Next Month’s Bible Reading Plan

I’m always tinkering with my plans for reading the Bible and I’m always on the lookout for a fresh idea. This month Pastor Jason had a good one that I used. For the first half of the month you read one of the short epistles of the New Testament per day. Then you pick the one God impressed upon you the most and you read just that one every day for the second half of the month. If you want to try it in May, here’s a schedule

1st – Galatians
2nd – Ephesians
3rd – Philippians
4th – Colossians and Philemon
5th – 1 Thessalonians
6th – 2 Thessalonians
7th – 1 Timothy
8th – 2 Timothy
9th – Titus
10th – James
11th – 1 Peter
12th – 2 Peter
13th – 1 John
14th – 2 John, 3 John, Jude
15th –> end of month. Pick one of the above books and read it 15 times.

Porn

I just put that word up there to increase blog traffic. Here are some links to sermons that will help you to resist all sorts of tempation, not just the pornographic kind.

Romans 6:11

Romans 6:12-13

Romans 6:15-19

Romans 8:13

Proverbs 4

Proverbs 5

Proverbs 6-7

Ephesians 6:11

Philippians is the Book of the Month

(excerpt from sermon on Philippians 3:12ff).

If you have walked around downtown, you may have seen those hi-rise construction workers who baffle onlookers below by briskly walking along these steel girders 60 stories above street level. How do they do that? Well, I’m sure that one important rule is “Don’t look down.” And you don’t really need to. If you put the girder on street level, it’s no problem, it’s pretty wide. You don’t need to carefully consider the placement of your feet on every step. If you do look at your feet, you are more likely to get vertigo and fall. In order to walk in a straight line on the girder, it is necessary to look forward, look straight ahead, look at where you are going, and then your feet will naturally follow a straight line, just as they would at street level.

Similarly, in order to walk the narrow path of the Christian life, you need to look forward. That’s what Paul tells us now in this final third of Philippians chapter three.

First third, 1-6, warned against legalism.
Second third, 7-11, showed that true righteousness comes not from the law, but from faith in Christ.

Now in this final third he must respond to a natural objection that he faced again and again in his ministry. If salvation is by faith, won’t this result in laziness? Won’t people just blow off the pursuit of holiness and say I’m saved by faith, I don’t need to care about that? And in response Paul teaches that true faith is an active faith. True faith is a persevering faith. True faith presses on and stretches forward toward the goal.

Keep on the narrow path and avoid falling off into one of two fatal heresies.

legalism vs. license. Walk in liberty.
confidence in the flesh vs. indulging the flesh. Walk by the Spirit.
holiness by law vs. grace as leniency. Grace is power for holiness.

But walking in the liberty of the Spirit is not a balance between legalism and license. If you try to balance grace and holiness you’ll end up saying things like “I believe in grace but gee whiz, we’ve got to slap some rules down here somewhere or this thing’s gonna get out of hand.” Or you might say, “I believe in pursuing holiness, but I don’t want to get carried away with it and be a fanatic.” Trying to live this way, trying to balance grace and holiness is like trying to walk the girder while looking at your feet. You’re gonna get confused and fall off. The only way to keep your feet on the narrow path, the only way to keep grace and holiness inseparably wedded together in fullness is not to be always thinking about balance but to be consumed with a passion for knowing Christ, which Paul told us last week is the essence of the Christian life. If the hi-rise worker looks straight ahead his feet will stay on the beam. And if keep our eyes fixed on seeing more of Christ, we will have a holiness produced not by legalism, but flowing from a heart that embraces Jesus in faith.

Audio sermons on Philippians are here.

Going to the Movies

I’m taking Joel and Patrick to see Expelled at the Savoy 16 tonight at 7:20. If you want to go, send me an email or just meet us there.

Whoa. Did you feel that?

We were awakened this morning at 4:37am by a shaking bed and a barking Jack Dog.   At first I thought someone had driven by with some mega-bass coming out of their speakers.  But then I realized we had the windows open and I didn’t hear anything.  Then I thought it was a violent wind storm.  But I looked outside and it was calm.  It was a few minutes before we asked ourselves if it could be an earthquake.  Don’t get many of those ’round these parts.  

Did you feel it?  

“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  (Luke 21:28)

EDIT: A link to more data on the earthquake

Philippians 1:6 (Sermon Excerpt)

If I were to ask you to tell me what you thought was the main theme of Philippians many of you would probably answer “joy”.  And that would be right, but incomplete.  The reason Paul teaches them so much about joy is to serve a larger purpose–to encourage them to persevere in suffering.  Finding joy in Christ is a key to persevering in the faith.  And Paul is confident that they will persevere.  What we will see today is that having this confidence in God’s preservation of the saints and therefore confidence in the saints’ perseverance is the key to praying with joy.

