John Owen – Commending in public only what he experienced in private

After spending some time reading about John Owen in Piper's Contending for our All, I was struck by many things. But I think the one major takeaway point I want is this: John Owen only preached in public about things that he experienced in private. Over the years in Christian ministry it becomes easy to just say things that are true but that you are not currently experiencing. But people won't be as excited by something you speak about, if you are not also currently experiencing it. As I look back I see this to be true from many of my talks at C4C weekly meetings. I will get passionate about something I know is true because I am experiencing it, and I know that the audience gets excited about it. But if I speak on a solid prayer life when I am not currently experiencing it, it is just words that are true but have no life. So this year I want to speak more about what God is teaching me in my life. This means sermon preparation is more than just study… it is taking time to make sure I am doing things as much as I know them.

Spectacular Sins – Ch 2 - Christ Sovereign over all Hostile Powers

The central focus verse for this chapter is Colossians 1:15-16:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

In this chapter, Piper seeks to make clear that all things are created by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. Everything exists to display the greatness of Christ. This includes evil things. Paul includes thrones or dominions in his list of things created for, through, and by Christ. Elsewhere in the New Testament, including later in Colossians, Rulers and Authorities are viewed as evil. So Paul wants us to know that even evil things are created by Christ to display his glory.

Why does he want us to know this?

1. it is objectively true, not merely opinion or a merely human idea.
   
2. it makes clear that Christ alone, not "rulers [and] authorities," is to be worshipped.
   
3. our day is not so unlike Paul's. Paul was concerned that, in the pluralistic, intellectual atmosphere of Colossae, Christians could be captivated by high-sounding heresies
   
4. to make us valiant in the face of odds that seem overwhelming to the natural eye.
   
5. he wants us to see and feel that our salvation in Christ is invincible.
   

Why does Paul tell us such weighty things? It is because the "antidote for wimpy Christians is weighty doctrine. In Paul's mind, the most massive truths are meant for producing radical lives of obedience".

Piper summarizes the chapter like this:

All things were created by him and through him and for him—even our worst supernatural enemies. In the end, it was they—not Christ—who were shamed at the cross (Col. 2:15). In the end, everything and everyone serves to magnify the glory of our Savior and increase the gladness of his people in him.

Spectacular Sins – Ch 1 – God Sovereign over Human Sin

This Chapter sets the course of the rest of the book. It starts out by looking at 2 Chronicles 10:15, 18:22, 25:20, three places in the Bible it says that God caused someone to do something that changed the direction of history.

From there, Piper asks four questions that follow from this fact that God is sovereign over human sin:

Why Does God Want Us to Know His Sovereignty over Sin?

Why Does God Not Restrain Sin More Often?

How Can We Have Faith and Joy during the Severity of the Last Days?

How Is Christ Glorified in a World of Sin?

He does not answer them here, but sets them as the backdrop for this book.

In Summary, God is sovereign over human sin. It is in the Bible. So let's try to understand it by asking hard questions and getting solid answers.

Spectacular Sins – Introduction – The Times are Changing

I started reading John Pipers book: Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ. I decided that I wanted to take the time to blog about it as I recall in the past when I have blogged about books I have remembered more. The quotes in these blogs are all by Piper from the book, unless otherwise indicated.

The general thought of the intro was that things are too soft in the church in the west. We are being coddled:

"It seems to me that Christians in the West are being coddled. We suffer little in the name of Christ. Therefore, we read the Bible not with a desperate hunger for evidences of God's triumph in pain, but with a view to improving our private pleasures."

Part of the problem is that we are missing the Bible:

"What is missing is the Bible. I mean the whole Bible, with its blood and guts and sins and horrors—and all of it under the massive hand of God."

We mostly know the nice parts of the Bible that looks good on hallmark cards. But those parts of the Bible alone won't get us through hard times.

Times are coming when we will actually be persecuted like the church is in other places in the world. When those times come, we will not want to hear "felt needs" sermons. "The aim of this book is not to meet felt needs, but to awaken needs that will soon be felt, and then to save your faith and strengthen your courage when evil prevails"

We will want to know that God is in control and rules over all things, including the suffering of his children.

To say these things is all about love. It is what we need to hear, and so it is loving to say them, although it may seem harsh and overdramatic.

If interested, this whole book can be downloaded free from the Desiring God website at: http://tinyurl.com/cy5blb

A Prayer for Jude

God, I thank you for the gift you have given to Vanessa and I. I pray that Jude would become a gift to the world as well.

I pray that he would, as his namesake once wrote, "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints". If there is ever a time when your church needs someone to contend for the faith, it is now. I pray that Jude would be a contender.

I also pray that he would live to display your glory. As John Calvin lived to study and preach your Word, may Jude live to make your name glorified wherever he goes, as he studies and preaches your Word.

I pray that at a young age, Jude would come to know you as his Lord and Saviour, and never look back.

Give Vanessa and I wisdom as we raise him to follow you. May Jude live for your glory!

I pray this in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!