Real Christianity

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

By D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"The cardinal error into which many tend to fall is to think of ourselves as Christians in terms of our believing and our holding on, instead of looking at ourselves in the way in which Scripture always presents the position to us... There has been so much emphasis upon decision, receiving, yielding, being willing, and giving ourselves that salvation is regarded almost exclusively in terms of our activity... Many are in trouble simply because they do not realize the truth concerning the new birth... Nothing is more glorious than the doctrine of the rebirth; and this is obviously the work of God in us through the Spirit. We do not give birth to ourselves, we are not reborn because we believe. We believe because we are reborn."

This runs contrary to all I learned growing up. Even as I young man, it was all I was acquainted with. It seems to be something that's not taught much anymore. But I believe it is the truth.

Real Faith

Dr. Lloyd-Jones

"Nobody can have faith unless the Lord opens the heart. It is impossible." 

 --Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans - Saving Faith)

"The first movement is from God to us, not from us to God."

 Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Dr. Lloyd-Jones' expositions of the Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Romans are available singly or as part of his 14-part series published by the Banner of Truth Trust.You can listen to all 366 of the doctor's sermons in the Romans series at the MLJ Trust website.

"And of the joints and marrow"

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

- King James Bible "Authorized Version", Cambridge Edition

A New Lesson on Prayer from C. H. Spurgeon

Spurgeon in his study

From Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, on Facebook.

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. - Psalm 109:4

[Those parts what really ate my lunch I've highlighted in bold text.]

"Lying tongues were busy against the reputation of David, but he did not defend himself; he moved the case into a higher court, and pleaded before the great King himself. Prayer is the safest method of replying to words of hatred. The Psalmist prayed in no cold-hearted manner, he gave himself to the exercise--threw his whole soul and heart into it--straining every sinew and muscle, as Jacob did when wrestling with the angel. Thus, and thus only, shall any of us speed at the throne of grace. As a shadow has no power because there is no substance in it, even so that supplication, in which a man's proper self is not thoroughly present in agonizing earnestness and vehement desire, is utterly ineffectual, for it lacks that which would give it force. "Fervent prayer," says an old divine, "like a cannon planted at the gates of heaven, makes them fly open." The common fault with the most of us is our readiness to yield to distractions. Our thoughts go roving hither and thither, and we make little progress towards our desired end. Like quicksilver our mind will not hold together, but rolls off this way and that. How great an evil this is! It injures us, and what is worse, it insults our God. What should we think of a petitioner, if, while having an audience with a prince, he should be playing with a feather or catching a fly?

"Continuance and perseverance are intended in the expression of our text. David did not cry once, and then relapse into silence; his holy clamour was continued till it brought down the blessing. Prayer must not be our chance work, but our daily business, our habit and vocation. As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer. We must be immersed in prayer as in our element, and so pray without ceasing. Lord, teach us so to pray that we may be more and more prevalent in supplication."

A Window on the Religious Left

Fox News' Todd Starnes reported on another glittering example of the religious left's intolerance. Of course, the incident had to occur in California, at Helen Hunt-Jackson Elementary School in Temecula. The offender was a first-grade girl completing her homework assignment by explaining to the class one way in which her family celebrated Christmas. The bearer of the sword, in this case, was the child's teacher, who will never rank right up there with the nation's founders or with those who have fought and died for American freedoms on foreign soil. Predictably, the local school board is mouthing patriotic slogans while circling the wagons around this epitome of what a teacher is not.

The principle, too, Mrs. Ami Paradise, is part of the problem; for, according to Starnes' article, in later allowing the little girl to finish reciting her story in her office, said that the teacher had done the right thing, confirming "there was no way [the young girl] could finish that presentation."

Why?

Well because the little girl was about to quote John 3:16, and "there are specific education codes that protect the school."

Protect the school from what, the love of God?

Educators, as the term is normally understood, they are not.

The Sands of Time

One of my favorites ...

Anne Ross Cousin wrote many more verses than just these four; one place to go to for these is this site. 

For the tune, listen below.

Real Prayer

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for
they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of
the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward.
Matthew 6:5

Vs.

But when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast
shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy
Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 6:6

A Spurgeon Gem

"When God laid sin upon Christ it must have been the intent of his heart that he would never lay it on those for whom Christ died."

Find more Spurgeon quotes here.