The fact that the Philippians are supporting his ministry and joining in suffering for the gospel and contending for the faith is an occasion of rejoicing in prayer for Paul.   I choose that word “occasion” carefully.  The Philippians partnership is the occasion of Paul’s joy, but it is not the ultimate ground of Paul’s joy.  The ground of Paul’s joy is verse 6, his confidence that God is going to finish what he started in the hearts of the Philippians.  verse 5 is the occasion of rejoicing, verse 6 is the fountain of rejoicing. 

This is a subtle distinction, but it is tremendously important so let me belabor the point.  The word “because” in verse 5 is too strong.  NAS is better “in view of”. “being confident” in verse 6 is a participle going back to the verbs “give thanks” and “pray with joy”.  So let me try to rearrange and simplify this sentence to make the point stand out.  “In view of your partnership in the gospel, I pray with joy being confident…”  I hope that phrase will stay with you this morning because that is my whole point. “I pray with joy being confident”  Confidence in God is the key to praying with joy. 

Quote of the Day

John Halton of the BHT says:

A few years ago I was quite into the whole Doug Wilson approach to Christian childrearing. But I finally fell out with Wilson on this issue when reading his umpteenth article or book on how covenant faithfulness is the route to ensuring your children remain in the faith, and how if your children reject their faith then that is because the parents have not been sufficiently faithful in raising them. The penny dropped and I realised that what this amounted to was saying: “Do this and they will live”.

New Link

If you like to play chess online, click the link on the sidebar.  If you want to challenge me to a game, my username there is isaiah543. 

EDIT: You’re probably thinking you don’t have time to play chess.  But this site allows you to choose a time limit of 3-14 days per move.   I think we can manage that.

By Request: Intro to 1 Peter

The book of 1 Peter consists of two sections of unequal length, 1:1-2:10, and 2:11-5:14.   The second lengthier section calls Christians to “be subject” to one another (2:13, 18, 3:1, 22, 5:5) and to follow Christ’s example of faith, innocence, and patience when suffering.  A key verse is 4:19 “let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

The first section reminds me of a story.  Some years ago a college student in our church led another college student to Christ.  I was called upon to meet with this new Christian for some “initial follow-up” as we used to call it in the Navigators.  I decided I would simply share with her from the passage I had read that morning, 1 Peter 1-2.   It seemed so perfectly suited for such an occasion that now I go to this passage whenever I am encouraging brand new believers.   For it speaks of being born again (1:3, 23, 2:2).  It speaks of our living hope and gives assurance of salvation (1:3-5).  It warns of coming trials (1:6), something we routinely neglect to mention in evangelism.  It calls to obedience (1:14).  It exhorts us to long for the milk of the word of God (2:2).   And it tells us of our place in the church (2:4-10).  We are living stones in a spiritual house.  We are a royal priesthood.  We are part of a people.  This too is routinely neglected in evangelism.   Like physical newborns, spiritual newborns need two things above all else: food and love.  So this call to word and church is well suited for sharing with a new believer.

Blessing

Numbers 6:23-27   “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,  ²⁴ The LORD bless you and keep you;  ²⁵ the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;  ²⁶ the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.  ²⁷ “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

A few days ago there was a brief discussion in the Boar’s Head Tavern about whether the word “bless” is now irrecoverably emptied of meaning.  Shortly thereafter I read this highlight from the book I mentioned yesterday:

“Thus, the man who had put the names of the Israelites on his breast as he went into the Holy of Holies then came forth and through his blessing was the means by which the Lord put his name onto all Israel.  Invoking the name of the Lord in this benediction transferred the name, the identity and presence, of God onto his people.  The blessing was a kind of branding.  The people who had had their sins, the defining mark of separation from God, taken away from them now received in return a defining word of acceptance….

“So Jesus in his ascension took the offering of his blood into the true Holy of Holies, the presence of His Father.  In our name and on our behalf, he offered his perfect life of obedience.  In our stead, he offered his sacrifice.  And it was accepted.  Unlike Aaron, however, Jesus has not yet returned to his people waiting outside.  He remains ‘inside the inner sanctuary behind the curtain’ (Hebrews 6:19).  There he continues to intercede for us, and though he has not yet returned in the flesh to bring the time to consummation, he still blesses us.  For the ascended Christ receives the Holy Spirit from His Father and pours Him out upon the disciples.  This blessing, the Spirit, imprints the name and identity of God upon us in an even more potent and dynamic way than the wonderful Aaronic blessing ever could.” 

Amen.  The Lord bless you and keep you.