Update, Etc.

I have time for a quick update. My wife is recovering from her surgery. We are being well attended to by our congregation. What a blessing to have a church family that walks with folks through life challenges. I thank the Lord for these dear folks.

Prayer Request

I hadn't mentioned this before, but wanted to share a prayer concern with those of you who regularly stop by "The Steeple." My wife had surgery yesterday. All went very well according to her doctor. She is doing much better this morning and the plan is for her to be released tomorrow AM.

Please pray for her speedy recovery and for our girls too. They are stuck with their old Dad for a few days.

I'll blog more next week. Please read/comment on the previous post as I am very interested in your thoughts.

What's That in Your Eye?

Are there modern day Pharisees? Do you think there are well meaning Christians who "strain out a gnat and swallow a camel?" (Mt. 23:24)

What causes churches and individuals to focus on secondary issues like versions of the Bible, Sunday dress, length of hair and types of church music? Does the Bible even speak to these things?

I would like to hear from you before I throw out my opinions and insights. Please comment, and feel free to be anonymous if you are fearful of what others may think of you, ha!

Earthquake Preparation

I was rattled out of bed (not literally but sort of) by an earthquake at 5:30AM EDT today. The epicenter was somewhere in southern Illinois. Our local news reported that it registered 5.2 on the Richter scale. Reports have varied. There is an official looking report here. The bottom line for me was WOW that was weird stuff! I know my California friends were unconcerned and unimpressed with such a little wiggle. Sorry, but any actual shaking of the ground makes me take some notice.

A friend said to me this morning at Starbucks (shocking that I was there right?) that you can prepare for a tornado or a flood, but you can't prepare for an earthquake. I graciously responded that ultimately we can prepare. He smiled and recognized that I was pointing to Christ. And I was. Maybe some will take this little tremor as a Divine nudge toward the truth about our frailty and the brevity of life. That's part of it.

We need to be prepared to point them to the gospel as the only hope and only remedy. Not only during an earthquake, but the only hope and only remedy period.

A Few T4G '08 Thoughts

"Together For the Gospel" or T4G for short, was an energizing and spiritually refreshing experience. I am still processing all that I heard and all that God sealed to my heart.

Tim Challies has a great recap as he was "live blogging" from here in Louisville. He has included some video from the conference as well as pictures and his commentary. Good stuff. If you are a pastor, and did not attend the conference, beware you may become envious. ;) With good reason.

You can listen to the conference messages here. I commend them all to you. Every message was gospel-centered (duh!) and so rich. However, there were a few that stood out for me personally.

1) Thabiti Anyabwile on bearing the image of God, a fresh perspective on ethnicity and the gospel.
2) John MacArthur on the complete inability of a sinner to come to Christ, he provided such clarity on this foundational truth.
3) C. J. Mahaney with encouraging words for pastors from the life/ministry of Paul as seen in Phil. 1:3-8.

One of the more tangible blessings of the conference was the 15 or 16 FREE books that I now have in my library. A mountain of reading that I will begin to plow through very soon.

Additionally, I spent 3 days with Mike who will be officially joining our family next month when he marries my niece Rachel. It was such a blessing to talk with him and to be encouraged by his heart for the Lord. (Thank you Brother!) I also made a few new friends and visited with fellow SBTS grad/blogger Thad. I await his comments on T4G as well.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. We must be clear about it. We must share it. We must rejoice in it. Therefore, it is imperative that we "keep the main thing, the main thing."

Together Today

I am preparing to attend the Together for the Gospel conference today. It promises to be a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual encouragement. What a blessing for me to have such ready access to this event. It is being held here in Louisville for the second time. I was unable to attend in 2006 but I heard great things about the conference.

I am excited to hear good preaching, make new friends and catch up with some old friends. All centered on the primacy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Blogging will be set aside for a few days. Check back at the end of the week for updates.

Death & Taxes

Ben Franklin gets credit for saying, "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

There may be other things that are certain. We'll leave that for another post. Franklin was accurate about death however. Although he was not a Christian, he concurs with the writer to the Hebrews:

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb. 9:27

Given the certainty of death, it pays to be prepared.

And it also pays to prepare your taxes. Tomorrow is the deadline, and mine are done! Praise the Lord and pass me the economic stimulus money.

The Alphabet and Salvation

Maybe you have heard someone say the way to salvation is very simple. Some say that salvation is as easy as A-B-C. In fact, someone developed a model that is primarily geared toward children using the ABC format: Admit, Believe, Confess.

A - admit to God you are a sinner, repent or turn from your sin

B - believe that Jesus is God's son and that he died for your sins and rose again

C - confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, place your faith in what Jesus has done for sinners on the cross

During our Bible study last night (which was really not about the ABC's) someone brought up an interesting point. They surmised that it would be helpful to add another letter to this model, the letter "D." Which stands to reason since it is the next letter in the alphabet. This person suggested that "D" should be used to explain that those who are saved will "Demonstrate" their salvation by a transformed life and a conformity to Christ. I think this is helpful and very insightful.

I also think that a watered down ABC presentation can be misleading and insufficient. We must be careful not to rush toward a "simple" method or model and leave out vital truth about God and the gospel. God is holy and our sin is offensive to him. We do 'admit' to God that we are sinners, but repentance must not be left out of the equation. A full understanding and explanation of the Cross of Christ should also be part of our evangelism. Additionally, those who come to faith in Christ ought to live a life that "Demonstrates" this spiritual transformation. Finally, salvation is not achieved by anything that we do.

At the end of the day, the Salvation of a dead sinner is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. As Christians, we may be a witness to this salvation and may even be used by God to share his precious gospel that in turn may lead someone to faith in Christ. This is part of our Great Commission. Oh that we would be faithful to the task - to the Glory of God.