A Boomer in the Pew

Evangelism 101 - Our Homework Assignment

Step #1 - II Chronicles 7:14 - "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Step #2 - set your purpose, heart, and prayer, this year, on at least one person.

Step #3 - At least once each month, send them, e-mail them, or forward them something that will bring the word of God to their eyes/ears.  Cast the net!

Step #4 - be willing to share your testimony, if called upon.  1 Peter 3:15 - "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,"

Step #5 - Fear not, the Holy Spirit is "the closer".  It is simply your job to cast the net!  John 6:44 - "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."

Step #6 - Watch God create a "Great Awakening".

Think about it, if millions of Christians will pour their prayers, and efforts, on millions of others, then surely God, in his great mercy, will act.

Will you be a part?  Or will you, in disobedience, leave the harvest task to others?

Think about it! 

Pass this homework assignment on to others!

Do you believe in Luck, Fate, or Divine Providence?

This post is part of my year long study of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.  To facilitate this course of study, I am following along with Princeton Theological Seminary's  "A Year with the Institutes", which also includes an audio reading of the text.

Calvin's Institutes of Religion:  1.16.1-9

Our language is a hint to our worldview, or perhaps, as Calvin would no doubt suggest, a lazy mind.

It was not long ago, that we sold our Michigan home, by owner, in five days, in one of the worst real estate markets in history!  Here are some of the comments we received, and frankly participated in:

• Wow!  Are you lucky, or what?
• It must have been fate!
• It must have been in the cards.
• It must have been destiny.
• What a lucky twist of fate.
• Must have been the luck of the draw.
• You guys sure live a charmed life.
• Everything you touch, turns to gold.
• Must have been Karma.

Get the picture?  Absolutely no one, in their language anyway, suggested that this was a clear, and evident providence of holy God. 

Let's contemplate the definition of these words:

• Luck: success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions : it was just luck that the first kick went in | this charm was supposed to bring good luck.
  • chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen : luck was with me.
  • something regarded as bringing about or portending good or bad things : I don't like Friday—it's bad luck.
• Fate:  the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power : fate decided his course for him | his injury is a cruel twist of fate.
  • the course of someone's life, or the outcome of a particular situation for someone or something, seen as beyond their control : he suffered the same fate as his companion.
• Divine Providence:  In theology, Divine Providence, or simply Providence, is the sovereignty, superintendence, or agency of God over events in people's lives and throughout history.

John Calvin now brings us to the subject of Divine Providence, let's see what we can learn...

Living in the Glass House of Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and the "New Media"

[HT Tim Challies]

King David - "I will awake the Dawn!"

My online ESV Study Bible reading plan currently has me reading through Psalms.  Today I arrived at Psalm 57, a Psalm written by David, as he was fleeing King Saul, and hiding out in caves.

When you read someone's blog, over a period of time, you get to know their heart.  The same holds true of the Psalms.  When you read them, over a period of time, you will begin to understand King David's heart.

I love this from this morning's reading:

My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.

11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!

With all the trouble brought down upon him, as God was breaking him, he gets up before the dawn, and awakens the dawn with his praises to God!

Come on America!  God has fashioned, through this current tough economic times, that we undergo a measure of breaking. 

Get out there and "awake the dawn"!

Dr. Steve Lawson - God's Sovereignty Over America

Dr. Steve Lawson is a regular in my iPod.  He is currently two years into an exposition of the Book of Mark, is also doing an exposition in Galatians, but most recently completed a must hear, special series called "God's Sovereignty Over America".

Have you ever wondered what God thinks of America?  Have you ever wondered where God was when hurricanes are pounding our shores, or our nation's banks are near collapse?

Have you ever wondered why God would allow 45% of the wealth to disappear from the stock market? 

Dr. Lawson is a gift to America.  I can't recommend this series more highly.  You simply must sit down with your entire family and listen to this series.  You will come away with a more clear view of God, his sovereignty, and America's role in the future.

John Calvin - The Soul = Understanding + Will

This post is part of my year long study of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.  To facilitate this course of study, I am following along with Princeton Theological Seminary's  "A Year with the Institutes", which also includes an audio reading of the text.

Calvin's Institutes of Religion:  1.15.3-8

<-----Light bulb (in photograph) represents Understanding, with reason its tool.

<-----Gears (in photograph) represent Will, with choice its tool.

Calvin continues, in his instruction regarding the soul, once again, with something that I have never really given much thought to.

That is, when the the Bible speaks of us, created in God's image, it is not, most specifically, speaking of our bodies:  "Also, a reliable proof of this matter may be gathered from the fact that man was created in God's image [Gen. 1:27]. For although God's glory shines forth in the outer man, yet there is no doubt that the proper seat of his image is in the soul. I do not deny, indeed, that our outward form, in so far as it distinguishes and separates us from brute animals, at the same time more closely joins us to God. And if anyone wishes to include under "image of God" the fact that, "while all other living things being bent over look earthward, man has been given a face uplifted, bidden to gaze heavenward and to raise his countenance to the stars," I shall not contend too strongly-provided it be regarded as a settled principle that the image of God, which is seen or glows in these outward marks, is spiritual."

