Apparently TULIP's have thorns. At least that seems to be the conclusion reached by many in the "old-guard" of the SBC. Recently 15 Evangelists (why this is BP News I'm not sure) met to discuss the growing movement of Calvinism in the SBC. Apparently its costing them jobs. Tom Ascol responds here. Also, a Christianity Today article was written on the rise of Calvinism within the SBC. Within that article Frank Page (resisting the urge to add an adjective here) commented: "The totality of history shows the vast majority of Baptists have not been [Calvinists], so why go back to the founders?" Page said. "I think we need to go back to the Bible." Timmy Brister responds here. (HT: JT)

Challies Blog Tour reaches Day 10. Today he is interviewed by Jonathan Leeman from Church Matters (the 9Marks blog). He asked these two questions: Tim, from your perspective as a layperson, what steps would you like to see more pastors taking to grow in discernment? And, Are there specific areas of church life and pastoring in which you find yourself wishing pastors would exercise greater discernment? Answers here.

Challies also writes a very good article on considering non-Christians "the enemy". Why do some churches rarely see baptisms? Challies belief is that, "...the real problem in these churches was in their attitude towards the unbeliever. The person next door was the enemy, a person to be feared for what he might do to the family, and the children in particular, and thus someone to be regarded with distrust and suspicion rather than with love."

The Wall Street Journal has ran a very interesting and quite ridiculous article on church discipline. It is, thankfully, making a "comeback" in many churches. It should not come as a surprise that it will start getting attacked by the world and less biblically minded believers. (HT: Denny Burk)

David Heim has a good article on Children's Sermons. (HT: Transforming Sermons)

Phil Johnson, from Pyromaniacs, continues his series on Total Depravity. Here is a snippet: "We are born into this world as thoroughgoing sinners, not merely tainted a little bit by sin, but completely, hopelessly in bondage to it. Every aspect of our being mind, emotions, desires, and even our physical constitution,is corrupted, controlled, and disfigured by sin and its effects. No one escapes from that verdict. We are totally depraved."

Disclaimer: In posting these thoughts, questions, and ramblings I feel it wise to give a disclaimer. There are many people that are far more knowledgeable and gifted in expositing the Word of God than I. These thoughts are not intended to be in-depth analysis of the text. They are thoughts. They are questions. They are ramblings. It will be a display of what God is teaching me through His Word. In depth study will be done at a different time. It is also good to know the author's goal. 1) To be accountable in reading through Scripture. 2) To share these thoughts with others. Possibly for someone else's edification; possibly for my own. 3) To glorify God through His Word. 4) To spur one another on in taking up Scripture and reading! So without further ado, here are today's readings:

Today I hope to get caught up on Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 1:

v5...Wow! What a big view of God Nehemiah had. He acknowledges the sovereignty of God. His greatness. His power. His faithfulness. His love. His conditions. His authority. His justice. All of these in one very profound sentence.

Also, I am struck by the specificity and depth of Nehemiah's confession. He does not candy coat his words. Yet even while he is confessing deeply and brokenly he has faith in God's promises of restoration.

"delight to fear your name". You normally do not see "delight and fear" so closely mingled.

Nehemiah 2:

This "prayer to the God of heaven" must have been quite short. It seems as if he is praying as he is thinking of what to say.

Again we see "the good hand of my God was upon me".

What is the significance of saying that the only animal with him is the one he rode?

How does one "strengthen their hands for the good work"?

Nehemiah 3:

"but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord". How pathetic. It's ironic that Nehemiah even says "stoop". What a noble thing it is to serve the Lord. It is far more noble than any other form of service. Yet these men see getting their hands dirty to serve the Lord as something well "below" them. Lord, help me to not have this spirit. Sometimes I know that ministers can be high and lofty and not "stoop" to serve.

"and his daughters". What a sharp contrast between these women and the "nobles" that would not stoop.

Nehemiah 4:

They take the insults of the opposition quite serious. What a strong prayer they offer.

"And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work". Oh, Lord grant us a "mind to work" for your glorious kingdom.

The solution to opposition? Remember the Lord, fight for your family!

I love their determination. Half are working on the walls, half are protecting the city. I wonder how quickly we would have given up such an endeavor.

"none of us took off our clothes"...I bet at this point the people of Israel really stunk.

