The importance of QA

My Google Reader Shared Items Page

My Shared Items Page displays articles that I'm sharing from my Google Reader account. The one I shared today is by Mark Driscoll, sharing why he loves John Piper. It's a great article and I added some introductory comments.

Is your church a stench in God's nostrils?

Michael McKinley over at 9Marks posted about a glossy mailer he received announcing a new church in his area which intends to draw crowds not only with a secular-sounding rock band--that would be one thing, and from my background, I wouldn't be so offended by that, but promoting it as a reason for people to come to your church?  Come on!  What makes this even worse, they're covering the hits as well...

Does your church music suck?

We're with you. That's why we started _____, a new church where our music sounds more like what you have one your iPod or listen to in your car. Every week we also cover some of your favorite Guitar Hero and Rock Band classics, along with current songs by bands like: Coldplay, All-American Rejects, Daughtry and others.

Yes, we actually play those songs. And no, we don't "Jesus-up" the lyrics.

It just goes from bad to worse, exactly like in 2 Kings 17:7-23.  In verse 8 (ESV) it says that Israel "walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel" (think postmodernism and syncretism in the church), and by verse 17 they're killing their sons and daughters on the altars of their idolatry (think abortion), until finally, the Lord "cast them out of his sight."

Pray for the elect in this country, that they will not be led astray (if possible) by the wolves in sheep's clothing (Mark 13:22).

Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Avast ye!  Wouldst have behooved me to have known aforetime!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Speaking of Ebenezer...

This was posted by Thabiti Anyabwile on the 9 Marks blog:

http://blog.9marks.org/2008/09/a-pastors-witne.html

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The difference seven years makes in the life of a believer, or how your theology affects your worship

"It's Rising Up" is one of those songs in the key of E Major, with the great open chord shapes guitar players love. It also has a great chorus, with "Holy is the Lord" repeated over and over again. Unfortunately, the rest of the song lacks depth.

One Friday night in July I had put this song on my song list for Sunday and sent it off to the sister who puts the bulletins together, but at 6 in the morning on Saturday the Lord woke me up and convicted me about it, and I switched the song out for another song written by the same cowriter.

And we have heard the lion's roar
That speaks of heaven's love and power
Is this the time, is this the call
That ushers in your Kingdom rule?

-- Martin Smith, Matt Redman, "It's Rising Up", © 1995 Thankyou Music

What does this mean? Is it scriptural? Is it some reference to Narnia's Aslan? Or is it one if the animal noises from the "holy laughter" phenomenon? This is only speculation, but it may have been inspired by a "prophetic" teaching from Hosea 11 or Revelation 10, where the voice of a lion is most closely associated with the coming of the kingdom of God. (Hosea 11 is, in fact, one of the several scripture passages listed as the source for this song in CCLI's song directory.)

By "prophetic" teaching, I mean the types of "sermons" preached by many which do not consider context or intended readers, or author's intent when "expositing" scripture, but instead use scattered verses as prophetic words to the modern audience. If this is the case, the inferences the song makes about these passages is very speculative. If the song was a response to a message at a certain church or conference, it may be that the song had meaning to its original audience. However, the universal church today would not be able to make this association. Americans and Australians singing this song on a Sunday morning would be hearing these words in a very different context from the actual youth group or youth conference where the song premiered. In any case, the vagueness of this verse makes it unsuitable for corporate worship.

In contrast, I think of the little-known passage in 1 Samuel which corresponds to the obscure "Ebenezer" reference in the great classic hymn "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing": "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, 'Till now the Lord has helped us'" (1 Sam. 7:12, ESV).

How does this compare to the "prophetic" application of random scripture passages? It is quite different, because the interpretation is not speculative: the application is universal, as long as the congregation singing the song is widely-versed in scripture and expository preaching. (Of course, this means that your average church that picks songs based on the latest David Crowder hits might not have the scriptural knowledge necessary to make this connection.)

The song which I was convicted to do in place of "It's Rising Up" was "Blessed Be Your Name", by Matt and Beth Redman.

Blessed be your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord

You give and take away...

-- Beth Redman, Matt Redman, "Blessed Be Your Name", © 2005 Thankyou Music

These words were penned by the same hand. See how far Matt Redman had come in seven years! See how saturated the song is with the sovereignty of God!

"You give and take away..." The scriptural application of the book of Job is, in fact, universal for all believers. James 5:11 (ESV) says, "Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful." Note how James does not blame Job's suffering on the devil. Rather, he makes Job an example to us of a true believer submitted to the will and purpose of God. This was not something God was doing for a particular time or dispensation, but applies to all Christians in the face of trials.

