On a less serious side, I’m in Fort Wayne for today and tomorrow visiting the family.  Going home usually means getting pampered with my favorite meals and helping out with tasks that are easier for a guy in his mid twenties to do.

To start the day off my mom and I went to pick up my dad’s old bike from the shop.  The bike (infinite mpg) is going to supplement my gas guzzling van (12 mpg city) in getting around the greater lafayette area.  Now the current problem is I can’t get the front tire back on, so I’m waiting for my more mechanical dad to get home to help put it back on.  The new speedster is a 35 year old hand crafted Schwinn (that’s what the guy at the bike shop said anyways).  Let’s hope this doesn’t get stolen like my old bike, maybe I should invest in a lock this time…

After going out to lunch and visiting the grandparents and aunt, I clean out out the van.  Ever since I got the van about a year ago I haven’t given a good thorough cleaning.  So today I took the seats out to sweep and clean the carpet.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, I can change the oil and rotate the tires or maybe get new tires!  The current tires have well over 80,000 miles, but thankfully they were 80,000 mile tires.

For all you dog lovers out there this is for you.  I must confess I do enjoy animals, but I I’m not obsessed with them.  In other words, if I personally owned a dog I would never dress it up in clothes, never pretend that it’s a replacement for kids, and I’d have no problem leaving it outside.  In case your wondering these are my family’s dogs.  We’ve had 4 dogs through out the course of my life and all of them have been Shetland Sheepdogs.  The brownish one is Sky (named because she has blue eyes) and the grayish one is Jasmine (after the princess from Aladdin).  They are fun dogs but a little mouthy (like to bark at moving objects, must be the herding instinct).  It’s hilarious to watch Jasmine try to catch things, she tries to grab them with her paws.  They were definitely tired after I finished playing with them today.

Then to finish up the day we’re going to have the grandparents and aunt over for some homemade ice cream!

I guess you could label this part 2 of my recap of “The Dark Knight,” since I already did a post called “The Dark Movie?”

Though the movie did an excellent job of representing the wretchedness of man, specifically in the in the Joker and his understanding of man, there was one part that reflected the inherent good of man.  With out ruining the movie for those who haven’t seen it, remember the Ferry scenes?  It seemed that the writers of the movie where trying to emphasize the inherent goodness of men.  First, I think if that scenario was in real life, don’t call me pessimistic, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did in the movie (of course unless God superintended the hearts of man, which he does all the time).

From the Bible we know that men are not inherently good.  Everyone is born a sinner and thus in the eyes of God are destined for his wrath (Rom 3:23 Eph 2:1-3).  On the outside many people appear good, but in all actuality their hearts are evil and opposed to God.   Unless one is covered in the blood of Christ, they are destined for eternal death.

That is why I disagree with (what I think) was one of the points of the ferry scene.  People aren’t inherently good, there is no hope for man to be good unless a new birth brought upon by grace will make them good or right.

Aren’t the themes of this movie fantastic?

Now a day’s I don’t find myself watching too many movies.  Frankly, I find a lot of the movies laded with worldliness and I’d much rather fill my soul with a good book or conversation.  But every so often I’ll watch a movie.  Earlier this week I went and saw the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”  I thought it’s predecessor, “Batman Begins,” was a fantastic movie with great themes.  So I was anticipating it’s sequel and sure enough as the time got around for its release there was a lot of hype for “The Dark Night,” which only peaked my interest.

The title for the movie is quite fitting.  It may have been one of the darkest movies I’ve ever seen or remember seeing.  Death was everywhere, though it wasn’t a bloody movie, it plagued the screen.  The movie took place mostly at night, which only went to enhance the mood of the movie.  And to top it off the Joker was absolutely disturbing.  The Joker probably understood the depravity of human condition better than anyone as he went to extreme measures to bring out the evil on well liked and seeming incorruptible people.

“The Dark Knight” had some very interesting thematic elements.  I can’t remember a movie that so well portrayed the wretchedness of man as this did.  Also, the battle between good and evil was quite evident.  After the movie ended, for a brief time, I was “feeling” depressed, but the movie did have some hope, not a biblical hope, but a hope that was clouded in the midst of darkness.   Though the movie was in no way trying to develop elements of God or Christianity, it did bring to light a lot of themes that are well connected to the Bible.

I would caution people of the movie due to its darkness and I definitely wouldn’t recommend kids seeing it.   And if your looking for a movie that leaves you all warm and fuzzy on the inside with a happy ending, I wouldn’t recommend it either.

