Tonight Pastor John Piper is answering questions live.

There was a lot of buzz that started yesterday about John Piper inviting Rick Warren to Desiring God’s National Conference in the fall, and Piper has announced that he will discuss why he invited Rick Warren tonight during “Ask Past John”.

However, back in February, Pastor John had already mentioned and explained why he invited Rick Warren to the conference this fall while speaking in California at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church.

Listen to it here:

Here is a video from February 2010 about why Piper is inviting Rick Warren to be one of the speakers at this fall’s DG National Conference on the theme of “Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God.”

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What is the Gospel?

One of the most profound questions a person can ask. It is also one of the questions as believers we better have an answer!

Greg Gilbert provides a great resource for us to better understand the Gospel so that we can be better missional believers within our communities. Check out his short introduction of the book below:

You can purchase the book here:

Here is what Livingstone said to the Cambridge students about his “leaving” the benefits of England:

For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. . . . Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.

(Cited in Samuel Zwemer, “The Glory of the Impossible” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, Ralph Winter and Stephen Hawthorne, eds. [Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1981], p. 259. Emphasis added.)

Yahoo released an excellent article yesterday discussing the rise of calvinism in the church, which means the rise of churches focusing on nothing more but the Gospel and proclaiming Christ as a believers treasure and a God completely in control of all aspects of life.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Welcome to the austere – and increasingly embraced – message of Calvinism. Five centuries ago, John Calvin’s teachings reconceived Christianity; midwifed Western ideas about capitalism, democracy, and religious liberty; and nursed the Puritan values that later cast the character of America.

Today, his theology is making a surprising comeback, challenging the me-centered prosperity gospel of much of modern evangelicalism with a God-first immersion in Scripture. In an age of materialism and made-to-order religion, Calvinism’s unmalleable doctrines and view of God as an all-powerful potentate who decides everything is winning over many Christians – especially the young.

Twenty-something followers in the Presbyterian, Anglican, and independent evangelical churches are rallying around Calvinist, or Reformed, teaching. In the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant body, at least 10 percent of its pastors identify as Calvinist, while more than one-third of recent seminary graduates do.

New Calvinism draws legions to the sermons of preachers like John Piper of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Here at Captiol Hill Baptist Church, the pews and even rooms in the basement are filled each Sunday, mostly with young professionals. Since senior pastor Mark Dever brought Calvinist preaching here 16 years ago, the church has grown sevenfold. Today it is bursting at the stained-glass windows.

The article even share what a Sunday service looks like at Mark Dever’s church stating:

This pattern – convict worshipers of their sin, then show them spiritual elation – has a gripping effect on the assembly. After the service, churchgoers linger for an hour, hugging and sharing heartfelt conversation. “I’ve come to believe and understand that God is not fundamentally about me; He’s much bigger than that,” says Dan Wenger, a government employee. “The teaching at this church has helped me to see that in context of the whole story of the Bible, not just the parts that make me feel good.”

Dever acknowledges that people might well ask, “Why would God make anybody who is going to go to hell?” His answer captures the essence of New Calvinism. “I don’t know,” he says. “I didn’t do this. I’m just trying to tell you what I think is true, not what I like.”

Lastly, the article demonstrates how the congregation does not treasure “Calvinism” but they treasure CHRIST!  This is the biggest thing to remember.  Churches holding to these beliefs do so, because it creates a great love for Christ and exults his name greatly.  Here is what some of the congregation had to say:

“The resurgence of Calvinism indicates that America hasn’t changed so much as some might suppose,” says Collin Hansen, author of “Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists.” “American Christianity has splintered in myriad directions since the Puritans settled New England. But the God they worshiped – attested in the Bible, sovereign in all things, and merciful toward sinners through the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ – still captivates believers today.”

For all its controversy, predestination is something New Calvinists accept as part of their take-it-all-or-leave-it approach to the Bible.

“Today we have more Bibles and more study guides to Scripture than ever before, but people know the text itself less and less,” says Bray. “This is disastrous. Calvin’s deep and expository approach to it is therefore more necessary than ever.”

At CHBC, several members say they became authentically Christian only after a friend studied the gospel with them verse by verse. “As I studied the Bible, I saw that God has every reason to send me to hell,” says Connie Brown, a kindergarten teacher. “God broke me down – and renewed my heart.”