Nehemiah 5:

It seems like anytime there is a mighty movement of God like this (seeing all the people working toward one great cause), if there is not turmoil outside the camp there will be inside. Here it seems that as soon as all of their forces where united to stop the outside risings came from within.

I am not certain that the pain and heartache of verse 5 is able to come through. That must have been horrible to be fighting to rebuild the walls of your city and see your daughters enslaved. Certainly they would have felt that they were doing God's will, and had to wonder why this was happening. This teaches us that sometimes following the Lord does not solve problems but rather adds to them.

Again we find that the cause of this is that the nobles are being jerks. There is no better way to put that. It kind of reminds me of the struggles of Scotland in the movie Braveheart.

Nehemiah gets to the root of the issue with the nobles. "Ought you not fear the Lord". If they feared the Lord they would not be oppressing their own people.

It is great to see such a quick and thorough repentance. Praise God for this. May the Lord raise up men as bold as Nehemiah and stir the hearts of sinful men to repent and make things right.

What kept Nehemiah obedient? Fear of the Lord.

Verse 19 seems to be a strange prayer. "Remember for my good". Shouldn't our prayers be more for the glory of God and his good and not ours?

Nehemiah 6:

Something about Nehemiah's response to Shemaiah strikes me. He is more concerned with the holiness of God than he is with his own life. I find it ironic that he says he will not go into the temple because he would not live, yet the reason for his going to the temple would be to preserve his life.

What wonderful discernment Nehemiah was given. It sounded like this guy was wanting to help him out, but because Nehemiah knew it contradicted the Law of God he discerned that it was not from the Lord.

"fell greatly in their own esteem". Oh, Lord, that I would do the same.

Nehemiah 7:

I'm not certain why I am asking this question only now. Why does Nehemiah have the authority to do all of this? I know that his authority comes from the Lord, but why did all of the people seem to unquestionably follow him? Was he in a position of authority?

God puts even things like putting together genealogies into people's hearts.

Again, the genealogies would be interesting to study, but not in this place.

After last night's sermon William approached me and asked a question. "So, let me get this right, Mike. Legalism is bad". I could not help but laugh because that was the entire point of the sermon. Legalism is serious. Legalism is "bad", if you will. As I composed myself, I said, "Yes, William, legalism is bad. But Jesus also died for people that struggle with legalism just like me".

I must give credit for much of the material to C.J. Mahaney. Two of his sermons helped in shaping this one. You can find them here and here.

You can find the full text to last night's sermon here.

Half way through this short chapter I was planning on writing that this chapter has been the least beneficial so far. While that may still be true the latter half of this chapter was wonderful. Sibbes spreads diamonds and pearls all over the last couple of pages.

Quick Outline:

• Grace is Little at First
• Grace is Mingled with Corruption

Summary:

Sibbes' major concern here is to display for us what is meant by a smoking flax. He sees the smoking flax as that which has a little bit of light and it is mixed with smoke. Hence, the outline he follows. He begins by showing us that grace is little at first. The better a thing is the harder it is for it to become perfect. A mushroom becomes perfect (completed) much quicker than a mighty oak tree, so it is with the believer. It is important then for us to see in this growth process that, "Christ values us by what we shall be, and by what we are elected unto." Even the least bit of grace is the most glorious thing.

"Grace is not only little, but [also] mingled with corruption", says Sibbes. Grace is not perfect as soon as we are saved. Some corruption is left for believers to fight with. He then labors to prove his point that grace is mingled with corruption; or in other words light is mixed with smoke. He gives several examples from Scripture that this is so.

Sibbes closes by discussing the reason and results of this mixture. The reason, Sibbes says, is to "preserve us from those dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride, and to force us to pitch our rest on justification, not sanctification, which, besides imperfection, has some stains". The result then is that sometimes people feel "well persuaded of themselves" and sometimes "at a loss".

Discussion:

As stated earlier, the beginning of the chapter did not speak to me nearly as much the latter half. I can, however, see that it would be very soothing to a new believer that is struggling with feelings of having little grace. It is not as if I feel that I have a ton of grace and that I have arrived, I guess as a child feels a little more confident at age 9 than he does at age 3; so am I spiritually. I feel more confident in grace. But, I often feel the weight of "mingled corruption".

