Today is the Lord’s Day!  Happy Lord’s Day to everyone!   I hope you have a blessed day of worship at church today.

Exodus 20:8-10 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.”  So in this scripture God tells us that for six days we shall work, but on the sabbath day we ought not to work, but rather set it aside as a day of rest.

I can hear it now…  “What?  No work?  Yep, I’m all for any rules that says we don’t have to work.  We need more rules like that!”

Heh-heh…   On a more serious note, though, isn’t it so wonderful to have one day of the week where we can set aside all the other cares and affairs of our lives (including its hustles and bustles) and simply devote it for the worship and meditation of our God?  God knows we need it!  I’m grateful for the opportunity to reserve the Lord’s Day for the public worship, private meditation, reading, and reflecting on the things of God.

May you continue to have a blessed and wonderful Lord’s Day today!

Recently a visitor to my blog wrote a comment in one of my entries to share his views and beliefs against the Reformed view of soteriology.  One of the nice things and purposes of a blog is to interact, share thoughts, and learn with one another as we seek to grow in our walk with God.  I’m thankful to have the opportunity to learn and exchange thoughts with others.  So with that in mind, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts and reflections on this subject… 

I believe that one of the common objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereign grace in electing sinners often times stems from a misunderstanding of the nature of fallen, sinful human beings.  Many believe that human nature, though infected by original sin and the fall, has a neutral free will or perhaps even the inclination to choose good.

Those who reject Calvinism likened the non-believer as a mere patient suffering from an illness (sin) and in need of a cure (the Gospel).  They believe that he, just like any other sick person, has the ability to choose to take the medication (e.g. choose God).  But this is a wrong analogy.  The Bible likened the sinner not to a sick person, but rather a dead person (e.g. spiritually dead in sin).  There’s a reason why it uses this analogy.  Can a dead person respond to anything?  Does a dead man or woman desire to choose life?  Well, he or she is dead; they are unaware of their need.  The Scripture uses this analogy to point out the impossibility of the sinner to choose God in his spiritual death.  That’s why Paul says that though we were once dead to sin, now we are made alive spiritually in Jesus Christ because that is what it takes for God to save us.

The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God.  He cannot respond to God’s outward call.  His heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt.  His will is not free; it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not — indeed he cannot — choose good over evil in the spiritual realm.

The “Prince of Preachers” Charles Spurgeon said,

“Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in blessed bonds of grace.”

And George Whitefield aptly said:

“Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven … till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure.”

This is precisely why people continue to reject God in their sins, unless God raises them from their death and makes them alive spiritually.

Another common misunderstanding of God’s unconditional election is the assertion that God makes robots out of men in predestining or electing them unto salvation.  But, no one goes to heaven kicking and screaming.  Allow me to echo the words of Charles Spurgeon when he said, “An Arminian, on his knees, prays desperately like a Calvinist.” The truth is: we despair of anything other than unmerited, irresistible, sovereign grace as the cause of our salvation.  Who of us, when our loved ones are lost as they dangle over the fire of hell, would pray, “O Lord, I know You desire to save my brother John, but he over here has his own free will…”  That prayer surely makes God out to be an impotent Savior.  I’d venture to say that even when we were Arminians, chances are at some point in our lives, we have pleaded on bended knees before the throne of grace, “O Lord, save my unsaved parents!! Seize them! Draw them with Your cords of love. Pluck them out as a brand from the burning, O Lord!”

Which elect person, when awakened from his spiritual death and shown the depravity of his sinfulness, would choose to return to their dead state of damnation in bondage to sin and reject an eternal bliss of heaven with his Holy Creator?  In saving a sinner, the Holy Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ.

I praise God that we’re not dependent in any way upon our so called “free will” in order to be saved, for if that were the case, no one would ever be saved!  No one would have chosen God in his natural dead state.  I thank God that we do not serve an impotent Savior who is limited in His work of applying salvation by man’s will, nor is He dependent upon man’s cooperation for success.

If salvation were in even any minute way (or shape or form) dependent upon the “free will” of man who is dead spiritually, we certainly have room to boast.  Consider Charles Spurgeon’s rendition of Arminian prayer to demonstrate the vanity of such a belief:

Fancy him [an Arminian] praying, `Lord, I thank thee I am not like those poor presumptuous Calvinists.  Lord, I was born with a glorious free will; I was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have improved my grace.  If everybody had done the same with their grace that I have, they might all have been saved.  Lord, I know thou dost not make us willing if we are not willing ourselves.  Thou givest grace to everybody; some do not improve it, but I do.  There are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was; they had as much of the Holy Ghost given to them; they had as good a chance, and were as much blessed as I am.  It was not thy grace that made us differ; I know it did a great deal, still I turned the point; I made use of what was given me, and others did not — that is the difference between me and them.’

