What Is The Main Message of Scripture?

St. Augustine A.D. 354-430

The question of the day is, What is the main message of scripture?

There are many routes I could take to answer this question, but I am going to short cut and tell you what I believe the answer is, then go about explaining it.

I believe that scripture above all else, is a book primarily about God, specifically, Jesus Christ. This truth radically changed the way I think about the Old Testament, the way I relate to others, the lost, and especially God.

This truth is certainly the most fundamental change in the way I view the whole of scripture. My own personal discovery of it occurred only when God brought Luke 24 to light for me.

You know the passage, it's the one where Jesus is on the road to Emmaus shortly after his resurrection. He is walking with two men who don't recognize him and he has a powerful, conversation with them. There is a lot of meat there, but the portions which I am focusing on here are found in verses 25-26 and particularly verse 44 when shortly after Jesus appears to his disciples.

Luke 24:44

"And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me."

Augustine sums up this passage well in a concise statement.

“Our whole purpose when we hear the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Law is to see Christ there, to understand Christ there.” Augustine

Well, that's all I have time for at the moment. It's a glorious and liberating truth, well worth looking into deeper if it's new for you. I find it helpful to remind myself as I am reading the New Testament, and especially the Psalms, Prophets, and Law - Christ is there.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

[HT: THE RESURGENCE]

Treasuring Him

This video asks and gloriously answers the question;

How Does Paul Make Christ Look Great In His Life And Thus Not Waste It?

Before you watch another youtube video, watch this one.

Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship

Gospel-Centered (Christ-Centered)

I recently read Jonathan Dodson's curiously titled book, Fight Clubs. Dodson is the pastor of Austin City Life Church. He has made his book free to download. Fight Clubs weighs in at a light 51 pages.

In Fight Clubs, Dodson briefly relates his personal experiences with accountability groups he was involved in and how he moved away from Legalistic-checklist-Keeping-the-rules-Duty-driven-accountability-groups to God-honoring-Motivated-by-holy-affection-for-God-sin-fighting-groups.

Dodson worked to create a practical, Christ-centered accountability/discipleship model that would;

"avoid legalism by promoting a Christ-Centered reading of the scriptures... [and] avoid license by taking seriously the fight of faith against the flesh... [and] promote lasting joy in Jesus."pg 50

How Gospel-Centered Discipleship Works:

"Gospel-centered discipleship focuses the heart's attention onto Jesus, beholding and becoming like him." pg 15

Dodson calls on Christians to start fighting sin in a Romans 8:13 way. And he defines the fight in great part as "a fight to believe that the image of Jesus is the best image to fight for" pg 16

Dodson asserts that discipleship is a community project and outlines a model he calls Fight Clubs.

"Disciples of Jesus are part of a community that fights the fight of faith. What we need are small fighting communities that are committed to gospel-centered discipleship."pg 36

Dodson describes these communities (fight clubs) as, small, simple groups of 2-3 who meet regularly to help one another beat the flesh and believe in the promises of God.

There are three rules to Dodson's Fight Club:

1.) Know Your Sin
2.) Fight Your Sin
3.) Trust Your Savior

"The greatest weapon against our opponents is Spirit-empowered faith in the promises of God that have been guaranteed by the death of Christ."

After pondering what I read, I found the Fight Club model to be great for accountability and fighting sin, but not entirely adequate for believers to plug into as the complete solution for discipleship and community assisted spiritual growth. Dodson has developed other outlets that focus on those particular goals more effectively. Before ironing out Fight Clubs, he developed City-groups. (small groups that impact the city as well as the believers)

"City groups are geographically-based, city-focused communities of people that gather throughout the week to share life and truth, love God and one another, and engage the social and spiritual needs of our city. They're awesome, a place where the church can be the church to one another and to the city."

Any thoughts?

The Dodson Family

Christ-Centered Worship

This video is a helpful introduction to Bryan Chapell's new book, Christ-Centered Worship: letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice. I appreciate Bryan's Christ-centeredness, and his work in Christ-Centered homiletics. Like many around the globe, I have immensely benefited from utilizing his seminary's worldwide classroom resources where he has made more than twenty seminary level courses available for free download. Also, a friend of mine, Gray Ewing is currently attending his seminary.

