Perhaps you have noticed the new title to this blog. If you were expecting to end up at FBC New London do not freak out--it's still us! However, because our hope is to extend far beyond our local community we have decided to make a change to the blog title. Borrowed Light will be our new blog title. Where does this come from?

If you have ever read the biography of Jonathan Edwards (or other great men of God like Whitefield, Spurgeon, McCheyne, etc.) then hopefully you have experienced the humbling and silencing benefit of comparing your own walk with these "giants". In fact one man that I consider a "giant" in the faith is Robert Murray McCheyne. Apparently, he felt the same humbling experience when reading Edwards. On March 20, 1832 after reading part of the Life of Jonathan Edwards, McCheyne then comments, "How feeble my spark of Christianity appear beside such a sun! But even his was a borrowed light, and the same source is still open to enlighten me."

Therefore, I have chosen this title because of my tendency to revere such great men and women in history. It is a constant reminder to us all that their light is only borrowed and that the true source of light is Jesus Christ. It is also an encouragement; whenever I read of the vibrant relationship such men had with our God I can remember that the same Jesus is readily available to me! It is my prayer that the purpose of this blog (moreover my life) might always be to draw near unto God and enjoy this Great Light!

Today will be short yet piercing. Burroughs point is simple, "the soul that has learned this lesson of contentment looks up to God in all things." Simply put the soul that is contented does not set his praises towards man or any such instrument for securing his hope. The soul that is content looks only to God and rests in His sovereignty and goodness.

This section is marking the difference between being comforted by the things of God and by God Himself. I fear that in my own life I look to the books on my shelf faster than to I look to Jesus. It is one thing to admire these great men and women of God. It is quite another for them to become sacred substitutes. One of the things that I love about such men as John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Charles Spurgeon, Robert Murray McCheyne, among a host of others, is that they point me to Jesus and cause me to hunger for Christ and His Word. Yet, I am guilty of stopping there. I should again resolve to be as Andrew Bonar who, 1) would not speak to any man before speaking to Jesus 2) would not do anything with his hands until he had been on his knees 3) not to read the papers (internet news/blogs/etc. for us) until he had read his Bible.

I understand that Burroughs is primarily talking about what the believer does in affliction. I would like to think that after coming through an affliction I would not be so thoughtless as to bow my knees and thank the folks at Desiring God for publishing The Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. In fact I think it is right to bow our knee and thank God for such men and women. But the issue is this, am I thanking God and only God (whatever means he uses) or is their a spot of unhealthy adoration in my heart for His instruments? Knowing that my heart is prone to idolatry I would not doubt that I exalt even such men to a place of unhealthy adoration. May the Lord break us of our pride and our idolatry!

The following is the newsletter article I put together for December:

Do hard things! That is the motto of The Rebelution (yes, that is spelled correctly). The Rebelution is the cry of a generation of young people who are “rebelling against the low expectation of an ungodly culture”. Lord willing we will be attending a Rebelution conference this summer in Iowa. I would strongly encourage you to check out their website at http://www.therebelution.com.

As I was pondering this call to a generation—to do hard things—I had to question myself. Do I do hard things? Are we as a church modeling for our young people—do hard things?!?! I see the example of some of the men in our church laboring to put up porches, trim bushes, load food for the community, and serve and serve and serve. You teach our generation something, so thank you. But I also am forced to ask another question. Do we do hard things in our faith? Do we read difficult books that drive us deeper to the throne of grace? Do we struggle over the hard texts in Scripture? Do we want to know more of God and labor and labor and labor until we do? Are we missionaries; getting our hands dirty, sharing the gospel to hard people in hard places? Do we model for our young people a passion to know God more fully or do we give of a vibe of contentment and satisfaction with how much of God we have?

Very shortly most of us will be going through Don’t Waste Your Life in our Sunday school classes. There are some difficult things in that book. You might come across words you do not understand. You might have to read over a sentence a few times. God might drive you to your knees in prayer. He might blow your mind with how vast He is. I urge you to go deep. Do not be satisfied. Yes God is simple. Yes the Gospel is so simple a child can grasp it (so long as he/she has been regenerated). But, dear church, we will spend all of eternity digging the “depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33)

Dear brothers our young men are NOT doing hard things. The culture is not expecting it of them. They are not being raised up as men of God. Many of them are not currently bearing marks of manhood (see last article). The lack of involvement of our young men in small groups, positions of leadership training, Christmas plays, prayer groups, etc. is a reflection of this. Unless we raise the bar of expectation and help these boys become men, DO NOT expect this to change. They will continue to act like children. At the age of 17, 27, and maybe even 37. Brothers, we must model for them—do hard things! In our physical labor and in our spiritual labor. Brothers, live lives that reflect an unquenchable passion for Jesus Christ. Live lives that say—we do hard things! We care about theology! We care about holiness! We care about Jesus!