I am eternally grateful to my Almighty God that salvation is all of Him, beginning to end, top to bottom, inside and out.  I have no room to boast.  I thank God that He saved me not with the help of my own supposed “glorious free will,” but simply by His glorious, amazing grace.

Thank You, Lord, that when I was dead in sin and could not respond to You, You in Your mercy and grace, raised me alive spiritually by changing my dead cold heart of stone with a new heart of flesh, that I may believe and thus come freely and willingly to Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!  I’m excited to be able to celebrate today with my family.   I’m so thankful to God for His infinite goodness, mercy, and blessings that He abundantly pours into my life.  I hope that your Thanksgiving is filled with much joy and thankfulness to our wonderful, gracious God!

The Pilgrims and Puritans celebrating their first Thanksgiving.

I attended the Desiring God 2007 Regional Conference last week in Sacramento.  It was wonderful.  As you can see below, I asked a friend to snap a picture of myself with Dr. John Piper to capture the moment.   Click image to enlarge.

The theme of the conference was the Pleasures of God.  Dr. Piper covered what some of them are, including:

• The pleasure of God in Himself as reflected in His Son Jesus Christ
• The pleasure of God in all that He does
• The pleasure of God in His creation
• The pleasure of God in election
• The pleasure of God in His fame
• The pleasure of God in bruising the Son
• The pleasure of God in the faith and hope of His people
• The pleasure of God in our obedience that comes from faith
• The pleasure of God in concealing Himself from the wise and revealing Himself to His people 

The first few are absorbed upon God (as everything begins with God) making it a God-centered message, while the last few relates to us.

One of the most memorable moments of the event was when Piper reminded me of God’s sovereignty in electing sinners.  He relates to the time when his son was going through a period of rebellion.  He shared how, contrary to man’s natural inclinations, the doctrine of election was actually a comfort to him.  He shared of his own prayer as a father for his son’s salvation, “Lord, you’re sovereign.  Take him!” as opposed to “Lord, you’re sovereign… but my son over here has his own free will.”  Indeed, we serve an omnipotent God Who is sovereign and supreme over all of life, Who is omniscient, Who is not dependent upon the will of man to accomplish His plans, and Who does all things according to the counsel of His will and for His own good pleasures.

I only wish the conference had been longer.  It was also neat that all the books on the conference tables were sold for only $5, which is much, much lower than their normal retail prices.  On the first day I came early and was fortunate to sit on the fourth row next to the middle aisle.  At the end of the lectures, I was even brave enough to ask Dr. Piper a theological question and hand my copy of The Pleasures of God for him to sign.   He replied, “Sure!  I’d love to sign books.”  He was so kind and humble.  The overall conference was fun and edifying.  And there is just something very exciting and electrifying to be part of a live Reformed conference, hearing God’s Word preached and in the presence of 2,000 other Calvinistic believers in the faith!

“Barefoot and pregnant” in my kitchen (just kidding ), I watched the new Gunn brothers’ DVD The Monstrous Regiment of Women and was discouraged by the reality of what has happened due to the pervasive influence of feminism in our culture, yet encouraged by the Christian ladies who so articulately and clearly defended God’s truth against the onslaught of such femi-nazi non-sense.

The interviewees were prime examples of godly, biblical, Christian ladies who seek to exemplify the Proverbs 31 Woman. Some of them are authors who write about the importance of being a biblical wife and mother, and also give practical advice in doing so. Stacy McDonald (author of Raising Maidens of Virtue) and Jennie Chancey (from Ladies Against Feminism) are two amongst them. Their advice is much needed in this day, and I’m thankful for their contributions.

The Gunn Brothers did an excellent job in documenting from a Christian perspective how feminism has had a devastating impact on the church, state, and family. Subjects covered include feminism and socialism, women in the military, modesty, women in the workplace, daycare, Margaret Sanger, abortion, Planned Parenthood, Hillary Clinton, birth control, Betty Friedan, and the woman’s role in the family. This film served as a great encouragement not only for its exposé of the Feminist agenda, but its call for Christian wives and mothers to return to their honorable roles as defined in Scripture.

