GloryBlogger

Theology of Singing Praise

2008-07-08T11:38:00.003-04:00

God Sings

Why Does God Want Us to Sing?

Truth and Music

The Importance of Singing Truth

Singing and Preaching

Singing in Heaven

Tg4 Update

2008-04-16T22:18:00.002-04:00

It's been a jammed packed day at T4G. I'm tired but uplifted.

Today John MacArthur, Mark Dever, R. C. Sproul, and Al Mohler have given presentations at the conference today.

John MacArthur gave an excellent presentation on Total Depravity or Absolute Inability. Mark Dever gave spoke on altering the Gospel. Sproul spoke on the Curse Motif of the Atonement. Al Mohler spoke on the attack on Substitutionary Atonement from liberal factions with in evangelicalism.

As promised some of the messages are online for free download. R. C. Sproul's message is a must hear!!! For pastors I also recommend Dever's message. Enjoy!

Together for the Gospel messages

Standing Ovation for Bro. Bradley at Together for the Gospel Conference

2008-04-15T21:38:00.005-04:00

Greetings from Louisville, KY from the Together for the Gospel Conference!

So far I've heard two of the conference speakers: Ligon Duncan and Thabiti Anyabwile.

Duncan gave a good message on the necessity of sound theology/doctrine in pastoral ministry. Anyabwile gave the best message I've every heard on racial reconcillition. His chief premise being that "race" biblically and biologically speaking is a myth.

However the highlight so far came at the very beginning of the conference. In the introduction Mark Dever was polling the crowd for some biographical information like: who travelled the furthest for the conference, etc. Then Dever asked all senior and primary preaching pastors in the crowd to stand. He then began to ask only pastors who had been in ministry for 5 years, then 10 years, on up to remain standing.

Of course, the higher he went the fewer pastors were left standing. When Dever got to 50 years of ministry there were only two men still standing one of which was Bro. Lasserre Bradley. When the bar was raised to 55 years of gospel ministry or more, only Bro. Bradley was still standing. It was sort of an amazing moment. Even more amazing was that spontaneously, one by one, 5,000 men began to rise to their feet and clap in honor of Bro. Bradley's faithful service. In all my anticipation leading up to this conference, I never expected that Bro. Bradley would receive a standing ovation.

Tomorrow is a jammed packed day at the conference starting off at 8am with John MacArthur teaching on Total Depravity. I'm looking forward to it!

Messages from the conference should become available online soon. I'll post them when they do.

From the Pyromaniacs

2006-10-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

I've been following the "Lordship Salvation" posts on John MacArthur's blog and the Pyromaniac's blog and came across the following quote by Phil Johnson (one of the pyromaniacs) that I thought would be worth sharing. You can read the entire article here.

As Calvinists, we believe God sovereignly draws and regenerates and transforms those whom He redeems, so that the person who is saved is made a new creation. His character changes. He is, in biblical terms, born again. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). That one verse alone is sufficient to annihilate the whole system of no-lordship salvation.

see ya!
matt

Worshipping God Acceptably

2006-10-04T13:20:00.000-04:00

The following are selected portions of a letter I gave to my Church. The subject is worshipping God acceptably in our corporate worship services.

Dear Brothers and Sisters

I hope that you are rejoicing in the Lord this week and experiencing the light of His countenance. We had a wonderful time and the Men’s Bible Study last night. Bro. Jeff spoke to us on the purpose of the Church. His remarks centered around four points – 1. Worship 2. Relationship 3. Discipleship 4. Fellowship.

The things he said strongly resonated with some thoughts that the Lord has blessed me with that I have been chewing on for some time. Perhaps now would be a good time to share them with you.

My thoughts stem from two passages:

God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. (Psalm 89:7)

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

My heart has been burdened with worshipping God reverently. Particularly, I’m burdened that we worship Him with reverence in our corporate (united or combined into one) worship services.

Dear ones, I hope that these words will be an encouragement to you and a means by which we might approach our worship services in a way that would reflect the fearful holiness of God. After all, He is a consuming fire.

