"Unto the Coming of the Lord"

While studying and reading through the commentaries that Study Light offers on James 5:7-11, I came across this quote from Barnes Notes on the New Testament concerning the phrase, "unto the coming of the Lord."

Unto the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord Jesus--either to remove you by death, or to destroy the city of Jerusalem and bring to an end the Jewish institutions, or to judge the world and receive his people to himself. The "coming of the Lord" in any way was an event which Christians were taught to expect, and which would be connected with their deliverance from troubles. As the time of his appearing was not revealed, it was not improper to refer to that as an event that might possibly be near; and as the removal of Christians by death is denoted by the phrase "the coming of the Lord"--that is, his coming to each one of us--it was not improper to speak of death in that view.

It is a good thing to understand that all of the New Testament writers weren't confused about the return of the Lord.  I have heard people say that before, that those authors were expecting Christ's final return to be within their lifetimes. Whether or not they did, I felt that this quote brought a little more clarity to the instances in the N.T. that refer to Christ's return.

Functional Universalism

Universalism is defined as the theological doctrine that all people will eventually be saved.  Evangelical Christians do not believe that, but I think that all of us Evangelicals could pick something up from David Platt in this video clip.  He is making an excellent point with this idea of "functional universalism."

Do We Really Believe What We're Saying? from The Church at Brook Hills on Vimeo.

It is not the religious act that makes the Christian...

It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life.  That is metanoia [repentance]: not in the first place thinking about one's own needs, problems, sins, and fears, but allowing oneself to be caught up into the way of Jesus Christ.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as quoted by Timothy Keller in The Reason for God.

Reading Through Desiring God With John Piper

Purchase through Amazon

I have started to read through Desiring God by John Piper more than a couple of times.  I would start the book, but at some point, though I would be completely unaware of this moment, the book ended up back on the shelf. I don't want you to get the wrong impression though, I didn't sit the book down because it wasn't interesting or because of poor writing that didn't "just grab my attention."  On the contrary, the book usually ended up on the shelf because it required more thought.  It wasn't, for me, a book that I could just pick up and read a few pages in my free time, I knew I would have to plow through this one with extended thought, purposeful intent, and an intellectual curiosity.

With all of that said, I am going to pick this book up again, and here is why: (From the Desiring God Site)

Beginning Thursday, March 31, 2011 from 12:00-1:00 PM (EST) John Piper will be hosting a series of five interactive roundtable discussions with the guys at Bethlehem College and Seminary based on his book Desiring God. And we’re live-streaming it on the web. 

This is a great opportunity to reacquaint yourself with Desiring God, or to read it for the very first time (and with John Piper leading the discussion!).  

If you’re unable to join us for the live-stream, we’re rebroadcasting the video and audio the same day at 3:00 PM (EST). A perfect lunch break. Or, consider watching the video with a small group in the evenings, working through the book together.

Here is a little video of John Piper giving an additional explanation:



If you hurry, they may still be giving away free copies of the book.  Go to this link and scroll down the page.

The sad story of religious liberalism in my generation.

If you haven't been following along, Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Michigan, has caused a bit of a stir with his new book, titled Love Wins.  In the book, he denies... well... here it is in his own words:

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.

I got that quote from Tim Challies, who offered up the first review of the book that I could find. I would attempt to offer up some thoughts on the book myself, but I haven't read it yet.  I did find this interview of Rob Bell from MSNBC to be extremely interesting and revealing to Rob Bell's beliefs.



I don't know about you, but watching that video just made me sad.  A while back I was a fan of the Nooma videos that were produced by Rob Bell.  There is still some good stuff in those videos, but seeing this departure from the truth was disheartening.  I begin to understand what Christians from previous eras felt as they saw Christian leaders and institutions give way to liberal theology.

There are some men who are much smarter than me that have offered up their critiques of this book.  Here is a short list, in case you are interested.

Tim Challies book review on challies.com.

Albert Mohler's review of the book from his blog.  I found this one to be quite interesting.

Christianity Today has a review of the book.

Ligon Duncan has some thoughts about hell and how we should talk about it.

Aaron Armstrong  offers some thoughts as well.  He has a blog called Blogging Theologically.

Josh Harris shows his concern and shares some quotes from Denny Burke.

USA Today has an article with some revealing quotes from the book.

CNN has a blog post highlighting some of the details.

Kevin DeYoung, a blogger with The Gospel Coalition, offered one of my favorite reviews of the book.

Carl Trueman offers up some extremely enlightening thoughts on Rob Bells ability to support his claims.  I found this post to be one of the most helpful.

Most of this was brought to the table because of Justin Taylor, another Gospel Coalition blogger.

There are more blog posts and tweets out there, but these would keep anyone busy for a little while.  One of the most interesting aspects of all of this is the compassion that I get from most of these Christian leaders that I have spent the last few years following via their blogs.  They are concerned about truth, but they are also concerned about Rob Bell.  To me, that is astounding.

Are you ready to have a discussion with a Geometry teacher?

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I am posting this because I thought it was funny.  Being both a preacher and a teacher, I don't agree with the statement that says lectures and sermons are a waste of time.  

The picture is from 22 words.

worth every penny

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A friend of mine forwarded this picture to me the other day.  Usually when I get forwards, I give a little chuckle, then archive the message.  I felt this one deserved to be passed along.  I don't know who to give credit to for the image, but here is the caption from the e-mail:

House Minority Leader  Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, pictured standing, far right, speaks while colleagues Rep. Barbara Lambert, D-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a  new budget. (AP) 

The guy sitting in the row in front of these two....he's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores.  

These are the folks that couldn't get the budget out by Oct. 1. Should we buy them larger screen computers - or - a ticket home, permanently?  

This is one of their 3-DAY WORK WEEKS that we all pay for their salary, which is about $179,000 per year. 

I don't want to be overly critical, most of us have played solitaire in a meeting before... but c'mon!  At least be discreet about it.