Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.  Matthew 4:17-25 tells us of this beginning of Jesus’ ministry of preaching.  We see the topics of His message (verses 17, 23):

1. Repentance.
2. The Kingdom is at hand.

We see His disciples respond to this message (verses 20, 22):

1. They left their nets/boats/families.
2. They followed Jesus.

Finally we see the vindication of His message (verses 23-25):

1. He heals the sick.
2. Great crowds follow after Jesus.

These are necessary verses to put the Sermon on the Mount into its proper context.  When Jesus sees these crowds following after Him, He ascends up on a mountain, calls His disciples in close, and begins to teach them more accurately the good news of the Kingdom.  The good news is this (according to 5:3-12);

1. We are ‘Blessed’(supremely favored by God, we bask in the face of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, who for a time suffered the disfavor and ‘woe’ of God that we might live in this blessed state).
2. We have a present citizenship in the Kingdom.
3. We have a future hope of a revelation of the Kingdom.
4. Our circumstances here do not always reflect the true reality as God sees it.
5. Our present manner of life has eternal consequences.
6. Our present treatment by the world works for us a greater weight of glory.

Therefore…

1. We should respond to the call of repentance by renouncing all that holds us in the kingdom of darkness and follow our King, Jesus Christ.
2. We should have a joyful spirit which displays itself through the physical emotion of happiness even in the midst of poverty, mourning, hunger, thirst, and persecution.
3. We should conduct ourselves in a meek, merciful, pure, peacemaking manner in the midst of a world that seeks to dominate, threaten, defile, and separate us from the love of Christ.
4. We should be known by our joyfulness as we rejoice and are glad that we have been worthy to suffer after the manner of our Lord and Savior who endured such hostility from sinners so that He might redeem us from our sin and produce these marks of true religion in us.

The other day I saw a bowl full of folded-up, multi-colored scraps of paper on a co-worker’s desk.

I picked one up, read it, and saw it was an “inspirational” saying from Keanu Reeves. There was another one from Erica Jong. And a third from Tony Robbins.

And a fourth one which quoted the Lord Jesus. It was part of Matthew 19:26: “…,but with God all things are possible.”

Now, all things are possible with God. He is God, after all. But, in context, Jesus is speaking about salvation – not having a good day at work.

The words of Christ lumped together with an actor’s, a novelist’s, and a motivational speaker’s.

Sigh.

David

So, there I was in Air Force boot camp.

I don’t remember how the conversation began, but our whole bay was talking about who believed or didn’t believe in God.

I was one of the guys who wasn’t sure if God was real or not.

So, this one guy was a little…intense…gets right up in my face and says to me: “You don’t believe in Jesus!? I ought to punch you right in the face.”

I hope he’s calmed down since then.

David

I love books.

I like to be around books. It relaxes me.

I think it’s strange to visit someone’s home and see there are no books anywhere in sight. Sometimes there’s nothing at all to read, at least that I can see. That, to me, is unfathomable.

I also do not understand it when someone visits my home and does not even glance once at the books on the shelves in my livingroom. Aren’t they even curious what I’ve read?

If you have books in your home I’m going to look at every title. I want to know what you’ve read or are planning to read. I think a person’s books tell you a lot about who they are and how they (likely) think.

So, now you know. If I come to your home I’ll be checking out your books – or lack thereof!

And now that I think about it…it just won’t be the same when everyone’s library’s in a Kindle.

Blessings,

David

Positives:

I have a place to vent.

I think I have written some helpful articles.

I would like to blog regularly.

I have a desire to write about God.

Negatives:

I don’t like arguments.

I don’t blog regularly.

Time constraints.

I don’t want to be tied to it.

I can post on the church’s blog.

I think it’s pretty clear that I am not a fan of Dispensationalism.  I simply cannot arrive at ‘Dispensational’ conclusions when I read Scripture.  That said, there are many things I appreciate about Dispensationalism.  Here’s a list…

1. Literal approach to Scripture.
2. Emphasis on the Inspiration of Scripture.
3. Godly lives of many Dispensationalists (produced by view of the imminence of Christ’s return).
4. Mission-mindedness (produced by view of the imminence of Christ’s return).
5. Distinction between Law and Gospel.

But probably the one point of Dispensationalism that I am most thankful for is the system’s approach to the Gospel of ‘grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone’ that saves.  And let me be unequivocalwhen I say this, most Dispensationalists believe and preach the true Gospel.  All of the Dispensationalists that I know have always believed right about Forgiveness of sins, Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification.  They have all believed that Christ’s work on the cross was God’s way of saving all who come to Him in faith and repentance.

Perhaps that’s why I get worked up when I read that a church feels the need to bar Dispensationalists from membership.  Or why another church feels to need to bar Covenant Theology guys from membership.  Or why both of those churches feels the need to bar New Covenant guys from membership.  These are matters of difference, yes, but which of them has rejected the Gospel?  Did MacArthur ever preach ‘another’ Gospel?  Did Sproul ever preach ‘another’ Gospel?  How about John Reisinger?  None of these men ever preached a Gospel that the other would condemn as ‘not the gospel’.  To be sure there are other things that would keep these men from being members in the same church.  MacArthur and Reisinger believe in believer’s baptism by immersion while Sproul does not.