Psalm 89:7 teaches us that when we are assembled together, God is to be feared. Do our worship services depict the fear of God or do they depict that we have become too comfortable with Him? What exactly does it mean, for those that are about Him, to hold Him in reverence? The word reverence in this verse means to be feared or dreaded. It means to stand in awe and be astonished. I have to admit, even as the preacher, that I do not approach our “worship” services with a sense of dread and fear. Why is that?

As I consider my own heart, I believe the answer lies in the fact that I do not truly believe Hebrews 12:29: “For our God is [still, now] a consuming fire.” If I really believed that the God that I say I am approaching to worship is a consuming fire, then I believe I would approach Him and our worship services differently.

That’s the point of Hebrews 12:28. Because our God is the same God whose presence inspired mortal fear in the hearts of the children of Israel when He came down in a fire-storm on Mt. Sinai, we need grace today that we could worship Him in a way that is acceptable to Him. Isn’t that amazing? We need special power from Him (His grace) so that we can have the ability to worship Him in a way that is pleasing to Him.

I would like to make a few practical suggestions for approaching God more reverently.

Preparations for corporate worship
Many times I have been guilty of not worshipping God during the week and hoping to get my depleted battery recharged on Sunday. Doubtless, we all will have periods of our lives where this will be the case. However, it should not be the norm. Sunday should not be the beginning of our week of worship. When we come together as a body, our corporate worship services should be the overflow of lives lived worshipping throughout the week.

In other words, we all (from the youngest to the oldest) should be consistently worshipping the Lord through the week so that when we come together as a Church, our worship has been rising all week and boils over when we come together. If this is going to happen, several things are going to have to take place. First, every one of us will have to spend quality time with the Lord every day of the week. That means reading our Bibles (devotionally, not mechanically), and praying (in a Christ-centered way, not man centered way). Not only this, but as Sunday approaches (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), there should be a growing anticipation of meeting together.

Just imagine if you knew that you were going to have dinner with the President of our country in three days. Would you be nervous? Would you be prepared? Would you do everything that you knew in order to be there on time, dressed appropriately, etc. Do you think your nervousness/anticipation would grow as the day approaches?

Saturdays should be a special day of preparation for Sunday services. Saturday should be a day when we become especially thoughtful and prayerful about the next day’s events. If at all possible, Saturday should be the last day of the week when we don’t get the proper amount of rest. As you come to the evening before worship services on Sunday, it would be good to be especially careful what kind of movies you watch, music you listen to, and activities you plan.

By the time you lay your head down on Saturday night, the next mornings worship services should be your primary focus. It would also be good to have as many things as possible prepared on Saturday, so that Sunday morning is not a “mad dash” to get out of the door on time for Church.

Walking in the front door
When we arrive at Church on Sunday morning, we need to take special care how we enter the House of God. One of our greatest strengths is our warmth and family-like atmosphere. How wonderful it is to come into the assembly and be warmly greeted by people who are genuinely glad to see you! In no way am I suggesting that we discontinue this practice. However, we all need to be reminded that we should not let our familiarity and comfortableness with one another cloud the fact that we are coming together in order to approach the living God. How it must quench the Spirit for us to come together for this purpose, greet one another warmly, then digress to talking about earthly things moments before we lift our voices in praise to the God of Heaven and Earth?

When we come together, warm greetings are encouraged, but they should never overlap into the time when we have set to begin our worship services. Perhaps planning to arrive at the Church building fifteen or twenty minutes early would help prevent spending precious time, set aside for praising the Lord in song, in “catching up” or visiting (which things have there proper and helpful place).

