Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. ~ Paul the Apostle

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/01/why-you-should-try-black-coffee-some-coffee-is-not-better-with-milk.html

I have a confession to make… While I have learned to be polite about it, it’s slightly offensive to me when people add cream and/or sugar to coffee that I serve without even tasting the coffee first.  I am one of those purists that thinks that if any coffee requires additives in order to make it palatable, it should not be consumed at all. If it doesn’t need it and you add it, you are simply diluting it and offending your host.  Read this article…

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/01/does-god-care-whether-tim-tebow-wins-on-saturday/251273/

Tim Tebow succeeds on the football field because of elves.

You can’t see them on television. They’re tiny. But when the game gets tight and the Denver Broncos need a fourth-quarter miracle, the elves come out and do his bidding. Forming a dense pack, they push 350-pound lineman aside, knock defensive backs off their stride, and give speed to Demayrius Thomas after he catches a pass.

That’s why he wins.

It’s hard to believe that it is 2012 already… I trust that you said that correctly. It is NOT pronounced “Two-thousand twelve.” That’s right, the correct way to say the year is to say, “Twenty twelve.”  Don’t argue with me. You will lose.

First, say out loud the year 1965.

You probably said nineteen sixty-five, which is correct.

Now say out loud the year 1710.

You probably said seventeen ten, which is also correct.

Now say out loud the year 2012.

Two thousand twelve just sounds stupid.

But I digress…  It’s not my intent to write my first post of 2012 on proper pronunciation. (Did you say it correctly this time?) I’ve been known to make up a lot of words in my time anyway.

Something new for me this year is the addition of a systematic Bible reading plan.  While I delight in studying my Bible, I have never been a big fan of the plethora of plans to assist you in “getting through your Bible in a year.”  However, when I came across a blog post at Challies.com, my interest was peaked. Tim Challies and a bunch of his readers are participating in the The 3650 Challenge. Using Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System, participants will read 10 chapters of the Bible each day. According to Challies.com:

“This means that over the course of 2012 anyone who uses the plan will go through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the Old Testament wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the Old Testament History and Prophetic books about 1.5 times.”

The popular smart phone Bible app YouVersion has the reading plan built into it to assist you in keeping track. It’s not to late. Jump on the bandwagon folks.

One other noteworthy item to begin the year is a free audio book that I highly recommend. ChristianAudio.com is giving away J.I. Packers book Knowing God for the month of January. Before you get all bent, let me say that I am a huge fan of ACTUAL BOOKS… you know… the ones with covers and bindings and pages? But after I have read and reread some of my favorites, I have discovered that I love listening to the audio versions. I usually do my listening while driving.

Do yourself a favor and get this one. I would consider Knowing God by J.I. Packer to be one of my top 5 books that every Christian should read. Get it and read it! Or… at least download this and listen to it if you are not a reader.

So, here is to an amazing year ahead, with good friends, good books, good theology and amazing coffee.  Sola Deo Gloria!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

I have an axe to grind. Please indulge me for a moment.

Spurgeon once remarked, “Holy Scripture requires searching—much of it can only be learned by careful study.” He went on to say, “There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers.”

The false notion that careful study and sound exegesis of scripture is not necessary is a belief that originates in the mind of Satan himself. This “anti-intellectual” attitude running rampant in the church today and coming from pulpits across America is nothing more than a mix of mysticism, gnosticism, mindless spirituality and superstition. It is an emotionally driven, superficial, false message that is justified by pointing a pragmatic finger at pseudo-miracles, catchy music and of course Sunday attendance.

I recently finished reading a book entitled “When Heaven Invades Earth” written by self-proclaimed apostle Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California. This is quite possibly the most heretical bunch of garbage I have read since “Love Wins.”
This “apostle” goes to war in his book against the two biblical truths of the deity of Christ and redemptive work on the cross. And you see, as a Christian, that just won’t fly with me.

Mr. Johnson stands resolutely against responsible scholarship based on sound exegesis of Scripture. According to “Apostle Billy”, such practices will bring you into bondage and spiritual death. He points to an often misused verse, “…for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Mr. Johnson uses this to promote the idea that careful study of scripture will kill you spiritually. The twisting of 2 Corinthians 3:6 has a long history of being used as a launch pad for mysticism and subjective religious experiences. The context of verse 3 shows that Paul was speaking of the letters written on stone. In other words: the Decalogue. Paul explains in Romans 7:5,6 how the law “kills.” However, it kills because of our sinful nature that it exposes. It doesn’t kill us when we study to discover what it actually means.