New Calvinists talk about their sin a lot. Despite that – or rather because of it – they exude not guilt but great joy. Their explanation: If we play down our sinfulness, we’ll play down our gratitude for the magnitude of God’s love and forgiveness.

To read the full article you can find it here.

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J. I. Packer says, “it would not be correct to simply equate Calvinism with the ‘five points.’” He continues, (paragraphing added)

Calvinism is something much broader than the “five points” indicate.

Calvinism is a whole world-view, stemming from a clear vision of God as the whole world’s Maker and King.

Calvinism is the consistent endeavour to acknowledge the Creator as the Lord, working all things after the counsel of His will.

Calvinism is a theocentric way of thinking about all life under the direction and control of God’s own Word.

Calvinism, in other words, is the theology of the Bible viewed from the perspective of the Bible—the God-centred outlook which sees the Creator as the source, and means, and end, of everything that is, both in nature and in grace.

Calvinism is thus theism (belief in God as the ground of all things), religion (dependence on God as the giver of all things), and evangelicalism (trust in God through Christ for all things), all in their purest and most highly developed form.

And Calvinism is a unified philosophy of history which sees the whole diversity of processes and events that take place in God’s world as no more, and no less, than the outworking of His great preordained plan for His creatures and His church.

The five points assert no more than that God is sovereign in saving the individual, but Calvinism, as such, is concerned with the much broader assertion that He is sovereign everywhere.

Read Packer’s full essay.

“Heaven and Earth”, the first sampling from Blitzen Trapper’s upcoming full-length Destroyer of the Void, is easily one of the most effortlessly beautiful songs you’ll hear today. The whole thing is overwhelmingly simple, just a man and his piano.

Destroyer of the Void is out 6/8 via Sub Pop. The tracklist:

01 “Destroyer of the Void”
02 “Laughing Lover”
03 “Below The Hurricane”
04 “The Man Who Would Speak True”
05 “Love and Hate”
06 “Heaven and Earth”
07 “Dragon’s Song”
08 “The Tree” (feat. Alela Diane)
09 “Evening Star”
10 “Lover Leave Me Drowning”
11 “The Tailor”
12 “Sadie”

Have a listen here:

“Yes we can” has become a popular slogan these days. It has also become a controversial statement that has divided the nation.

I stumbled upon this video that was edited in a very powerful and interesting manner. Like most people, you may watch this video and see how absurd Republicans are acting and someone else may see how Obama and his crew are seeking change for the good of our nation.

Either way you look at it there is something both sides are missing.

This is not a post to support or knock down Obama. This is about how blind and sinful we are as people.

Watching this video and hearing the people say, “Yes we can!” to healing this nation and to making this a world a better place is in fact wrong. We can’t.

No you can’t!

• Genesis 8:21 “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
• Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
• Romans 8:7-8 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
• 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
• John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”
• Job 14:4 “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one!”

This video shows how as humans we believe we have the ability to do good, but apart from God we cannot do any good!

I realize that this statement is unintelligible to the unregenerate who know very well that they do many good things and that they could do much more evil than they do. However, there is no good in us before our new birth. Without the conviction that everything good that God has made and God sustains is ruined when it is not done in reliance on God’s grace and in pursuit of God’s glory!

We prostitute God’s creation when we use all that God has made without relying on his grace and without aiming to give Him all the glory. Therefore, when we say yes we can make this world better, we have to say no we can’t apart from God.

We have to realize that God is in complete control, and whatever we do that proclaims we are in control of our destiny is wrong! As believers, whatever we do is by God’s grace for His glory and nothing of us. This means that “no we can’t” but “yes God can.”

Romans 7:18 says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” In our flesh, in the person by nature apart from the new birth, there is no good thing.

All that was created good was ruined once we became made the servant of man-centered concerns, not God-centered concerns, which is what this video demonstrates.

The reason I say “No we can’t” is because without a regenerate heart, our condition is hopeless, and we cannot fix it with moral improvement.

Dead men do not do better.

Dead men need one thing before anything else can happen: They must be made alive…They need a great awakening!

Now I wouldn’t say, “Hell no we can’t” as harshly as the republican, but the truth of the matter is if we want to see change to this nation and want to see healing then we must:

• Submit to God in prayer.
• Trust in his sovereign plan.
• Share the gospel to our communities.
• Get excited about proclaiming Christ.
• Understand it’s not “you do,” but “Jesus did.”
• Seek joy in Christ and give Him all the glory he deserves!

