Last night was a significant milestone in the '08 Election process. The winners of the Iowa caucuses were Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama. I could easily link to numerous articles on this. I particularly am interested in Thabiti's response (he has an interesting take on the decline of African-American Theology and the election). A wonderful statement of summation was provided by Dr. Mohler: The rhetoric of the race -- and the rhetoric of many evangelicals -- is disturbing. This race is important and necessarily so. We are talking about the next President of the United States, after all. But evangelicals have invested far too much hope in the political process. No government can make people good, transform humanity, or eliminate sin. The political sphere is important, but never ultimate. Jesus Christ is Lord -- and He will be Lord regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. If you are interested in following this story closely a great place for updates is Justin Taylor's blog.

John Piper encourages us to Pray Global Prayers. He also points us to Operation World to assist in our prayers. (It would be helpful if OW had an RSS Feed so we could add it to our Google Reader's).

When Nikki and I bought our last car (a state-of-the-art 1993 Grand Prix) I could not help but notice that the world is populated with many similar cars. Was it that people suddenly decided to buy '93 Grand Prix's en masse? I doubt it. Maybe my eyes were more aware of the red beasts. I say all of that to ask a question...is it just me or are we seeing a massive resurgence of John Newton stuff? Within the last couple days there have been new posts on Newton. Founders points us to Newton on zeal blended with humility. Of First Importance quotes Newton as saying We cannot think too highly of Christ.

Stephen Moore has a very interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal. He is concerned that because of video games his sons are turning into Teenage Zombies. It might sound a little strong but more says, "I am persuaded that video games are the new crack cocaine". While I would not go that far, I have found that many of our teenagers are so obsessed with video games that they have little time to go deep theologically. Some barely crack the cover of their Bibles "b/c they hate reading". Yet these same students read hours of e-mails, text messages and television screens. Some might say we should find a way to "get the gospel" in all these things. Maybe we should come up with some cool Christian video games. My solution--would be to man up and be parents. Unplug your television, pry the control out of the hand of your 5 year old, and go play catch. Then, of course, come back and have a riveting game of Madden together. (HT: Tim Ellsworth)

Brian Thornton has asks, what is central in looking for a church home? Is it good worship music? Fun events? A relevant youth ministry? A nursery without cockroaches and broken glass? A hip pastor? Good solid expositional preaching? Friendly people?

Said at Southern has a wonderful roundup on evangelism. I have yet to check out all of the articles but I am awaiting the time to do so.

And finally Borrowed Light is honored to be part of the SBCVoices. It is an excellent resource that puts together all of the blogs from folks that are part of the SBC.

Maybe one of my books should be on grammar! Trevin Wax gives 7 tips on how to read 100 books this year. (How to get access to 100 books is up to you). My goal was earlier in the year was around 45-50. I am an avid reader, so maybe I set the bar too low. I'll take his advice and see what happens. Maybe by July I can add another 50.

Last night we began our new 5 week series on Enjoying the Gospel. It is my prayer that last night served as a fitting introduction to this topic. I am always a little reluctant to do a quick "topical" series and break away from our typical book by book messages. You can find the full text here.

Genesis 3:

As I was reading Genesis 3 I recognized an inaccurate image that I get in my head as I read this. I imagine the serpent speaking with Eve and Adam in the Garden, and God is off somewhere picking strawberries or something. But the truth of the matter is that the omnipresent God was right there as they ate of the forbidden fruit. Anything more as to what God was thinking, feeling, etc. would be merely conjecture on my part. All I can say is that He was there. I do wonder though, what God thought as He saw His creation do such a ridiculous thing. Certainly it was no surprise. It had to have made God shake His head as He saw man and women do what we have done sense--try to cover our sin by our own efforts.

It would be worthy of a sermon to exposit the dialogue between Eve and the serpent. Notice that she adds a restriction. God never said that you cannot touch the fruit. It would also be another sermon to exposit the dialogue between God and the fallen couple.

I notice quite a few new things about man that were not present in Genesis 1 and 2. Man now runs away from God. He tries to take care of himself (atone for his mistakes by making garments) instead of relying upon his Creator. He now has fear. He now blames others. And we see for the first time in the story pain. These will forever mark man, and even yet today as those banished from the Garden we experience each of these things so long as we are in Adam.

I also notice the amazing grace and love of God. We perhaps see a hint as to what is coming in verse 15..."I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Even if that it is not exegetically plausible that this is a reference to the Christ we still can see the grace of God in verse 21. We see a foreshadowing of the atonement. God provides their need. He covers their guilt with new clothes...clothes that he makes. And we also see His grace and mercy in kicking man out of the garden. He could not bear man to live forever in such a state so he banished him from the tree of life. Only through redemption will we finally eat of the tree of life.