[HT: JT]

Legal Conviction, Evangelical Conviction

Legal Conviction: Sinner is aware of his sin and filled with terror of the Wrath, Holiness and Justice of God against sinners and flees from Him

(Examples: Cain, Esau, Saul, Judas...)

What's the difference between Legal conviction of sin and Evangelical conviction of sin?

Evangelical Conviction: Sinner is filled with fear and dread of God's justice, but also has a Godly sorrow over sin, repents of it and turns his eyes to Christ in a just hope in the Gospel for forgiveness of sins.

(Examples: Hezekiah, the Ninevites, David, Peter...)

"Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off"

" and said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." Exodus 20:18-19

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" John 3:14

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." John 12:32 ESV

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks. Any thoughts?

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

Fighting For Joy

Fight for Joy!

As the post title intimates, this is about fighting for Joy. A few years back I read Piper's book, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight For Joy. I found it quite helpful and practical. It was a much needed sequel to Desiring God.

While Christ is the supreme object of our affections and giver of joy, Piper believes God uses means - means which point us back to Him.

"I believe untold resources for mental health and spiritual joy in God lie all around us if we would but open our eyes." Piper pg 197

Piper's old teacher, Clyde Kilby shared one way of overcoming, (as Piper calls it), our bent toward blindness for the wonders of the ordinary.

While I found this quite helpful, I urge caution and discernment. I understand them more as supplementary suggestions than imperative commands. Enjoy!

"1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above me and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death, when he said: "There is darkness without and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then there is nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what [C.S.] Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic"existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is just now.

10. If for nothing more than the sake of a change of view, I shall assume my ancestry to be from the heavens rather than from the caves.

11. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life in the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls Himself Alpha and Omega." Clyde Kilby pg 197-198

The Book, a Supplementary Aid

Thanks for checking it out. I found this book chock full of helpful tools, and especially helpful in pointing us back to the Word and Prayer. Piper delves into how we can so read the text and so pray as to meet with God and enjoy Him; that we would glorify Him, and that He would fill us with joy in Him.

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

Even Sparrows

An Indian House Sparrow

Four days ago as I was grabbing a cup of coffee from my percolator I noticed a sparrow perched on the ledge outside of the window. It was chirping and seemed distressed. As I began to watch the creature it started moving about rapidly, chirping and glancing about now and then. Suddenly it dawned on me that this was the first time I had really taken time to examine an Indian sparrow.

It's appearance was not much different from the American Midwest sparrows that live where I come from. In fact I couldn't discern any difference without googling for a photo of one from back home.

It didn't take long before the idea came to get up really close and take a detailed clip of it. I find it helpful to every now and then examine and meditate on God's creation as an aid to seeing the majesty and glory of God.

Here is the clip,

(Hint: I made this one available in High Quality, You might want to switch to 'HQ' to see all the clarity possible.)



Enjoy!

Joshua

Luther on Salvation

Martin Luther elegantly answers the trillion dollar question in a single sentence.

He-Man Versus Jesus

Contender #1: He-Man of Eternia (Special Ability: Incredible Strength)

False Idols Vs. The King of kings

As I was growing up, like everyone else born in the last five decades I experienced several waves of super-hero cartoons that hit the networks. As a kid I discovered that my peers were enamored with them and could name off all the characters, their sidekicks, and their special abilities and powers. While there are different heroes on the networks today, at one time He-Man was the one who was revered by American children to be the most powerful being in the universe. As they saw it in their imagination, not even Jesus rivaled his power.

Why is Jesus thought to be a weakling?

Maybe because he is often portrayed as one.

One of the reasons Jesus appears weak to the masses is because of the way the church has portrayed him. This in part has to do with the fact that we believe in the incarnation of Jesus. But sometimes the church has gone too far with the incarnation and portrayed him solely in light of his human nature, particularly human frailty. It is brilliantly shown in Isaiah 53.

As important as the incarnation is, we must also take care not to forget the exaltation of Jesus. But more on that later.

Is this Jesus?