But now take me and my fellow Elders at our church for example.  I lean more towards the New Covenant understanding of Scripture while another leans more towards a Dispensational understanding.  Another can’t really even be pinpointed to that degree.  But here is where we agree, the Bible is God’s Word, it should be preached as He inspired it, and we should take each word seriously.  So in the end our messages sound a lot alike in the sense that we are studying and preaching the same Bible.  And as long as we keep this expositional method of preaching we will become closer and closer in our understanding of Scripture.

Unity does not exist in conformity to one another’s particular views in this regard.  Unity exists in our conformity to Scripture as the Holy Spirit uses Scripture to mold us into the image of God’s Son.  Unity does not exist in our particular understandings of the Second Coming of Christ.  Unity exists in our belief that Scripture says that Christ is returning, that He will resurrect the dead, and that believer’s will have glorified bodies while unbeliever’s will be punished for their sins.  Unity does not exist in our views on Law, but in the Gospel of Christ.

If Jesus does not exclude Dispensationalists, or Covenantalists, or New Covenantalists from the Body of Christ, then neither should we exclude them from our local extension of the Body of Christ.  To do so is to divide the Body of Christ and to fall under the condemnation of Christ as His Word is revealed to us in Scripture through Paul when he says,

“But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Titus 3:9-11

And this will blow your mind…You don’t even have to be a Calvinist to join our church (although you will get it preached to you whenever it comes up in Scripture).  Calvinists and Noncalvinists can worship God together in harmony.  And each will be united in the same way we all are, through the Gospel and the ministry of the Word.

So who can’t join our church?  Unbelievers because we believe in regenerate church membership, the unbaptized because we believe   immersion upon profession of faith is prerequisite to church membership, the unorthodox because we believe the Trinity matters, and the ungodly because we believe that all true Christians will be sanctified.

Somewhere in a jungle in Africa a small tribe worships a snake.  Sometime past in Israel children were sacrificed to the pagan deity, Molech.  Everywhere I turn I think  the things of this world are of more consequence that God.  This is idolatry, and it’s not just bowing down and worshiping graven images.  It is a heart that treasures the things of this world above the God who creates, preserves, and redeems us.

“No other gods”, is a commandment that is not taken very seriously by many Christians today.  Mostly because we think that we have the problem licked.  But Greg Dutcher’s book, You Are The Treasure That I Seek…: But There’s a Lot Of Cool Stuff Out There, Lord, takes aim at this growing menace among even the most fundamental among Christians.

The book begins with examples of idolatry from Africa, then middle-class America, and then from an Evangelical, Bible-believing Pastor.  The point is that idolatry is alive and well, and it springs up day after day in life after life.

Following the opening chapter, Dutcher continues on with the bad news of our sin of idolatry as he shows us the penalty for this sin, and then explains further how idolatry is deeply rooted in the fallen nature of man.  Then we get the good news, Jesus Christ came to save idolaters.

The rest of the book then is aimed at the sanctification of the believer through learning to identify idolatry in our own lives and then go on the offense against idolatry.  The best defense is a strong offense, the best way to root out idolatry (loving, trusting, or fearing things other than God), is by focusing our love on God through Christ.

The book is very practical in it’s content, but then Dutcher takes practicality to a new level.  The end of the book includes two appendices, Idolatry Syndrome Study Cases (illustrations of what idolatry looks like in different situations) and A First-Aid Kit For Recovering Idolaters (Scriptures, Prayers, and Quotes for fighting idolatry).  At the end of each chapter and the first appendix questions for further study invite us to go further in our study and think more deeply about idolatry in our own lives.  The study questions would make the book ideal for a book discussion group.

I highly recommend this book to be read by Christians who believe that they have idolatry defeated, or those who realize that they don’t.

Gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, and life-engaging is how I would describe this book.

If you would like to accept John Calvin as your personal theologian, repeat this prayer (often called the Arminian’s Prayer);

“Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire.”

If you said that prayer and really meant it in your heart, then John Calvin now lives in your head.  Write this date in the front of your Bible so that you’ll always remember that you have asked John Calvin into your head.  And remember, once a Calvinist, always a Calvinist!

Happy Birthday, John Calvin!

In case you missed it, and you probably did with all of the celebrity death media frenzy, Chris Leggett, a Cleveland TN native, and member of First Baptist Church in Cleveland, was killed last week by Al Qaeda in Mauritania on June 23rd.

The funeral service and burial is today at First Baptist Cleveland.

While the world mourns the losses of its heroes, Heaven takes special note of this martyr who died because of his Christian witness in NW Africa.

May God bless the family of Chris Leggett, and may our brother, Chris Leggett, rest peacefully in the arms of Christ.

We should pray with all the Christian martyrs,  “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Revelation 6:10.

In case you missed it with all of the hoopla over Michael Jackson’s death, Billy Mays died yesterday morning.  This is far more traumatic to me as his new Discovery Channel show, Pitchmen, was quickly becoming one of my favorite shows on TV.

Apparently, Mays ws hit on the head  by some baggage in a plane as it made an emergency landing when the front tires blew out on Saturday.  He went home in in apparent good health and was found dead in the morning.

I don’t know if Mays was a believer or not, and I don’t know about you, but Scripture’s words, “Prepare to meet your God” ( Amos 4:12), seem appropriate.