The song service
The song service is a special time of final preparation for coming into the presence of the Lord. The scriptures teach us to “come before his presence with singing” (Psalm 100:2). In other words, singing praises to God are a sort of protocol for entering into His presence. It’s as if singing praise to God is the means by which we are ushered into His presence. Since this is such a critical part of the worship service, here are a few practical suggestions to help us approach it with reverence and godly fear:
1. As much as is possible, we should all be in our seats ready to sing at the time designated to begin the worship services. What impression do we give to visitors (not to mention our children) when we don’t honour the time we’ve set aside for worship? Much more important, what are we conveying to the Lord when we treat His plan for our coming into His presence as a “take it or leave it” part of the service?
2. Once the service begins, there should be as little getting up and down as possible. Emergencies and parents with small children are exceptions, of course. If you have to get up, it should be because you truly need to in order keep from being a distraction (parent with a crying baby) or there is some other dire circumstance. In a regular length service (I can see you laughing) most of us should be able to refrain from going to the restroom. It would be a good practice to teach our children to make it a habit to stop by the restroom before the service.
3. Once the singing begins there should be absolutely no unnecessary talking. The only talking done by someone other than the worship leader or pastor should be when a song selection is called out. Unnecessary talking is a distraction and hinders the spirit of worship. (Once again, whispering to small children would be considered an exception).
4. The song selections should always be songs that are suitable for worship. Many of the songs in our songbook are not suitable for worship. Ideally, songs that are called out should be Theocentric (God-centered), not man-centered (songs about me and how I feel). You should only call a song out if you feel prompted to by the Spirit, or the song is Christ-centered (Christocentric) and appropriate for that portion of the service. A good test is to consider the words in the song and ask yourself if they would be appropriate to sing if you were standing face to face with Jesus. If we were, we would sing Holy, Holy, Holy, not – I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger, or worse yet – Precious Memories.

Prayers and prayer requests
Prayer is an integral part of the worship service. In our public worship services we should remember that prayer is a means God has given us to worship Him. We need to remember that even our prayers are meant by God to be God-centered and not me-centered. It is easy to get bogged down with many “earthy needs” prayer requests and prayer request updates that, in the end, break the flow of our worship. Our needs do need to be carried corporately to the Lord, and we do need to know each others needs. I would like to see our prayer time in our corporate worship services become more Christ-centered, focusing on our spiritual needs rather than focusing on our earthly needs. I will be working on a system for us to record and disperse our prayer needs in a way that will be constructive and free our worship time for worship.

The preaching service
The center point of our worship is the preaching service. This is the time when the Lord speaks to us and manifests Himself to us. The preaching service is God’s response to our prayers and hymns of praise. Our prayers and songs are us speaking to God. The preaching is God speaking to us. This portion of the service should be viewed with the highest degree of reverence. Great care should be taken to be attentive and engaged, listening for what God would say to you individually.

A special word to the leaders of our homes
It is especially incumbent on the leaders of our homes to teach our families these principals and to ensure that they are being followed. Our children will take their cue from us, learning by our example how we revere the presence of the Lord in our worship services. It will take diligence on our part to model, teach, and follow through with these principals.

One last word
It is not my intention to approach this matter from a legalistic standpoint. I do not desire to hold out a list of rules for us to follow in order to earn the presence of God. I do, however, hope that you will see with me how that hungering for the presence of God might cause us to approach Him in ways that honour and magnify Him.

May we all experience and practice the presence of God with the greatest sense of hunger and humility, demonstrating to God, ourselves, our families, and the world the infinite value of the God whose name is Holy and Reverend. May God give us grace serve him acceptably with godly fear!

Your servant for Christ’s sake,
bro. matt

Irrisistable Grace

2006-09-26T17:33:00.000-04:00

To my one faithful blog follower (my Mom), please accept this entry until I have time to post one of my own.

I read this article on ReformationTheology.com and thought it would be good to share. Dr. James White is the apologist behind Alpha and Omega Ministries.

