Memorization

I am working on memorizing Psalm 22.

After the Tenebrae service last Friday Psalm 22 has been on my mind. The way Jesus quotes it, the way the New Testament authors allude to it and quote it really affected me.

My hope in memorizing this Psalm is to be in the presence of the cross, to be in the presence of Jesus on the cross at all times. I hope that focusing my mind on this psalm will allow me to be aware of the sacrifice that brought me life. I hope that I will be more thankful for my blessings because I am more aware of the price that they come at. I hope that I am less downtrodden in my failures because I am aware of the painful victory that took place on the cross. I hope that this Psalm will bring me to an awareness of my savior, an awareness of my sin, and an awareness of my forgiveness.

It is alot to hope for, but He is more than capable

Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and
by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet-
I can count all my bones-
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him,
all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.

An Effort of Evangelism

Today while coming back from my lunch break I had a quick interaction with one of my coworkers.

He knows that I am a Christian and that I am studying theology among other things. Because of this he has given me the nick name theology major.( this is funny to him because he is a deist)

Today he decided that he would tell me what he believed about god and about religion. With a few brief and direct statements he let me know exactly what he thought, and told me that he had come to these understandings by reading a book by Thomas Paine. He then told me that I should read it.

I made some remarks about his statements nothing really for or against them, just remarks, but I didn’t really say anything about reading the book.

I have decided that I will read this book. It is called “The Age of Reason” by Thomas Paine

I will discuss the book here. It will probably be a whole lot of false reasoning called flawless logic, but I will try not to be critical for the sake of being critical.

Hope it is fun, but most of all I hope that it will lead to conversations with my coworker that lead him out of moralist darkness and into gospel light.

Be praying for me.

The New Perspective

recently I have started looking closely at the issue called the new perspective on Paul.

When I first looked at the issues or actions or whatever you want to call it I saw it as two sided. I saw heroes of mine like John Piper and D.A. Carson on one side and I saw other scholars like N.T. Wright and E.P. Sanders on the other side.

Without even looking at the topic being discussed I automatically sided with the people that I had listened to and had come to trust such as Piper. I found that I categorized the writings of Piper and Carson in the biblical or correct part of my brain and the writings of N.T. Wright into the unbiblical or incorrect section of my brain. Again I did this without any evaluation of my own.

I confess that this is a grievous error on my part.

I find myself sharing the sin of the Corinthians saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”1 Corinthians 1:12

I realize now that I was jumping on a band wagon and did not look to the issue in question or the biblical text itself. I only looked to the opinions of the men I trusted and idolized.

After listening to an interview with N.T. Wright on the subject I realize that I have group all together as if this where a two sided battle. I was wrong. There are many sides to this debate, many more than I can research at the moment.

But what I wanted to talk about concerning this topic, the new perspective, is the debate between Piper and Wright, among others. It seems to me that both of these men are on the same side of the argument. They both want to know what scripture has to say about justification, and though each one thinks the other is wrong they are not enemies.

These men are brothers and we should treat them as such. We can’t pit one against the other. They are both for the Gospel of Christ and because of this grace they are both on the same side. They, like the rest of us, have been unified through the death, resurrection, and reign of Christ and we should be reminded and remind each other of this fact constantly.

redeeming some time

I just received a really great Christmas present. The ESV bible audio version.

What I plan on doing with this is redeeming some wasted time, my commute.

I spend twenty minutes in the car both on the way to and on the way back from work, that is forty minutes that arr basically wasted.

However with this new bible I can make excellent use of this time.

The audio bible is 75 hours long or 4500 minutes. My commute time is 40 minutes. This means that I can easily get through the entire bible twice in one year just driving to and from work.

I am excited to start.

Utilizing Grace

“God promises to work in us what He requires of us. There are many examples in scripture of people being commanded to do what is impossible for them to do. Yet when they attempt to obey, they found the healing power of God enabling them to do what previously they had found to be impossible: for example, the man with the withered hand, Lazarus being raised from the dead and the widow’s son at Nain.
Our duty is to attempt to obey God’s commands, and His work is to enable us to obey them. So those who sit back and do nothing- because they say they can do nothing until God works grace in them- show that they have no interest or concern for the things of God. Where a person does nothing, the Holy Spirit does nothing also.
Although there is no grace in a believer except by the Holy Spirit, yet to grow in grace, to thrive in holiness, and righteousness, depends on the believer using the grace he has received. We have been given arms and legs. If they are to grow strong and healthy, they must be used. Not to use them will be the most effective way of losing them. Therefore to be lazy and negligent in those things on which our spiritual growth depends, and which concern the eternal welfare of the soul, on the pretext that without the Spirit we can do nothing, is both unreasonable and stupid, as well as dangerous.”
The Holy Spiritpg. 44
John Owen