to download)

Arcing is a wonderful tool for pulling the meat out of a text of scripture. By arcing you can follow the flow of the passage by examining the structure of it's propositions. The folks at biblearc.com have graciously provided an online video tutorial to help anyone learn how to make use of this helpful resource.

Arcing can be done on paper by writing the text out in columns of single line propositions, and 'arcing' their relationships, marking them with predefined symbols, or by using their helpful online tool.

In their own words,

"Arcing is a graphical tool used to determine, document,and discuss the flow of thought in the Biblical text.

The point... to rightly handle the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)"

That pretty much sums it up. I have found it one of the best tools yet for mining the intended meaning from the text.

From here you can, download the arcing chart, watch their online tutorial videos, Arc.

Enjoy!

Joshua

Moral lessons?

In Ghana with my grandmother

By Kwame

Charles Spurgeon once shared a story about a young pastor and an older pastor. In the story, the older man encouraged the young man to preach Christ in every text of scripture - to preach Christ's person, work and promise in every jot and tittle of scripture; to see in every bible passage, the call to "look unto me [Christ] and be ye saved" (Is 45:22). In the same way, we should endeavour NOT to view various scriptural accounts as mere moral lessons.


As an example, let's take the passage where Jesus and his parents go to Jerusalem for the feast of the passover, and Jesus stays behind in the temple (Luke 2:43). One could say that, "Jesus spent time in the temple, so I will also try to attend church in order to grow in the word". That would be a great thought. After all, iron sharpens iron. However, we are encouraged not to stop there.


How does such a story point us directly to the gospel? It seems that this passage tells us (in addition to other things) that the Saviour's life was not different from ours. As a child, his parents were worried about him. He went to the temple like everyone else and celebrated the feasts along with everyone else. This story (and many more like it) tells us that our High Priest, was fully man and "He Himself hath suffered being tempted" (Heb 2:18). This points to the truth that Jesus was tempted in the very same ways that we are tempted since His life was like ours. Jesus being essentially God was also 100% man and had to deal with everything we deal with today. He had to live a normal life. He came into the world through birth like all of us, crying and needing his mom and dad's protection, like all of us. He wept like all of us and was hungry and tired at times, like all of us. Yet he was SINLESS!!


He obeyed God the Father perfectly!! He lived the normal life in a way that no one else can live. He is the SOLE Saviour of the world! He finished it all by dying on the cross and thus met the just punishment for sin...our sins. Who could have been the lamb of God and who could have taken away the sins of the world if the man Jesus was not sent!!!!!?? Nobody! Clearly Jesus is the only choice, naturally and supernaturally (before the world began). He is the perfect blameless lamb that willingly gave His life!! What joy to have such a Saviour who is absolute, omniscient, omnipotent, loving, just, mighty, awesome awesome awesome and yet was fully a man who had the pains and joys that I have today. In this way, "he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb 2:18).


Praise and honour to God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost! Amen!


Kwame