Irresistible Grace by Dr. James White
"The doctrine of "irresistible grace" is easily understood. It is simply the belief that when God chooses to move in the lives of His elect and bring them from spiritual death to spiritual life, no power in heaven or on earth can stop Him from so doing. It is really nothing more than saying that it is God who regenerates sinners, and that freely. The doctrine has nothing to do with the fact that sinners "resist" the common grace of God and the Holy Spirit (they do) or that Christians do not live perfectly in the light of God's grace. It is simply the confession that when God chooses to raise His people to spiritual life, He does so without the fulfillment of any conditions on the part of the sinner. Just as Christ had the power and authority to raise Lazarus to life without obtaining his "permission" to do so, He is able to raise His elect to spiritual life with just as certain a result.

Objections to irresistible grace are, by and large, actually objections to the previously established truths of the doctrines of grace. Obviously, if God is sovereign and freely and unconditionally elects a people unto salvation, and if man is dead in sin and enslaved to its power, God must be able to free those elect people in time and bring them to faith in Jesus Christ, and that by a grace that does not falter or depend upon human cooperation. Those who disbelieve God's right to kingship over His creation or the deadness of man in sin and put forward the tradition of man's autonomous will can hardly confess that God's grace actually saves without the freewill cooperation of man. From their perspective, the autonomous act of human faith must determine God's actions. That act of faith becomes the "foreseen" act that controls God's very decree of predestination, and, of course, that act of faith becomes the "trigger" that results in one being born again.

Neither side in the debate will deny that God is the one who raises men to spiritual life. The question is: Does He do so because men fulfill certain conditions, or does He do so freely, at His own time, and in the lives of those He chooses to bring into relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ? This question is normally framed in the context of the relationship of faith and regeneration. Do we believe to become born again, or must we first be born again before we can exercise true, saving faith? Can the natural man do what is pleasing to God? Can the dead choose to allow themselves to be raised to life? This is the issue at hand."

- Dr. James White, Debating Calvinism, p. 197- 198

Missing In Action

2006-07-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

My apologies for not posting in so long. Over the past couple of months I have accepted a call as an assistant pastor at Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church in Tifton, Georgia. My time and energies have been wrapped up in ending an old and beginning a new secular job, packing up my existing home and renovating a new one, and for the first time I'm designing a new web site for my new Church (www.fairhavenpbc.org), and besides all this the care of the Church!

This new chapter, as an assistant pastor is a daunting one for me. I'm reminded often of Paul's reflection on his ministry, "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Corinthians 2:16). Ofcourse I'm thankful for his answer to himself, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;" (2 Corinthians 3:5).

My cousin Chris Strevel, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Buford, Ga., told me once that the Church did not exist for me, but I exist for the Church. I'm thankful for this kind of godly wisdom and hope to employ it in all of my labor for the Lord and His bride. On the one hand it is so easy to be overcome with despair over the immensity and gravity of this calling. On the other, how easy it is to think it's all about me. Satan has many devices and my flesh is always a willing accomplice.

May God give me grace to rest entirely on Him and His sufficiency and may my motto ever be the motto of John the Baptist – "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30).

Piper On Giving

2006-06-03T12:23:00.000-04:00

I noticed that the Desiring God Radio Program is featuring two messages that Piper preached in March of 2003. These were two excellent messages that greatly raised my perspective on Kingdom giving. They would be well worth reading or listning to.

Don't be anxious, lay up treasures in Heaven pt. 1

Don't be anxious, lay up treasures in Heaven pt. 2

Madeline Albright on Faith

2006-06-02T13:00:00.000-04:00

Former Secretary of State to President Clinton, Madeline Albright, is worried these days. In a recent article on CNN.com, "Bush's faith worries Albright," she expresses her concern for President Bush's religious belief's and how they guide his presidency. The ex-Madame Secretary was quoted as saying, "The absolute truth is what makes Bush so worrying to some of us." apparently, Ms. Albright was more comfortable with Presidents Carter and Clinton, both of which she worked for, who she says "were men of faith, but did not make their religious views part of American policy."

So, Ms. Albright is concerned with President Bush's faith, and the fact that it is rooted in "absolute truth" is especially troubling for the distressed, one-time Secretary of State. I guess if "absolute truth" frightens you, then she must have felt more comfortable with a man, who when he's in a pinch, can distort the definition of "is" – anyone remember that?

