Communism // Reformation // Fathers Exasperating

Doug Wilson has a good screed against communism, because of its direct dependence on envy.


How about a Reformation biography each day for the month of October, leading up to the 500th Reformation Day?  Desiring God fills the bill.


6 ways fathers can exasperate children.  Helpful and short.



"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" - Romans 8:18.

Yahweh is LORD // In the Market without the Beast's Sign on You

Here's an important article explaining why, when I read Scripture in church and it says "the LORD," I usually say "Yahweh."  Our English Bibles change the Hebrew Yahweh (a personal pronoun and a name) to the title Lord.


A modest win for religious liberty in Lansing, Michigan, as reported by World Magazine.

Purging and Inviting

1 Corinthians 5:7

"purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened."

Where it is obvious that a member of the church has left the way of the Lord, the church is bound by duty to purge out the leaven.  There is a door, and Christ and God’s favor are inside, and judgment and wrath are outside.  There are only two kingdoms – light and darkness.  The kingdom of the Son and the kingdom of the dark Lord.  If we refuse and turn away from Christ, then we are delivered to Satan, no matter what lies we believe about living our own life.  This is sobering to consider at the table, and we often sing about it: “Lord, why am I a guest?  Why was I made to hear Your voice and enter while there’s room, when 1000s make a wretched choice, and rather starve than come.  The same love that spread the feast sweetly draws us in.”  Let us thank God all the more for bringing us to Him.

Even when the church excludes some from the table, she also calls all to enter the kingdom of God by repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ for forgiveness.  She points to that doorway as a doorkeeper for God’s house.  

We now sit in God’s house as His children, redeemed, cleansed, forgiven, loved and accepted.  

Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 85

Q. How is the kingdom of heaven closed and opened by Christian discipline?
A. According to the command of Christ:
Those who, though called Christians,
profess unchristian teachings or live unchristian lives,
and who after repeated personal and loving admonitions,
refuse to abandon their errors and evil ways,
and who after being reported to the church, that is,
to those ordained by the church for that purpose,
fail to respond also to the church’s admonitions—
such persons the church excludes from the Christian community
by withholding the sacraments from them,
and God also excludes them from the kingdom of Christ.1

Such persons,
when promising and demonstrating genuine reform,
are received again as members of Christ and of his church.2

1 Matt. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5:3-5, 11-13; 2 Thess. 3:14-15
2 Luke 15:20-24; 2 Cor. 2:6-11

9/10/17

Undone

Isaiah 6:5-7

“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.”

Isaiah exclaims that he is undone by his uncleanness in comparison to God’s majesty and holiness.  Without this sense of our personal undoing, we probably lack a true repentance.  It’s a sense of helplessness before holiness, a sense of guilt standing in front of glory.  Do you know God’s displeasure and wrath against sin?  Against your sin?  We must confess and admit our guilt.  Not just the guilt of the people we live among.  Our OWN guilt.  We have unclean lips and lives.

Let us confess our sins to the Lord.

9/10/17

Angels and Demons

I recently had a discussion about how much demons can influence believers, and not-as-recently read through Calvin's Institutes on Angels and Demons with a discussion group, which is excellent.  But there was some lamentation that good resources on this subject are sparse.
Here's a small collection.

Calvin - start in paragraph 3

Alistair Begg did a sermon series on the devil and his work, recently.

Frederick Leahy - Satan Cast Out - published by Banner of Truth
I haven't read this one, only perused it.

War with the Dragon

Revelation 12:17
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The same dragon that tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden, that fought with Michael and the angels, that sought to destroy the Christ child at His birth, that tempted Him in the wilderness, that same dragon is making war with the woman and her offspring – that means the church – that means you.

But the accuser has been cast down from heaven.  That’s bad news because he was thrown down to us, to give us trouble.  But it’s good news because his defeat has already come.  The same God who protected His Son at His birth, protects His church.  He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

9/17/17

Sin Leads to Suffering

Psalm 32:3-5

When I kept silent, my bones grew old

Through my groaning all the day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.  Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

These verses are in the context of repenting and being forgiven, which we will come to in the ass of pard.  But notice first, that when we hold back from repenting, we suffer.  When we cling to our pet sins, we are holding fire close to our chest, thinking we won’t get burned.  That verse is from Prov 6, in the context of sexual sin: none who touches his neighbor’s wife will go unpunished.  He will get wounds and dishonor and disgrace.  And there is a slower, milder burn we get for lesser sins.  Holding on to that grudge and resentment will warp your soul.  When you hold on to your gluttony or drink, it will dry out your soul.  God’s hand will be heavy on you and you will groan inside, even if everything looks fine on the outside.  So confess it to God.

9/17/17