The Law of the Offerings

I read this little book, by Andrew Jukes, almost 30 years ago. I remember it as, at the time, one of the most profound and spiritual books I had ever read. It made the Old Testament, particularly the Book of Leviticus, applicable to my daily life and walk as a Christian. It opened to the eyes of my understanding many an obscure passage. It made me hunger more and to be more thirsty for righteousness. It was a book I so treasured that I still have the same copy I read almost 30 years ago on my shelf today; and, as I was reading this morning from Leviticus, my thoughts went back to the book, and I pulled it down from the shelf to peruse its contents once again.

There is a decent review of the book here.

You can read this book online here and here.

My copy looks like the one pictured on the left. The note inside the front cover indicates that I purchased it in 1985, in El Paso. That was when we were stationed at the White Sands Missile Range. There was a bookstore in El Paso, an hour's drive away, that I used to visit every chance I got. I discovered Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' books there, too.

One of my memories associated with this book is being laughed at for reading it. There was a young man (about my own age, at the time, or perhaps a couple of years younger) at our church who had just recently graduated from Hyles-Anderson College. He was about to 'go into the ministry,' as they say, and, wanting to be an encouragement to him, I suggested that he read this book. I even offered to let him borrow my copy. But he laughed at me and as much as said that he no longer had any time for books. His unspoken meaning was that he had no time for books which were not recommended by Hyles-Anderson College, which was too bad. The young man fancied himself so smart, but he had no idea, not even a clue, what he was turning down. It couldn't be helped, but, consequently, I developed a rather low opinion of the young man, who I never saw again, and of Hyles-Anderson College. I did have occasion in later years to cross paths with others from the school, but my opinion of it, as a Christian institution, has never changed.

To that young man about to enter upon the ministry of enlightening others, Mr. Jukes might have said, as he had already spoken to me,

"The real secret of our difficulty is that we know so little, and, what is worse, we do not know our ignorance. And the natural pride of our hearts, which does not like to confess our ignorance, or to go through the deep searchings of should which attend learning and abiding in God's presence, excuses itself under the plea that thee things are not important, or, at least, non-essential." (1)

And again ...

"The low standard of truth in the church, making the possession of eternal life the end instead of the beginning of the Christian's course, has led many to think that if they have, or can at least obtain, this life, it is enough. But these are not God's thoughts." (2)

________________________
1.  p. 16.
2.  p. 17.

No Lesson is More Important for Us to Learn

George Müller 

A. T. Pierson's biography of George Müller is a messenger of God to my heart and soul. It is at the same time the Lord's rod and his staff, and it comforts me. It is teaching me things I should have already learned, or things that I have learned but neglected. Whichever is worse, that is the case I am in. But this little book is helping me. Take what I've just read this evening ...

" ... No lesson is more important for us to learn, yet how slow are we to learn it: that for the lack of habitual seasons set apart for devout meditation upon the Word of God and for prayer, nothing else will compensate. We are prone to think, for example, that converse with Christian brethren, and the general round of Christian activity, especially when we are much busied with preaching the Word and [with] visits to inquiring or needy souls, [that these] make up for the loss of aloneness with God in the secret place. We hurry to a public service with but a few minutes of private prayer, allowing precious time to be absorbed in social pleasures, restrained from withdrawing from others by a false delicacy, when to excuse ourselves for needful communion with God and his Word would have been perhaps the best witness possible to those whose company was holding us unduly! How often we rush from one public engagement to another without any proper interval for renewing our strength in waiting on the Lord, as though God cared more for the quantity than [for] the quality of our service!"

Lord, help me indeed to learn it.

Sometimes "Champion" is the Wrong Word

Champions?

So I'm looking over my blog, thinking of ways it could be improved (besides getting someone else to write it), and I notice a text box lower down on the right-hand side in which is a Bible quotation from the book of Romans. It's been there since I started this blog but I had forgotten that the text was hyperlinked. So I clicked on it and it took me to a page on the website of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Now, one never quite knows what one will find when clicking around on the Internet, especially with all the pop-up ads these days. So I wasn't too surprised to see an ad for Liberty University Online. What got me was Liberty's motto: 

"Training Champions for Christ Since 1971."

I'm sure Liberty is a fine school but, seriously, champions for Christ?

Have you ever read a New Testament epistle that began with something like, "Paul, a champion of Jesus Christ, unto ...?"

Me neither.

Did you know that "champion" is found in the scriptures only three times, and that each time it is a reference to a Philistine named Goliath?

I'm thinking maybe Liberty, if they are serious about their image as a 'Christian university,' could use a new PR person.

