Speak Evil of No One

So, there has been a comment recently over the man John Calvin and his manner of life. Now this blog is not to be a defense of Calvin, because frankly I do not care. But I just want us as a Church and as the Body of Christ to learn and grow in Christ through this.

What I would like to say is this: let us grow to love… Let us grow to display the glory of Christ and strive to be conformed to His image. Paul tells Titus in Titus 3:2-3 to remind the church, “… to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray…” While men are not perfect, and there are horrible wicked men out there, we should love and strive to speak evil of no one, whether it is John Calvin or Jacobus Arminius, John Wesley or Charles Spurgeon. Let us guard our tongues. Let us learn from our great Lord Jesus Christ, who was beaten and mocked by evil men yet did not say one word against them. Even Jude warns us not to bring a flippant charge against Satan himself, the evil one… When I look at our Church, I want to see us as loving and respectful men and women whose tongues have been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit…

Reading

Reading and Reading

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. I really want to because I long for our Church to see our hearts, and maybe, through the grace of God, would be encouraged to look to Christ and rest in Him. But to just throw a little post out here, I wanted to let you know a little bit about what I have been reading. I just finished reading The Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards. All I can say is delish! It was wonderful. I think I may write a blog upcoming on it and just sum it up. It was very encouraging and helpful in my understanding of the Sovereignty of God and the will of man.

But, primarily, I wanted to invite you all to read something with me. In 2009, the blog known as reformation21.org is blogging through and reading through The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin. Now, they have already started, but all this week is just the introductions and prefaces, which you could read quickly. I would greatly encourage you to take on this effort. In case you were wondering, The Institutes were not written for high-minded theologians who reveled in their superior knowledge. Rather, they were written for the commoner, the layman, the plain Joe-blow Christian. And so far in reading the preface, I am greatly encouraged. It is beautiful to see the humility worked on Calvin’s heart by the Lord. One thing that just jumps out is this: that Calvin wanted no glory for Himself. He did not want to be recognized. He did not want to be known. He did not care about being liked. He wanted all the glory for everything to go to God and His Son Jesus Christ.

So I would encourage you to pick this up and read it. If you want a reading schedule, you can email our buddies at reformation21.org and they will send you one. Or just ask me and I will email you one. May the Lord get all the glory for everything, now and forevermore. Soli Deo Gloria.

Aaron M Addison

Thunder Storm

“Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. ” – Job 36:26-30

Last night I had a chance to just spend some time by myself at home… It was a beautiful night. The clouds were coming in, and eventually the rain came. It came out of no where, and the rain started splattering against the windows. I was reading through Exodus with the ten plagues… but I decided to stop and go see the storm. It was lightning and thundering constantly with loud, booming thunders. I stepped out the front door and was blown away… It looked like a hurricane outside. I was in awe of the power and might and beauty of God. Yahweh had created this storm to display His power and His glory…

The Importance of the Gospel in Everyday Life

The older and older I get, the more I truly see the need to remind myself of the Gospel everyday. Every morning when I wake up, it is not only a good idea to preach the Gospel to myself… it is a necessity! Every day throughout the day we should dwell on the Good News of Jesus Christ. Not simply a raking of the surface. As John Piper has said, “If you rake the surface, you get leaves. If you dig deep, you get gold.” Here is the treasure that we seek: The holy, righteous, and just God of the universe became a perfect man in Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life for us, and went to the cross, bearing our sins. On the cross, He suffered in agony under the holy and powerful wrath of God, our sins being punished in Him. On the third day, He rose again showing the perfection of His sacrifice, and now He sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for His people. Now, through faith, we become united to Christ. We are saved…”There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” -Romans 8:1. That is good news. That is beautiful news!! And it is very practical news… It seeps into every aspect of our lives… When we sleep, when we wake, when we get ready for the day, when we eat, when we work, when we talk…everything is affected by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So often there are days where I just seem separated from God. There are days that I just don’t feel right. My heart seems hard… And then I immediately think back on how often I have thought of Jesus that day. How much have I dwelt on the Gospel today? It never fails… Almost always in those days I have neglected this great and glorious news. How can I feel separated from God when He already went through that separation in my place? How can I have a hard heart when He has lavished His love on me through the cross? All I have is grace upon grace. Brothers, let us dwell on these amazing verses that get me through the day:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? – Romans 8:31-32

Update

Hey brothers and sisters. I just wanted to write a quick post. I know that I am supposed to be doing the Q&A things, but it has just been really busy so I am WAY behind! But I am working on the next one, which will be Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. But until then I just wanted to let you guys know what is on my heart.