An Adult's World

Cartoon fantasy aside, we live in a world where we are faced with wave after wave of local and world leaders who are portrayed as having the power (or ability) to give a peace to the nations. People place their hope in them, in many ways they serve to replace the heroes of childhood.

Contender #2: Next Gen Politician (Special Ability: Tongue of an Asp)

I am reminded that all power and ability is given from God. Not even the secretary general of the united nations can lift a finger apart from the power which God has placed in his hands.

". . .For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."
Romans 13:1

Interestingly enough, even if they accomplished all their promises for a happy life, they could not stop death. The statistic is true, 10 out of 10 people born die, no leader in his right mind would dare to attempt to promise eternal life. No leader could promise that, except Jesus.

Feathered Hair Model Jesus: This is really sad

The Power of The Risen and Exalted King

Forget the two photos of Jesus you just saw, lets see what scripture says about Him.

"Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Mat 28:18

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Heb 1:3

"In Him all things live and move and have their being" Paul: Mars Hill (Acts 17:28)

After Jesus accomplished his mission of redemption, the bible teaches us that he ascended into heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of God ruling in power. (Ac 7:55, Ro 8:34, Eph 1:20-22, 1Pe 3:22) This is Jesus in His exalted state. I can't show you a picture of the exalted Jesus. In fact no one is capable of drawing a picture of of Him in His magnificence.

God knew this, and He allowed men like John in the bible to record majesty of Christ in heaven by the written word. Since we don't have accurate pictures the only place for us to get a vision of the majesty of God is to read about it in the text. It really helps us to read passages like Isaiah 6, (He is holy) Revelation 5 (Heavenly worship) and Revelation 19. (The Word is mighty in Battle) If the Spirit doesn't illuminate your soul after that, all I can suggest is to pray for some faith and a new set of eyes.

The real hope for a better life doesn't come from cartoon heroes or world leaders, it comes from Jesus and His gospel of peace. Not only does the gospel give hope, but it compels us to forsake this life and serve God in light of the hope of a better life to come - Your Best Life Later.

The Power of Jesus' Message

The gospel is powerful, it has to do with huge, earth-shaking, life-changing things. In fact it is the central, unifying message of the bible. At the center of the gospel we see Christ and the justice, power, love and wisdom of God displayed with unparalleled clarity.

Not only do we see the power of God to save sinners, but we see the power of God to continue to change the lives of believers. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states that of everything he taught, the gospel is the thing of first importance. Our lives must be lived in light of the good news.

We can never move away from the gospel. Its the main issue at hand for everyone, and if I'm not mistaken, something is wrong when we make secondary issues the main issues.

Jerry Bridges puts it well when he states;

"The gospel is not the most important message in history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experiencing the joy of living their lives by it."

Lets work on preaching the gospel to ourselves. Every day we are in serious danger of taking our eyes off Christ. We need to remind ourselves that we are still sinners in need of a savior. We need Jesus as much today as the day we first believed - We will never reach a point in our lives where the saving blood of Jesus is no longer needed. In the end after all we have done for the Lord it's only Jesus who can present us faultless before the throne of God.

Contender #3: God (Special Ability: All Power in Heaven and Earth)

Recap

Well that's it, I hope and pray that we will spend more time seeing and savoring the savior in the text; Meditating on both His incarnation and His exaltation. May we truly treasure Christ and the Gospel of peace we have been entrusted with.

Please feel free to add to this. I am searching for some comments on this one. I actually turned comment moderation off in hope to get some discussion going.

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform Your Life And Doctrine, Meet With God In The Text

[HT: Resurgence]

Give The Gospel Not Gimmicks

Get it? [Click to Enlarge]

Oh no, Not another Polemic!

Here goes... this is a serious subject, but I will try to make it as winsome as possible. A few years ago I listened to Keith Green's message, What's Wrong With The Gospel? The message was a response to the average evangelical "gospel" message. As you may know, Keith was not on target everywhere (imputation in particular) but he made an excellent thrust in the right direction with it. Keith's point basically boiled down to this; the pure gospel has been perverted, and now has both missing parts and added parts.

Keith Green preached Christ

There is nothing wrong with the true Gospel in its purity, and so there is no need to water it down or sugar it up, it is the power of God unto salvation... Romans 1:16

However in spite of this truth, we often hear the "gospel"portrayed as;

"Let (or ask) Jesus into your heart."
"Make Jesus the Lord of your life."

