God Is God

God Is God

you say to men " God is God"

They seem to see the truth and nod.
And when you say" He can do anything"
They will surely like that orthodox ring.

But when you say " He Chose"
Their minds begin to close.
For they have learned by rote,
Mankind has the deciding vote.

In matters not What Scriptures say;
Modern man must have his sway.
"Let God be God but not over me!"
In every man Adam shouts his plea.

For in each man there speaks a voice ,
"Thank you, please, I'll make my own choice.
Let God be God and do what I say.
If He won't, then I won't play."

Then he boasts and appeals to reason,
"I chose God and I'm not teasin."
"Reason will answer," men declare,
"We chose Him, that makes Him fair."

Some never learn that they've got it wrong;
They just keep singing that tired old song.
Reason wins over every decree.
God does not decide they all agree.

"He has no rights over man's clay.
We saved ourselves on a lucky day."
This is the the pride of Adam's whole race,
"We need just a little of thy divine grace."

And that pretty much tells man's story;
If he needs little grace, he gets much glory.
Except that Truth just keeps on repeating,
"Don't you know My grace you're depleting?"

So, my friend--

When you learn your opinion to shun,
You'll probably find an "election" you've won.
You'll hear, far above reason's noise and din,
A voice, "My will too needed to be born again."

Kenneth D. Johns

Brazil Sunset

..."there is nothing new under the sun."
(Eccleiastes 1:9b)

I was trying to get this in the above "Always Reforming" window. Can Any one tell me how?

Christ Taught !

George Whitefield the great evangelist from the 18th Century said..."I embrace the Calvinist scheme, not because Calvin, but Jesus Christ taught it to me" George Whitfield vol. 1, Banner of Truth Trust,p 406

George said to John Wesley ... I cannot bear the thoughts of opposing you; but how can I avoid it, if you go about ( as you brother Charles once said) to drive John Calvin out of Bristol. Atlas, I never read any thing that Calvin wrote; my doctrines I had from Christ and His apostles; I was taught them of God. (Dallimore P. 574) The doctrines of our election, and free justification in Christ Jesus are daily more and more pressed upon my heart. They fill my soul with a holy fire and afford me great confidence in God my Saviour.

I hope we shall catch fire from each other, and that there will be a holy emulation amongst us, who shall most debase man and exalt the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the doctrines of the Reformation can do this. All others leave freewill in man and make him, in part at least a saviour to himself. My soul, come not thou near the secret of those who teach such things...I know Christ is all in all. Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure.

Oh , the excellency of the doctrine of election and of the saints' final perseverance! I am persuaded, till a man comes to believe and feel these important truths, he cannot come out of himself, but when convinced of these and assured of their application to his own heart. He then walks by faith indeed! (Dallimore, p.407)

It is no novelty, then ,that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make a pilgrimage into the past , and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me... Taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of ancients peopled with my brethren; I behold multitudes who confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that this the religion of God's own church. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "Election", The Metropolitan Tabernacle)

One great hardy Amen! My personal testimony is similar to George Whitfield. That is I did not read any Calvin or Calvinist literature before I believed in the doctrines of grace. By God's amazing grace I have always believed them. To no credit of my own, but to God alone.

I turned the TV on the other day and "The little House on the prairie " was on, I haven't watch it in years, so I sat, and decided to watch it. I missed the first part of the show , but one of the characters dies, and Charles tries to comfort Edwards, who lost his wife. Edwards gets mad at God, and was asking, why God ? Why did you let my wife die? Then Charles speaks up, and said, somethings just happen, no reason, they just happen. Boy, aint that comforting, and God glorifying? A THOUSAND TIMES ...NO! I was struck by the fact that I grew up on that show, I grew up in a non reformed upbringing. No one in my family is reformed. They don't even know what that means. They don't know, like so many Christians what the doctrines of grace are. They could not tell you much about the reformation. So, I am amazed why God chose me, in spite of the environment I grew up in. Amazing grace

Pagan Lies

Paganism is on the rise! Yet, there is to be sure, nothing new under the sun. Repackaged lies for hungry, worldly consumers. Guest Lecturer Dr.Peter Jones has got the pulse, on the current global culture. So here I will give an outline of his lecture. His lecture was not so much on Dan Brown's book "The Da Vinci Code" and it's construed lies and fabrications ,but rather the focus was on paganisms war against Thesistic Theism. Paganism is opposed to God, and all the distinctions God has created. It undermines biblical Christianity, and substitutes a cheap "new"spirituality. Which has an emergence of estotericism , and leads to a revival of alternate spiritualities, and secret societies that will emerge in the culture as paganism grows.