Welcome to all the new Visitors!

Yesterday was the second biggest day in this blogs history.  According to my Google Analytics,  we had a 466% increase in visitors yesterday!

A very special thanks to Tim Challies for his link, and referral!

If I may be so bold, may I ask two things of you? 

1.)  Don't be a lurker!  Please get involved in the conversation, and add your thoughts in the comments.  I am working my way through John Calvin's Institutes of Religion, and will be traversing some very interesting territory, that will require your input to grasp fully!

2.)  The calfskin ESV Study Bible Giveaway isn't until March 16th.  While you are here, why not use the "ShareThis" tool below, and refer this site to a friend and/or relative. 

Thanks!  I look forward to gaining many new friends!

Our Soul is kind of like that little green dude in the movie "Men in Black"

Yesterday, I wrote a post detailing Calvin's instruction that man consists of two parts:  body & soul.  If you have been a reader of this blog, for any period of time, you will understand that I am a very visual person.  Generally speaking, there will never be a post, without a visual of some sort.

I was frustrated, yesterday, because I couldn't find the photograph that I wanted, to give us a visualization of  "man" consisting of body and soul. 

Well...I found it!

This is a photograph from the 1997 movie, Men in Black. 

As you can see, "man",  here represented by the mechanical robot, is being driven by a little green dude.

Now go with me a little bit here. 

Is this not a fairly decent representation of what Calvin is telling us?  Our essence is not the physical body, but that which lives inside the physical body.

In other words, our soul, is not unlike this little green dude, who resides inside the body, makes all the decisions for the body, and tells the body where to go, and what to do.

Please understand, I am not saying that we all have little green men living inside our heads.  That type of statement might qualify me for the loony bin.

I do, however, find this image somewhat helpful, in that it cements the concept fairly well.

The other thing to be careful of here, is that our souls are a reflection of God.  This little green dude in no way represents holy God.  The only way that this photograph is helpful is to get us to begin thinking that we are indeed two parts, AND, the most important part is inside...our souls.

What do you think?  Do see what I am getting at?

Typealyzer - What is your Blogging Personality Type?

Behold!  A snapshot of my brain while blogging!  I know, scary isn't it?

Typealyzer is a website which claims to scan your blog, and then proclaim your blogging personality type.

It's prognosis, of the Boomer, is that I am "INTP - The Thinkers":  "The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about."

Hey, Hey, Hey...not good at seeing and understanding the needs of others?  Coming across as arrogant, impatient, and insensitive? 

Well, what do you expect from a website, that in less than one second, tries to stuff you into this box, or that?  It was fun.  It was mildly entertaining.  It makes me wonder how they scanned my blog so quickly, and arrived at this particular conclusion.  I suppose they accomplished their ultimate desire, I just blogged about them!

Give it a try, and let me know what it thinks of your brain!

[HT - Andy @ The Narrow Road]

Did you know that through the essence of your Soul, you are Immortal?

"A Soul Brought to Heaven", 1878, by William-Adlophe Bouguereau.

This post is part of my year long study of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.  To facilitate this course of study, I am following along with Princeton Theological Seminary's  "A Year with the Institutes", which also includes an audio reading of the text.

Calvin's Institutes of Religion:  1.15.2

In this section, Calvin continues his instruction on the created being, called man, and enjoins us to understand that man consists of two parts:  body and soul.

Furthermore, Calvin wants us to understand that the body is temporal, yet the soul is immortal:

"Furthermore, that man consists of a soul and a body ought to be beyond controversy. Now I understand by the term "soul" an immortal yet created essence, which is his nobler part."

To be honest, I have never really given thought to the idea, until recently, that my soul, my created essence, is immortal.  It pretty wild, if you force upon yourself to give that some meditation.

Calvin goes on to say that sometimes, the words soul, and spirit are interchanged:

"Sometimes it is called "spirit." For even when these terms are joined together, they differ from one another in meaning; yet when the word "spirit" is used by itself, it means the same thing as soul; as when Solomon, speaking of death, says that then "the spirit returns to God who gave it" [Eccl. 12:7]. And when Christ commended his spirit to the Father [Luke 23:46] and Stephen his to Christ [Acts 7:59] they meant only that when the soul is freed from the prison house of the body, God is its perpetual guardian. Some imagine the soul to be called "spirit" for the reason that it is breath, or a force divinely infused into bodies, but that it nevertheless is without essence; both the thing itself and all Scripture show them to be stupidly blundering in this opinion."