...or even more blasphemously, "Put Jesus on the throne of your life"

So What Is The Gospel Then?

It's good to mention this again, the gospel is good news, not good advice. That is one of the key distinctions in which Christianity differs from every other religion. The pure gospel is not about something, or anything that we must do.

The gospel is about what God has done in Jesus for us, not what we must do for Him. It is amazing that while in our time of relative ease people feel it isn't good enough Paul said in his day of affliction that he was not ashamed of it.

The gospel consists in the narrative of the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus as recorded in the four New Testament gospels. This is good news beyond all we could ever hope for - even though we are undeserving, God had mercy on us. He did this for forgiveness and removal of sin, satisfaction of the justice of God and declaration of righteousness for a right standing with God for those who believe in Him. All this as Peter put it, that He might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

"Having made peace through the blood of his cross... in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Colossians 1:20-23

By God's grace lets stand unashamed and uncompromising for the gospel in this age of subtle reconstruction of the truth.

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform Your Life And Doctrine, Meet With God In The Text.

Hallelujah! All I Have Is Christ

Today I am posting a music video clip from this year's NEXT conference. I thank God that songs like this are still being written!

The Next conference featured excellent speakers including; Joshua Harris, Kevin DeYoung, D.A. Carson and Sinclair Ferguson amongst others. Messages dealt with foundational topics such as The Preeminence of Christ, Christ's Life, Death, Resurrection and Return, and Just Do Something. (knowing the will of God, very helpful) You can browse and download the messages here.

I recommend that you read these powerful lyrics. They are worth meditating on.

ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

[HT: BKauflin, GWyoming]

The Earth: A Visual Aid To Understanding the Glory of God

First Earthrise sighting, Apollo 11 Mission

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. In a recent article, Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon recently commented on the significance of the historic event;

"The pictures we and our fellow lunar astronauts took of the moon and the Earth changed forever our concept of our place in the universe. We saw the Earth as alone, fragile and in need of protecting and preserving. Those images helped give birth to the environmental movement."

Lunar Module Pilot, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

Wouldn't it have been great if that historic moment had instead given birth to a widespread movement of man towards God? If we were as 'enlightened' as we think we are in our free-thinking society then I am certain we would have. Alas, Adam's posterity is as spiritually blind as ever. Only a move of God could give birth to such a thing.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork. (Psalms 19:1)

The heavens are provided by God as a visual aid to help us apprehend His glory. That is one place to start in apprehending the majesty of an infinite God.

Issac Watts said the following in his treatise on Logic,

"If finite beings are not adequately known by us, much less the things infinite: for it is of the nature of a finite mind not to be able to comprehend what is infinite"

Watts also points out that while we cannot comprehend God in the sense that we can't wrap our minds around Him comprehensively, we can apprehend what truth is revealed about God in scripture. So we should not say that God is an ineffable mystery, that is, He is too mysterious to be expressed or described in words. (oddly enough, the word "ineffable" is a word used to describe things which can't be described with words) While as great and mysterious the Godhead is, we can and do describe God with words, and this is okay, because He describes Himself in great detail with words in His word.

Particularly we know God best as seen in the incarnation and exaltation of Jesus, He is the best visual representation of God, He is God.

I do wonder sometimes if the human mind in it's current state of frailty and weakness prefers to believe in what it can comprehend. Buzz Aldrin was right. "Earth worship" has become increasingly popular since people first saw in full color how small the earth really is. Suddenly the earth was larger than just the neighborhood, city, state or country one was living in, it was a planet in its entirety. It could be comprehended as a whole, yet today we are still having a hard time comprehending all its parts.

And here's the shocker, even if we could, we could never concentrate on all the parts comprehensively in any one given moment of thought. Amazingly, God can.

Space exploration comes up from time to time in conversations. So I am resolved by God's grace to use the opportunity to demonstrate that the wonders of creation (such as outer space) serve to point us to the Creator.

"For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20 ESV

Soli Deo Gloria

Josh

Reform Your Life And Doctrine, Meet With God In The Text.