my burg

I don't often recommend movies, but recently my wife and I enjoyed watching these two films:   Henry Poole Is Here (2008)  and  The Beautiful Fantastic (2016) .  I'm more of a mystery / action / military movie guy and was surprised how much I liked both of these.  Since it's hard to find movies worth watching I thought I'd pass these along.  Both available on Amazon Prime.  Good for date night.  

"Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look."  (1 Peter 1:10-12 ESV) I'm going through my sermon notes from past years and came upon this outline of 1 Peter 1:10-12, " A Salvation Foretold ", given in September, 1998, in Culpeper:  God's written revelation, the Bible, is prophetic (v. 10); Christ-centered (11); Spiritual (12-13); profound (14); and written for us (10, 12).  The drawing above, from that Sunday's bulletin cover, was done by long-time friend and faithful sister in the Lord...

"Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness..." (Romans 4:4-5 ESV) "The Gospel does not command us to do anything in order to obtain life, but bids us live by that which another has done; and the knowledge of its life-giving truth is not labor but rest—rest of soul—rest which is the root of all true labor; for in receiving Christ we do not work in order to rest, but we rest in order to work... "The divine order then is first pardon, then holiness; first peace with God, and then conformity to the image of that God with Whom we have been brought to be at peace. For as likeness to God is produced by beholding His glory (2 Cor. 3:18), and as we cannot look upon Him till we know that He has ceased to condemn us, and as we cannot trust Him till we know that He is gracious; so we cannot be transformed into His image t...

"It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."  (Romans 3:26 ESV) Is there an antithesis or conflict between God's justice and God's grace?  Both belong to God's moral order, according to Herman Bavinck...   "The moral order, rather than being in conflict with the order of justice, upholds, demands, and supports it.  Justice is an important component of morality.  Justice above all is the way in which the grace and love of God are maintained and made to triumph.  Those who, with Marcion, assume that justice and grace are antithetical to each other deny the connection between the moral order and the order of justice and do not understand the majesty and glory of the law.  Accordingly, God's justice by its very nature has to be judicial and hence be 'remunerative,' on the one hand, and 'retributive', on the other.  It is not that a creature could ever ...

"It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.   It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes."   (Psalm 118:8-9 ESV) In our class studying basic theology (using the Heidelberg Catechism) these questions (among others) came up in our discussion of human sinfulness, sometimes called total depravity.   Question : "How then can we trust anyone?  Isn't community built upon a level of trust?"    See Psalm 118:8-9 (above) and 146:3; and then note Jesus' words here: "But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man."  (John 2:24-25)  The distinction is this: trust in regards to those things revealed by God, or salvation truths, or things provided by God alone, this trust must be in God alone .  However, in life (this natural world) we must have trust in our dealings with others....

"If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to  those who ask him!"  (Matthew 7:11 ESV) These words of Jesus recall some of the tension we feel when we speak of human dignity and human depravity .  In one sentence  Jesus says of his disciples, "you... who are evil " (depravity) and "you...know how to give good gifts" (dignity).  Both bad and good, in some sense at the same  time!   One way to put together this view of human dignity and depravity is to think of a beautiful castle ruin .  [ Above: Urkuhart Castle, Inverness, Scotland .]  There is enough of the original structure  left, so that the beauty of its design and majesty can be seen and appreciated.  But it would be impossible to actually live in it.  In other words  it is not restored into a true dwelling place, or "up to code" for a holy God, so to speak....

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."   Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"   (John  3:3-4 ESV) Nicodemus was a seeker.  He was sincere.  He believed that Jesus was from God.  He was by all accounts learned, wise, and morally  upright.  And yet, he did not understand the need for the new birth, or the nature of it, and was not yet able to see or enter the kingdom of God. [The painting above is by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859--1937), one of the many studies he did of Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night.]    Today's posts regard our human condition as viewed by God , specifically, our sinful nature.  The corruption of our nature, what many theologians call "total depravity", begins with the fall in Genesis 3.   The man and woman are beings created in God...

"...concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord... (Romans 1:3-4 ESV) "The first point which we have to make is that the gospel is concerning God's Son.  That is the nerve, the heart and the very centre of the gospel.  There is no such thing as the Christian gospel, and there is no such thing as Christianity, apart from Him.  Christianity, by definition, is Christ Himself.  Now this is something, it seems to me, as one sees so clearly in the New Testament, about which there can be no discussion or argument whatsoever.  There is no such thing as Christianity apart from the Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  That does not mean that the Lord Jesus Christ is a 'bearer' of good news from God.  No!  It means that He Himself is the good news.  It is the Person and what...

“Sound theology has its source in a founding drama with its revealed doctrines . Through the drama and the doctrine together the Spirit produces doxology – repentance and trust – and brings us into the unfolding story of God, no longer as spectators, but as disciples on pilgrimage to the everlasting city.”   ~ Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples (Zondervan Academic, 2013)

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV) “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV) Our goal in studying theology is not speculation nor is it a detached scholarship unrelated to life and love, but it is to think clearly and personally about all that God has revealed to us, so that we may glorify him by our faith and obedience.  Since every biblical truth is connected or related in some way to every other biblical truth, serious study is needed.  God's revelation to us is a consistent a...