As someone the Lord seems to be directing towards vocational ministry I’ve started considering the next step.  For those who read this and have no background on me, I’m finishing up my first year of an internship with my church.  The internship has been extended another year, so God has allowed me to continue service at KSBC full time.

During the next year the Lord will continue to shape and mold my desires and passions and, Lord willing, give some more clarity on the future.  Currently there are several potential options where the Lord could direct, but there isn’t any clear direction except to trust the Lord for guidance about the next steps.

One of the options I’ve been considering is seminary.  Though right now I’m not leaning any direction on any of the options, seminary has captivated my mind the past couple days ever since I finished reading a chapter from Spurgeon’s biography on training young preachers.

One thought that came to mind from the chapter was where should the training of vocational minister for the gospel take place.  I’m not too familiar with the history of seminaries and ministry training schools, so I’m not speaking as an expert.  But from my limited understanding of church history I can remember special schools as early as 400 AD, where people would go for ministry training.   So these training schools have had a significant place in the history of the church, but where do they fit in biblically.

One of the driving factor’s that has caused me to think about the place for special training schools is the role of the local church.   Biblically it seems that local churches are instructed to train men for ministry, so what has happened since then?  Have we placed a high value on knowledge and thus relate it to specialized schooling?  Have the local churches lost the vision to bring up future men and ship them off to specialized schools?  Have the seminaries lost connection to the local church?

These were just a few of the questions that have been popping up in my mind.  Seminaries and training schools have great value for the equipping of the saints, but are they ideal or what God had intended (in a sin cursed world things are far from ideal).  Regardless of whether they’re ideal or not, God has brought these schools up and uses them for His glory.

To wrap this up, I’m reminded of hearing Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary say that in 15 years he would like to be out of a job, because churches have taken the seminary’s role of training men for ministry.

How quick are you to forget the message you heard on Sunday morning?  Does it take one hour, one day, or one week?  Do you forget because the message wasn’t great or not convicting?  How much priority do you put on the ministry of the word on Sunday?  How much priority should we put on the ministry of the word on Sunday?  Should it be a Sunday thing or an everyday experience?  These are all questions I was personally wrestling with the past few weeks.  Why?

Well, because I was treating Sunday as just another exposure to the Word.  Yes, I would listen intently during the hour and mediate on the word being preached, but only during that hour I would wrestle with the text and what was being said.   I was treating it like a book I had to read for a class, the kind I just read to say that I read it.  The kind I forget what I read as soon as I was done with the last chapter.  A lot of the times the book was enjoyable, and when someone would ask me how the book was, I would say, “It was good,” and that was about it.  I wasn’t at all engaged in the book.  That is how I would describe coming away from Sunday morning’s messages.  It was easy to acknowledge it was a good sermon, but couldn’t explain why it was good.  I would have been classified as your typical American who thinks quantity supersedes quality in regards to exposure to the word.

Thankfully God brought Thabiti Anyabwile into my life through his book What is a Healthy Church Member? His chapter on A Healthy Church Member is an Expositional Listener completely rattled my thinking about Sunday morning.

Expositional listening is listening for the meaning of a passage of Scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives as Christians.  (Page 20)

When we listen to the preaching of the Word, we should not listen primarily for “practical how-to advice,” though Scripture teaches us much about everyday matters.  Nor should we listen for messages that bolster our self-esteem or that rouse us to political and social causes.  Rather, as members of Christian churches we should listen primarily for the voice and message of God as revealed in his Word.  (Page 19-20)

Thabiti gives five benefits of expositional listening.

•    Cultivating a hunger for God’s Word
•    Helps us to focus on god’s will and to follow him
•    Protects the gospel and our lives from corruption
•    Encourages faithful pastors
•    Benefits the gathered congregation

He also gives six ways to cultivate expositional listening.

•    Mediate on the sermon passage during your quite time
•    Invest in a good set of commentaries
•    Talk and pray with friends about the sermon after church
•    Listen to and act on the sermon throughout the week
•    Develop the habit of addressing any questions about the text itself
•    Cultivate humility

Concluding this chapter he remarks,

Church members are healthy when they give themselves to hearing this message as a regular discipline.  Expositional listening promotes such health for individual members and the entire churches.  (Page 25)

As a result God has blessed the past couple weeks.  The words from this pass Sunday on Genesis 16 are still affecting my soul in many ways.