The Truest Mirror

Looking into the word of God is, in some ways like looking into a mirror--for, in reading for our edification, we are ofttimes shown our own selves so perfectly that no looking glass on earth could possibly give us a clearer picture. Tonight, as I read from A. T. Pierson's biography of George Mueller, (and I do so with my Bible within arm's reach) the picture of myself which is made so plain to me is this, from Hebrews 5:12 ...

"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

I cannot explain how much I appreciate a book that does something like this to me.

The "Bible Way to Heaven" vs. What the Scriptures Actually Say

Surfing churches' websites, invariably one finds something along the lines of 'how to get to heaven.' I don't know why, but so many of them make this so much more complicated than it really is. The following example is typical. I found it on the website of a church that professes to believe the Authorized Version of the Bible is the "infallible and inerrant" word of God, "the absolute final authority for all matters of faith and practice and for all matters of life" It goes like this ...

The Buzz on 'Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War'

I have ordered this book, part of my Christmas bonanza, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, by Robert M. Gates. I ordered it before all the published reviews of it started to appear in the press. Apparently, the book is causing quite a buzz. Here are some examples ... 

Book review: ‘Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War’ by Robert M. Gates, by Greg Jaffe, a reporter for the Washington Post with extensive experience covering the Pentagon. One of the better parts of Jaffe's review is what Secretary Gates had to say about the vice president ...

“I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,”

White House pushes back against claims made in former SECDEF's book, by USA Today writer, David Jackson, which relies heavily on quotes from a National Security Council spokeswoman named Caitlin Hayden. I've read and listened to a lot of, so called 'pushback' from Barack Obama since 2008, and this USA Today article is pretty weak stuff. On the Biden issue, all we're given is that the president disagrees with Gates' criticism, saying that (quoting Ms. Hayden) -

"From his leadership on the Balkans in the Senate, to his efforts to end the war in Iraq, Joe Biden has been one of the leading statesmen of his time and has helped advance America's leadership in the world. President Obama relies on his good counsel every day,"

Robert Gates, former defense secretary, offers harsh critique of Obama’s leadership in ‘Duty,’ by the famous, Bob Woodward. From Woodward's point of view, 

"It is rare for a former Cabinet member, let alone a defense secretary occupying a central position in the chain of command, to publish such an antagonistic portrait of a sitting president."

And Fox News' Stuart Varney posted a brief synopsis of what seems to be a brewing storm on his Facebook page, saying -

"The Left is now in full, defensive, spin mode. Democrats take their marching orders from the New York Times, and those orders are: attack the bearer of bad news. In fact, the gates' book is devastating to the President's credibility as Commander-in-Chief, as the leader of troops he was committing to battle. His heart wasn't in it. Worse, gates writes that both Hillary Clinton and President Obama considered the surge in Iraq as mainly a political move. They weren't concerned with winning the war. They were concerned with the vote. The politics. I come from a family that for several generations, has served in the military. I am trying to put myself into the shoes of parents here, who saw their sons and daughters volunteer to fight and die, with Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief. I would not be happy, reading that a defense secretary is calling out the president for putting politics in front of victory."

Megyn Kelly interviews Brit Hume on the subject at the Fox News website.

Commentary Magazine had this to say ...

"Unless the reporters who read advance copies of the book missed something juicier, nothing in Gates’s memoir seems likely to spoil anyone’s presidential aspirations, and I doubt Gates has any interest in doing so anyway. Picking out excerpts and anecdotes can easily skew the perception of the book, especially before the public has had a chance to read it. But the splash being made by these (mostly unsurprising) insider claims is a testament to the credibility Gates has earned over his distinguished career, and suggests the considerable authority his account of these last few years will carry."

With reviews like that out there, I'm looking forward to reading the book.

The Article V Movement

"This is where America stands today: a tyrannical president who is coldly robbing millions of Americans of their healthcare; a renegade judiciary that cannot be relied upon to faithfully follow the word of the Constitution; a power hungry, goose-stepping party that works relentlessly to drag the nation down the road to serfdom; and a castrated opposition party too afraid to fight for their principals."

So writes Mark Levin, popular radio personality and president of the Landmark Legal Foundation.

Unlike so many critics, Levin does more than just identify the problem. He offers a legitimate solution. That's what his latest book, The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic, is about. The answer, he says, is to be found right in our Constitution, in Article V. In a recent Front Page Magazine article, 

"He explains [in his book] that '[Article V] provides for two methods of amending the Constitution.” In the first method, “two-thirds of Congress passes a proposed amendment and then forwards it to the state legislatures for possible ratification by three-fourths of the states[.]' The second method 'involv[es] the direct application of two-thirds of the state legislatures for a Convention for proposing Amendments, which would thereafter also require a three-fourths ratification vote by the states.' It is the second method he focuses on. 

