Religious Circus

"Whatever means you use to get people into the church is precisely what you must use to keep them. If you get them with a 'religious circus', then you must keep the circus going--keep up the entertainment. If you get them with biblical preaching and teaching, then that will keep them and you will not need the entertainment."
-Ernest Reisinger

For Whom Did Christ Die?

by John Owen

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:

• Premise 1- All the sins of all men.
• Premise 2- All the sins of some men (the elect), or
• Premise 3- Some of the sins of all men.

In which case it may be said--

• a. That if the third premise is true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.
• b. That if the second premise is true, the Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.
• c. But if the first premise is true, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer. Because of 'unbelief'.

I ask, is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it is, then Christ either suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did die for the sin of 'unbelief', why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not die for their sin of 'unbelief', then He did not die for all their sins!

Take This Test...Whom Do You Serve?

Early Christmas!!!

I received a "few" books from UPS today that I bought when John Piper was having his "all books for only $5.00 each sale" a while back. Yeeeeeeeaaaaah!

The New Atheism - Same old thing

A couple funny pics

Nice, effective break test.

Sleeping while hunting... oops

5 Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire

More than 200 years ago, 1787, Edward Gibbon wrote a book called Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. For 20 years he studied the Roman empire trying to find out how a nation or an empire could be so great and then suddenly collapse. How could that happen? It's hard not to think of our country when you read the five reasons he came up with.

Five reasons for the fall of the great dynasty.

• First: Rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society.
  
• Second: Higher and higher taxes; the spending of money for bread and celebrations.
  
• Third: The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
  
• Fourth: The building of gigantic armaments, when the real enemy was within; the decadence of the people.
  
• Fifth: The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to guide it.

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." (Pro 14:34)

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." (Psa 33:12)

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." (Gal 6:7)

Ellie - "Things Mom Say" Song

"Uncle John" sent us this video of Ellie singing her song. I put it on Google video so you could all see it! This song was a big hit at our family reunion talent show.

Liisa's Mouse

The Sabbath as a Feast

Too many people today see the Sabbath (or Lord's Day) as a fast instead of a feast. Lev 23:3 makes it clear that is is intended to be a feast. "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places."

We have completely lost the art of feasting and biblical celebration

• We’ve become to pious to party
• We have stripped devotion of any kind of celebration
  
• We have secularized festivity
  

Maybe just to shake up our fragile piety and our fanatical busyness God commands us to do something like this in the context of the Sabbath:

• "...then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you." (Duet 14:25-27)

Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson, in their book “Angels in the Architecture” sarcastically commented on this verse: “Such unthriftiness. Such waste. Such gluttony. Such winebibbing. Such is a command of our holy God.”

They also wrote this:

• Celebration is worshiping God with our bodies, with the material creation He has set up around us. Celebrating – whether in feasts, ceremonies, holidays, formal worship, or lovemaking –are all part of obeying God’s command to “love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength” (Dt 6:5; Mk 12:30) We are to show our love for God not just with one portion of our being (the spiritual aspect); we are to love God with our whole body, heart and strength and legs and lips.
• Complaint is the flag of ingratitude, and it waives above the center of unbelieving hearts –“when they knew God, the glorified him not as God, neither were thankful” (Rom 1:21). Yet by grace, God’s redemption in creation ought to keep us in a perpetual state of thanks which bursts out in celebration at every opportunity. Again, we are celebrating God’s dominion

We need to restore the Lord's Day to the great celebration feast that it was intended to be. We have been given the victory in Christ. We shall inherit the earth. Christ is on the throne and He is in the process of placing all enemies under His feet. So lift up your glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon with me and let's toast to Christ the King and His Kingdom!

As R.J. Rushdoony says, "To deny the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath was made for man to rest and enjoy his lordship in Christ, is to remove the future from man’s life. The Sabbath truly observed speaks of victories gained in the world to be conquered." He also said this, "Without that association of the Sabbath with work, salvation, and victory, it becomes a day of boredom and another step in a life without a significant future.”

Got some time and a few sticky notes?

Proof that man needs a wife!