That is a great question with a simple answer.  A couple weeks ago Dave, my office mate, and I were talking about our blogs and the lack of activity with them.  It essentially came down to the decision of whether I get rid of the blog altogether or start posting more frequently.  As you can tell of late, I’ve gone with the latter option.

So, this past week I devoted about 30 minutes of my lunch each day to write a post.  Is 30 minutes a lot of time to write a post?  Obviously, if you read this blog you know that writing isn’t my forte, so it takes me a little longer than your average Joe to write a 450 300 word post.  And more than half of those words are quoted material, as I digress…

Anyway, my goal for the next few months, depending on my schedule, is to blog regularly.  I’m not going to guarantee everyday like this past week, but, Lord willing, I’m shooting for at least three times a week.  The content will vary, but a large majority will come from books that I’m reading, similar to this past week’s material.   Every once in a while my posts will be more personal or fun, which I’m sure will please those who’ve label my blog as serious

Though Spurgeon wasn’t a seminary-trained preacher, he wasn’t deficient when it came to theology.  Every since he could read he spent extensive time studying the Scriptures and reading anything he could get his hands on, specifically works from the Puritans.  He had no problem quoting at length from the Bible or any other work he read.

Through his studies Spurgeon had developed certain understandings of the Scriptures.  His understandings had brought about conflict on many different fronts.  Some of the conflicts were a result of his youthfulness (he was preaching to thousands around age 20), but many others were a result of his Calvinism.  He would be attacked in the press rather harshly from the Arminians and the hyper-Calvinist.  The Arminians would put vast amount of emphasis on human responsibility, while the hyper-Calvinist would take divine sovereignty to unbiblical extremes.

Here is how Dallimore describes Spurgeon’s Calvinism,

In sermon after sermon during his first years in London he asserted the doctrines of human depravity and divine election, and he did so with strong emphasis and much instruction.  “My daily labour,” he stated, “is to revive the old doctrines of Gill, Owen, Calvin, Augustine and Christ.”

Spurgeon spoke out against the unthinking manner in which some Calvinist talk about a “limited atonement.”  He much preferred the term “particular redemption”—the belief that Christ did not merely make salvation possible and leave it to man to do the rest, but that He accomplished the redemption of each of His elect ones and thus assured their salvation.

But although he declared “Salvation is of the Lord!”  Spurgeon also preached “Whosoever will may come.”  Into the New Park Street Chapel and into Exeter Hall came hundreds of men and women who did not know the Lord.  In virtually every sermon he pleaded with them to recognize their lost condition, to know that Christ could save them, and to believe on Him and then and there.  His preaching abounded with the free offer of the gospel to all mankind and was fruitful in the conversion of a great number.

Spurgeon recognized that the two concepts seemed contradictory.  But he declared the Scripture taught both—that God would save His elect ones, but also that man was responsible concerning his soul.  Therefore he constantly urged, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

This free offer of the gospel to all who would believe brought upon Spurgeon the attack of the hyper-Calvinists.

Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore, 67-68

I’ve recently finished reading Thabiti Anyabwile’s new book entitled What is A Healthy Church Member? The book was published by Crossway and has been branded with the IX Marks logo.  Even though the book is fairly short and easy to read there is a lot of thoughtful and practical, biblically based, information on being a healthy church member.  Going off of Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church theme, Anyabwile has ten marks for a healthy church member.

•    Mark 1 – A Healthy Church Member Is an Expositional Listener
•    Mark 2 – A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Theologian
•    Mark 3 – A Healthy Church Member Is Gospel Saturated
•    Mark 4 – A Healthy Church Member Is Genuinely Converted
•    Mark 5 – A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Evangelist
•    Mark 6 – A Healthy Church Member Is a Committed Member
•    Mark 7 – A Healthy Church Member Seeks Discipline
•    Mark 8 – A Healthy Church Member Is a Growing Disciple
•    Mark 9 – A Healthy Church Member is a Humble Follower
•    Mark 10 – A Healthy Church Member Is a Prayer Warrior

I found his “A Final Word” section very edifying; here are some samples from it…

First, it is entirely possible to read this book and assess yourself while completely losing sight of Jesus Christ and the cross.  That is, you may read this book and go away thinking “work, work, work” instead of “grace, grace, grace” or “trust, trust, trust.”  Each of the chapters my have become for you a roadmap for self-improvement and self-effort, duty and perhaps drudgery. … However the Lord moves you to put the suggestions of this book into practice, I pray that you would do so with an increasing understanding of and reliance upon the life of Christ now at work in you and the Spirit who seals and empowers the Christian for every good work.  (Page 115-116)

Second, it is entirely possible to read this book with the spirit of individualism.  You may finish this book and think, “Let me get to work on me.”  And to be sure, there is great deal of growth we all need to make, and by God’s grace will make, until Christ returns.  But this book is about the church, the whole of Christ’s body in a particular place.  (Page 116)

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow in becoming a healthy church member.