I think that this film is a breath of fresh air to those of us who are made to feel menial for pursuing such a biblical call, and serves as an encouragement for us to indeed fulfill the high calling of “keepers at home.”

Oct. 15th is the last day for free shipping, in case you’re interested to purchase a copy. I wholeheartedly recommend this film to other ladies as well as men, and to any Christian as well as all outside the church.

Watch the trailer:

And here’s an interesting video clip on Hillary Rodham Clinton…

A friend recently told me about Reformed Theology Seminary on iTunes.  Now we can download FREE course lectures from RTS Virtual classes.  This is sooo great!  Just visit http://itunes.rts.edu to access and download courses onto your computer (or MP3 player) and keep up with the latest events.  I’ve always wanted to be able to sit in seminary classes out of curiosity.  This “RTS on iTunes U” thing allows me to get a taste of that and hear teachings by seminary professors from my iPod.  Seminary courses at the tip of my fingers, woohoo!

To  give a glimpse of some of the subjects available, so far I’ve downloaded J.I. Packer’s History and Theology of the Puritans, John Frame’s series on Christian Apologetics and History of Philosophy and Christian Thought, Richard Pratt’s Old Testament series, Frank A. James III’s series of the History of Christianity, and much more.

Happy downloading and listening…

Woo hoo!  The Sovereign Grace Ministries has made available for free all of the MP3 messages or sermons on its website!  I just finished downloading a bunch of them from their section on Biblical Womanhood and for Singles.  There’re several messages for women on learning and doing Titus 2 stuff there…   I don’t really have anyone yet right now to teach me Titus 2 things, so those messages sound exciting to learn from.  (Hopefully in the future I could meet with an older lady who would help teach me these things.)  They also have a section for men on Biblical Manhood and other subjects on Marriage and Growing in Godliness.  Hope you find them edifying.

Woohoo!  John Piper will be coming to Sacramento, California next month (October 12-13) for a Desiring God 2007 Regional Conference!  I just registered to attend a few minutes ago online.  It’ll be nice to see in person for the first time the preacher whose voice has often accompanied me during my evening jogs and whose sermons God has used many a times to remind me of His divine sovereignty and to encourage me.

The theme of the conference will be on The Pleasures of God.  It’ll be a two-day event that falls on Friday evening and Saturday.  For those who may be interested in joining to attend, you can read more and register online.  Here’s a brief info from their website:

You don’t truly know someone until you know what makes them happy. So it is with God.  We can only know the greatness of his glory if we know what makes him glad.  Therefore, we must understand the pleasures of God.

At the Desiring God 2007 Regional Conference, John Piper will navigate the biblical evidence to help us see and savor what the pleasures of God show us about him, so that we can become more like him.  This is not a conference about you.  It’s about the one you were made for—God himself.

I’m very much looking forward to attend it!

I found out today that Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church has gone on to be with the Lord this morning.  He passed away in his sleep at approximately 2:15 A.M. at his home.  This is a bitter sweet situation.

From Dr. Al Mohler’s blog:

The death of Dr. D. James Kennedy is yet another reminder of what the hymn writer Isaac Watts saw when he wrote that “time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away.” Dr. Kennedy died this morning at his home in Ft. Lauderdale. He had been out of the public eye since suffering a significant cardiac arrest in January.

In his latest blog, Dr. Albert Mohler offers his thoughts on what Dr. Kennedy meant to the cause of Christ–as well as some personal reflections on their friendship.  Read more from Dr. Al Mohler’s blog, which is often updated several times a day.

More details from the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church website.

As I walked through the wilderness of this World Wide Web, I lighted on a certain blogosphere where was a blog, and laid me down in a chair to read; and as I read, I fell asleep and dreamed a dream.  I dreamed, and behold, I saw a young lady clothed in green rags (like the one pictured on the banner above ) and a bonnet, sitting on a certain chair, with her face from the window, a laptop on her lap, and a great burden of thought upon her mind.  I looked and saw her open the laptop, and read a blog therein; and as she read, she wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, she brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I blog/write?”

Okay, sorry, that was cheesy, hehe.   I just felt being silly today for some reason wondering what I should write.  However, if you have not yet read the real, wonderful, famous 17th-century classic Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, I hope you’ll have the chance to do so in the near future.  I think J. C. Ryle once wrote of this book, “I do not doubt that the one volume known as The Pilgrim’s Progress, written by a man who knew hardly any book but his Bible, and was ignorant of Greek and Latin, will prove in the last day to have done more for the benefit of the world, than all the works of the schoolmen put together.”