Don't Play The "Fortune Cookie Bible Verse" Game

Many people treat the Bible like it is a fortune cookie. Just open it up and randomly point to a verse and see what God is saying to you personally. One example of someone doing this, that you might have heard, is this... A man wanted to see what God wanted him to do with his life so he randomly opened the Bible and pointed to Mat 27:3,5 which says "Judas went out and hanged himself." He didn't like that all so he tried it again and, this time, pointed to Luke 10:37 which says "Go thou and do likewise." Getting frustrated he tried one more time and pointed to John 13:27 which says "That thou doest, do quickly."

There's even a name for this method. It's called "Bibliomancy" and it can be used on any book. Its defined as a "a form of divination that seeks to know the future by randomly selecting a passage from a book, frequently a sacred text." This clip from the series "A Workman Approved By God" shows you the right way to find answers in the bible.

Hatred and Grace

There is a universe of difference between those who are saved and those who are not. Unbelievers really do believe in God (Rom 1) they just hate Him. The unregenerate is NOT neutral toward God. Natural man in his natural state hates God. In spite of what he says or how tolerant he claims to be, he has a hatred for God. Christians, before they were saved, hated God. Until we really understand our pre-regenerate hatred we won't quite understand how amazing His grace is and how undeserving His love was toward us while we yet hated Him.

"No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Luke 16:13)

The parable of the ten minas - "But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’" (Luke 19:14) - There's the real reason fallen man hates Him... they do not want Him to reign over them

"For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." (John 3:20) Another reason fallen man hates Him is that he doesn't want his works exposed. He wants to maintain the illusion that he is neutral.

"The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil." (John 7:7)

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." (John 15:18)

"Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’" (John 15:23-25)

(Notice all these references from the "love gospel" of John. This is the same book we get John 3:16 from. Until you understand our hatred of Him you can't truly understand His love for us.)

"...slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents.." (Rom 1:30)

In our fallen state, left to ourselves, we are haters of God! "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me."

Addicted and Enslaved to Busyness

Our culture has become addicted and enslaved to busyness

• We’ve made idols out of schedules and to-do lists.
• We are in bondage to Daytimers and Datebooks.
• We are captivated by calendars and addicted to agendas.
• We schedule our scheduling and we plan our planning
• We TiVo our televisions and microwave our Pop Tarts
• We’re overbooked and Overworked
• We rise up early and stay up late
• We eat out, work out, stress out and pass out
• We have more and more to do in less and less time.
• We are running in every direction and going nowhere
• We have more communication devices and less communication
• We have more labor saving devices and have never been busier.
• We may own our own business but our busyness owns us.
• We are ashamed to take a break and afraid to rest
• Our culture has become addicted and enslaved to busyness

Alina Tugend, of the New York Times, wrote: “In our busy, busy world… those who are overworked and overwhelmed complain ceaselessly, it is often with an undertone of boastfulness; the hidden message is that I’m so busy because I’m so important.” She also said this: “Not only are we constantly occupied, but we, as Americans, are also famous for not knowing how to be unoccupied.”

Explaining one of the paradoxes of our time, Dr. Hallowell, author of “CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap,” says it is in part the desire for control that has led people to lose it. He said, “You can feel like a tin can surrounded by a circle of a hundred powerful magnets… Many people are excessively busy because they allow themselves to respond to every magnet: tracking too much data, processing too much information, answering to too many people, taking on too many tasks — all in the sense that this is the way they must live in order to keep up and stay in control. But it’s the magnets that have the control.”

A very popular reason people do not “go to church” is that they are – “TOO BUSY”

• The reason people do not spend time with their kids is that they are – “TOO BUSY"
• The reason people do not spend time with their spouse is that they are – “TOO BUSY”
• The reason people do not study the Bible is that they are – “TOO BUSY”
• The reason people do not visit the orphans or the widows is that they are – “TOO BUSY”
• The reason people do not obey God is that they are – “TOO BUSY”
• The reason people don’t set aside a day for God is that they are – “TOO BUSY”

But God gave us a Commandment (the Sabbath) He ordered us to rest; He commanded us to take a break; He allows us to relax and worship Him.

• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Ex 20:8-11)

One more thing... We are commanded to remember the Sabbath DAY - not just two hours in the day. It doesn't say remember the sabbath hour and keep it holy.

John Piper on the "Prosperity Gospel"

Name it and claim it; blab it and grab it; confess it and possess it.
Try repenting of it!