I especially liked what Sibbes said regarding this mingled nature causing us to rest on justification and not sanctification. I have been learning a ton about that lately. It is vitally important to ground our faith in the objective work of Christ in justification instead of the subjective work of sanctification in our lives. Sanctification indeed shows the evidence of justification, but it is never the grounds for it. Sibbes does an excellent job of showing this. He also helps us to better understand why sometimes we feel as if we've got this "walk with Christ" thing down, and other times we wonder if we are even saved. When we look at the work of grace we are encouraged. When our eyes are fixed on the remaining corruption we are discouraged.

A couple of questions for us to discuss: Why do you think Sibbes considers security a "dangerous rock"? And also, probably more importantly, do you believe it is biblical that we "carry about us a double principle, grace and nature"?

Pearls and Diamonds:

"Christ values us by what we shall be, and by what we are elected unto."

"Grace, though little in quantity, yet is much in vigour and worth."

"Broken hearts can yield but broken prayers."

"The people of God have so different judgments of themselves, looking sometimes at the work of grace, sometimes at the remainder of corruption, and when they look upon that, then they think they have no grace...so sometimes they are well persuaded of themselves, sometimes at a loss."

Steve Camp is concerned that many Christian men are more concerned about niceness than truth. His main contention is that these men are, "...toy-soldiers [that] carry what I call 'a velvet covered sword.' It's lightweight, easy to wield, isn't designed for battle, takes little strength to lift it, looks inviting, and won't cut too deep for fear of offending too greatly. " Also central to Camp's argument is this statement: "But in our day, postmodern evangelicalism would have us place tone above truth, demeanor above doctrine, feelings before faith, and embrace the comfort of the retreat rather than the campaign of the battlefield."

Challies blog tour reaches Day 9 and finds itself at the home of the IMonk. As Challies sums it up IMonk asks, "questions about what happens to churches and Christians who refuse to practice discernment, about freelance discernment ministries, about a Protestant magisterial and about Tim Horton’s (along with a few other topics)."

Ray Ortlund points us to an excellent quote by James Denney. "No man can give at once the impressions that he himself is clever and that Jesus Christ is mighty to save."

Yesterday at Team Pyro Dan asked a question about a card left at his doorstep. Today he gives the answer, it was indeed Mormons. Dan also shares his experiencing of witnessing to them. It was inspiring and convicting. We've had a couple Mormons walking around our neighborhood and I've never stepped out the door and screamed "Mormons!" so as to engage them.

Jared Wilson shares 5 Important Things the Seeker Sensitive Movement Got Right. Great thoughts. It takes much wisdom to mine even things you do not agree with for truth! Thanks for these thoughts Jared.

Tony Kummer is giving away 3 Children's books at his website. I own The Jesus Storybook Bible but would love to have the other 2 for Isaiah. If God does not grace me with winning this give away I will probably buy them later.

Disclaimer: In posting these thoughts, questions, and ramblings I feel it wise to give a disclaimer. There are many people that are far more knowledgeable and gifted in expositing the Word of God than I. These thoughts are not intended to be in-depth analysis of the text. They are thoughts. They are questions. They are ramblings. It will be a display of what God is teaching me through His Word. In depth study will be done at a different time. It is also good to know the author's goal. 1) To be accountable in reading through Scripture. 2) To share these thoughts with others. Possibly for someone else's edification; possibly for my own. 3) To glorify God through His Word. 4) To spur one another on in taking up Scripture and reading! So without further ado, here are today's readings:

Today I plan on getting caught up on Acts. I will go to Chapter 14, now and perhaps be able to do 15 and 16 a little later. As it looks I will be caught up by next Tuesday if I keep following the schedule I have set. Regardless of whether or not I am caught up, my goal is to experience God.

Acts 8:

verse 4, "those that were scattered went about preaching the word". Even persecution does not stop the preaching of the word; in fact is begins the spread of the gospel to the nations.

verse 6....what preacher would not want this: "And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said". What was so arresting of their attention? Was it simply (simply is not nearly a big enough word) the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in power, accompanying His preaching? Is it the preaching that is accompanied with signs and wonders? Why does it seem that God accompanied His Word with such outward signs in the early church?