Johnson, like many heretical Word-Faith teachers, asserts that Jesus set aside his divinity and became a mere man. He downgrades Jesus and writes, “Jesus did everything he did as a man, laying aside His divinity in order to become a model for us.” He teaches that if Jesus was only an anointed man, then we can do everything that He did and more! He believes that God is raising up an elite group of spirit-anointed believers that can equal and even do more than the mere man, Jesus, for they too are anointed or as he says, “Christed”

Might I add here, the use of the divine title “Christ” being regarded as just another term for “anointed” is offensive in the most obscene way.

Of course, there is the pesky little problem that if Jesus was able to simply “stop being God” then he never truly was God. “God” denotes infinite, and infinite cannot simply become finite. While we do acknowledge that Jesus temporarily laid down some of his rights as God, he never stopped being God. Divinity was not taken away from Jesus. Rather, humanity was added to Him. What is more, if Jesus lived his earthly life as a mere “anointed man”, his substitutionary and vicarious death on the cross in the place of sinners is made totally fruitless, irrelevant and impotent of its meaning. And once more, no one can be saved in Jesus.

Only the God-Man could bear the burden and pay the penalty of sinful humanity.

Sorry Bill, theology matters. Words have meaning and beliefs have consequences. If that is the flag you fly at Bethel Church, you are teaching heresy. Accusing the faithful of “creating doctrine to justify their lack of power” speaks to your Biblical ignorance and ineptitude. No amount bird feathers falling from your church rafters will change that.

http://www.dennyburk.com/christopher-hitchens-1949-2011/

Written by Denny Burk: I was sad to hear about the passing of Christopher Hitchens last night. He was a unique public intellectual with a rapier wit and an even sharper pen. He seemed to be able to hold forth on almost any topic put before him, and he was as charismatic as they come.

Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until Thou alone art seen in me, Thy beauty golden like summer harvest, Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee, no law but Thy will, no delight but Thyself, no wealth but that Thou givest, no good but that Thou blessest, no peace but that Thou bestowest. I am nothing but that Thou makest me. I have nothing but that I receive from Thee. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.

http://vimeo.com/32820015

Someday, somehow… a trip like this one must happen for me.

One can only assume Joel Osteen performs daily affirmations Stuart-Smalley-Style every morning… I was going to start trying to sound like him when I preach until I realized how patently absurd and unbiblical his teachings are… No thank you. One Joel Osteen is more than enough of an embarrassment and black-eye on the Christian community. Although, let’s be honest: Do we really consider this guy a true Christian? I know, I know, I know… Mr. Osteen’s eternal salvation is not mine to judge. But it is perfectly within my right to question considering his heretical teachings.

And yes… Them are fightin’ words…

I have many issues that I believe are worth fighting for. While the following is by no means exhaustive, any of these? Yea, I’ll fight you.

1. The radical depravity of our sinful condition render us enemies of God and results in His abiding wrath on us…

2. Salvation is through faith alone, by grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone. You are not saved because of anything you did, could do or will do…

3. The centrality, authority, inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible as our supreme and final source of revelation and truth…

4. The birth, perfect life, death and physical resurrection of the The Lord Jesus Christ…

5. A literal 6-day creation sometime in the past 12,000 years…

6. The Gospel has absolutely nothing to do do with your health, wealth or prosperity. Anyone who teaches a “prosperity gospel” is a heretical charlatan…

7. With the privilege of private biblical interpretation comes the divine responsibility of proper and accurate hermeneutical exegesis…

8. It is the responsibility of of true believers to call out and publicly identify the wolves dressed as sheep in the church…

9. All of creation, all knowledge and everything that is… exists for… and will ultimately display the manifest glory of God…

10. Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Peet’s, Tully’s, and all other corporate coffee chains make rancid, bitter, ash flavored toilet water and then call it coffee…

Ok, obviously not all of these hold the same level of importance… I’m not dead set on the 12,000 year thing…  but I will still fight you for it…