Last night was a beautiful night for me. I studied, and then I did something that I haven’t done in a long time. I just sat and put on some worship music and turned off the lights and just sat and prayed and worshiped in the presence of God… No one around… Foolishly singing loud…. It was just so beautiful. I used to do that all the time, and it seems that sometimes I forget something so important, to simply worship Jesus and not to get all caught up in all this stupid stuff. I would recommend you all to just go home and sit in the dark and just worship Him. Ask Him to come. Beg the Holy Spirit to move on your heart. And glorify the name of Jesus Christ… It is so good to just sit in the presence of our King… And get out the Scriptures and let the actual words of our Lord move your heart. Go and spend a whole night not worrying about anything except being with Him. Become a kid again in your faith, just longing to be with your Father. And O what a great Father we have… And always dwell on the Cross of Jesus Christ. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us….” God bless you all.

Aaron Addison

Great and Powerful Jesus

So it has been a while since anyone has written on here… Apparently I am the only one that knows how to right anything (cough… Brandon…) But today I just want to praise Jesus and His holy Name. I just want to encourage you in letting you know that God is faithful… He is… even when we are faithless and weak, He is faithful. In my whole life, never has God once let me down. He has provided everything I need and led me to salvation. See so often (even those who believe in sovereign grace) seem to put God in a box. We have to understand that God has regenerated our hearts, and what greater work can God do. But if He can do something as miraculous as that, He definitely should be able to save us when we cry out in our troubles.

It is amazing when you read through Psalms… over and over again the psalmist will cry out for God and ask where God is, but it almost always ends with praising God for what He has done or is going to do… And I think that Jesus really grasped this when He went to the cross… In fact I think He must have been meditating and studying Psalms just before He went to the cross cause that is pretty much all He quoted on the cross… Oh what great faith of our Lord… I just pray that I can grasp the Word as the Word did!! But our Lord is faithful, and He is not a high priest that cannot relate with our struggles and temptations. And He is not slow in His promises as some think as slow. He fulfills His promises. Especially the promise of His return… But be earnest in prayer, and do not lose heart! If something is lacking, then pray for it to be different, because Jesus loves to answer prayer. We must seek His face and we must not grow weary in praying or doing good… Let us seek our King, because from the depths of the pit, He hears our cry and answers His righteous… Praise be to Jesus!

Propitiation

Propitiation

For today, I thought I would talk about one of my favorite views of the cross… The Bible calls it propitiation. To understand this, we must learn about a side of God that most of us like to forget… That is the Anger and Holy Hatred of God at sin. God hates sin. Sin is our disobedience towards God… But we have to understand that it goes much deeper than that. We are absolutely and totally depraved. It even says in Romans 1 that we are haters of God. We must get more specific when it comes to sin, as the Puritans taught. Before someone is regenerated they are haters of God! They could be materialistic, homosexuals, drunkards, murderers (anyone who hates commits murder Matthew 5), adulterers (anyone who lusts commits adultery Matthew 5), pedophiles, people who cause divisions, and above all we all are idolaters. We idolize and worship things other than God. All sin can be pointed back to failing to believe that Yahweh is God and to only worship Him. I use these words only because the Bible uses them (Romans 1, Ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 5). This is how God sees us!!

I heard it once said that God commanded the stars to burn bright for His glory, and they obeyed. He commanded the Earth to be here and like this and that for His glory, and it obeyed. He commanded the waters of the sea to come to one point and no further, and it obeyed. He told the plants to be still and worship Him, and they obey. And then He comes to us and says come, and we throw our fists in His face and scream “NO!” … Do you see our problem?!? See God is holy, which means that His is separate and different from everything else. See we don’t know what we do because we don’t know who He is. And if you read His word, you should tremble in your boots!! But that is a good thing… as it says in Isaiah 66:2.

Now, in Proverbs 17:15 it says, “One who acquits the guilty, and one who condemns the righteous- both are an abomination before the LORD.” So we all have sinned in and extreme way and we deserve death (Romans 6). If the LORD forgave us (the guilty), then He would be an abomination to Himself…. That’s a problem. How can God forgive you if He is completely just?!? He also says in Nahum that He will not let the wicked go unpunished.. Do you see the problem?! Most of the Bible is concerned with this one problem: If God is just, He cannot forgive you.