One question I have on Genesis 3. Verse 20 seems like a strange place to put the naming of Woman. Why is it only after the Fall and curse that her name is now Eve? Mother of all the living seems to be an act of grace. They should have dropped dead on the spot and the human race wiped out. What is the significance of this?

Matthew 3:

I find verse 7 strange. Why were the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism? Why would they want to be identified with this? Are they caught up in the movement? Are they trying to save face with the masses? It is obvious that they are not actually repenting. How frequent was baptism then? I have heard that this would have been much the same as proselyte baptism. It was communicating that the Jewish people needed to be cleansed just as the Gentile and become a true Jew. If this is the case why would the religious elite be baptised?

I am not sure that I actually believe verse 12. Certainly I believe it because it is God's Word. But I do not think it has penetrated the depths of my heart as it should. I am not sure that I feel the beauty of being gathered into Christ' barn. Nor do I feel the awesome weight of those that will be burnt in unquenchable fire. Lord, I know that your glory is the proper motivation for evangelism! But if it please you, stir in my heart a deep passion for your glory and a deep brokenness for my fellow man that is chaff.

Question: How does Jesus' baptism (v15) "fulfill all righteousness"?

I have also never really understood everything that is going on in v.16-17. What exactly is taking place in that moment. I know it is heresy to say that it was at this moment that the divine spirit was imparted to Jesus. But what IS taking place? Is this significant for Jesus to know what is taking place or is this significant for others to know what is taking place? Did people hear this voice?

Ezra 3:

I need to spend some time studying Ezra. My understanding of it is only cursory and I think it hinders me from getting the main thrust of the chapters. What does hit me though is the exuberant worship they are engaged in at the end of this chapter. Shouts of joy and shouts of weeping. Was the weeping happy weeping? Was it sorrowful because they remember the glories of old? Was it joyful because they felt restored? Was it a mixture of both? Regardless their worship was heard from far away. I am not a supporter of great excess in emotions, however, I think some Baptist would have rebuked this worship service in Ezra. I think I might have even felt a little uneasy. Lord, tear out complacency and dull worship from my heart!

Acts 3:

I have always loved the story of The Lame Beggar Healed. I think whenever I picture it in my head the guy looks like Shorty on the Beverly Hillbillies, Festus in Gunsmoke, or Ernest T. Bass from The Andy Griffith Show. It had to have been quite a site to see. You get the idea that entering the temple would have been something normally reserved for quiet. This guy is leaping and praising God. He is definitely unashamed. When I reflect on this I wonder whether or not we as believers should have that same type of inexpressible joy. (I guess you could argue that his joy was expressible). The miracle that has happened in our life is nothing short of a dead man being brought to life. That is far more significant than ankles and legs getting healed. Where are the shouts of joy in our churches when God saves a sinner. (Again, I am not promote excess emotionalism--but I pray that the gospel goes so deep in our hearts that we cannot help but be like this man).

Verse 14 must have stung (or totally ticked off) the hearts of the people. The contrast is striking. Denied the Holy and Righteous One. Killed the Author of Life. Ouch!

Question: In verse 20 when he says "that he may send the Christ appointed to you, Jesus", what is that a reference to? The "sending". Is this the Second Coming? Is this some sort of spiritual sending?

Repent and turn again that your sins may be blotted out. A promise of times of refreshing. A reminder of the promise of the Coming One and that this is indeed He. A reminder of our duty to the Lord and His Servant. These are appropriate calls to repentance, or "gospel invitations" if you will.

Question: In verse 26 he says, "God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness". I know this is saying that Jesus was sent to the Jews first. It also sounds like it was sent to them so that everyone might be turned from wickedness. We know that not all the Jews turned. How then do we interpret this verse? Did God desire everyone to turn but they refused? (Will my Calvinistic brothers take a stab at this one?)

I wanted to remind you that you are welcome to interact with my reading plan. These are my thoughts as I am reading through these texts. As you have noted sometimes they are questions. I am inviting you to help me journey through these. So, please interact. If you are reading through the text as well then feel free to share your thoughts. If you see one of my questions and feel you have an answer then please share that. While these are my personal interactions with the Lord--I also intend them to be corporate as well, what better way to be edified?