Dan Brown, and others promoting this paradigm shift want to see the rehabilitation of pagan symbols .Such as the circle -that speaks of oneness, and togetherness, and unity. The pentagram, the Baphomet- symbol for wisdom. The goddess- symbol of nature.

Dr.Peter Jones gave five points of paganism. 1.all is one 2.all humanity is one 3.all religions are one 4.there is one problem ( they would say, we are sleeping, we are ignorant) 5.there is one solution ( they would say we need to be awaken to the fact that we are divine, we are gods or god)

The high goals of pagan spiritituality are; stress reduction such as yoga ,which means link to god, not the God of the bible. A sense of belonging-discovering one's true self-saving humanity-reinventing the human. Practical methods pagans part take in are; meditation (eastern) silence the mind ( the mind is to be, bypassed by not thinking, using mantra's). Communion with animals. This all leads pagans to the nature of the experience, liberation (freedom from God and guilt) possession (feels good, high emotions) True knowledge (they believe they are given enlightenment)

All this for the purpose of taking control- a.taking control by joining the opposites ( no differerentials) b.taking control sexually c.taking control via psychology d.taking control via astology e.taking control ethically f.taking control of philosophy h.taking control of the planet.

So, here is a little taste of what we fighting against.

"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2. Cor 10:5)

Peter Jones

Today, I listened to a lecture called "The Deep Code of "The Da Vinci Code" & The Rise of Modern Paganism" Peter Jones was the Guest Lecturer. He is co-author of the book above "Cracking Da Vinci's Code. He is Scholar in Residence at Westminster Seminary California. He has had many accomplishments . He grew up in Liverpool, England. Received his B.A at the University of Wales, a B.D at Gordan Divinity School and a Th.M at Harvard Divinity School. He than met Rebecca Clowney, than married her in 1971. At that time he completed a Ph.D. at Princeston Seminary. He went on in 1973 to La Faculte Libre de Theologie Reformee d' Aix-en-Provence in France, with Mission to the World (PCA) He then helped start a Christian school and a church. His wife Rebecca bore him five children. Then they returned to the USA , for him to join and teach at Wetminster Seminary California. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister. His books he has authored include -The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back- Pagans in the Pews- Gospel Truth, Pagan Lies:Can You Tell the Differrence?- Capturing the Pagan Mind-God and Sex: How Worldview determines Sexuality(Coming soon)
He has now a ministry called "Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet" You can visit the website at (www.cwipp.org)

Offering Violence by the Reading of The Word

Showing the Holy Violence A Christian is to Put Forth in the Pursuit After Glory

In chapter three Thomas Watson deals with offering violence by the reading of the word. Dear reader do you read the word? How much do you read the word? How do you read the word? Do you understand what you are reading? Is reading the word of God a delight to your soul? Dear friend do you tremble at His word?

The puritans read the word every day and about 15 chapters a day. I am amazed at how little effort we Christians put forth to read the sacred scriptures. Lets put it this way, it takes about 72 hours to read the bible in its entirety, at a casual speed. Ask Max McLean. Divide that by 365 days in a year and you get a little more than 5 minutes a day. Now I am told that it is good to brush my teeth after each meal, three times a day at least for 2 minutes each time. That would add up to be 6 minutes of brushing my teeth per day and 5 minutes of reading the word. My teeth might last a little longer, but how can my soul be ablaze with a strong fortified zealous faith.

My dear reader I am preaching to my soul as well as yours, may we be violent with ourselves and cut off all our unfounded weak arguments that have resurrected themselves against ourselves. Thus do as Augustine heard from dear little children...Take up...Take up and read.

Watson said we must provoke ourselves to reading of the Word. What an infinite mercy it is that God has honored us with the scriptures! Read the Word as a book made by God Himself. It is given by divine inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16). It is the library of the Holy Spirit. The word is of divine origin and reveals the deep things of God to us. ...Every blade of grass speaks of God. Read the Word as a perfect rule of faith; it contains all things essential to salvation. "I adore the fullness of scripture," saith Tertullian. The word teaches us how to please God; how to order our conversation in the world. It instructs us in all things that belong either to prudence or piety. How should we read the Word with care and reverence, when it contains a perfect model and platform of religion and is "able to make us wise unto salvation" (2 Tim. 3:15)! When you read the Word , look on it as a soul-enriching treasury. Search here as for a vein of silver (Pro. 2:4) Read the Word as a book of evidences! Would you know whether God is your God? Search the records of scriptures ,"Hereby we know whether you are heirs of the promise?(1 John. 3:24)
Look upon the Word as a spiritual magazine out of which you fetch all your weapons to fight against sin. The word of God is a consecrated sword that's cuts asunder the lusts of the heart. Read it as a book by which you will be judged.