Dear sisters our young women are NOT doing hard things. The culture is not expecting it of them. Actually, the culture is expecting women to be manlier than our men. I plead with you, in tears, do not let our young women believe the lies of the world! Model for them what it means to do hard things. Tell them there is no shame in raising a family. Model for them what it means to be submissive to a husband. Display in your life that you treasure Jesus more than materials, makeup, and men. But display for them also that you treasure your husband. These girls need women to show them how to be women. I am grateful for the leadership of my wife and Beth in teaching some of these girls how to cook, clean, etc. Dear sisters I plead with you—teach these young women what it means to be like Abraham’s wife—Sarah.

Brothers and Sisters I am pleading with you that we might be a Titus 2 church. Training young women and urging young men! Not only our future but also our present obedience to God depends on it! He says teach, model, lead our young people—do it!

Love in Christ,
Mike

Today we will introduce a new feature to our blog. Friday, I posted what my mornings typically look like. Now I will give you the fruit of my labor. I will be posting links and a short summary to articles that I found interesting. Note: I may not agree with every article I link to. These will be linked to in the hopes to spawn thoughtful interaction. So, without further ado here are today's blogworld posts:

Remember a few months back when Christendom was in an uproar of the Gospel of Judas? Just as in the past this too has been shown to be a fraud. Dr. Mohler points us to a new book by April D. Deconick which accurately points us to National Geographic's misrepresentation of the text in the Gospel of Judas. Turns out Judas still is not a hero and is actually portrayed as a demon. The full blog post can be found here: Revising the Revisionists

Also in the news today is yet another controversial booking by Saddleback Church (Rick Warren's church). The Christian Post covers the 'gutsy appearance' of Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. This, frankly, sickens me for a number of reasons. 1) It is awesome that the church is involved in trying to alleviate suffering and such tragedies as AIDS. Might we continue. However, to link up with those who are strongly pro-death (er, I mean pro-choice) is ludicrous. I am fairly certain that 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 addresses such unholy unions. 2) The continual sell-out of the church into the political arena. There are numerous other reasons for my disdain, but these two will suffice for now.

I am encouraged that as we are beginning a study on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood that material is becoming readily available. Last week the Shepherd's Scrapbook posted an excellent interview with C.J. Mahaney on biblical masculinity. Also of note, Between Two Worlds: Man Up where Justin Taylor points us to an article by Ray Van Neste on young guys growing up to be men. Voddie Baucham's address to Charleston Southern University about biblical manhood is also now available. I encourage all of our parents and young men to check these out. It may even be beneficial to our young ladies who want to know what a godly man looks like.

The Blazing Center gives us 8 Tips to Get More Out of Bible Study. It's actually more of a "how to do an effective quiet time", but it is very helpful. I especially appreciate pointing us to journaling and responding to what we have read. Insights like this keep us from legalistically doing quiet times and redeeming them in the hopes of seeing Jesus.

Founders has some helpful links for the Building Bridges Conference that was held at Southeastern. I am so excited to hear that a group of Southern Baptist are together discussing theology. I am especially encouraged that what was debated was not Hyper-Calvinism vs. Arminianism. It has been my experience that many people who come from an Arminian persuasion disagree with hyper-Calvinist and very seldom engage the belief of Calvinist. This conference will help. It will especially help to dispel some of the main myths concerning Calvinism. 1) It is not counter-evangelism. In fact some of the statistics at the conference show that Calvinist and Arminians are about equal on evangelism--neither are doing it like we are called to. 2) It is not, nor does it inevitably lead to, the heretical Hyper-Calvinism. I am excited to see the fruit from this Conference. Tom Ascol provides summary thoughts as well as links to other posts about the event.

That's it for today...join us tomorrow for more from Blogworld