It was announced yesterday that Dr. Mohler (President of Southern Seminary) would be nominated as the next SBC President. (HT: JT) So, guess what Mohler's blog post is about this morning? That's right, you guessed it...Life in the Cellular Age.

Erik Raymond, the Irish Calvinist, has an excellent article on Expository Preaching. His contention is that while we are heralding a call to return to expository preaching few of us are actually doing it. Here is his conclusion: "Men need to preach the word, not about the word but the word (2 Tim. 4.2). If we are going to keep having conferences that are supposed to center on expository preaching and speak about the need for expository preaching then the men need to preach expositionally or give some type of disclaimer so that folks don’t get confused and the term doesn’t get redefined and lost in our excitement about our “movement” and our contemporary Calvinist super-heroes."

Old Truth has re-posted an article on "Accepting Christ as Personal Savior". The author says some pretty strong things; it will certainly be offensive to proponents of easy-believism. Here are two of his most striking statements: "to [tell] sinners that they can come to Christ whenever they agree to accept Christ as their personal Savior is to deceive and bolster them up in a false "way of salvation". And quoting A.W. Pink, "Man, with his invariable perversity, has reversed God's order. Modern evangelism urges giddy worldlings, with no sense of their lost condition, to 'Accept Christ as their personal Savior'".

Thabiti Anyabwile is dedicating this year to reading and studying evangelism. First on his list is Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism. It's a great book. I read it last year along with Murray's Forgotten Spurgeon. Today he includes a great quote about Evangelism, Conversion, Revival and Prayer. I pray that this dear brother might be blessed in his study this year.

I never knew he did this. I do not follow very closely the ministry of Pat Robertson but apparently he gives his Nostradamus predictions at the beginning of the year. If Robertson were a baseball player, and his predictions were his average, he'd barely be above the Mendoza line. In 2007, he said the U.S. would be hit by a “major terrorist attack… The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.” Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September. In 2006, Robertson said the coasts of America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, will be lashed by storms. 2006 was unusual, say scientists, in that no major hurricanes made landfall in the U.S. In general, it was a very slow year for storms. In 2005, Roberts said:”What I heard is that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph, which is pretty strong stuff.” Bush’s approval ratings hover at less than 30 percent; I haven’t seen any great triumphs yet. You? (HT: Tim Ellsworth) Pat should be glad he is not living in Ancient Israel...he would have been stoned.

Also yesterday Josh Harris posted his final message on Affluenza.

Genesis 2:

This chapter teaches us several things about God and man. We see first of all that God makes and declares things holy (his declaration of the Sabbath as holy). The seventh day is not holy in essence, only because the sovereign Lord has made it thus. All throughout this chapter we are reminded of the great love and care with which God provides for his creation (primarily the man). We also learn that while this God is loving he also has certain commands. And he has authority.

Man in contrast to the great God is but dust. As my eyes began scanning over this chapter I accidentally read a verse wrong. I started in the middle of it and saw a very significant statement about who man is. "then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground..." All I saw in that statement was "man of dust". Even though that is not specifically what the Lord is saying it is accurate. Psalm 103:14 says that the Lord remembers that we are but dust. What a significant contrast; man of dust, LORD God. We see that while God is in authority man is under authority. The man's need for companionship and "work" (some refer to as the dirty four-letter word) are actually before the Fall. We also can deduct that man must have been made for pleasure. Why else would God have put in trees that were "pleasant to the sight" and "good for food". What a gracious God to give his creatures such blessings. We also see that thus far man is free from shame.

One question comes from Genesis 2. Feel free to respond to it. Is there a significance in mentioning the tree of life with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Note that the tree of life is not forbidden. Therefore, did man reject the tree of life and embrace the forbidden tree? Is this an example of what happens when we reject Christ? What are your thoughts on this?

Matthew 2:

Man, the gospel accounts should never be drab. But I have to be honest and say that Matthew 2 is one of my least favorite chapters in Scripture. (I am certain that is not right to say--I am to tremble at all of the Word). As I read through this I have to ask--what about this is to cause me to tremble? Should I see myself in Herod? Should I be more like the wise men? Do I see the awesome power of God in fulfilling all that was spoken through the Prophets? Does this establish the trustworthiness of God and thereby cause me to rejoice and tremble? Verse 10 I believe serves as a rebuke to my sometimes (dare I say often) stagnant worship. "When they saw the star, the rejoiced exceedingly with great joy". Does seeing the fulfillment of the promise of a coming Messiah (that has came) cause me to rejoice exceedingly with great joy? It serves as a fitting rebuke--perhaps it's not so drab after all.

