my burg

Bible reading for April 16 -- Leviticus 20; Psalm 25.  "You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine."  (Leviticus 20:26)  Called to be different. This chapter addresses child sacrifice, sexual perversions, and occultism. Things don't change -- these sins that characterized Canaanite culture are also rampant in our postmodern society.  Preborn babies are routinely killed, and even newborn children are left to die. Every sexual perversion is celebrated. Paganism and occult practices have gained widespread acceptance. The Israelites then, and believers now, are not to turn a blind eye to the destruction of precious human life (20:4), but to work to save unborn and newborn lives.  When nature vomits. "You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out" (20:22; cf 18:25, 28). This graphic picture is o...

I'm continuing to post some highlights from the excellent book by Jerram Barrs,  Delighting in the Law of the Lord: God's Alternative to Legalism and Moralism (Crossway, 2013)... Indeed, Jesus, unlike us, preached the school of the law to those who seemed closest to God, those who already had extensive knowledge of the truth, those who valued God’s law and taught it, and those who seemed committed to living in obedience to God’s commandments. One of the great weaknesses of evangelical churches today is a serious failure to teach thoroughly the requirements of God’s law. In other words, what we need in our churches is serious exposition of the kind of righteousness that God and his laws demand. Wherever there is little serious exposition of the school of the law of God, people end up with a devalued understanding of the good news of the gospel.  The law, properly expounded, because it is so beautiful, exposes the ugliness of our sin.  We need to make s...

"For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them..."  (Romans 2:14-15 ESV) Here are some excerpts from an interview with Jay Budziszewski on Natural Law... Law has rightly been defined as an ordinance of reason, for the common good, made by the one who has care of the community, and promulgated. Consider the natural law against murder. It is not an arbitrary whim, but a rule that the mind can grasp as right. It serves not some special interest, but the universal good. Its author has care of the universe, for he (God) created it. And it is not a secret rule, for God has so arranged his creation that every rational being knows about it... Our subject is called natural law because it is built into the design of h...