It is not, “Yes we can”, but it is “No we can’t, but yes God can for his glory!”

God is God. God is Good. To God be the Glory.

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Did you see the video for Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” and think, “This video is just not nearly nerdy enough for my liking”? I know I did.

The internet came through and provided us with the dose of Star Wars we crave in the music of our troubled pop stars. This video is a complete win:

Ed Stetzer released some new research conducted by telephone surveys of more than 1,000 Protestant pastors that shows two-thirds have obtained at least a Master’s degree, and 71 percent strongly agree that they regularly use things they learned in their seminary classes.

So many people that feel called into ministry do not see the importance of seminary. It is very encouraging to see how strongly pastors value their theological education.

However, when considering adding staff members to lead age-group ministries in their churches, pastors are not generally inclined to make a seminary degree a prerequisite.

Only 10 percent of Protestant pastors say they would require a candidate to have a seminary degree and instead place emphasis on other qualifications, such as experience and beliefs, about which the phone survey asked.

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Contaminated and polluted water now kills more people than all forms of violence including wars, according to a United Nations report released Monday that calls for turning unsanitary wastewater into an environmentally safe economic resource.

U.N. reports: Polluted water kills about 2.2 million a year; wars claim fewer victims per year

90 percent of wastewater discharged daily in developing countries is untreated, contributing to the deaths of some 2.2 million people a year from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene. At least 1.8 million children younger than 5 die every year from water-related diseases.

Not only is this a huge problem around the world but it is also a critical issue in Haiti.  Charity: Water is asking for donations to help support these families and children that need immediate help now!  Check out the video below and you can donate to Charity: Water here

My family and I spent Saturday celebrating my mother’s 50th birthday in Atlanta.  One of the stops was the Georgia Aquarium.  It is definitely a site to behold!  All the many creatures of the deep blue sea together in one central location for nerdy people like me to just stand in awe of the creativity God took in creating such beautiful creatures.

While standing in front of the 100ft acrylic wall, that contains the vast majority of the creatures, I noticed the children, the senior citizens, the teenagers, the couples, the grown men and the babies all standing in awe of the many interesting creatures that live below the sea.  However, the first thing I realized next is that very few are standing in awe of the Creator who spoke all of the creatures into being.

It breaks my heart that so many people could be standing there in amazement and will give no glory to our Father above.

The important thing to remember is that God has plainly and clearly shown himself to everyone!  Every second, God is manifesting himself through the things that are made so that his testimony to his nature is plainly evident!

People were staring for hours amazed at these animals and it is because they do in fact know that something greater has created them.  The invisible God, even though he cannot be seen because he is invisible, is clearly seen through his creation.  God is not seen directly, but he is seen through the things that are made.

And Paul affirms this in Romans 1:20,

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

The perplexing thing about what Paul says here is that God has made it so that when you see His creation you know this has to be from God!

Then why do so many people not see that?

The answer is that we are fallen and corrupt beings.  We are fugitives to God.  Our nature is that of sinfulness and rebellion.  We are so corrupt, that before we are believers with a new heart and new mind, anything that is of God we deny and run away from.

In the verse before, Romans 1:18b-19,

Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

By nature we take the truth of God and press it down.  We force it into our subconscious, as it were, to get it out of our mind!  However, no matter how much we try to suppress the truth we cannot erase it!

With every sin this is what we do, suppress the truth.  This sin most clearly expresses our totally depraved nature, our corruption and fallenness in flesh.  We all suppress the truth of God even though God clearly reveals himself in nature to the whole human race!  Paul is not talking here about truth we learn about God in the Bible, but this truth Paul is stating is a knowledge of God that God makes manifest through nature.

The truth God gives of himself is manifest.  It is clear.  It is so plain that everybody gets it!  The problem is they suppress it and push away the truth.

Therefore, we must remove the idea that there are innocent people anywhere in this world, because there isn’t!  God reveals himself clearly through his manifestation in nature.  That means the unbelievers at the aquarium who stood in awe of the creatures but deny God as their Creator are suppressing the truth!

Every human being knows of God and clearly perceives God but rejects that knowledge.  For that, every person is exposed to the wrath of God.  The only possible way someone can be rescued from that wrath is through the Savior.

There is an urgency within our communities for people to hear the Gospel.  I pray that we are doing whatever it takes to showing people that Christ is our treasure and pleading with them to “come taste and see” the greatness of Christ!

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