Ezra 2:

What am I supposed to take from Ezra 2? They had professional singers back in the day. Donkeys were more common than horses. Heads of families made freewill offerings (I can hear the Arminian now...see look...there it says freewill). They had a pretty fair amount of gold (at least I think). Lots of people came back. They had servants. A group of people could not provide their genealogies and were excluded as unclean. I am certain that is significant but not sure how. I would probably need to be an Old Testament scholar to really get Ezra 2. Can anyone help? It is pretty cool that God brought his people back like he promised; I know that much is true.

Acts 2:

Ezra edifies me little Acts 2 could preach to me for a year. Peter's "first sermon" was quite a bit better than mine. I also note that he was standing with the eleven. This must have looked pretty amazing. You have 12 different guys standing up and speaking in weird languages... although come to find out its not weird, it's native tongues. Would each have been speaking the same message in a different language to his tongues audience? Then Peter (it seems to me) begins speaking to the Jewish people in their native tongue. Verse 22--"as you yourselves know" implies a knowledge and willful rejection. Jesus was crucified according to God's plan. Verse 30, would it have been odd to call David a prophet? Verse 33, seems to be the answer to these men's question. It is really neat how Peter goes the long way around to show the Jesus-centered purpose for what they are seeing. He could have simply said it is the Holy Spirit--but instead he gives a history and points them to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the gift of Jesus. Verse 37--Is this always the result of Holy Spirit anointed preaching? Perhaps so, perhaps not. In this case the Holy Spirit, speaking through Peter, brings about a "cut of the heart" and a desire to know what they must do. Peter's answer is to repent and be baptized. (Uh oh--that sounds like baptism is necessary for conversion, or at least reception of the Holy Spirit). This promise is for them, their children, and everyone whom God calls to himself (certainly that means the entire world doesn't it? OR is this effectual calling?)
I remember being told once that verse 40 was Peter's "altar call". Every time I read this verse now it makes me laugh. I also find it interesting that Peter is urging them to "Save yourselves form this crooked generation". Certainly, this would be a rejected form of preaching by Hyper-Calvinist. We must call men to repent and "save themselves". 3,000 people received the word and were baptized.

There is a ton of theological questions in this chapter--none of which I hope to delve into at this time. The only thing I want to mention is that when the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel we see things like 3,000 people saved. Granted sometimes gospel preaching does not lead to conversion--but certainly this should be our aim.

Lastly, it would take a long time to exposit 42-47. This section has always convicted me that THIS is what church should be like. Devoted to the word, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, to prayer! What is the result of this type of "fellowship"? Awe, Spirit working, unity. It is also astonishing how often they "met together". Day by day. That sounds strange to our modern "churchianity" ears. What if church is more than a building (am I starting to sound Emergent...)? What if church is fellowship of believers. But note that they "attended the temple together". So maybe there is some precedent for this "meeting place" after all. But maybe it's more than just the "meeting place". Maybe sometimes they have "church" in their homes. "Praising God and having favor with people." Certainly the favor with people would not last for long. More people coming to believe in Christ every day! Wow! Sign me up for this church.

May the Lord do such a work in our church that we might be used by the Lord in such a way. Knowing that I am part of the Church I have to ask myself. Am I devoted to the Word? Am I devoted to fellowship? Am I devoted to prayer? Am I devoted to breaking of bread? (And what does that even refer to, any suggestions?)

How often do children of God sadly experience that which Newton speaks of? How is it that we can experience the blessedness of God and over time the evenening shade prevail? Newton offers encouragement and points us to sovereign grace. This is Newton's poem on Job 29:2.

Sweet was the time when first I felt
The Savior’s pard’ning blood
Applied, to cleanse my soul from guilt,
And bring me home to God.

Soon as the morn the light revealed,
His praises tuned my tongue;
And when the evening shades prevailed,
His love was all my song.

In vain the tempter spread his wiles,
The world no more could charm;
I lived upon my Savior’s smiles,
And leaned upon his arm.

In prayer my soul drew near the Lord,
And saw his glory shine;
And when I read his holy word,
I called each promise mine.

Then to his saints I often spoke;
Of what his love had done;
But now my heart is almost broke,
For all my joys are gone.

Now when the evening shade prevails,
My soul in darkness mourns,
And when the morn the light reveals,
No light to me returns.

My prayers are now a chatt’ring noise,
For Jesus hides his face;
I read, the promise meets my eyes,
But will not reach my case.

Now Satan threatens to prevail,
And make my soul his prey;
Yet, Lord, thy mercies cannot fail,
O come without delay.