Do you have a regular bible reading plan? I would like to hear about it. Does it work well with your soul? Reading the bible clear through in a year is as I suppose, a place to start , but as I have pointed out above, do you want to devote as much time with God in His precious word as brushing your teeth? And how can you remember what you read last year? Here's my reading plan . I like to read Psalms and proverbs every month. Psalms for it's prayer and praise. Proverbs for it's wisdom. Which I am in desperate need of daily. I read 5 chapters of Psalms each day in the morning to awaken and to arouse myself toward worshiping God. Then I read 1 chapter of Proverbs per morning so as to have wisdom through out the day. Then I read the New Testament for about 1 hour and a half. At night then I read the Old Testament for 1 hour.I must do this to keep any spiritual fervor. It might sound like a bit much for some. I do not say this to boast only that I know how much I need. I know myself. Luther spent 3 to 4 hours each morning in intense prayer, why because he said...I know myself and that is how much I need to be in prayer lest I go out and sin so easily.

BLOOD EARNESTNESS

Blood earnestness what is it?
Thomas Watson Men could be content to have the kingdom of Heaven; but they are loathe to fight for it. They choose rather to go in a feather bed to Hell than to be carried to Heaven in a 'fiery chariot' of zeal and violence. -Thomas Watson. ...Until you believe that life is war...That the stakes are your soul, you will probably just play at Christianity with no blood earnestness and no vigilance and no passion and no wartime mindset. -John S Piper
Blood earnestness is a hearts cry to have all of God or nothing at all . I want you or nothing at all. At all cost. My blood spilled out if necessary. I must have you Lord. I must put to death my sin. My sin that hinders my joy of fellowship with thee. As John Owen said be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

I have been reading Thomas Watson's book 'Heaven Taken By Storm'. I strongly recommend this book. Many of us are moved by the passion driven preaching of John Piper. We want his passion. I know I do. Where does he get it? It is so rare. I hardly know of any one who has fire in his belly. I know so many nice guys. Just nice and friendly. No backbone. No zeal...or so little zeal. I DON'T WANT TO BE ONE OF THESE. God save me from the cesspool of indifference. Please tell me where or how to get this blood earnestness?
Many of the passion driven preachers of today have this one thing in common. Reading Puritan literature. I heard Piper on the radio just the other day encouraging his listeners to read the puritans . Why?...Because of their intense blood earnestness. I would whole heartedly agree. I can not recommend the Puritans highly enough.

Heaven Taken By Storm by Thomas Watson is a great work to read. "The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence , and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11:12) this is the text for this book. I will be taking some of the chapters and discussing them on later blog posts as I have been meditating on them and implementing them in my life. Thomas said... We must offer violence in order to get into Heaven."We must offer violence to Heaven in regard to the difficulty of the work-taking a kingdom . First, we must be pulled out of another kingdom, the kingdom of darkness (Acts 26:18). To get out of the state of nature is hard, and when that is done and we are cut off from the wild olive and implanted into Christ, there is still new work to do: new sins to mortify, new temptations to resist, new graces to quicken. A Christian must not only get faith, but go "from faith to faith" (Rom. 1:17). This will not be done without violence."We must offer violence to Heaven in regard to the violent assaults made against us. Our own hearts oppose us. This is a strange paradox: Man naturally desires happiness, yet opposes it; he desires to be saved, yet hates that holy violence which would save him."

Semper-Reformanda Always Reforming

We must remember the past as we look to the future. As Christians we should stand on the shoulders of past Christians to see what they saw. We also need to continue studying the sacred scriptures as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. The reformation of church and life is always ongoing.

My aim and passion for this blog site and my life is to bring glory to God and to enjoy Him forever. Thus my mission is ...

• Proclaiming- the glory, splendor,majesty, and the sovereignty of God, and the eccelanticies of Christ Jesus as He has reveiled Himself to be.
• promoting- the reformed faith that encompasses the doctrines of grace.
• Provoking- the church to pursue God ,and to adhere to sound doctrine for faith and practice to the honor of God for the glory of God.