Ms. Albright goes on in the article to define "faith" from the perspective of her own "very confused religious background." Her legacy of a mixture of Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and late-discovered Jewish ancestry makes her "wary of any religion which claims a monopoly on truth." She now claims to be an Episcopalian with an Catholic background who still prays to Mary. And she sums up her faith this way: "I know I believe in God but I have doubts, and doubt is part of faith."

Thus my impetus for posting today. Is doubt a part of faith?

No! Doubt is the opposite of faith. How sad it is that Ms. Albright counts her doubt in God as evidence of having "faith." Faith does not produce "doubt," it produces hope. Faith is the human response to having confidence in an object which leads to reliance on the object. If I doubt that my car will get me from point A to point B, then you can hardly say that I have faith in my car. Actually, you would say that I have the opposite of faith in it. Likewise, if I have doubts about Christ, I'll never rely on Him.

Hope is the positive expectation that springs from relying on (having faith in) who Christ is and what He has promised. For the person with true christian faith, even the trials and struggles of this life only serve to strengthen our faith, not cast doubt on it. It's through our struggles that God's faithfulness is proven over and over. His faithfulness in our suffering, produces hope, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost (Ro. 5:3-5).

Faith which does not lead to hope, even in the hard times of life, is not the work of God. True faith, is a work that God does in the heart, mind, and life of His children (Jn. 6:29, Eph. 2:8, 2 Thess. 1:11). To say that doubting God is a part of the work that God is doing, is to undermine God's wisdom and ability to do His pleasure.

One last thought:
While doubt is the opposite of faith, and does not spring forth from faith; that is not to say that those with true faith never experience doubt. Quite the contrary! Satan loves to plant seeds of doubt in the minds of God's children concerning the character of God and his perfect ability to perform His promises. Every time Satan whispers doubt in our ears, The Holy Spirit cries from our heart, "Abba, Father!" (Ro. 8:15, Ga. 4:6).

This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 Jn. 5:4).

Memorial Day

2006-05-29T08:52:00.000-04:00

Today our nation celebrates the men and women who have given their lives for our freedom. This freedom we enjoy has not come without cost. Tens of thousands of men have shed their blood so that you and I can have the privilege of living as we please without fear. Liberty from tyranny and oppression always comes at a high cost. Not only have tens of thousands of men given their lives for our liberty, but tens of thousands of mothers, fathers, wives, sons, and daughters have sacrificed the lives of their loved ones so that we can enjoy this blessing.

The liberty that we enjoy, as a nation, is only a faint echo of the spiritual liberty that is possessed in the kingdom of priests, whose freedom has been bought by the King. As with our national freedom, our spiritual freedom has come at a great price. Our freedom has not been purchased with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pt. 1:18). Peter tells us that the most incorruptible, precious, and valuable items on earth are worthless compared to the sacrifice that the Son of God offered to His Father on the behalf of our sins. How can one estimate the value of God's most precious commodity – the life of, and fellowship with His Son?

If the price of our freedom cost the most valuable possession that God had, then how horrific must our bondage been? The price paid on Calvary illustrates gravity of the crime of our sin against an infinitely holy God. It is on the cross that we behold the wrath of God poured out on our sin, which was borne by our Saviour.

This precious price has purchased, not only our freedom from the curse of sin, but our freedom to be in the presence of God without incurring His wrath. Maybe you've never wondered why the proud eagle is the symbol of American liberty. In His redemption of His national children from Egyptian bondage (clearly a projecting forth of His redemption of His spiritual children from sin's bondage), The Lord said: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself" (Ex. 19:4). What great lengths our Father has gone to, in order to have us for His own treasure!

As we reflect, with thanksgiving, on the great price that has been paid for our nation's liberty; let our hearts be drawn to worship the King that paid the penalty for our sin, that we might enjoy being free in Him forever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (Jn. 8:36).