"It's Rising Up" speaks of the kingdom rule of God being ushered in by the voice of man. But "Blessed Be Your Name" says that God's kingdom is already here, though hurricanes and war and poverty and the like may cause us to unduly question God's rule.

In Job 38-39, Yahweh presents his case to Job, detailing all the aspects of his sovereignty over earthly life for two chapters straight, and then he challenges Job to find fault with the way he rules the earth. But Job is silent:

And the Lord said to Job:

"Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer it."

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

"Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth."

-- Job 40:1-4 (ESV)

God's kingdom is already here, and those who live as if he is not the one with dominion over this orb shall find themselves absent from the kingdom when Christ returns in his glory.

New Church Blog

We have added a new blog for Sovereign Joy at sovereign-joy.blogspot.com, but within the next day or two it should move to blog.sovereignjoycf.org, a subdomain of our own site. I have conformed the design of the blog so that it matches our home page, but if you navigate back and forth between the two pages, you'll notice the header image is offset by a couple of pixels (I should get this fixed). Make sure you click on the "Follow This Blog" link in the sidebar.

I'm looking forward to reading Pastor Patrick's blogs again. It's been a whole year! I don't blame him for taking a break. His last post resulted in a rather heated debate with local residents, but I believe it was good thing, because it helped us to identify that sometimes division is necessary. Unity should not come at the expense of sound doctrine.

Gospel of John... Piper

John Piper is about to begin a new sermon series on the Gospel of John!

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2008/3226/

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She's a girl!

It's official!  We saw a picture!

Sent from my iPhone

John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

Andi just posted this YouTube video on her blog.

This is heavy.

I don't know what you feel about the prosperity gospel... but I'll tell you what I feel about it: hatred.

It is not the gospel. And it's being exported from this country to Africa and Asia selling a bill of goods to the poorest of the poor.

"Believe this message and your pigs won't die and your wife won't have miscarriages. And you'll have rings on your fingers and coats on your backs."

That's coming out of America! People that ought to be giving our money and our time and our lives, instead selling them a bunch of crap called "gospel".

...

That's idolatry. That's not the gospel.

You can download the whole sermon from Desiring God.

Why Baxter Is Cool

We have four names picked out for our children, two of each gender. If our first is a boy (we will, Lord willing, find out next Monday), we will name him Baxter. When we told Pat, he was like, "Oh, like Richard Baxter!"

In addition to the fact that we love the name, there are additional reasons why Baxter is cool.

Jonathan Edwards is one of my favorite authors, mainly because of his influence in John Piper's life, but also because I have found his thought in A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of the Will, Which Is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame (Freedom of the Will, for short) to be so compelling. The quotes below are from the Speaker Interviews session at the 2003 Desiring God Conference on Jonathan Edwards and a God-Entranced Vision of All Things. I highly recommend downloading the audio from all the sessions.

Mark Dever asks, "If having a God-enthralled life is what we're about as Christians, can you suggest one other author that's been helpful to you in helping to accomplish that in your life and heart, and that you would commend to people, Jim?"

J.I. Packer's response:

Richard Baxter, most definitely. He actually wrote a treatise on delighting in God, and it's rich and thrilling stuff, as is The Saints' Everlasting Rest, as is The Reformed Pastor, as is just about everything contained in his enormous Christian directory. I root for Baxter as a writer on practical religion. People like William Wilberforce never tired of reading Baxter, and he's not the only one. I don't tire of reading him. I recommend him very strongly to you. He is very much--at least on practical religious reality terms--he's very much on the Edwards wavelength.

From the Reliquiae Baxterianae, quoted in the introduction in Richard Baxter and Conversion, by Timothy K. Beougher:

On the Lord's Days there was no disorder to be seen in the streets, but you might hear an hundred families singing Psalms and repeating sermons as you passed through the streets. In a word, when I came thither first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and called on his name, and when I came away there were some streets where there was not passed one family in the side of a street that did not so; and that did not by professing serious godliness, give us hopes of their sincerity. (p. 13)

Baxter had a God-enthralled vision of life, and it overflowed in his powerful influence as a winner of souls in the towns in which he labored, to the point that you could walk to church and every single home you passed on the way there belonged to one of your members who would be on their way shortly. Could you imagine?

New Google web browser

The new Google Chrome browser launched today. (It's still in beta, but so is Gmail!) I downloaded it at work and I'm hooked! Here's the super-cool comic book that explains how it works. (Warning: nerd-factor is very, very high.)