What happens with a manifestation of God's glory and kingdom? "So there was much joy in that city". But I'm certain that is not always the case.

verse 13, Luke seems to be careful as does John in displaying "signs-faith" as inferior to "saving-faith". Those that only believe the gospel because it's "cool" or seems to have awesome benefits are usually not legit converts. We must be careful how we preach the gospel. But this story is proof that even biblical Holy Spirit inspired preaching will sometimes result in false converts like Simon.

I've always been a little confused about the Holy Spirit not coming upon the believers in Samaria until Peter and John laid hands on them.

Even though I look at Simon's request to buy the Holy Spirit as utterly stupid, I must confess I've tried the same. I don't try to buy His favor and "anointing" with money but sometimes by my personal performance. Therefore, when this happens I must heed the apostles warning and repent and pray that God might forgive the sinful intents of my heart.

I wonder how sincere Simon is in verse 24. First of all I see that he himself doesn't pray. But that does not necessarily mean its not sincere. But it does seem that his fear is that the punishment might not come on him. He seems to have no desire to change. Nor does he see his sin for what it is.

"And the Spirit said to Philip"...I can only think of a handful of times when "The Spirit said to Mike" or at least in such a way that I heard and listened. Why is that?

It's awesome seeing how the Spirit leads men to salvation in the glorious Christ. He truly does seek to always exalt Jesus. If I were constantly aware of this desire of His I am certain I would be more bold in preaching the gospel to the nations. I must remember (as "duh" as it is) that the Godhead is more passionate about spreading His glory and exalting Jesus than I am.

If baptism is but a symbol and witness to the church and the world, why was the eunuch baptized with only he and Philip?

Acts 9:

Encounters with the Lord always knock us off our horse.

You get the idea that God was not going to take no in the salvation of Saul. I don't see much of a "choice" here, as far as "choice" is termed in modern language.

That would have been tough for Ananias to obey the voice of God. I'd have to make sure it was God, before I followed something like that.

As soon as Paul got saved he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues. It appears that it is okay for new converts to "preach Jesus" but not necessarily to be pastors. (1 Tim. 3:6)

Every time I read verse 25, I remember Dr. Morgan's cheesy joke. "At this point Paul is literally a basket case".

Can you imagine the greeting of Paul and these believers in Jerusalem? That had to be scary, but once found out that he was legit it had to be a great cause for rejoicing.

How could you not believe the gospel when it is accompanied with the raising of the dead? (See Luke 16:31)

Acts 10:

"He stared at him in terror". Apparently he was scared half to death, but so arrested he could not turn his head.

"What God has made clean, do not call common." If I understood this verse I would not slander those that God has made clean, nor would I desire that which He has not cleaned.

This happened three times...why does it always take Peter 3 times to get something? I feel as if some times it takes me 300.

I wonder if Peter was tempted with much pride and self-glorification when Cornelius began to worship him.

verse 28...is that really unlawful or had Peter stretched the Law?

All the prophets bear witness...Amen!

Oh, that the Holy Spirit might fall on the preaching of the Word, even tonight in New London!

I am really confused with the practice of baptism in Acts. This is a dangerous statement but it does not seem very Southern Baptist.

Acts 11:

Ugh, legalism. (verse 2-3) Yes! Rescued from legalism (verse 18)

Verse 21 is phrased strange to me. "A great number who believed turned to the Lord". That sounds redundant. Is believing and turning to the Lord separate? Is it possible to believe without turning to the Lord?

"saw the grace of God". That's a pretty weighty statement. I wonder if people "see the grace of God" at our church.

It's pretty neat that as this man named Agabus had a prophesy the people listened and began preparing for the famine.

Acts 12:

I wonder if an angel striking you in the side hurts.

Really weird question--did Peter sleep naked (or at least almost naked)? I know they didn't have pj's back in the day. Does the angel here stop Peter from dashing into the street naked (or at least almost so)?

I bet Peter was a heavy sleeper. He's already passed a couple of guards and is yet to "come to himself". He still thinks he's having a vision.

It's so funny that they were praying for Peter and when he showed up he got a door joyously slammed in his face and the men thought it was an angel instead of Peter. I am so ridiculous sometimes. I pray for things and then when God brings them to fruition I am surprised.

I bet a guy named Blastus has an amazing beard and huge muscles.