Henry Scougal Quote

2006-05-26T12:50:00.000-04:00

Here's a quote from I great book I just read by Henry Scougal (1650-1678) - The Life of God in the Soul of Man.

...the ‘chief exercises of humility’ are those which relate unto Almighty God, so these are accompanied with the greatest satisfaction and sweetness. It is impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which religious persons feel in the lowest prostration of their souls before God, when, having a deep sense of the divine majesty and glory, they sink, if I may so speak, to the bottom of their beings, and vanish and disappear in the presence of God,

Oh to sink to the bottom of my being and vanish and disappear in the presence of God!
Isaiah 57:15

The Absolute Effectiveness of God's Word

2006-05-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

The Word of God

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

So shall my word be that goeth forth our of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

Perhaps the greatest view we have into the vast expanse of God's raw power, is through His word. From the dawn of the History of Redemption, God has delighted to reveal Himself as the supreme communicator. Creation becomes the pattern for understanding God's effectiveness in His communication. God said, "let there be light: and there was light." In no case did God ever command anything into existence with His voice, that did not spontaneously begin to exist.

Likewise, not one word of God has ever fallen to the ground without successfully achieving the purpose for which it was sent – not in creation or in any other sphere where the Almighty exerts the influence of His voice! Jesus gave us a glorious object lesson when He stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and commanded with a loud voice that he "come forth." Jesus didn't have to repeat Himself. He didn't need to! The word of God from His own lips was efficient in performing precisely what Christ had desired to be done. In John 5:25 Jesus declared, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." Our God has never commanded a single stony heart of a dead sinner to become a heart of flesh that did not instantly begin to beat.

It cannot be overlooked that true preaching of the Gospel is the actual "word of God" (1 Thessalonians 2:13) and that it carries in it the same raw power that God used to speak the world into existence (Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:18). Every time God sends His word via the Gospel, it always accomplishes His precise purpose. The preaching of the Gospel is the means God uses to convert His people to Himself. Acts 13:48 teaches us that "as many as were ordained to eternal life" believed the Gospel preached to them by Paul. I like the phrase: as many as. It means not one more, or one less! How could that be possible without God omnipotently working through His word to bring His children to faith in Him? Paul was not hesitant to tell the Thessalonians that they had from the beginning been chosen to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth. What is the means that God uses to accomplish this? His word (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

God's word is His tool for sanctifying His sheep (John 17:17). It is in His word that He appears to His people (2 Samuel 3:21). God has given us His word so that creation would become a stage for the declaration of His glory. He has spoken life into our hearts that we would have the ability to behold His glory. And He appears to us through His word, revealing to us His glory and majesty. As we gaze on His beauty, in His word, we are more and more transformed – by the Spirit into that same image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

It is God's purpose that His word, from start to finish, would transform us into the image of His dear Son...and His word will not return to Him void!

The Glory of God: Our Good!

2006-05-24T09:24:00.000-04:00

Scripture teaches us that, in His infinite wisdom and power, God is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). That's hard to see sometimes. How can cancer, divorce, death, etc. be for anyone's good? If God's word is true, then the question must arise: what is our good? Is it health, wealth, and happiness? My answer: no, no, and maybe.

God is not silent on what our good is. In Ephesians 1:11-12 Paul tells us that we have been "predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory..." So when we compare Romans 8:28 and Ephesians 1:11-12, we can see that our good is that we would be "to the praise of his glory!"

Typically, it's our health and wealth that lead us away from God. It's when I feel like I have everything I need, that I don't sense my need for God and my dependence on Him grows weak. While we would like to think of our health and wealth being for our good, more often than not they do more for our harm than they do our good.

So I said that health and wealth were not for our good, but our happiness may be for our good. What do I mean? Happiness is not for our good when our happiness is in health and wealth! Happiness is our good when it is rooted in contentment in God's working out all the details of my life – good and bad, so that I will be more like His Son. Let's say that another way. God's ruling the events in my life so that I would "be to the praise of his glory" by making me more like Christ, should produce joy in my life; even if God is using cancer to do it!