Being apart of the Baptist tradition, I enjoy reading about people whose convictions on baptism have changed throughout their life.  The first person that comes to mind is Adoniram Judson.  He grew up in a Congregationalist (majority of Congregationalist believed in pedeobaptism at this time) home and went to a Congregationalist seminary.  On his long voyage to Burma, Adoniram spent a significant time studying the Scriptures in search of the truths on baptism.  One of the contributing factor’s was the missionaries (i.e. William Carey) in the Burma area were Baptist.   Judson thought his views on baptism could promote disunity among the missionaries, so he began his quest to search the Scrptures.   After studying, Judson was convinced that believer’s baptism was biblical and he fully embraced the Baptist tradition!

Another hero of mine, Charles Spurgeon, who grew up a Congregationalist, also had his thoughts changed on Baptism.

Here are some excerpts from his biography,

He had been brought up in that denomination, for, as we have seen, his grandfather and father were congregational ministers.  But although he rejoiced in the gospel they preached, he disagreed on the matter of baptism.  They practiced the christening of infants, and he had been christened by his grandfather as a babe.  But by now he had come to believe that biblical baptism was something very different—that it was being “buried with Christ”—the immersion of one who had believed on Christ unto Salvation.  (Page 25)

There had been leaning in this direction in Charles’s mind during childhood, but he had come to a clearer conviction when, as a boy of fourteen, he had been led into a discussion of the subject by the Church of England clergyman who visited the school at Maidstone.  The clergyman had told him that “faith and repentance” are prerequisits for baptism, and that because no infant possesses such qualifications, sponsor must supply them on the child’s behalf till he grows up … “I resolve from that moment, that if ever Diving grace should work a change in me, I would be baptized.”  (Page 25)

And sure enough divine grace had worked a change in him.

Spurgeon told his family about his conviction and they were hesitant to consent.

His father was slow in replying but finally wrote and gave his somewhat reluctant consent.  He even added a phrase that rather wounded the you—a warning that he make sure he was not trusting in baptism as a help toward salvation, rather than trusting solely in Christ.  (Page 26)

Mrs. Spurgeon [mother] also gave permission.  But it was not fullhearted.  “Ah, Charles, I often prayed the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you might become a Baptist.”  (Page 26)

Though I may be a Baptist, I have the upmost respect for men and woman who don’t hold to believer’s baptism.  Many heroes of mine (Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Sproul, etc.) aren’t from the Baptist tradition.  I thank God for the unity  the gospel provides to overcome these secondary issues.

Outside of the word of God no one has drawn my heart and eyes to the cross through writing like Charles Spurgeon has done the past several years.  Even though I’ve spent much time reading the likes of Luther, Calvin, Owen, Bunyan, Edwards, Sproul and Piper, Spurgeon’s gospel saturated sermons and writings have encouraged me the most.

Shortly after God rescued me from the dominion of darkness I remember reading some short works of his on Grace and Faith.  These books were just a taste of what was to come as they wetted my appetite for more.  Soon after I was reading other works and his numerous sermons that are free online.  Ultimately, this lead me to purchase a five volume set of his sermons a couple years ago.

Now, during lunch, I find my self beginning one of his more recent biographies, Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore.  Though I already read one biography (The Forgotten Spurgeon by Iain Murray) on him a couple years ago, which zeroed in on various controversies (Arminianism, Down Grade, etc.) and hardships, I’m excited to see a larger picture of this man’s life and ministry, a life that God planned before the foundation of the world to be a faithful minister of the gospel.

Dallimore has this to say about Spurgeon’s faithful proclamation of the gospel as he sums up his chapter on Spurgeon’s conversion.

The suffering through which he had passed, however, had a lasting effect upon him.  A recognition of the awful evil of sin was deeply ingrained upon his mind and made him loath iniquity and love all that was holy.  The failure of preachers he had heard to present the gospel, and to do so in a plain, direct manner, caused him throughout this whole ministry to tell sinners in every sermon and in a most forthright and understandable way how to be saved.  (page 20)