"This process, it is important to point out, does not provide for a constitutional convention. Instead, it provides a way to offer Amendments to the Constitution over the heads of our inept political ruling class and at the same time preserves enough roadblocks to prevent a runaway caucus. Levin supplements all eleven of his proposed Amendments with the words of the Framers, showing that each of the ideas is in the tradition of their thinking, and offers examples of how these values are at risk by an ever-expanding and oppressive federal leviathan."

Hear Levin talk about this Article V process at his website.

Maverick's Milestone

Maverick ...
caught his first squirrel today.

Attention all squirrels: Your days are numbered ...

Jury Duty ... Oops!

So I get this summons in the mail for jury duty the week of January 14. 

Actually, my daughter, Sarah got the summons. It had been lying in her stack of unopened mail for who knows how long. She brought it to me a few days ago with apologies, telling me that the good news was that I haven't gone to jail yet, so it can't be that late.

I opened it to discover that I'm scheduled for duty the week of January 14. So there was still time.

But, since I'm likely to be in the hospital that week (long story) I took the summons with me last Friday to my Dr's appointment. No problem. The doctor filled out the portion on the back of the form where requests for medical excusal is provided. All I had to do was take the form to the office of jury services downtown before the deadline.

So after circling the parking lot at the Judicial Center for several minutes, then finally finding a space down the street a ways, in a muddy field, I walked the quarter mile in the stiff, icy breeze to the building. I found the jury assembly room and presented my summons to a young lady who appeared to be sort of in charge. 

She examined the form and said it was from last year. She and I walked into a separate room where there was a computer. She looked me up in the system and said, yes, this summons was for January 2013.

LAST YEAR!

Sarah was right. I haven't gone to jail yet. Guess if I was going to, they would've picked me up by now.

Then the nice lady at Jury Services told me that, since I have a medical excuse, they will defer me from service for another year.

The walk back to the car wasn't all that bad.

John's Birthday

John holding his great grandson, Haydin;
Me in the background;
At the Village Deli in Augusta;
Circa 2008

John would have been 74 today.

Gabriel's Oboe

The only fault in this piece is that it is so short. I could listen to it for hours.

Joseph

C. H. Spurgeon

Just in the last two days I was reading the story of Joseph in the last several chapters of the first book of Moses, the book of Genesis. The following is from the latest of Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

"And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. - Genesis 42:8

"This morning our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance with the Lord Jesus; it may be well tonight to consider a kindred topic, namely, our heavenly Joseph's knowledge of us. This was most blessedly perfect long before we had the slightest knowledge of him. "His eyes beheld our substance, yet being imperfect, and in his book all our members were written, when as yet there was none of them." Before we had a being in the world we had a being in his heart. When we were enemies to him, he knew us, our misery, our madness, and our wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despairing repentance, and viewed him only as a judge and a ruler, he viewed us as his brethren well beloved, and his bowels yearned towards us. He never mistook his chosen, but always beheld them as objects of his infinite affection. "The Lord knoweth them that are his," is as true of the prodigals who are feeding swine as of the children who sit at the table.

"But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts from him, and allowed him no entrance to our love. We mistrusted him, and gave no credit to his words. We rebelled against him, and paid him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness shone forth, and we could not see him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth perceived it not. Let God be praised, those days are over with us; yet even now it is but little that we know of Jesus compared with what he knows of us. We have but begun to study him, but he knoweth us altogether. It is a blessed circumstance that the ignorance is not on his side, for then it would be a hopeless case for us. He will not say to us, "I never knew you," but he will confess our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile will manifest himself to us as he doth not unto the world.

"But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts from him, and allowed him no entrance to our love. We mistrusted him, and gave no credit to his words. We rebelled against him, and paid him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness shone forth, and we could not see him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth perceived it not. Let God be praised, those days are over with us; yet even now it is but little that we know of Jesus compared with what he knows of us. We have but begun to study him, but he knoweth us altogether. It is a blessed circumstance that the ignorance is not on his side, for then it would be a hopeless case for us. He will not say to us, "I never knew you," but he will confess our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile will manifest himself to us as he doth not unto the world."

God has given us, in Joseph, one of the most detailed pictures of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all of scripture. It is a fascinating story, especially so in light of what Jesus said to the Jews who sought to kill him ...

"Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5-45-47).