My greatest good is that God would show His love for me by making me more and more like Jesus, which gives Him great glory, especially when I consider what I am without Him. If the Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10), and if He learned obedience through the things which He suffered (Hebrews 5:8); shall God not likewise use suffering in our lives to make us complete and obedient?

King David said that God was faithful to afflict him (Psalm 119:75), and that before he was afflicted, he went astray (Psalm 119:67). It is through our sufferings and afflictions that God, in His faithfulness and mercy, burns off our impurities and conforms us to the image of Christ. This is the story of redemption: bringing order out of chaos, joy out of sorrow, and glory out of suffering. This is the story of the cross.

Being like Christ is our greatest good!

Introducing – GloryBlogger

2006-05-23T08:15:00.000-04:00

Dear Family and Friends,

If you know what a blog is, you're probably sighing – another blog. If you haven't been introduced to the world of blogdom yet, here's your introduction. Blog is short for "web log." Web logs started as a sort of online journal for families to stay in touch, however "blogging" has evolved into a major media outlet. Personally I follow a few blogs which are published by other Christians. My two favorites are Reformation Theology and Pyromaniacs – Be sure to check out why they call themselves "Pyromaniacs," I wish I'd come up with that! Anyway, for my introductory blog, let me share with you why I've named my Blog "GloryBlogger" and what I hope to come of this venture.

"GloryBlogger"
The "theme verse" for my blog is Ezekiel 3:23. The "Pyromaniacs" already took Jeremiah 23:29, so I choose this one. Why? It has become apparent to me over the past few years that the Glory of God is the main thing in everything! The Glory of God is not the sub point of any subject! After I was called to preach, God used a book by John Piper, God's Passion for His Glory, to awaken my senses to the reality that the display of the beauty and majesty of God is the reason why every atom in this universe exists.

As my senses began to be awakened, suddenly I began to notice that many other Christians didn't seem to sense or feel the centrality of the Glory of God, just like I didn't for twenty seven or twenty eight years! Suddenly I realized that I'd heard the phrase "the Glory of God" thousands of times in my life. I went to Church for the Glory of God, I read my Bible for the Glory of God, I served God for the glory of God, all the preaching I'd ever heard was for the glory of God. The problem was that I didn't have a clue what the Glory of God really is. At least if I knew it in my head, I didn't feel it in my heart. I felt like a blind man whose eyes had just been opened to behold the most beautiful sunrise that God had ever created!

God put a giant exclamation point on my new found understanding of His purpose for all He does, when I was trying to describe to someone what I was experiencing and how that I thought most of us have been missing the point about the centrality of God's doing everything He does to display how beautiful He is. I could see the blank look on this person's face which was a confirmation to me of what I was trying to say. That's when I realized that I had been exactly where he was only a few years before – oblivious to the Glory of God!

That was a cataclysmic event for me. If the Glory of God and it's display throughout the universe is the thing that God is doing in the world and He called me to preach, then God's glory could no longer be the sub point of anything I ever say. It has to be the main point! The theme of my preaching is Psalm 145:5, "I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty...". My job, as an instrument in the hands of an Almighty God, is to awaken the hearts and minds of everyone I come into contact with to the all surpassing treasure of the glory and majesty of my great Redeemer.

This leads me to my theme verse for this blog: Ezekiel 3:23. When a person can see the Glory of God, the only appropriate response is worship! As a matter of fact, worship is the reflex of being in the revealed presence of the glory of God. This is a theme that runs throughout the scriptures: When the Glory of God shows up, people fall on their faces! This is the way that we glorify God: every moment of our lives is meant to be a moment spent on our faces before God. This is the concept of worship: exalting what you adore most by bowing down to it.

What do I hope will come of this?
This will give me another outlet to "speak of the glorious honour of His majesty." I hope that this endeavor would be used by God to awaken all who read it to a greater sense of the worth of the glory and majesty of God, and draw us closer to Him.

Come and check in often.