If I were struck with worms every time I took the glory instead of giving it to the Lord, I would have been dead a million times over. Thank you Lord for your grace!

Acts 13:

They seem to have always started in the Jewish synagogues.

What amazing power was attended to Paul's preaching. And what bold words he spoke with. That is such a contrast from much preaching today. Certainly, we must be convinced that these "harsh" of words are from the Lord and not our fleshly hearts.

verse 13, is this John Mark leaving them?

It is certainly significant that many of the Acts sermons begin with a historical narrative of the OT. Is this how we should preach to those knowledgeable or should we do it with everyone? Does Paul do this in Acts 17?

"freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses". What amazing relief if you feel the weight of the Law.

verse 42. Again, what preacher would not love for the people to beg them to hear the word again!

"continue in the grace of God". There is something really significant about this statement and a sharp contrast to our quickly leading people to "pray the prayer".

verse 44. Almost the whole city was there. Bring that to New London, Lord! But through your grace we pray for different results. May the people not revile the Word as the Jews did here.

"We are turning to the Gentiles". Would this have been accompanied with an ouch to the heart, or with a prideful good riddance? We know the Gentile response. Woohoo! God's Word is given to us now. "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed". (That sounds like election to me).

Filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. Bring that to us, dear Jesus!

Acts 14:

"poisoned their mind against the brothers". What a great statement.

"who bore witness to the word of his grace". How did he bore witness? By granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Is this still necessary? How does God bear witness now? Is this just because the apostles where establishing the spread of the gospel, and now we are not granted this?

I keep seeing things like, "they continued to preach the gospel". That is so inspiring to me. May I always, "continue to preach the gospel" no matter where God takes me.

A true preacher of the gospel will "tear his clothes" whenever men worship them instead of the Triune God! May I always do the same.

What a sharp contrast. One moment Paul is being worshipped and they have to restrain people from offering sacrifices to them...the next moment Paul is getting stoned and dragged out of the city.

Thought to be dead one day, preaching the gospel the next!

Appointed elders. Notice the plurality. Even at the churches inception.

Challies begins Day 8 on his blog tour, today he finds himself with the Pyromaniacs. Frank Turk leads the interview and ask Challies several questions. Mostly on Challies' sources. It's a great discussion.

Frank Turk is also busy answering whether or not God's love is unconditional. I love his answer: "God's forgiveness is not unconditional: it is conditioned wholly on the price Christ paid to secure a right payment for sin. What Christ did made God both just -- that is, a just judge, able to forgive without being a violator of justice -- and the justifier of men." Check out his argumentation here.

Jared Wilson, a teaching minister for college students at Element, has some great thoughts today about the difficulties of young adult ministry.

As soon as it was announced that Dr. Mohler would be a candidate for President of the SBC some detractors began questioning his theology, character, leadership, etc. Inevitably within the SBC one major discussion will be on Mohler's Calvinism. Can we have a Calvinistic leader in the SBC? (If you know Baptist history then you know how ludicrous that question is). Today Tony Kumner points us to one of Mohler's past answers to the Calvinism criticism.

Thabiti has an excellent article on Lone Ranger Christians. What is his answer to these lone rangers? Mutual belonging.

John MacArthur considers the primary purpose of the church. Is it Inward, Upward, or Outward? I am yet to determine if I agree with him. I prefer Piper's statement of saying that missions exist because worship doesn't. But I can certainly follow Mac's argumentation. I tend to think that God's primary purpose is to receive glory. MacArthur agrees with this but he believes that it is through the redemption of mankind that God is most glorified. Therefore he seems to be putting "outward" as the purpose of the church. Perhaps my problem is that it creates a false dichotomy. Upward without Outward is probably insincere. If we love God we will have a desire to see men come to him. Outward without Upward is no more than the social gospel. The statement of MacArthur that gives me the most trouble is this one: "And if God’s primary purpose for the saved were to give Him praise, He would, again, take believers immediately to heaven, where praise is perfect and unending." I certainly see the logic but is that Scriptural? What do you think?

Art Rogers on his blog 12 Witnesses has a very funny post about the Dangers of Bread. My wife wants me to buy her a bread maker, I'm having second thoughts now. (HT: Micah)

Also, be sure to check out the new Bible.org. (HT: JT)