Now, when Jesus came to this earth, He lived a sinless life. He was the only one who was righteous! And when He went to that cross, He did many, many great and glorious things. But when He was on that cross, He bore our sins and the Father crushed Jesus and punished Him for our sins!! It says in Isaiah that He bore the sins of many and it pleased the LORD to crush Him!! So the Holy and Righteous Wrath of God that should have fell on us fell on Jesus. And for the first and only time, the Father was separated from the Son, and the most beautiful thing in the history of the world, at that moment on the cross, became the ugliest thing in the world in the Father’s eyes. It says in Psalm 22 (I think… it is somewhere in Psalms) that He became a worm… And so our sin was punished!! So God can forgive us and be loving and still be just… Justice was taken out on Jesus and on that cross He cried out, “It is finished!!!” This is the only way!! This is the doctrine of propitiation.

And Jesus died for the sins of His people, and it is by faith alone that one can be saved, by grace alone, through Jesus alone, by the power of the Holy Spirit alone. I love the teaching of propitiation because it TRULY shows the love of God… As it says in 1 John 4:10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.”

all about JESUS!!!

So often as Christians, we are eager and ready to argue and defend our insignificant doctrines such as tongues or dispensationalism or Calvinism vs. Arminianism. And while it is good to work out our doctrines, teach our doctrines, and understand our doctrines, it is of most important significance to realize that our doctrines must be taught and understood in order to exalt Jesus. It is all about Jesus. It is all for Jesus, and we should teach it as so. Every part of scripture, every theological idea is to exalt the God of the Universe, Jesus Christ. Every biblical story and revelation in some way points to Jesus… It really is all about Jesus.

Jesus is our everything. He is our High Priest, He is our Mediator, He is our God, He is our Savior, He is our Messiah, He is our Senior Pastor, He is our Shepard, He is our Hope, He is our Propitiation, He is our sacrificial Lamb, He is our atoning sacrifice, He is our Father, He is our Counselor, He is our Comforter, He is our Brother, He is our Lord, He is the LORD, He is Yahweh, He is Jehovah, He is our King, He is our Warrior… People, He really is everything!!! And we must treat Him as so… Because when we die, we will stand before our great Judge and He will either be our Helper or our Executioner… We must regain the fear and love of Jesus… Jesus is all there is and there is no other name under heaven by which one can be saved… And you Christians, remember that He has saved you by Himself, He has saved you from Himself, and He has saved you for Himself… All glory to Jesus Christ our God and King forever and ever. Amen.

Love vs. Justice

Hey, this is Aaron, So no one has put a post on here in a long time, so I thought I would spice it up!!

As a Bible-believing Christian, I believe that all Christians are called to go out and preach the Gospel to all creation and all men (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20). And the question that Christian just cannot agree on is how to go about doing that. Some people would say that we must do relational evangelism. They say that primarily we should show the love of Jesus and/or tell them only about the love of Jesus. This is completely absurd for a number of reasons.

First, we must preach the Gospel and it must be preached in full!! It says in Romans 10 “How can they believe what they have not heard.” So that verse alone destroys the whole view of loving people to Christ without telling them about Him. And when we do tell them about Jesus, we must preach the whole Gospel because also in Romans 1:16, it says, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel since it is God’s power unto salvation.” What we must preach is the full Gospel. And what is the full Gospel?!? Well very simply the Gospel must include the Justice of God, sin, hell, judgment, and wrath followed by Jesus, the Love of God, cross, substitutionary atonement, propitiation, expiation, and redemption (John 5:27-30, Hebrews 10:26-31, Romans 6:23, Romans 3:23-27, 1 Corinthians 15:3). We must not wimp out when it comes to preaching the justice of God just because some hateful evangelist screamed at everyone and told everyone, including Christians, that they were going to hell. We must preach it, and we must preach it hard!

Many people don’t like this idea of preaching the justice of God. It is necessary to preach the justice of God to completely understand the cross in order to completely understand the love of God. For 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.” The more we understand our sinfulness and depravity, the more we see how much God truly does love us. So I am all about the love of God, and that is why I preach the justice as well. “She loves much because she is forgiven much.” We need to show people how much they are forgiven so that they will love God. And as 1 Corinthians say, we must not rely on human wisdom when we preach the Gospel. Don’t worry about the response… worry about the truth! We must understand exactly what the Puritans said, “The same sun that hardens the clay, melts the ice.”