HeadTheology

Albums
Continuum - John Mayer
Sam’s Town - The Killers

Preachers/Speakers
John Piper
-His ‘Men for Whom the World was Not Worthy’ is especially good, they are quick overviews of the lives of great Christians in the past that we may learn from.
C. J. Mahaney
Tim Keller (of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC)
Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle

If you have a second and your boss isn’t looking check out these sites:

What a Christian Operating System would look like

Church Christmas signs from a few years back

A rip on Pat Robertson

I have had quite a few discussions with good Christians about a piece of doctrine called the perseverance of the saints and many of them have heartily disagreed with it stating that a Christian may take themselves out of God’s hand. But upon asking them where that line is between salvation and damnation they have been unable to answer, they just say it is possible. No one has been able to tell me which sins Christ did not atone for in a believers life. So I am left with these unanswered important questions. Which sins must I atone for? Which sins can separate from the love of Christ whose righteous life has been given to every Christian? Which sin will the Father bring against His children, since it is God who is the judge? (Romans 8:31-39)

If the loss of salvation is possible then I would think it would be a rare event that anyone would make it into heaven. Isn’t every action we make tinged with sin and would not that sin keep us from the Father since every sin betrays unbelief. If you think it is possible to let go of God and lose one’s salvation I would love to know what sin will separate a believer from God.

Check out some of the articles on Monergism’s site about Perseverance and the Atonement.

Read Along With Me:
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes
When I Don’t Desire God: How To Fight For Joy by John Piper
Favorites (Religious):
Desiring God (Updated) by John Piper
The Pleasures of God by John Piper
The Life and Diary of David Brainerd (his journal accounts of his missionary activities with Indians from 1718 to 1747)
Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther (Upon reading this you will certainly believe in the ‘T’ of TULIP)
Confessions of St. Augustine (His account early life and conversion; written as a prayer to God)
Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis (Account of his journey in life from atheism to Christianity)
Knowing God by J. I. Packer (Basic, easy to understand book on the attributes of God)

Favorites (Nonreligious):
Anything that Patrick McManus wrote (short humorous outdoor stories)
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose (Account of Lewis and Clarke’s expedition out west)
Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission by Hampton Sides (Capture and rescue of American POWs in the Philipines during WWII, made into a movie recently called ‘The Great Raid’)

Just Finished Reading:
The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
Generation Kill by Evan Wright
The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson
-If your not sure what repentance is read this book, if you think you’ve been good at repenting read this book and let it put you in your place, very convicting.
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
-Account of Easy Company’s battles in WWII as Paratroopers. Even if you don’t read the book the Band of Brothers (Dts) miniseries by HBO is worth watching.

“In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight.”
-J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s (God’s) ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His (God’s) invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden.”
-C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“Be a sinner and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger”
-Letter from Martin Luther to Melachthon, August 1st, 1521

“Peace if possible, truth at all costs”
-Martin Luther

“[He] who loves not a woman, wine, and song remains a fool his whole life long”
-Martin Luther

“Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon, and stars have been worshipped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky.”
-Martin Luther

“When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain, and calm refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar. I have felt grateful to God, and blessed his name.”
-Charles H. Spurgeon

“The addition of the vine is owing to God’s superabundant liberality.”
-John Calvin

“He that looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast in his heart.”
-C. S. Lewis

“Oh, if I ever get to heaven it will be because God wills, and nothing else; for I never did anything of myself but get away from God.”
-David Brainard, April 1st, 1742

“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.”
-Charles H. Spurgeon

“We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us, we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
-C. S. Lewis

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
-C. S. Lewis

“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
-C. S. Lewis

“He that returns to sin by implication charges God with some evil. If a man puts away his wife it implies he knows some fault by her. To leave God and return to sin is tacitly to asperse the Deity.”
-Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance

“Because of mercy men presume and think they may go on in sin, but should a king’s clemency make his subjects rebel?…God will hardly show those mercy who sin because mercy abounds.”
-Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance

I just finished my History of the Baptist class here at Southern Seminary and as expected there was a discussion about the biblical validity for paedo (infant) baptism and why Baptists historically thought it was wrong. In scripture I think it is a stretch to say that there is a New Testament foundation for baptizing infants. But it really doesn’t bother me just as long as they aknowledge the truth that it doesn’t in save the infant in any way. But I have a question if there are any paedobaptist bretheren out there.

Suppose two Christian couples came into a Methodist/Presbyterian/Episcopal church and joined the church but one couple had an infant and the other couple had a six year old child. I am supposing that if each couple wanting their child to be baptized the church would only allow the infant to be baptized unless the six year old gave a confession of faith. But if the six year old does not give a confession of faith why should they be excluded from baptism? Both the infant and the six year old will be raised in a Christian home and part of the visible church. Why should an infant be allowed baptism if they do not give a confession of faith in Christ while a six year old in the same situation be denied baptism because of a lack of a confession of faith?

I do not mean to start a fight but I was thinking about the reasonings behind infant baptism and the reasoning of it. If it is allowed why not allow it for non-confessing six year olds or for that matter twelve year olds or maybe even sixteen year olds if they are living in a Christian home being raised by Christian parents as part of the visible church.

As promised from my other site here is what how I think one has to love another for it to be truly love.

Everyone wants to be loved. That comes as no surprise at all. But what the heck is love? What actions constitute loving actions? It cannot be merely giving someone what they want for if that was love then just about every kid would have rotten teeth from all the candy their parents let them eat by ‘loving’ them. Oftentimes loving someone can mean giving them medicine or information they do not want to take or hear but knowing giving them those things may make them a better person in the end.

I think that the Bible shows pretty explicitly what love is. It says twice in I John 4:8 and 16 that ‘God is love.’ That used to sound like a high brow philosophical idea until my friend mentioned that he could not love his wife unless he loved God. I don’t know why but it hit me that for me to love anyone in the truest sense I had to give them God. This fits right in with Wayne Grudem’s definition of God’s love from his Systematic Theology that “God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.”

It would be arrogant for us to think we may improve upon that idea by giving anything that does not include the gospel or is God glorifying. The greatest act of love is the giving of God to someone. That may come in many different forms. It is sharing the gospel with them so that they may hear and believe but it may just be talking about God’s greatness, mercy, justice, or beauty in normal conversation.

Christ did this very same thing and we as Christians should be no different. By accomplishing the means by which men may be reconciled to the Father, Jesus Christ gives us God. Romans 5:6-8 says,

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

So it is the fact that our salvation is not based upon any love in us but it is all the love of God. We reeked of sin and hated God, naturally and willingly disobeying his commandment to love and honor Him. It is not that we loved the Lord but that the Lord loved us and has saved us.

So if love in its truest sense is giving God and showing his worth to someone else then would it not be true that those that are not Christians cannot truly love. But I think with that statement a problem arises that many professing Christians don’t want to talk about God even to other Christians unless they are forced to within the confines of church. So I want to encourage each of you to talk about God with everyone, talk about doctrine and His attributes so you glorify Him and be truly loving to others.

For those 19 people who had visited my site before I have changed the look a bit now that I am using wordpress blogging software.